(Mis)Adventures in Curl Chemistry

Sometimes you take a risk and it really pays off. Sometimes you take a risk and have to wash, style, and dry your hair twice in one day.

Yesterday was the latter. I’m exhausted.

So, you will hear me talk about the Science-y Hair Blog over and over because it is my favorite resource for in depth info about hair. It just so happens that it also has a number of recipes for homemade hair products. I tried the Flax-Free Hair Gel using just water, xanthan gum, and argan oil. While I liked it, the texture was very runny and I wanted to see if I could get more curl enhancement. So, back to Whole Foods I went. I was considering getting guar gum but a bag of whole flax seeds was only about $3 while the package of guar gum was more like $10. Using flax seeds means straining but your girl is on a budget here, so I figured it was worth the extra work to save $7.

Making the gel itself was a little more time intensive than the flax-free gel (especially since I opted to soak the flax seeds overnight) but it wasn’t too bad. I did end up using a metal strainer and pantyhose to fully strain the gel out of the seeds. However, I think I didn’t use enough water, so I may be able to skip the pantyhose next time.

If you want to create your own flax seed gel, check out the recipe I used here. One of the things I like so much about this recipe is all the options to customize it. I ended up adding aloe vera juice, argan oil, xanthan gum, magnesium sulfate (AKA epsom salts-- she doesn’t list a suggested amount in this recipe but she recommends ½ tsp in the comments section of her flax-free gel recipe, which is what I used), and gelatin. It’s the gelatin that ended up being my (figuratively) fatal mistake.

If you aren’t familiar, gelatin is a type of protein. Specifically, it is partially hydrolyzed collagen. This means it contains medium to large protein constituents, making it hydrating and film forming. This film can help give strands structure and, in turn, encourage curl. I have low porosity hair but it isn’t completely protein intolerant. I’ve had success with products containing protein, like the Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

DIY "soft hood" AKA plastic bag held on by Buff

Yesterday was my day to clarify and deep condition my hair (I clarify once every 4-6 weeks and deep condition once a week). I used Suave Daily Clarifying Shampoo and the Hask Argan Oil Repairing Deep Conditioner. I’ve used both before, but it’s probably worth noting that the deep conditioner has a number of proteins in it, albeit lower on the list than the main moisturizing and conditioning ingredients. Because my hair is lower porosity, I generally need to leave masks on longer than recommended and apply heat. I ended up leaving the mask in for around 45 minutes using a makeshift soft-hood (see pics for this glamorous hair tool) for around 30 of those.

The "soft hood" inflated...hey, it works, ok?

When I did the squish-to-condish method and rinsed out the deep treatment, my hair felt soft and moisturized. However, it’s possible that the protein in the deep treatment was the maximum my hair could deal with. This may have led to or contributed to my issues later on.

I applied my products as normal, using a small amount of the flax seed gel (two dimes worth, maybe?). I’m still getting used to my short hair (this was only my second wash day after getting it cut) so I’m still working out how much product to use in my hair. I then plopped my hair for about 15 minutes.

My hair looked pretty normal coming out of its plop but as it was drying it started to look worse and worse. My waves were getting frizzier as they dried. My hair looked limp. I couldn’t stop myself from messing with my hair, which is a curly cardinal sin and which I KNOW couldn’t have helped matters in the frizz department. I just kept hoping that, if I re-wet certain strands, added a little DevaCurl foam, and finger curled them (my usual fix for wonky curls) it would magically get better. All those strands re-frizzed, though. I diffused when my hair was about 50% dry, upside down, as normal. When I came back up, my hair all over the place. Comically lifted straight off my scalp in irregular shapes. I love me some volume, but this was insanity.

Finally, when my hair was completely dry, it felt DISGUSTING. It was coated and stiff, just as I’ve heard protein overload described. There wasn’t really much a “crunch” to scrunch out, which seemed extra weird to me because I applied my hard hold gel (Got2b Ultra Glued Invincible Styling Gel) after the flax gel. I considered putting up with it for the rest of the day and just pulling it off my face with a Buff. After an hour of this, though, I decided it was just too yucky.

So, back into my bathroom I went. I washed and conditioned with my normal sulfate-free shampoo (Shea Moisture Superfruit & Coconut Water Weightless Shampoo) and conditioner (Shea Moisture 100% Virgin Coconut Oil Conditioner) under the tub faucet and styled my hair, skipping the flax gel, of course. I let it air dry halfway again, diffused until mostly dry, and let it air dry the last 10%. I was exhausted, but at least my hair looked (and felt) normal.

While this was an exhausting exercise, I think that I learned a lot. Gelatin, it seems, is probably not a protein my hair is going to get along well with. It’s possible that, if other factors had been different, that my hair would have been ok with the gelatin...but I doubt it. It makes sense to me that my lower porosity hair gets way too coated with a film forming protein. In the future, I’m going to stick to low amounts of protein with a lower molecular weight. I also noticed that, while I always have the urge to touch my hair when it’s damp (don’t we all?), the urge was so much stronger after the first wash than the second. Even before it was totally dry that first time, I could tell that something was off and I felt compelled to fix it. This could be a good red flag for me to watch for in the future, since I was kind of in denial about how bad it was until my hair had fully dried that first time.

I made a new batch of flax gel today, nearly identical to the first, just without gelatin (I also added a few drops of vanilla extract to see if I could make it smell a little nicer. The jury’s still out on that). I’ll give an update when I’ve had a chance to give it a try next wash day (probably Friday). What about you guys? Have you ever made flax seed gel at home? Have you ever had any epic DIY hair product fails?