Frugal Success, Turned Failure: No More Homemade Hair Gel for Me

Remember how I told you I was making my own hair gel? Well, it was going pretty good for several weeks, and then my hair suddenly got really dry. I’m not sure why, and I kept meaning to condition it, but every time I got in the shower I forgot to get the conditioner from the hall closet. (Since it’s not something I normally do, I only have a few sample bottles that I keep in the hall closet. I can’t stand shower clutter!)

So, I was really not liking the dry hair with the homemade hair gel, but I’d also made a batch of hair gel re-using the flaxseeds for the third time and that didn’t turn out quite so jelly as I’d like, so I thought maybe it would be better if I just made it the original way.

This morning I made a batch and let it boil way too long, so it was super thick. Think pomade. Then, I had a brilliant idea to do it again right away, keeping the flaxseeds in the cheesecloth. (I’m not even going to try to explain what I was thinking and how I did it!)

So that seemed to be going OK and then for the first time ever, I poured the (hot) hair gel straight into the bottle instead of into a bowl first. I then turned my attention to the oatmeal that was cooking, and heard a clunk from the direction of the hair gel bottle. And when I turned, this is what I saw:

Guess what? If you pour hot liquid into a plastic bottle, it melts! The gel was all over the counter and cabinets and in that moment I declared hair gel bankruptcy.

I’m not saying I’ll never try it again, but I’m going back to clipping coupons for Garnier and Aussie products and I’m not going to feel guilty. I was so excited to be making my own for so cheap, but after all the things that have gone wrong with it lately, I’m ready to get back to the real stuff. And I figured I should let you all know, lest you think that you should personally be aspiring to keep up with my homemade hair gel attainments.

Have you had any flops lately? Anyone else have issues with doing something successfully several times and then it flopping? (For me, it was yogurt and now, hair gel.)