Hair gel can be a hard product to transition away from when you're trying to go all-natural with your products. Particularly for curly or textured hair people, it's a go-to for controlling frizz and fly-aways. Luckily, it's very simple to make an ample amount of your own, natural gel using chia seed or flax seed at home. The musilogenic seeds form their own gel when soaked in water, making them perfect for crackers, puddings, and now, surprisingly, hair gel! I used a pure flax seed gel recipe from this website and added some ingredients to promote healthy hair. This video has a variation that incorporates chia seeds. A little bit goes a long way! I find this gel especially helpful for the summer, when humidity puts your hair out-of-whack.
Steps to Make Your Flax Seed Hair Gel:
1. Measure your ingredients, you'll simply need 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup of flax seeds.
2. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
3. Add 1/4 cups of flax seed, reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally for 7-9 minutes. If you cook your gel for longer than 8-9 minutes you'll get less gel and a thicker texture.*
4. Immediately strain the seeds from the gel. A strainer over a bowl or measuring cup works best.
5. From there, pour your gel into your desired vessel and add any desired additives. I'd add 1 teaspoon of carrier oil at the most for moisture and 10-15 drops of essential oils for the therapeutic properties or smell.
You can use any of the oils or essential oils below to boost hair health. You can even make this gel specifically as a vessel to deliver essential oil goodness to your scalp, but it's best to simple combine the essential oil and the carrier oil for this purpose.
Carrier Oils for Hair Health: Grapeseed or Jojoba for normal hair, Avocado or Olive for dry hair
You can use any essential oil that you like, choose oils for scent alone if desired, but the following oils are especially good for the properties listed below.
Essential Oils for Normal Hair: Lavender | Lemon | Geranium | Cedarwood
EOs /Dry Hair: Sandalwood | Geranium | Clary Sage | Tamanu | Lavender | Wintergreen
EOs / Hair Loss: Rosemary | Clary Sage | Cedarwood | Sage | Lavender
Essential Oils / Oily Hair: Lavender | Lemon | Cypress | Peppermint | Petitgrain
EOs /Dandruff: Wintergreen | Rosemary | Lavender | Patchouli | Sage | Thyme | Cypress | Cedarwood
EOS / Fragile Hair: Clary Sage | Lavender | Thyme | Roman Chamomile | Sandalwood | Wintergreen
EOs / Hair Growth: Thyme | Rosemary | Lavender | Ylang Ylang | Cedarwood | Basil | Western Red Cedar | Cypress | Geranium | Ginger | Grapefruit | Hyssop | Lemon | Sage
*You can experiment here if you'd like, trying for different textures, but the gel cooked for 7-9 minutes should have all the hold you need and a good texture.
As for the seeds, save them for your next smoothie! You could save them for flax crackers, too.
Sources, Websites: Chia Seed Hair Gel, Experience Essential Oil, Origin of this recipe, she has a YouTube video on it, too!, A non-vegan gelatin hair gel- I made a similar one as a teen but it flaked horribly- the comments indicate hers seems to work.
Sources, Books: Quick Reference Guide for Using Essential Oils, Advanced Aromatherapy: The Science of Essential Oil Therapy (I LOVE this one for explaining on a chemical level how/why the oils work.)
Have fun customizing your own natural hair gel. I was close to pulling the trigger and buying some natural hair gel (not that that's a bad thing, not everyone wants to boil seeds in their kitchen and keep an expensive cabinet full of essential oils to experiment. I have my gel for sale here if that's you) but ended up easily making mine with ingredients I had on hand! I love playing in the kitchen and experimenting with new healthful products.
BTW: My new services page is up, I'll have more info later and examples later, but I'd love to collaborate with you! Also, if you're too lazy to make this gel, it's in my veeerrry unfinished preview shop for purchase.
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