Homemade Hair Gel Experiment (Flop!)

I was searching Google yesterday for some homemade hair gel.  All I got was a bunch of complicated YouTube videos where people were boiling flax seed (expensive), adding glycerine (expensive),  jojoba oil (expensive) and Lecithin (who HAS that?).  Since this is a site about frugality, none of them served my needs.  Not to mention, they were all very time-consuming and hard to make.  So, I  conducted an experiment totally from the seat of my pants.  Thinking logically, which doesn't always work out, I thought...okay, if corn starch thickens soup and gravy when boiled, would it thicken plain ol' water?  Or does it need some kind of fat to cling to?  I dunno!  But let's see!  This should be fun!

Here's what I grabbed to conduct my experiment.

After the fact, I added rubbing alcohol (not pictured)

Ingredients:

1T (heaping) Corn Starch

1C Cool Tap Water

1 Drop of Food coloring, if desired

1t Rubbing alcohol, if desired

Fine mesh strainer

Small Pot

Metal spoon

Pour water into pot.

Measure out 1 heaping Tablespoon Corn Starch.  I probably

should have measured accurately.  Maybe a scant 2T?

Mix in with your water, being sure to scrape the bottom of the pan.

Starch settles quickly at the bottom, but scrapes away easily.  

The trick is to keep the stuff moving around constantly.

Place on burner over medium high heat.  On my stove, about a 6.

Never stop stirring (scraping bottom of pan the whole time)
and do not walk away.  Ask me how I know that.

The mixture quickly turns more translucent.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

I tried letting it go a little longer (the 2nd time) and it didn't make a

difference.  So once it boils, you can remove it from the heat.

Remove from heat and add one drop of  food coloring if desired.

If you have really light hair, you may want to leave this out.  It's

only for aesthetic purposes anyway.  Don't do any more than one drop!

Mix it in well, stopping to admire the pretty swirls, ooooooh.

Here's what it looks like when it's mixed.  Purdy, huh?

 

Place a fine mesh strainer over your container of choice.  I picked

a canning jar simply because that's what I had handy.

Carefully pour your gel through the strainer.  It's hot!

My first batch sat on the top like this. That's because I 

walked away and it got clumpy!  My 2nd one did not.

If it doesn't want to go through easily, stir your spoon around

in the strainer, but do not attempt to force the clumps through.

You may be left with this.  Discard it.

Here's what my two batches together made.  That's a lot of gel!

After it cools down a bit, you can add 1t rubbing alcohol. Why do this?  Well,

the store bought stuff typically has it and I was thinking that maybe

it'd help the stuff dry faster once on your head.  Turns out, it just made it stink like alcohol.

 But it may actually help it dry faster.  Not sure.

If you added it, stir it in well.  You could probably

add in some essential oils to mask that, if desired.

Put lid on to keep from drying out.

Take a small glob and apply to wet hair.

Look totally cool with your orange kool aid 

mustache and spiky hair for pennies!

Notes:

Remember, this is an experiment, so I cannot be sure how this will work in the long run.

Today, the gel is still fluid and gel-like, so I'm hoping it'll stay that way.  Still looking for a good container to put it in.  If you  have a squeeze bottle with a cap, that'd be a great choice.  But trying to use what I have, I don't want to invest more in a bottle than I could purchase gel for.

It still smells like alcohol, which I don't care for.  But if it helps it dry faster, what the heck.  Next time, I'll just leave it out.  No biggie.  I don't have any essential oils or I would have tried that. Or maybe  (lightbulb)...you could boil some orange or lemon peels just to get the scent in the water, strain  it, then cool. Then use THAT water to start the experiment with.  Maybe I'll try that next time.

My son used it again today and it works really well!  I'm really surprised!  I thought maybe it would flake or have some fine white powder, but it doesn't.  I have really dark hair, so maybe mine would be a good one to try it out on next.  I would be able to see any flakes or powder easier.

I'll give you an update if anything good or bad happens with this gel.  For right now, I'm going to consider it a successful experiment.  The best part?  One (1C) batch of this only costs 1.78 CENTS!  Yes, that does read one (point) seven eight CENTS!  And....if you leave out the alcohol, it's all natural!  How cool is that?! 

Cost with the alcohol is 4.78 cents for the whole batch.  Amazing. 

Makes me wonder...even though I know gel companies don't use cornstarch....how much of a markup is there on this stuff?  Sheesh!

You might remember my post about homemade hand lotion where I wondered if I could make my own gel to use in the lotion.  I think I'll try this gel and see what happens!  Worse comes to worse, I've wasted one cent. 

Update: It didn't work.  However, I did add  that flop of an experiment into this hair gel and it worked out fine. 

Another Update: Well, shoot, a few days later, the 'gel' turned to liquid!  Not sure if this is because of the oil or if starch just breaks down after a while.  Darn.  Maybe I'll try it with some gelatin.  That would make sense.

Try it for yourself and see what you think.  If nothing else, you'll have a fun experiment to do at home!

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