Here is a fun natural hair remedy tip from HTHG reader Lynn! After reading up a bit, It seems that Flax seed gel is the perfect light weight styler for adding texture, definition, and shine to curly hair, as well as being the perfect smoother for flyaways in finer hair textures. No buildup, a punch of protein. YES!
(photo snagged from www.naturallycurly.com)
Reader submission!
“So, I tried the recipe by Annie Berthold bond but realize now that it did not use enough flax seeds so the gel barely did anything. Well, I found another recipe using 1 cup water and 1/4 cup flax seeds – whoa! Works awesome!
Now I know you don’t do heat but I have to if I want to have any hair confidence but I’ve discovered this magnificent way to easily style my hair:
On damp hair I massage about 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of the gel into my hair by scrunching gently and not doing all ‘all over’ but covering everything a bit. Let air dry to half or 3/4 dry and then style my bangs with blow dryer and gently blow dry the rest by gently blowing the warm air and just fluffing with my fingers. Now comes the magic, I use my 1 inch curling iron and shape my hair with it – I’ve NEVER had my hair hold like that! I am able to shape the waves beautifully for a natural, wavy look – not the straight-sleek look you saw on me. I can’t believe how well the flax gel works and it rinses out with hot water with no residue.
Keep it refrigerated, sniff to see if it’s still fresh (harder if you added e.o.’s) anyway, I wanted to tell you about this because it’s been a miracle for me.
Here’s the link where I learned about this and you want to learn how to make it so it does not dry out etc..it’s a *itch to strain so I left the few seeds that got through and pick-up the gel avoiding or picking out any seeds that I could not strain out – freeze the seeds for re-use!
I hope you give it a try – use less seeds for less hold – this one makes for crunchy bits if you want (apply thickly) or less if you are less generous with the gel.
Oh and I used brown flax seeds – no problem.”
Here is the supply list from the article…..
~ large saucepan – you need room for the seeds to move around in the water
~ wire or nylon mesh strainer – as fine as you can find, but mine is pretty loose, so I passed the strained gel through a smaller one I have – the small wire mesh type you’d use for OJ pulp
~ large bowl – deep enough so that the gel can get through without the strainer touching the surface
~ small wire whisk – not the springy kind you jam up and down like a plunger, but the classic teardrop shaped kind
~ 4-5 oz bottle – for storing your finished gel
And Flax seeds, obvies.
