I’ve never been a huge fan of hair gel even though I’ve heard it does great things for curly hair like mine. I’ve tried tons of formulas but was never satisfied with the crunchy, stringy results I got that made my hair look even finer than it already is, not to mention the fact that the ingredients were always hugely suspect in my mind.
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I finally stumbled across mentions of a flaxseed hair gel on the internet and this simple recipe was born….and I absolutely love it! I get great hold on soft (non-crunchy!) curls and I’ve even noticed a little less hair fall with regular use (I suppose it’s due to the protein content in this gel). It also really helps tame the annoying little flyaways I get when I put my hair up without looking like I’ve forgotten the location of my shower.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup boiled or distilled water
- 1/4 cup flaxseeds (can decrease for less hold on the hair gel)
- 20 drops grapefruid seed extract (to help with preservation)
- 5-8 drops each of lavender and ylang ylang essential oils (for scent and preservation; optional and can substitute other essential oils if you prefer another scent)
Steps:
1. Add cup of water and flaxseeds to a small pot, put on medium heat.
2. Bring to a slow, rolling boil. It should take 3-5 minutes, depending on your stove. Notice in the picture that after I mixed it, the flaxseeds are now suspended in the gel…this means it’s ready.
4. Immediately strain through a metal strainer. It will start to congeal as soon as it starts to cool so don’t wait too long after you take it off the heat. (Also start to soak/wash your pan and utensils while the flaxseeds strain. It’s a doozy to get the gel off if you wait too long.) There will be gel around the flax seeds that doesn’t strain and that’s ok. You can freeze the flaxseeds and the surrounding gel and then reuse them up to 2 more times to make the same recipe.
5. You’ll end up with a gel that looks like this (the first comparison that comes to mind is that it looks a little like snot but that’s not very appetizing, now is it?) :
6. Use on damp hair to encourage nicely-formed curls or to tame flyaways.
The essential oils and the grapefruit seed extract will help preserve this gel for a while but I’d still encourage you to keep it in the fridge so that you don’t turn it into a petri dish. I’ve heard of people freezing this gel in ice cube trays and thawing out one at a time to help preserve it but I’ve never had a problem with finishing a batch before anything happened to it.
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