Homemade Hair Gel

I had already cut my hair short(ish). It was in an asymmetrical bob, which, although I liked, was still not exactly what I was looking for.

So, a month or two ago I pulled out my hair clippers and #8 guard and did this:

Freshly cut for the first time. No gel yet.

Luckily my social circles were supportive of me making such a dramatic change, and I like it a lot better than I thought I would. So basically I don't feel very self conscious about it, which I thought that I might. And man, it felt good!
 
Anyway, I'm still working with the exact cut that I want. Part of the reason I wanted to do it was because it's a style that I can cut and maintain by myself without visiting a stylist every 6 weeks or so. Talk about freedom! Also it's super easy to take care of. Can I just say that men have it good?

This gel covered my color too much. It also turned to white powder when disturbed.

One thing I didn't get before was why on earth my Sexy Man was so particular about his hair products. I was rather confused why he was so broken-hearted when Fructis discontinued his favorite pomade.

Now I know.

Looking for the right gel is annoying. You have to buy a whole tub(e) just to try it once and realize it isn't right for what you want. And one gel that might work at the beginning of your haircut might drastically lose it's effectiveness or look once you get a few weeks of growth going on. Then there's the ones that get that white powder look if after they dry and get ruffled around a little.

So what's a girl to do? Make your own of course!

I found this recipe for a Flaxseed Hair Gel online. It's supposed to be for ladies with long curly hair, which is not exactly (by which I mean "not at all") me. But I decided to give it a try anyway.

Basically you take some flax seeds and boil them in some water for a while. Strain out the seeds, throw it in the fridge and wha-la! Hair gel.

So how is it?

Well...once you get past the egg white texture...(Seriously. The stuff is like troll snot!) 

Texture aside, it has a light brown tint from the flax seeds, but surprisingly, I feel like it maintained my natural hair color better than other gels I've used, which tend to make it look darker than it is. (Note: my color is important to me. If it's wet-looking it just looks brunette, but it's naturally a nice color of auburn, and I want that to show through.) I'm not sure if the tint would be noticeable or not on lighter hair.

It even helps it look shinier, but in a healthy way. It doesn't look greasy like I expected it might.

I can let it dry and it will hold a crispy look if I want it to. Or I can ruffle it up a little for a softer look that still holds the shape I'm after.

Trying out homemade flaxseed gel.

I added in a few drops of essential oil just because I could, but strictly speaking it's not necessary.

On the down side, apparently it's best to keep it in the fridge because it can go bad. Bummer. That combined with the effort to make the stuff, and keep making it every couple of weeks might mean it might not be a forever solution, although I'm pretty happy dealing with that for now considering I haven't found a commercial product that suits me yet.

Interestingly, even though short hair tends to be more of a masculine feature, I've felt less frumpy since buzzing it all of. I also have been more motivated to wear makeup and earrings and I think overall I feel and look better with a pixie than I did with long hair. 

Yogurt!

This morning I'm enjoying some homemade yogurt for breakfast!

I would say it's a part of my plan to start the New Year off right diet-wise, but to be perfectly honest, I'm planning on scarfing down some pumpkin pie (also homemade....from pumpkins I grew on my front lawn) left over from last night's party after I'm done.

Making yogurt is easy, and is cheaper than buying it from the store in most cases. I could buy a 32 oz plain Greek yogurt from Walmart for $3.98 (plus tax). That comes to about $0.75 per 6 oz serving. On the other hand, I can buy a gallon of milk for $3.08 (plus tax) and get about 11 6 oz servings of Greek style yogurt out of it. That's about $0.28 for the same 6 oz serving. Both the yogurt and the milk are priced from the Great Value brand. Of course adding in fruit, sweeteners, etc will make it more, but depending on what you use, still less than a $0.60 Yoplait, with the added benefit of knowing what is in your breakfast.

All you need is a starter, some basic kitchen tools, and a food thermometer. I used a Yogourmet culture to get started, but you can also just buy a cup of yogurt with live cultures in it if you want. One of these days, I want to explore the different yogurt cultures offered by Cultures for Health, but all in good time. Right now, what I have works just great!

Anyway, you bring the milk up to 180 degrees. It will be just below boiling, and will form a bit of a skin on the top. Then you let it cool to 110 degrees and add your culture.

Put it in a nice, warm place for 8-12 ish hours, and let it do its thing. I use my oven with the light on, but there are pretty sweet yogurt makers and stuff you can get if you want. I'm sure they have better temperature control than my setup, but hey, mine works just fine.

Notice the small 4 oz jar. That's the culture for my next go around. I set it aside at the beginning so I don't have to worry about it later.

Don't stir the yogurt while it's culturing! Yogurt likes to be left alone for the process. At the end of the time, I gently tilt it side to side to see if it's set the way I like it.

You can eat it as is after culturing, but it may be thinner than you're used to. I like to strain mine.

I line a colander with coffee filters and strain out around 2 quarts of whey. This gives me the consistency I prefer, although you can do more or less (ending up with more or less yogurt in the end with a thicker or thinner consistency). You can also use cheese cloth, a flour sack, or thin dish towel, but I'm preferring the coffee filters for now. I do plan on getting large industrial size ones after I finish off the batch I have.

This is the whey that gets strained off. Looks like lemonade right? Well that's just perfect, because that's what my Sexy Man likes me to make with it.

I add in sugar and a little lemon juice to taste, and that's exactly what it tastes like. Sometimes I'll also throw in some raspberries for color.

Anyway, at the end of the day, (and it does take about a day) I have slightly more than 1/2 a gallon of delicious fresh yogurt and slightly less than 1/2 a gallon of whey for about $3.00. Not a bad trade off!

My favorite way to eat homemade yogurt is with a bit of honey or maple syrup mixed in. One of these days, I'd like to have maple trees I can tap, and/or honeybees to make my own sweetener myself. Also a cow.