Homemade Hair Care: Flax Seed Hair Gel
This is what flax seed hair gel looks like.
Woo-wee! (Or is it “whewee?”)
After recommending this little recipe to several people who’ve asked for homemade hair gel ideas, I thought maybe it was in my best interest to try it myself before continuing to pass it on.
Flax seed hair gel. Easy enough.
Only it wasn’t easy. It might have been one of the most difficult homemade beauty product recipes I’ve ever worked with.
That being said, I have two things to announce:
It works.
and
I challenge you to figure out a way to make this recipe more productive and less messy.
Here’s the recipe and the way I did it:
Flax Seed Hair Gel Recipe
Flax Seed Hair Gel
from By Nature With Love
- 2 Tbsp whole flax seeds
- 1 C. water
- Aloe vera gel (optional)
- Essential oil (optional, for yummy scent)
Boil the water and then dump the flax seeds into it. Stirring pretty much constantly, allow the flax seeds to boil into the water until a gel consistency starts to occur. Mine took about 5 minutes. DO NOT OVER COOK. Strain the gel from the flax seeds using a fine-mesh sieve. Place in a squeeze or pump bottle, and add about a quarter as much aloe vera gel (for thinning the gel and adding moisturizing properties to the mix) as you have flax seed gel. Add up to 4 drops of your favorite essential oil. Shake well. Use as you would any hair gel.
So here’s the scoop.
This what flax seeds look like before you do anything to them:
Plain old flax seeds.
.
.
Then you take 2 Tbsp of these babies and dump them into a pot of boiling water.
Boil it until you’ve got a gel-like consistency.
It starts to look like this:
Boiling flax seeds are about to become really messy.
Now, it’s VERY important that you continue to stir as you do this, because otherwise the flax seeds are going to attach themselves to your pot and refuse to ever leave. Like a 20-year-old son in your basement with free internet access.
As it’s boiling, you want to monitor it, because if you let it go too long, you’ll just end up with a big blob of flax seeds.
Take it out of the pot BEFORE the flax seeds gel together. (My first batch didn’t go well, as you can tell.) You’ll be able to pour the liquid off your spoon without all the flax seeds clumped together, but it will be thickish in consistency.
After that, drop it in a fine-mesh sieve. IMHO, don’t even bother with cheesecloth. Unless you want a giant mushy ball of cheese cloth that you’re forced to rub all over your head. (My second batch didn’t go very well, either.)
Finally, I dropped it all into the fine-mesh seive, over a bowl.
Gravity working on the flax gel.
With the back of a large spoon, try pressing down on the gelled flax seeds. Some clear gel should start falling in your bowl.
As I was doing this, mostly what I accomplished was getting a spoon very, very slimy.
Eventually, I just gave up and hoped gravity would start doing the work for me.
I left the seeds in the sieve and the sieve in the bowl and walked away.
Five minutes later, I came back to see how dependable gravity is these days.
Gravity - sort of dependable.
Then, I took the gel that had collected in the bowl and funneled it into a small glass bottle with a pump lid.
The amount I ended up with? Approximately 2 Tbsp flax seed gel.
Not really worth it, iff’n you ask me, for the mess it made.
Flax Seed Hair Gel: Does It Work?
I used straight flax seed gel in my hair first. It was very effective, and didn’t flake or clump. However, it did feel a little dry and crunchy (though brushing un-crunched it immediately).
It held my bangs back (in kind of a slicked-over look) for quite some time, until I stepped out in the wind.
Then, I added the aloe vera gel and some palmarosa essential oil.
(About 1/2 Tbsp of aloe vera to the 2 Tbsp flax seed gel.)
The hold was much softer, and I have it in my hair at the moment. It gives a little definition and a little hold – and the scent is light and lovely.
In Closing: I’m a fan of the way this stuff works. Really.
I’m just not a fan of how difficult it was to separate the flax seeds from the resulting gel.
So here’s the challenge: Figure out how in the heck to get the gel out of the flax seeds without coating your kitchen with slime.
If anyone can come up with an easier, more effective way to do this, you will win my everlasting love and devotion.
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121 Responses to “Homemade Hair Care: Flax Seed Hair Gel”
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You can use pantyhose to strain the gel from the seeds, saw it on YouTube.
Get a pantyhose/stocking put some of the boiled seeds in it and use tongs to slide the gel out :) (I got that from Naptural85 on youtube)
I have heard that using brown flax seeds yields more gel than golden flax seeds. Something to try. :)
Grind the flax seeds first and then soak in water for a couple of hours. More gel will be more easily available from ground than whole seeds. This is the same trick folks use to extract the gel to use as an egg substitute. I happened to know about this trick already from someone else before I went looking for a safer alternative to commercial hair gel products.
Clarification: I grind the dry seeds in a coffee grinder.
To get the gel pour the mix (flax and gel) in a knee high stocking and squeeze the gel. Only do this when your gel has cooled. When I did this I got one and halves container full of gel
Someone used pantyhose instead of a mesh and it seemed to work well for them. Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aWaH8GIbLrM#!
I didnt boil the flax seeds very long. Just long enough to get a bit mucilaginous. I used a cup of liquid and two tbs. of flax seeds and I’m going to scoop instead of spray-I have issues with clogs in my spray tops. Everything went off without a hitch or a mess.
I grinded my flax seeds and strained with panty hose like one of the previous comments said and my gel has grains of flax in it. It makes it look like sand/dirt in the product. Grinding the seeds first did not work out for me.
One more thing. I set a timer for seven minutes using the 1/4 cup measure I just provided. Seven minutes is the perfect length of time for gel.
I have tried making this hair gel . I love the gel hate the mess. That being said I am going to try making a much smaller batch and also have the seeds in a tea bag like cheese cloth inside a pantie hose before putting it in the boiling water. Hope that works for me because I am not about to give up what works really well . P.S. no etchy scalp ya!
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I have the best solution for removing the pulp….. Wait for it….
A FOOD MILL….. It is used to remove the seeds from cooked tomatoes, and yes they do work very well, I have one for canning. You can google to see what they look like. My mother inlaw gave me mine, so it is quite old:) I hope I qualify for the whole love and devotion thing:)
Good luck, I hope you can find one. You might check and antique shop.
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There is a great youtube video with some great ideas for this same recepie… and quite a bit less messy!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWaH8GIbLrM try this link. if it doesn’t work, it is called Do It Yourself: Homemade Natural Hair Gel with Flaxseed. by Naptural85.
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I used 2c distilled water and 4 tablespoons of BROWN whole flax seeds, I personally think using more water and using brown flaxseeds is the key. The first time I tried this with golden flax seeds and hardly got any gel, with the brown seeds I ended up with a cup of gel. Hope this helps!
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hello hello. i have to agree with a previous comment that you should try this with BROWN flax seeds. i have done it several times now using pretty much identical steps as you’ve provided, and the result yielded much more gel and less mess. i would also agree with someone else who said to set the timer for 7 minutes, lest you get your gel too thick. i’ve made some batches thinner as well, and that worked just fine. mine doesn’t seem to last too long out of the fridge…maybe 5 days max. the refrigerated batch lasts about 3 weeks, though. i’ve been adding a wee bit of olive oil and honey to mine for moisture as well. thanks for all the wonderful ideas you share!!!
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Aha! I suspect, (I haven’t checked yet) that if you put the flax seeds NOT straight in the water, but rather in something, like a piece of cheesecloth, you might not have this problem. maybe. like I said, I haven’t checked yet. best of luck!
uh, okay, I tried this several days later. um, well I got some very amazing gel…, but I also got a blob of gooey ground flax in an old stocking. and not much gel. will try something else next. (I used ground brown flaxseeds BTW)
Try using a French Press. They’re intended to separate coffee from coarse ground coffee beans, but work amazingly well for this recipe. I used five tablespoons of brown flax seeds and three cups of water, and got well over a cup of gel.
Another option is to skim off the mucilage as it floats to the surface, using a spoon. Unless you mix it with something else, however, this will give a much thicker gel.
Adding some lemon juice is a good idea, primarily because it will make the gel last longer. (Kept in the fridge, most websites agree flax gel goes bad after two weeks.) Also this will lower the pH, as the natural pH of hair is around 5; as well as give a nice lemony scent.
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Thanks for a really informative blog. I made my first batch of flax seed gel a few days ago and it came out perfectly. No mess at all. One thing I did that none of you seem to have mentioned was to soak the seeds in water overnight and for most of the next day.
By the time I got home from work the seeds had already formed a soft jelly in the bowl of water. I just took the contents and dumped them in a pot, added more water and boiled it all up for about 5 minutes.Then I strained the seeds using a sieve.
Washing the pot was also a breeze because a thin film of gel had formed on the inside, which I easily stripped away as one continuous piece.
I used brown seeds since I couldn’t find the gold anywhere.
Does anyone else do the overnight soaking thing? It might help.
i use cheesecloth to strain mine – it’s even easier than pantyhose! way easier, i thought. i use the tongs to squeeze it out, like she does with the pantyhose in the youtube video. you can also add a little bit of cornstarch to thicken it if you have fine, wavy hair. i store them in small restaurant take out cups (1oz) that i get from a wholesale club so i can give them out as samples. add some vitamin e as a natural preservative.
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I used my juicer to separate the gel and flax. I waited until the mix was warm and put it through. works like a hot damn..seeds came out near dry and lots of gel. give it a try.
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Soak the flax seeds overnight first then boil the next day. Boils in less time and produces a lot more gel. It’s also easier to strain. Seems like the gel lets itself go from the seeds easier. Hope this helps!!
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This is just a thought, but would it work if you were to bind the flaxseed up in cheesecloth or even pantyhose and then boil that like a teabag? Or even put a cheese cloth at the bottom of the pot, then just net all the seeds in it?
I mean, put the cheesecloth at the bottom of the pot before you boil the flaxseed so it is sitting on the bottom of the pot the entire time. Sorry, I get ahead of myself. :)
I figured out how!!! I too seen the vid on YouTube that used the stockings to separate gel from flaxseed. That too was noneffective and caused more of a mess than not. I solved this Dilema by getting a squeez bottle from my recycling, a mental mesh sifter and an old gel container. Place the squeeze bottle (empty and clean mustard/ketchup bottle) w/o lid into the metal sifter over ur container and squeeze. And you are done! And u are clean and u will not suffer from any burns from hot gel if u use an oven mitt. ;) I will make a YouTube video of this soon
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6 T. whole flax in 1 cup h2o soaked 6-8 hours yields 1/4 c. gel after draining in a sieve for an hour and mashing the seeds against the sides to finish. Repeat again
for another 1/4 c. yield (doubling the amount of water for one time does not work).
While draining in a clean lady’s trouser stocking or nylon knee high tied to a kitchen faucet also works, a sieve is much less mess. Cooking destroys the essential fatty acids beneficial to hair health and appearance. Add seeds to smoothies, soups, stew, cooked cereal, muffins, bread, meatloaf, etc. Refrigerate gel and use within 2 weeks,
as a sour odour after much longer will indicate it has spoiled. Excess gel can be frozen in an ice cube tray, stored in a baggie, and thawed as needed. Add a drop of essential as desired &/or a few drops of light weight vegetable oil for dry hair.
I read on on a blog somewhere else that a girl uses panty hose stretched over a mason jar to strain and that it works fantastic! also read that when you are boiling and start to get foam to turn the heat down, stir a little more to see if seeds suspend in gel yet rather than sinking to bottom and at that point if they suspend immediately strain. should take no longer than 8min max to cook seeds. also can add more water to make it thinner. some people say that glycerin rather than aloe works better as well.
Has anyone tried using Flaxseed Meal with this recipe instead of whole flaxseeds? I plan to try that this week but wondering if anyone already has and what results would be. Thinking that removes the entire headache of straining and the seeds. (remove the seeds before starting instead of after finishing). Please let me know if you have tried or can think of a reason why it wouldn’t / shouldn’t work. Thanks.
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