I love my pin curls, but they just don’t hold that well. The combination of long, thick hair and no hairspray-type aids means my hair is barely wavy come lunchtime. I’m not planning on re-introducing ‘cone-filled crap into my hair, so I need an alternative.
My first experiment was three simple ingredients; aloe vera juice, vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada), and xantham gum. I already had the aloe vera juice and the vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada), and the xantham gum was a bit of an impulse buy at the local soap making shop. From what the shopkeeper told me, I guessed that it behaves more like gelatin than cornstarch.
I heated the aloe vera juice until it was warm, and slowly whisked in the xantham gum, one teensy little bit at a time. Xantham gum is really neat stuff. Very, very strong. It thickens amazingly well, turning into something with the consistency of water into a gel in no time at all.
And the review? I definitely think it helps. It has an interesting, slimy-type texture (very similar to conventional hair gel). It’s not quite as sticky, but there’s definitely something there. I still had loose curls by the end of day one, and I even managed to nab a day of beachy-type waves for day two. Worth a go, but I’ll keep trying!
Hair Gel: Version 1
100mL aloe vera juice (not gel)
5g vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
5/8 tsp xantham gumHeat the aloe vera juice in a small saucepan over medium heat until it’s warm. Remove from the heat, whisk in the glycerin, and then start slowly adding the xantham gum. Whisking constantly, tap in a teensy bit of the xantham gum, a little at a time, and keep whisking. The xantham gum works quickly once it gets wet and will clump easily if the liquid is not constantly agitated. If this happens, you can often fix it by gently reheating it while whisking.
Let cool. Store in an airtight container.
Has this held up during your trial efforts? Or did you recreate it slightly different? The post doesn’t really make it clear if you’re satisfied with the end result or not.
For me, this was a “meh”. Now, my hair is pretty addicted to being straight. Do whatever you like to it, and it will be straight again in under an hour (anything over 20 minutes is doing very well), so even industrial strength gels don’t really work for me. When I was in show choir I used to have to re-curl my hair between numbers. I’d rank this hair gel a notch or two above just wetting your hair—more hold than plain water, but less hold than glue? It’s more of a texturizing gel than a curl holding gel. I’ll keep trying for curl holding.
I use a vegan recipe of boiling some flax seed in water. I’d have to check the ratios to give you examples but it is definitely gloopy and it would be above what this is.
I love your posts. Everything except the part where you use animal byproducts. I am trying to get away from them. I am on a Whole Foods Plant Based diet and I am in love with the idea of green living. I really like this site and will probably start stretching out my washings and using soap shampoo bars!!!!
Is there anything I can sub in for the animal products?? For Emu oil so it’s 100%vegan?
PS I stumbled across your site when looking up a recipe for tiger balm. Incredible
I’ve definitely read of this flax/water recipe, but haven’t gotten around to giving it a go yet. If you could pass on the ratios you’ve used, that would be great!
As a vegetarian, I understand not wanting to use animal products. When I choose animal products to use in my DIYing, I do a lot of research to try and ensure there isn’t a better alternative, and that the product is more of a by-product of the food industry than an actual “let’s kill just for this”. For emu oil I’d recommend substituting andiroba oil, which is a plant-based oil that is said to increase/encourage circulation. For the soap bars, you can use palm oil instead, but there are some pretty icky environmental stats about the harvest of palm oil (which is why I use lard or tallow, which would be thrown out by my local butcher if I didn’t).
If you ever need any other plant-based substitutes for ingredients in my recipes, please ask! I’d love to help.
It was a while ago but I believe I did 1/2 cup of golden flax seed (unground) with 1 cup water. It was awfully slimy. I ended up throwing out some $16 hair dry serum someone had given me as a gift just to put this 0.20 cent masterpiece in a nice spray bottle. It doesn’t really give you the gel hold but it works to make your hair feel nice. Also, I found a website comparable to the link you’ve provided for your oils. You might check it out (not that you need any more raw ingredients but just thought I’d throw it out there).
http://www.bulkapothecary.com/categories/aromatherapy-essential-oils.html
Mmmm, slimy! My favorite quality in hair products (I jest, of course). At least it gave your hair a nice texture! I can’t tell you how many expensive beauty products I’ve thrown out for their containers, though in the end I didn’t miss them once I read the ingredients. Haha.
Thanks for the link—looks like they’re American, though, which means I won’t be giving them a try. Oh well.
Hello Marie,
I had hair down to about my bum and I have a good amount (it is a little shorter now, but this method works well on both lengths). Getting curls to stay can be a challenge, but it is possible! I have had curly hair using this method and it lasts for a whole week and I’ve done that 3 or 4 times now.
What you do: after washing hair and while hair is super wet, apply flax seed hair gel to each strand of hair as you pin curl it. Leave the pin curls in for one day and two nights (32 hours app. – I leave mine in Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night Sunday morning I have gorgeous curls and they last all week until I wash my hair again – I can even brush the curls and they stay)
The key to long lasting curls is leaving the hair pinned for as long as possible. Also, it helps to clip all your hair up at night in a big pile with a big clip or two to keep the curls bouncy for the next day.
Flax seed gel:
add 1-2 Tbsp to 1 cup water. Boil for 10-20 minutes.
You can adjust the amount of water and flax to your desire. Boiling for more or less time will determine how thick the gel is – the thicker the gel the stronger the hold.
It works amazingly well! let me know how it works for you!
Ok—I am currently trying this. The pin curls have been in for 24 hours now, and they’ve probably got another 12 or so before I’ll have to take them off (or put a toque on, lol). Fingers crossed the flax seed gel makes all the difference, as my heavy hair pulls out curls like you wouldn’t believe!
OOH! I am so excited to see how this will work for you!! I would send you some pictures of how it looks in my hair but I am not sure how to do that…
So… no dice. I took them out around 10AM, and 4–6 hours I just had chunky dread-ish clumps of hair, which is par for the course for me and pin curls. Oh well.
That is so disappointing! Do you wrap you hair around you fingers before pinning?
Yuppers.
Ah, I did this once and the curls were pretty loose and saggy. If you wrap each section of hair around the end of a foam roller all the way up to your head, then slide it off and pin it, the curls are way tighter and hold much much better.
How do you slide the wrap of hair off the curler and keep it tight? When I try that I just get a tangled wad of hair and a torn curler. I may be destined to have straight hair forever lol.
You take a small strand, apply flax-seed hair gel and wrap only on the outer edge of the curler. I’ve had my entire head done like that three times and haven’t had problems with it breaking my hair or the curler….
Hmmm… sounds like round 2 for the next time I don’t need to be anywhere for a day or two 😛
wow thats some great gel i have to try it was it sticky in anyway i also heard of flax seed gel thats all natural as well
I just found your blog and am loving it! I have been using flax seed gel for a couple years and it works great for me (although my hair is naturally pretty curly). Helps a lot in the humid Ontario summers.
I use 1 to 2 tbsp of flax seeds simmered in 1 cup of water for somewhere around 10 minutes until it looks a little thicker. Strain quickly while it’s still hot into a jar otherwise you’ll never free the gel from the seeds. It’ll thicken a lot more as it cools.
I find the amount of flax seeds I need varies depending on where I buy them from (I guess how fresh they are). I need more when I am desperate and get them from the Bulk Barn compared to a health food store where they are kept in the fridge.
Also it looks awful. My husband calls it my hair snot, lovely man. But then tells me my hair looks great, so tradeoffs…
I’m going hunting for ingredients to make your hair serum now. 🙂
MMm, hair snot! It can’t be worse than my ridiculous face masks in terms of appearance, I suppose 😛 I really should bump flax seed gel up on my hair gel experiment list, what with all these positive reviews I’m getting 🙂 I will make some and report back. Thanks for reading!
Hi! I just found your blog and am captivated by your lovely hair. I also have been on a natural hair products path for about a year and a half now, have read MANY blogs, and yours is a gem among them. My hair is fairly thin, fragile, naturally curly, and the chemically products were trashing it. I don’t know if I have the perfect routine yet for my hair, but it is much improved since I switched to henna for coloring, my own homemade shampoo (which I only use 1-2 days a week), the most natural intensely moisturizing conditioners I can find (because I have yet to figure out how to make it myself, ACV-based ones don’t work on my hair, and curly hair must be moisturized constantly), and natural styling products like aloe vera gel with a little jojoba oil in it, or the aforementioned flax seed gel, also with a little jojoba oil in it. I can testify about the flax seed gel – I usually use 1/4th cup seeds to 1 cup of water, and it does turn out like egg whites, but it is the best thing I’ve ever found for my kind of hair.
Reading your blog, I see you use shampoo bars. I *love* my shampoo, which is (ratio-wise) half liquid castille soap, 1/3rd coconut milk (which causes the castille to lather, nice side effect), and the rest a mix of ingredients in small amounts like glycerin, aloe vera, shea butter, oils such as coconut, sunflower, avocado, almond, and touches of honey and vitamin E (which also help preserve it). What intrigued me about this post of yours in particular is, you use xantham gum to thicken. My shampoo is wonderful, but the ingredients separate and are watery, so I have to shake it up every time – I’d like to thicken it and keep it from separating. Does xantham gum work only if it is heated/cooked, or does it work at room temperature? I’m considering adding it to the oil mixture, which I can gently heat if needed, then adding the castille, and seeing if that works. Thanks for your help!
Aww, thanks! I definitely take good care of my hair… mostly by doing very little to it 😛 It’s a pity the rest of me isn’t so easy to care for!
For a natural conditioner, I’ve got a few recipes you might want to try: hair balm, hair serum, and hair mist. They each impart a different amount of moisture, but they all mean business 😉
Your shampoo sounds fantastic! I love that you’ve diluted it with coconut milk—mmmm 🙂 I’d actually recommend using guar gum instead of xantham gum because guar gum doesn’t just thicken and stabilize, it also emulsifies! I’d probably sprinkle it into your coconut milk, and then once it’s all whisked in (you may need to warm it a bit), you can incorporate the oils and other ingredients. You shouldn’t need much as guar gum is quite strong, just like xantham gum. Let me know if it works!
Thanks for reading 😀
Hello Ladies,
I just want to pitch a tip for incorporating xantham and guar gums. I have worked with these and it can be a ROYAL PAIN to get these guys to disperse nicely, if at all. (Fish eyes just make me batty!) I discovered somewhere on internet that if you measure out your gum, then add a bit of alcohol- enough to have it be pretty wet (should be sitting in a little pool of liquid- not gummed up) then let it sit about 10 minutes. I can’t explain the exact chemistry involved, but it has to do with the electrons and protecting the polarity I believe. Then while wisking vigorously, add to your liquid. I don’t add it to the oil phase, as I was getting fish eyes while using it “dry” and this was the recommended method as the oil was supposed to do the protecting from the blasted lump formations. The original post suggested 70% isopropyl alcohol, but I tried it with 100 proof vodka and it works like a charm!
Great tip—thanks so much, Sabrina!
Hi,
I just stumbled upon this. I know it’s ‘n old blog but Tammy, your shampoo sounds fantastic! Would you mind sharing your recipe?
Marie, thanks so much for sharing all your knowledge with us!
Thanks!!
Please keep working on this formula! I’ve been using Jason Curl Defining Cream which was discontinued two years ago. (Yes, I’ve been rationing it out.) It isn’t quite as all-natural as I’d like, but pretty good, and it was the perfect amount of hold; soft, touchable, not at all crunchy hair yet curls that lasted all day. (The main ingredient is emulsifying wax.) Unfortunately, in my quest to replace it, I haven’t come up with anything remotely close.
Here’s a little a trick that might help you with the curls. I always thought I had kind of meh wavy hair: wouldn’t stay curly, and at least a half an hour of blow drying time to get straight. Then I lived in the Virgin Islands for a year, and often had fantastic curls after a swim. I finally put together that the way to re-create that is to comb out my hair mid-shower (after the shampoo, while the conditioner is in.) The water action separates it into nice sections that curl naturally. I spend less than 30 seconds styling my hair, and it looks much better. I just pat a little styling cream into it after the shower and let it air dry. I also wash my hair about bi-weekly, and so on no-shower days I splash a little water on it and usually that revives the curls/product pretty well. Give it a try, it may work for you.
I love your site! Your basic lip balm is similar to something I came up with after lots (and lots) of trial and error, and it made Burt’s Bees seem cheap and waxy in comparison. I can only imagine how much work goes into each of your formulas.
Hmmm, interesting—I’ll have to look at a more lotiony approach to the hair gel. I must admit I haven’t been playing much with hair gel as of late—my most recent experiments went straight into the bin at any rate :/
Since my hair is absolutely pin straight, getting it wet only makes it straighter, sadly. I’ve lived next to the ocean and in far more humid environments than I currently do, and it’s always been straight. So straight that people sometimes ask how long I spend straightening it each day (no time at all, lol). It sounds like your method is awesome for people who have hair that’s inclined to curl, though!
Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me 🙂 And yes, isn’t it sad to realize that Burt’s is sort of crap after spending so much money on it? Sad. At least I’m liberated now!
I know that this was disappointing for you, but it is a GREAT gel for me. Thank you! I have naturally curly hair and it works really well with it. Not heavy and not stiff but enough there to reduce frizz and have the curls get definition. You can use it on dry hair even. It does seem to pull the locks up into tighter curls, so you might be on your way with a gel that can help you have curls. Aveda’s be curly line uses Oat Protein, in case that helps.
I’ve really enjoyed the other recipes of yours I’ve tried. I don’t know how you can post 4 times per week! Thank you for doing it though!
Hey, this is awesome! I’m so glad this was useful for somebody 🙂 Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me!
Hello Marie!
I saw a hair gel remark in your mascara post, so I searched to see how your hair gel experiments turned out. I might have one for you to try! It’s real simple-only 2 ingredients- Hot water and gelatin (you made mention of it up top)! Use 1 cup of boiling water and add the following amounts for hold: strong- 1 teaspoon, medium- 3/4 teaspoon, light- 1/2 teaspoon. You can add a few drops of essential oils for scent/hair loving properties when it cools down a bit. I am a Marching Band Mom and we use this during competitions to keep the hair looking tidy and in place! We toss it out the same day, but one of the ladies makes it for her daughter (Irish dancer) and she keeps it in fridge up to two weeks. If you do make the light hold, it’s easier to use in a squeeze bottle.
Oooh, very cool—hair “jell-o”, haha! I will have to give this a try 🙂 Thank you!
Awesome recipe! Can i ask Does it have a hard hold or what should i add for making strong hold hair gel?
This hair gel has very little hold, and I’ve yet to devise anything that has a strong hold. Most strong hold hair gels are plastic, which is hard to compete with.
Hi. Just wondering if you have done any more experiments for this? Also I have white hair that gets yellow from our water any ideas on how to take the yellow out? Have been using acv but just wondering if there is something better. Thanks. Keep up the great work and looking forward to the book!
I’m afraid I haven’t, I’ve been very focused on cosmetics as of late thanks to the book 🙂
So I just did a quick experiment using alcohol, honey, and arrowroot starch and found that it works okay. Good for scrunching. I imagine that guar gum and actual glycerin (two things I’ve been putting off purchasing) would work better…
I’m interested in what one commenter mentioned about emulsifying wax… Will try an experiment using that next I think.
Hmm, yes, I do think guar gum and glycerin would be better than starch and honey; especially in this application! Xanthan gum is also a fun gelling/gumming thing to play with, and it’s used in my book! I bet silk would be a good addition as well 🙂
I’ve been looking for over a day and I’m guessing this is the best place to ask this question. I’ve been experimenting with hair gel for over a year now, and I found that flax seed gel has, so far, the best potential for me. It works about 90% of the time, and when it works I get well-defined natural curls, but 10% of the time it doesn’t work at all and it doesn’t seem to be a consistency issue.
Anyway, I hadn’t found a product that was any more reliable until this new thing came out. It’s by Eden Bodyworks and it *always* perfectly defines my hair. So I’ve been looking at the ingredients trying to figure it out.
Here is the list. Now, I think the thing that helps is that this foams up for some reason when I put it in my hair. That foam helps my curls to always stick together, I think. I’ve googled all of these ingredients individually but can’t figure out if one of them is supposed to foam. Do you have any ideas?
Water (Aqua), Glycerin, Polysorbate 20, Sorbitol, Fragrance (Parfum), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Althaea Officinalis (Marshmallow) Root Extract, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Nigella Sativa Seed Oil, Pectin, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Carpel Powder, Sodium PCA, Tocopheryl Acetate, Xanthan Gum, Benzyl Alcohol, Dehydroacetic Acid, Limonene, Linalool, Maltol, Nerolidol,
(There is a comma at the end on the website, but I haven’t found a longer list so I think it’s just a typo.]
I hope that you see this, and that it isn’t too much of a bother for you. Thank you for your time.
I hope I’m doing this right and this comes as a reply to Phoenix’s comment.
In what way does that product foam? Does it come in a Bottle with one of those foam-making pump-caps? Or does it foam when you rub it in your hands? Do you have naturally curly/wavy hair that you are trying to enchance, or are you doing pin curls/other styling for straight hair?
Not sure about the foam without the information I asked above but I can see a few ingredients on that list that could be controbuting to better hold and curl definition. Those are hydroxyethyl cellulose, pectin and xanthan gum (at least those, they’re just ones I can regocnize). Those ingredients can be found in lots of hair gel’s with natural/biodegradable ingredients, and they are all gelling agents (sorry if my terminology is crappy, English isn’t my first language). I just did an experiment today where I did the traditional flaxseed gel and added some xanthan gum to it, as I already have a great gel from Boucleme that has those ingredients. I love the gel from Boucleme, but it has a significant amount of glycerine in it, and therefore it seems to be too humectant-heavy for these hot and humid summer days (my curls get frizzy and the hold isn’t as good as when the wearher is less humid. So I’m trying to find a less humectant-heavy option.
I plan to use that xanthan-flaxseed gel next time I wash my hair and see what happens. I can report about the results when it’s done.
And lastly, as this might matter: my hair is naturally curly/wavy (about 2c or 2b) and I’ve just started to learn about how to properly care for it.
Hi, Varpu!
Actually a week after I posted this, I did some more experimentation and realised that it was the polysorbate! (As Marie mentioned)
It comes in one of those push top bottles and doesn’t actually foam until I put it in my hair. It only seems to happen this drastically to some curlies (I watched some videos of others, I have 4b and 4c hair.)
It doesn’t actually hold my hair though, that product, I have to use a much stronger gel after to get my hair to stay. For me, the foam just helps it seem to get that initial clumping a little better.
I’m still experimenting with my leave in conditioner and gel. This round I decided to keep most of the oil phase in the leave in and most of the water phase in the gel to see if that helps each thing preform better. Oily gel was NOT working for me, haha.
I actually just made a new batch of both my leave in and gel today, but… and I called it, sigh… my leave in is far too thick. I think I need to increase the amount of water more drastically than I had been. I thought adding a little water {3%} and a cutting little conditioner (BTMS-225 and cetyl) {1% each} would work, but it wasn’t enough.
Anyway, thank both you and Marie for responding. I don’t know why it took me SO long to find out that polysorbate can cause foam, but everything clicked afterwards. I made a little dupe of the product for now, but I’m going to see if adding the polysorbate and perhaps the sorbitol to my gel will give me the same effect, since I already have plenty of the other ‘sticky’ hair gel ingredients.
I just don’t like having to use so many products to style. 🙁
It sounds like you’re making good progress! If you’re in the USA you might take a look at some of the neat products offered my Making Cosmetics for hair things. There’s a few in their “instant cold emulsifiers” section that make creating gels & conditioners really simple 🙂
Polysorbate 20 will cause some foaming as it’s an emulsifier 🙂 What an interesting sounding product—thanks for sharing!
Hi Marie,
I’ve been following your posts for a while now and I’m happy to report I’ve tried a bunch of your recipes with success!
I have Type 4 kinky curly hair and I used to use Xantham Gum mixed with Veg glycerine as a holding gel – the only thing I didn’t really like about it was that it made my hair “crunchy” and too “gel-like”. I desperately miss the qualities of an amazing thick curl defining cream made by Kerastase – wonderful contour and hold, but no crunch or stiffness. I’d love to see if a cream of some sort is possible with Xantham Gum as a the hold – what do you think?
I am just about to make my second batsch of the hairgel formula. I find it work super well to make a good hold in my fine hair. I may use an other gum just to experiment, and let you know my result.
The downside of the gel(?) is the static electricity, but I will try to find a natural solution for that.
Thank you for a great hair gel.