Whether you’re bent on creating an organic alternative to harsh hair products or you simply like the personal touch of making your own, the hunt for the perfect DIY hair product recipe can be extremely overwhelming. There’s no shortage of tutorials out there in the Pin-iverse, and that makes it seriously hard to tell which DIYs are actually worth getting down and dirty with. So to save you the hassle, we tried to recreate six essential hair products every gal should have on hand, and the results were eye-opening. Wouldn’t YOUR peepers pop if you walked into a kitchen that looked like this?
After blending, soaking and mixing our hearts out to try to present the perfect all-natural hair remedies, we discovered two homemade recipes that are truly hassle-free and REALLY work (really!). As for the rest of the trial… whelp, it was SUCH a mess! So we found a few stand-up retail alternatives all free of harmful chemicals and each less than $20! We’ll get to the definitive “to buy” list in a bit, but first, check out the tutorials for the hair products you should always, always, ALWAYS DIY.
This spray is the key ingredient to getting those voluminous beach babe waves without ever setting your feet in the sand. We amped up the recipe by using black Hawaiian lava salt.
Always DIY: Sea Salt Spray
Ingredients:
– 3 tbsp Hawaiian lava salt
– 1/2 tsp vegetable glycerine
– lavender essential oil
– 1/2 cup hot water
Materials:
– 3 oz mister bottle
– measuring spoons
– measuring cup
– kitchen spoon
Add the black lava salt to your hot water and stir until the salt is fully dissolved. Then add vegetable glycerine for moisture — you can add more or less to the recipe depending on the texture and condition of your hair. Scent it with a few drops of lavender or the essential oil of your choice. I LOVE lavender though! There is something about the way the salt and the lavender blend together that creates a scent that’s to die for. Finally, give one last stir and pour into the mister bottle (this batch will fill two 3 oz bottles).
Four moisturizing oils join forces to give your hair serious shine. Plus, the invigorating scent of grapefruit essential oil livens up those locks!
Always DIY: Hair Serum
– avocado oil
– olive oil
– vitamin E oil
– grapefruit essential oil
Materials:
If you thought only using five ingredients is easy, then you’ll freak when we tell you this: You can totally eyeball it, too! So start by filling the bottle up a little more than half way with jojoba oil. Add the avocado oil until the bottle is around 3/4 full. Just add a smidge of olive oil (it can tend to make your hair look too oily if you over use). Finally, add a few drops of vitamin E oil and the essential oil of your preference. We used about five drops for a stronger grapefruit scent. Shake the bottle to blend everything and you’re done.
Our Lavender Lava Spray is a go-to for natural-looking volume, and our 5-Ingredient Hair Serum adds easy extra shine when you’re on-the-go. Each is ace on its own, but they make quite the dynamic duo when it comes to giving you perfectly wind-swept locks — even when you’ve got no time on your GCal for R+R.
1. Lightly mist the Lavender Lava Salt Spray all over your hair, focusing more on your roots. Scrunch it up and shake your fingers though your hair to get that beachy look.
2. Put a pea-size amount of 5-Ingredient Hair Serum on your fingers and apply to the ends of your hair for smooth, shiny and healthy-looking locks.
Ta-dah! A pretty messy style that’s to DIY-for.
Okay, speaking of messy…
Trust us: You’re just better off buying some hair products. We tried to hack hair spray, pomade, hair gel and mousse, and it was a total disaster (pantyhose + murky mason jar water = a scene you NEVER want to see on your butcher block!). But out of our hot mess comes recommendations for four go-to hair products to buy… and they’re each under $20!
This one was a deal breaker from the get-go. Once you melt the beeswax and use your mixer to blend in coconut oil, things just get real weird. The clean up is still a mystery to me — I’m pretty sure I will continue to find splatters of this mess for the next month! Why fuss when you can use this non-GMO Giovanni All-Natural Hair Wax? ($10). This pomade is blended with organic oils + ripe-harvested renewable plants and is cold processed to ensure maximum purity.
Don’t DIY: Beeswax Pomade
The whole flaxseed gel thing is insanely overrated. In the time it takes to squeeze the piping hot gel-like substance out of nylon you could simply add this cruelty-free Aubrey B5 Design Gel ($10) to your hair and style it out! This product is moisturizing and conditioning with vitamin B-5, aloe vera and rose mosqueta. It has no plastic compounds or hair synthetics. Boom.
Don’t DIY: Flaxseed Hair Gel
This one actually kind of works, but the second any humidity or moisture hits your hair, you are going to feel like a spool of cotton candy just melted off your head onto your face. NO THANK YOU! Try Andalou Naturals Perfect Hold Sunflower & Citrus Hair Spray ($16) that’s made of 71% certified organic ingredients.
Don’t DIY: Sugar Hairspray
I have to admit, I was truly excited to recreate an at-home mousse that seems as though it would result in the fluffiest, most lightweight product to tame our locks with. BUT this was the least successful of the bunch :( Not once did my attempts get anywhere close to a mousse-like substance, not even a little. But no worries: Instead, try this organic botanical-enriched Giovanni All-Natural Hair Styling Mousse Air-Turbo ($19).
