I usually don’t use hair gel, whether it’s a homemade natural hair gel recipe or not. My hair definitely gets out of control on very humid days and my solution is to mist with water from a water bottle, scrunch, and then rub a little oil on my hands and scrunch in to the ends of my hair. Viola! Beautiful, tame curls!
BUT, I recently discovered that teenage boys and sometimes girls in dance performances like to use hair gel (sigh). I don’t want to disallow all use of such products (hoping to work with my children and have them LOVE our natural lifestyle instead of hating it). Instead, I decided to make my own …..Of course! 🙂
There is GOOD REASON to make your own! Check out some common ingredients in most gels: Propylene Glycol, Fragrance, Polysorbate-20, Isosteareth-20, Tetrasodium Edta, Dmdm Hydantoin (Formaldehyde releaser – big no no), Benzophenone-4, and artificial coloring.
Does it Really Work?
There are homemade natural hair gel recipes all over the web using either unflavored gelatin or flaxseed as a thickener. This placed in the hair and allowed to dry should work, right? Well, I’m here to be your guinea pig.
This first time I made this gel it sat in the fridge and didn’t thicken whatsoever. So I tried again with a little more gelatin. It then became a wonderful gel consistency; not hard like jello, but not like water either. So far so good.
Next, was the testing. I tried it in my hair first. It actually worked as any store bought gel has ever worked in my hair. I held my curls nicely. I added a bit more to one area and it became really stiff and maintained a wet look to it. Since this is what store bought gel will do as well, I counted it as a success. I did have to pick a few white pieces out of my hair of hardened gelatin, but only 2-3. So again, that effort seemed well worth it.
Lastly, I tried it on my son’s hair. It spiked wonderfully and held great. Again, I noticed a few white specks that I had to pick out, but that was really easy to watch for and do.
All in all, super impressed!! This is what I’m going to MAKE and USE when it comes to boys wanting to spike their hair or girls needing to hold back fly away hairs for up-dos. So easy to make and works well. There honestly is no reason why I will ever use harsh, man-made chemicals again.
Homemade Natural Hair Gel Recipe
Gelatin: I use unflavored gelatin. You can find pasture raised beef gelatin by clicking here or if you don’t care about that you can go to the jello isle in your supermarket and find unflavored gelatin (sometimes it’s in a different area like by the pie making ingredients). You can also use a vegan gelatin type powder like Maca, though it is more expensive.
Essential Oils:Â Check out Starwest Botanicals. They’ve an affiliate and have been around for over 40 years and are well respected with great products that I use often.
Homemade Natural Hair Gel
Ingredients
- ½ tsp unflavored gelatin
- ½ cup filtered hot water
- 3 drops essential oil of choice
Instructions
- Combine water and gelatin.
- Stir until dissolved and allow to set in the refrigerator.
- Add essential oils and stir.
- Keep in a closed container until ready to use.
Let your friends know that there is a great NATURAL alternative for Hair Gel!
