I'm new to this. I got the Black Ship yesterday and gave it a try. Now, this is the first hair product I've used since a brief stint with a pump bottle of green gel stuff in high school. The product was super hard. It was pulled away from the side of the container so I didn't know if it had dried out somehow or that's how it usually is. I scraped some off with my thumb nail and put it in my palm. I thought it would warm and almost melt as I worked it between my palms, but it stayed pretty darn sticky to the point I couldn't slide my hands back and forth. Figured it wasn't going to loosen up and more, so I worked it through my hair the best I could. I will say, after some combing it did work in well. There wasn't any shine and other than my hair being a little more compressed than usual, it didn't look like anything was there. Did wash my hand three times and still felt like there was product on it. An hour later and things are in place, but not crunchy at all. My hair is pretty soft, and I can feel there's something on it, but I imagine you can't get away from that 100%.