You Tried It! Uncle Funky’s Daughter Product Line First Impression! Wash and Go Edition

This post is not sponsored, nor were any of the products gifted. I purchased all of the below products with my own money and I am giving my honest review at the request of no one. Even if they had been gifted… I would still give an honest review and opinion. The Amazon links are affiliate links, of which I would receive a small commission if you decide to purchase, but at no extra cost to you.

Fun fact about Sea: I am a creature of habit.

I like what I like, I know what I like, and I stick to what I like. I like to try new things… when those new things are just like what I like.

Okay, I’m done! (lol)

I said all of that to say that I don’t often go out and buy a whole line of products that I’ve never tried, and especially if I already have something that works fairly well. But, it’s now officially summer and that means warm, humid weather. That also means that my stretched styles are a no-go.

Wash ‘n Go… It’s officially your time to shine.

I live in the Midwest, so that means that I truly only get to rock a wash ‘n go during the summer months. My hair loves them, contrary to lots of type 4 natural hair do’s and don’ts. But if you’ve read my flaxseed gel post, you know that I have a love-hate relationship with my Wash ‘n Go bae EcoStyler Gel.

I am always on the hunt for beauty products that are more natural, better for myself, and better the environment. While I love my flaxseed gel recipe, it’s not my go-to for wash ‘n gos. And while I love EcoStyler, I wanted something healthier for my hair. So, lately I’ve been on the hunt for an all-natural gel to deliver for my type 4 natural hair. I had tried a few of them in the past, Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic was actually one of them, but my wash ‘n go routine was kind of trash. As I’ve done more research about hair products, I’ve learned that most products will give their absolute best results when they are all used together since they are formulated as a system to work together.

I typically shop by buying this brands shampoo, another brands conditioner, a third brands moisturizer, or at best it’s just the same brand but not the same line (ie. all of my Shea Moisture products)

So, here I sat, out of deep conditioner, shampoo, and styling products, I decided that I deserved a product haul. I made the decision early on that I would order from one company, one brand. I then thought of what style I would do… a wash ‘n go of course!… but now my product line has to include a gel… dammit!

I then began scouring the internet for a botanical gel to give a try that had enough products for a start to finish process. I initially went with the OG Kinky Curly Curling Custard, but then I remembered that one gel in the brown bottle.

Uncle Funky’s Daughter!

I knew that I had tried them in the past, but with my trash wash ‘n go routine and literally only using the gel (and probably on dry hair and without a leave in or deep conditioning before hand!). I decided to finally give them another shot. The last time I used it, it was okay, but didn’t do what I wanted it to do.

But that could have been user error…

*loads cart with product*

*checks out*

Without further ado…

Uncle Funky’s Daughter Product Review

Bye Bye Buildup Cleansing Conditioner

This was probably the product that I was most excited about. I am not an avid co-washer, but as someone with kinky, fine, high porosity hair, it’s very easy for shampoos to strip my hair and leave it brittle. Because of this, I will sometimes opt for a water rinse or a cleansing conditioner. The problem is, I’ve only found one that I really care for and for some reason it’s been difficult for me to find.

The Bye Bye Buildup Cleaning Conditioner is said to gently cleanse while nourishing curls, and that it does! It is rhassoul clay based, and infused with avocado, coconut, and organic aloe vera (source), all of which made me add it to my cart!

Pros:

• This cleansing conditioner has a nice light scent. It’s not overpowering and is just strong enough that you notice it
• This product left my hair feeling nice and clean, but not squeaky and stripped
• This cleansing conditioner is also very moisturizing and has pretty good slip. I was able to very easily finger detangle without any snags or feeling like I was causing any dry detangling damage.
• Curl definition!?!– I’ve never had a cleansing product clump my curls… but this did exactly that! that was a very unexpected, but much appreciated.

Cons

• This products has little brown specks in it which I believe is the Rhassoul Clay. Any time I see specks, I get worried because it is a terror trying to get little bits and pieces out of my type 4 natural hair. To my surprise though, I was able to get it out with little (yet strategic) effort.
• It left a residue on my hair! I followed the instructions of applying it to the hair and rinsing with cool water and I was left with a residue on my hair. I also had my hair in twists which I think further encouraged the residue to not rinse away as easily. However, when I released my twist, and rinsed with warm water, the residue was gone! Close call!
• This product is such a gentle cleanser, I don’t think that it is something I would use in place of shampoo. I would use this every other week, and my shampoo the other weeks to make sure that I keep a good balance of clean and moisturized hair. I went through a “dry hair phase” and I know that I can’t rely on co-washing alone.

Heal and Renew Intensive Hair Masque

This product is one that I needed the most! I was literally bone dry of deep conditioners (which is uncommon because I like to keep several options) and I needed this product, and I needed it to work! Well conditioned hair is a foundation block to healthy hair, so I had a lot of expectations.

This deep conditioner’s details read as being a moisturizing and strengthening deep treatment infused with silk, argan oil, organic aloe vera, organic baobab oil, organic peppermint oil, and avocado oil (source). This ingredient list is exactly what I look for in my all natural hair. Because my hair is fine, high porosity, and kinky textured, I absolutely have to have a deep conditioner that has moisturizing ingredients and proteins. This deep conditioner fit the bill so I had to see if it would measure up!

Pros

• This conditioner is suuupppeeerrr creamy. I absolutely love it. I know that a lot of naturalistas like really thick conditioners for deep conditioning, but I truly need something that is a nice mix of thick (to evenly coat my strands) and creamy (to make distribution easy). This is exactly what it delivers.
• This deep conditioner has really nice slip. I don’t detangle with a tool every time I wash my hair (honestly I only use a tool about once a month) so because of that I need to finger detangle at almost every step of my wash day to

Cons

I literally don’t have any! I guess I might say that the price point isn’t going to be within everyone’s budget, but it is absolutely worth the price. I will be adding this deep conditioner to my arsenal!

Extra Butter Curl Forming Creme

The next product in my hair styling routine was obviously some type of leave in or hair creme for the base to my gel. The Uncle Funky’s Daughter’s website actually had a few to choose from. I decided to go with the Extra Butter Curl Forming Creme because it specifically said that it was for kinky, and curly textured hair and I have…. kinky and curly textured hair. I also loved the fact that it had “butter” in the title which said to me that it would be thicker and heavy which my hair loves.

The website touts that the Extra Butter Curl Forming Creme is residue-free moisturizer that fortifies, elongates, and detangles curls (source). I love it, I need it.

Pros

• The scent… I absolutely LOVE the way that this moisturizer smells. It’s strong enough to linger for a day or two, but not so overpowering that it’ll give you a headache.
• This butter creme claims to be moisturizing, and that it is! I used it on my hair, as well as my son’s (who has dense, medium/high porosity, 4c hair) and it was amazingly moisturized. I used this moisturizer under a gel, so I could only tell from the end result of my wash n’ go. However, with my son, this was the only product that I used in his hair and it was as soft as a cloud! It was incredible.
• This product also absorbs well into the hair. I am pretty heavy handed with my products, but even so, I didn’t get a lot of residue left over (as promised!)

Cons

I don’t really have any cons per se, but I do say that I don’t know if this would be my first pick for my wash n’ go moisturizer/leave in conditioner. For a braid out or twist out, absolutely! But, for some reason, I feel like there is something else in their product line that may be even better for wash n’ go’s. I searched their website for other moisturizers and leave in conditioners and found this one and this one and this one that look promising. For my future purchase, I’ll definitely be giving one of these a try (or both!). But in the meantime, the Extra Butter Curl Forming Creme will do the job.

Curly Magic Curl Stimulator

THIS was the moment that I had been waiting for. I had used this gel before in the past, and it was… okay, but I knew that a lot of this was probably user error. Also, with my newfound revelation on how products from a specific line works together, I knew that regardless my results would be better than last time. Something else that I knew was that my type 4 natural hair wash n’ go relies heavily on a proper gel. While I have absolutely styled my hair without a gel, I know that the style lasts longer, and I have less tangles and knots if a gel is used.

The Curly Magic Stimulator is said to magically stimulate curls, moisturize with organic aloe vera, and promote healthy hair with agave nectar (source). All of the Curly Magic Stimulator’s ingredients are noted as being natural or naturally derived, and as someone that has been trying to figure out my space in the Max Hydration Method ( originally written about by PinkCube) space, I needed this gel!

Pros

• The gel is in a bottle with a pump. This may be a non-factor for some, but I love when products have a pump (gels, leave in conditioners, foundations…). I like being able to count how many pumps I am using in each section to try and maintain some uniformity.
• The consistency of this gel is very nice! It’s not as thick and heavy as a EcoStyler gel, but it’s “snot-like” consistency makes it thick enough to clump my type 4 curls.
• Lots of slip, perfect for raking and shingling even the smallest curls. Some styling products simply are up to this challenge because they just don’t have enough slip making the raking, smoothing, and shingling done during a wash n’ go a laborious feat (ie. my first flaxseed gel experience).
• Defined my curls like a dream! Even the tightest curls on my head (which are in the back and on the sides) we’re defined. Every curl was nice and clumped naturally, not like they were forced to clump with a heavy product.
• No residue once the gel has fully dried. I’m used to sometimes having a kind of white cast (that goes away after using an oil), or even those god-awful white balls when mixing gels and moisturizers, but this gel dried completely clear even with me being heavy handed.
• This gel is also extremely moisturizing. The ingredients in this gel (mixed with the ingredients in all of the other products) made for literally the most moisturized wash n’ go I’ve ever had. Very rarely can I go days without at least spritzing my hair. However, with this gel (and other products, I can’t act like they didn’t play a part) I was able to go a whole week without re-moisturizing my hair and on day 8 my hair was still moisturized. Because my hair was so moisturized, it was also less prone to tangling and meshing… virtually none at all!

• This gel has a super soft hold, which initially was a con for me. I was afraid that this soft hold would mean that my hair would be a tangled mess a few days later because it wouldn’t have held my curls together. I’m used to using a gel that has a harder hold that leaves me to have to “scrunch out the crunch” once it’s dry, that that’s not a thing with this gel. The hold is soft, but because it moisturizes and clumps the curls so well, I still didn’t get much tangling.

Cons

• The super soft hold comes with a price, and unfortunately that is that it doesn’t tame the kinky hair frizz that some other gels. I will admit that my expectations were not that high in this department, because even when I use EcoStyler, I still have quite a bit of frizz. It’s just the nature of my hair, and I’ve learned to embrace it. If you have a kinkier texture like me and are expecting some super sleek result, this will not deliver, but I hate to break it to you babe, most products won’t.
• This gel leaves a sticky residue even after it has dried! This was probably the only true con I found with all of the products. I initially thought that the sticky feeling would go away once my hair dried, but it actually became stickier once it was dried. Then I thought maybe it would just need a day or two, but nope! This stickiness lasted the entire week! This stickiness, while annoying, is probably absolutely necessary to make the gel clump curls and moisturizing. It also appears that the more gel that I used, the stickier my results were. However, for my hair texture I needed quite a bit (or my heavy hands said I needed quite a bit) so sticky hair was just the name of the game. This stickiness isn’t enough for me to not use the gel, but it is definitely something to warn others about.

You’ve been warned!

Conclusion

All in all, I love this brand! I will absolutely be using this brand for the foreseeable future. None of the products disappointed me, and most of them really stood up and stood out. I also love that this brand is all-nautral, chemical free, and exo-friendly. It is also easily accessible (easily found on their site, at Target, or even Amazon!) which makes it even easier to restock. Last but not least, I love that these products really stretch, amking a little go a long way. This is super important if you have thick, dense, or long hair (or all three!), or if you’re heavy handed like me and don’t want to dial back on the amount of product you use and sacrifice the style. These products are not the cheapest, but you won’t use a whole bottle every wash day.

Of all the products, I only have a “problem” with one aspect of one product, which is very good over all and even that “problem” isn’t enough for me to not use it. I also feel like some may think that the price point is a bit too high when we can get products between 5 and 10 nowadays. But the extra money you pay for with these products are definitely worth it, so I guess I’ll just be saving up my sheckles from here on out…

Final review score: 9.5/10

Have you tried any Uncle Funky’s Daughter’s products? What are your Thoughts?