I do everything I can to avoid using any drying alcohols in my styling products and minimize their use when it’s not. Many hair gels contain SD alcohol, isopropyl alcohol or denatured alcohol. These ingredients are usually included to help dry your hair faster during the styling process. However, they also dry hair out over time which leaves the user desperate for something to fix the dryness. You’ll note the ingredients lists for our Spiralicious Styling Gel does contain a drying alcohol. Ethanol, to be exact. Our bottles of Spiralicious contain about 7/10ths of 1% ethanol. It’s a necessary part in making Polyquaternium 69, one of the ingredients we use in that gel. However, the amount of ethanol is so low in this gel that it doesn’t have any negative effects. It’s been used on curlies around the world (including me) for well over a year now. We’ve never had a single report of it causing dryness. There ARE, however, certain types of alcohols that are actually good for the hair. These are what give that creamy consistency to most conditioners. The good ones are Lauryl alcohol, Cetyl alcohol, Myristyl alcohol, Stearyl alcohol, Cetearyl alcohol and Behenyl alcohol. The bad ones are SD alcohol, SD alcohol 40, Alcohol denat, Propanol, Propyl alcohol and Isopropyl alcohol. You’ll never find any of the bad ones in any of my products and should avoid them all together. They're really just horrible for curly hair.