This past week I have tried two different DIY recipes to try to make my hair care more natural and to better support keeping what hair I have. I am on this interesting new journey with curly hair. My hair has always had quite a bit of wave in it, but not real curl. BUT, then I had babies! And, now it is curly. If I wash it and just leave it to dry it is curly, if I brush it out it is puffy and super wavy. AND, it is thinner than ever. I feel like I have lost so much hair. It started coming out after my youngest daughter was born and I thought it was just normal postpartum hair loss. And, maybe it is, but it seems like my hair loss hasn’t ever really stopped. It has seemed to slow or stop over the summer, both last year and this year. I was talking to my sister about that a few weeks ago and was thinking it must be due to the stress of teaching and taking care of the girls during the year. As I thought about it more though, I began to wonder if it may be my hair products instead. You see, since I am home most days during the summer, I rarely put any products in my hair. So, I began to wonder if maybe it is the products that are causing the problems, not the stress.

That concern along with the extra time I’ve had due to no vacation because of Covid, extra quarantines, closed activities, and closed restaurants finally pushed me to try making my own hair care products. First, I tried making hair gel from a recipe I found on Mommypotamus. I decided to try her flax seed recipe since she said it seemed to have the strongest hold. I added peppermint essential oil because that is what I had on hand AND it was one that was suggested for stimulating hair growth. I like it and will make some more. I will have to double or triple the recipe, though. It does well and I love the minty smell. I do wish it had a little more hold.

Since, I felt the need for a little more hold and because I had been using just hair spray when using regular products for my curly hair, I decided to go ahead and try a recipe for DIY hair spray. I had seen and wondered several times about one I saw from Whole New Mom. I have found that these two DIY products together work really well. The only struggle I have had so far is that I generally apply my products when my hair is wet. This works really well with the gel, but the since the hair spray is water based it actually makes my hair heavier and harder to dry. I have used the hair spray after my hair has dried with the gel on it and that seems to work the best.

So, once I have made more of the gel, I think that my plan will be to put the gel on and style as usual while my hair is wet. Then, once my hair is dry or at least mostly dry, then I will add the hair spray. This seems to work best. Now, here are the recipes that I am currently using to make these products. It was nice that both of them were super easy to make and TRULY made from stuff I already had on hand. Okay, except the distilled water, I used my normal city, tap water. I know that this is not recommended for either recipe and if you have distilled water you should definitely use it. However, I figured my city water in these recipes was better than the chemicals in the hair spray I’d been using.

DIY Hair Gel Recipe:

3/4 cup water

1 TBSP + 1 1/2 tsp Flax Seeds

Up to 24 drops Essential Oil

Hair Gel Directions:

1. Put flax seeds in the water and boil
2. Turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes
3. I didn’t have a mesh sieve, so I just put cheese cloth over a bowl and after the mixture had simmered for 10 minutes I poured it out on the cloth.
4. Mine was SUPER thick and I had to let it cool enough to touch and then I had to just squeeze and squeeze it out through the cloth until I had gotten most of it out.

I think that I may have left mine on to boil a little longer than I was supposed to. I’m hoping that the next time I make it, it may turn out a little thinner so that it is easier to get through the cloth. I will certainly try to watch it more carefully, but I’ll be honest, mommying makes it hard to be totally focused on very many things!! After I got out as much as I could I kept mine in a small Rubbermaid container in the butter compartment of the refrigerator door.

DIY Hair Spray Recipe:

1 cup water

4 tsp sugar

8 drops of peppermint oil – optional (Adrienne from Whole New Mom recommends a blend of oils, but again I typically just use what I have on hand and peppermint oil is what that was.)

DIY Hair Spray Directions:

1. Heat water to boiling
2. Add sugar and stir to dissolve
3. Allow to cool
4. Add essential oils if using
5. Pour into spray bottle

I admit the spray bottle thing is something I haven’t worked out yet. I honestly put it in the container I had been using for my homemade granite cleaner, after rinsing it out. The bottle is pictured above. It gave really good coverage as long as it worked! Unfortunately, it stopped spraying for some reason. I would guess that the sugar may be gumming it up a bit. So, I’ve been doing what I do whenever I’ve almost used up my sprunch spray and it won’t come out the squirty top anymore. I just pour a little into my hand, rub my hands together and then scrunch my hair. I did have to start doing this over the shower because it will make sticky spots on the floor if I get any on there. The only downside I have found to this spray so far is that it feels kind of powdery after it dries on my hair. I really like it though and plan to figure out a spray bottle that WILL work and keep using it! It’s kind of hard to see my hair in these pictures, but this was just using the hairspray to hold my curls after my hair had dried twisted in a bun on top of my head until it was just damp. I also got a compliment on my hair from my sister later that evening after pulling it up into a messy bun. She commented on how well it was held and how full it looked!! That’s nice to hear when you are trying to combat hair loss!!

I hope these recipes are helpful to you. Are you finding yourself at home more? If so, what kind of DIY projects have you found yourself making while being at home more?