Grabbing an opportunity

So I've been at it again, researching ingredients! I'm still on my quest to perfect the perfect gel, one that will hold your curl pattern, and provide shine and moisture without the crunch. A gel that is spoken highly of in the natural YouTube community is Smooth and Shine Curl Activator Gel, but people are no longer happy with it because of the change in it's ingredients, it now has amongst other things parabens (shock, horror). I myself have never tried the gel, but not one to miss an opportunity, I am setting myself the challenge of recreating this so called wonder gel. I'm going to use the original good stuff, but take out the artificial stuff e.g. carbomer which is a polymer, Triethanolamine which is a thickener that can cause dryness, DMDM Hydantoin a preservative and Oleth 20 which is a surfactant and emulsifying agent.

It may seem like I'm taking out a lot but I'm replacing them with more naturally derived ingredients. One heads up I'll give away for free is I'm going to experiment with Carregeenan, which is used to provide hold in gel. While researching today I found out that Carregeenan is the gelatinous extracts of the Chondrus crispus seaweed. What the hell is Chondrus crispus seaweed? I here you say, well it's Irish Moss which is very good for afro textured hair. When Irish Moss is boiled up with water it produces a gel this is the Carregeenan, therefore I propose that in much the same way many naturals have tried the homemade Flax seed gel, you can also try to produce Carregeenan from Irish Moss.

Carregeenan will not obviously be the only ingredient I use in my hair gel, but it used to replace some of the thickening and emulsifying properties of the other ingredients that I'm taking out of the original formula for the Smooth and Shine Gel. I'll keep you posted.

African Essence Hair Gel

So like i said previously I did fall of the wagon and used shop bought gel, but it made my hair hard and once I read the ingredients and wanted to wash it out right away. The key ingredient is PVP this is a polymer and it's what helps to clump the curls together and help define them. So my reaction was I found a natural silicone all I have to do is find a natural polymer or to be more specific a biopolymer. I found one that I could only source from China called Pullulan. But then after searching on the internet for hours I cam across Aubery Organics B5 Design Gel and Aubery Organics Moisturising Jelly.

I have purchased these products because they use Gum Tragacath and Gum Arabic, which should be good substitutes for PVPs. So once I try them I'll tell you how it goes, but I have also bought the aforementioned gums in a bid to create my own gel. I WILL NOT GIVE UP!

Homemade Hair Gel

I'm going to make my own hair gel! Ordered the ingredients but they wont arrive until the new year so I'll keep you posted. I'M SO EXCITED!