Further Adventures in Curl Chemistry

After my homemade hair gel fail last week, I promised to get back to you about my second attempt. Since then, I have done my hair three times and feel confident enough in my preliminary findings to share them.

After using the gel on two consecutive wash days, I opted to skip it on the third (today) so I could see if it really seemed to make a difference or not. In these two photos I styled my hair using all the same products and techniques except that I’ve used the flax seed gel in the top photo and skipped it in the bottom photo.

With gel: a little halo frizz but shiny, defined waves.

My primary goal for this gel was curl enhancement but I don’t think it honestly made that much of a difference in my curl pattern. Flax and aloe are supposed to be somewhat curl enhancing but magnesium sulfate is the heavy hitter in that category. It can also be drying, so I was fairly conservative in the amount I put into the gel (½ tsp in 1 cup of gel). I may experiment with adding a little bit more in the future to see if I can get more curl enhancement while still keeping my hair hydrated.

The bottom picture (without the gel) actually seems a bit curlier at first glance but in reality it's more that the waves are going off in random directions. I like my hair to look a little messed up and fun but this is a little crazier than I like it.
I first noticed the difference when I diffused my hair. When I used the gel, my hair looked normal coming out of the diffuser. Without the gel, my curls seemed to be setting into that crazier pattern. I'm not certain what the reason behind that is, but I noticed it so I mentioned it.

Without gel: crazy waves and frizzy bits sticking out

So, basically, the big difference was in definition and frizz. Even while my hair was still damp it seemed ready to frizz up without the flax seed gel. The issue was less about halo frizz (which I tend to associate with humidity) or losing definition to fuzzy strands (which happens when I use glycerin) and more about random strands breaking off from their curl clump to stick in a random direction. Also, as the day has worn on my hair has been losing hold and frizzing up more on me.

My hair also felt more well moisturized when I used the gel, which makes sense with the frizz reduction. I think both factors can be attributed to the film forming humectants in the gel, flax seeds, aloe vera gel, and xanthan gum.. My hair doesn’t get along well with humectants like glycerin, propylene glycol, sorbitol or other sugar alcohols, at least not when the humidity is high (which is much of the time where I live). Film forming humectants work not only by attracting moisture but also by sealing the hair (with a film, hence the name) which slows the loss of that moisture. Proteins are also film-forming humectants but, as was made clear by my previous attempt, my hair doesn’t get along with gelatin and I didn’t want to risk trying a different protein just yet.

Overall, it's not like I hate my hair without the flax seed gel; I just feel like my hair looks prettier with it. Mostly it's nitpicking little details that other people are far less likely to notice than I am. However, I notice enough of a difference to make using the gel worth it to me. In the future I may experiment with adding more magnesium sulfate or trying a different protein, but I'm pretty happy with the formula as it stands.

There are a few disadvantages to using this gel that I should mention. The first is the smell. Although I tried to improve the scent with a little vanilla extract, this was largely unsuccessful. I can sense a hint of vanilla but the flax seed smell easily overwhelms it. It may be that I could mask it if I was willing to drop some coin on essential oils but I don’t think I really care that much. The scent does not linger on the hair, or at least it doesn’t when used with my other products. It also doesn’t provide the nicest tactile experience. It has...well, a snot-like consistency, if I’m being honest. This isn’t a deal breaker for me but I know that weird textures can really ick some people out.

It's not exactly appealing to look at, either...

Lastly, since this is a homemade item without preservatives, it must be kept refrigerated and has a shelf life of about two weeks. More than once with these homemade gels I’ve gotten out of the shower only to realize I forgot to pull my gel from the fridge. This means wrapping up in a towel with wet hair, trooping downstairs to the fridge and back up again. I like to apply my products on sopping wet hair, so this means I’m either trying not to drip all over the house or I’m squeezing the excess water out of my hair, fetching the gel, and then having to rewet my hair in the sink to style it. This is also a labor intensive process to repeat every two weeks. That has a pretty easy fix, though. Once I have the formula tweaked to my liking, I can just make a larger batch and freeze the excess. I already think that one cup of gel for two weeks is way more than I need, so I may even be able to get a whole month out of a single batch.

If you want to make your own flax seed gel, here's the recipe I used from the Science-y Hair Blog. I chose the custom options of adding aloe vera juice/gel (food grade), xanthan gum, argan oil, and magnesium sulfate (not listed on that recipe; I used 1/2 tsp). I also added five drops of vanilla extract but I don't feel like that was very successful, so I don't recommend it.