can ANY gel dry out your hair...?
 

no matter what the ingredients are? my hair does get dried out with proteins and alcohol denat. but i now have a gel that is entirely cone free, protein free and alcohol free. (two types of gel in fact) and i find my hair does still feel dry even though it's well conditioned with a leave-in underneath. so is gel inherently drying?

My hair feels dry when the gel is on it sometimes but if I conditioner and don't put gel in my hair feels fine.
Now coloring dried out my hair. I used to be red, I had to fight to keep my hair from getting too dry with the color in there.

Gel makes my hair feel dry too. It's not really dried out, but it just feels that way. Gel isn't really moisturizing by itself. Maybe a cream styler instead of or with gel?

This is my first winter without cones so I'm still figuring out what I can & can't do. For the last week, I'm putting Boots under my gel & it feels much softer. Boots by itself didn't control frizz though.

Gels with PVP, dry my hair out as well as the other ingredients that have been mentioned.

I think that's what happens to me, too. I've started using a tiny bit of leave in conditioner every day. It seems to be working fine - much softer hair, not much frizz, but still very good curl. I like the Garnier Fructis leave-in, but I'll bet anything will work well. The key seems to be adequate conditioning, particularly now that the air is colder and much drier.