If you buy hair gel and feel as though you’re getting ripped off by paying good money for gelatinous crud that you could probably make yourself, there’s an alternative. With minimal time and effort, you can make your own gel, give it whatever French name you desire and slick down your mane while keeping your wallet intact.
How Stuff Works tells you how it’s done. Take a teaspoon of unflavored gelatin, mix it with a cup of warm water and refrigerate it for a few hours. And that’s it. If others compliment you on your hair, you can either share your secret with them or be a capitalist and offer to sell them jars of your homemade hair product.
Making Your Own Hair Gel is So Easy [How Stuff Works]
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In my time in theatre I did my share of stage makeup stuff using gelatin, and let me just say:
No.
File this with the “elmers glue” hair gel idea. No, it’s not the same as Got2BGlued.
I’ll take the capitalist route. By the way, I’m planning on dressing as one for Halloween this year.
Errr… actual hair gel is not made of Gelatin. While you can certainly make gelatinous goop in your kitchen and put it in your hair, you shouldn’t expect it to act anything like actual commercial hair gel.
Ewwww. Wont use gelatin for the same reason I wont eat meat. But since I never use hair gel anyway…
Unflavoured gelatin stinks. But if that’s your kind of thing, hey, sure… Why not?
Doesn’t seem to be any odors coming from it…
There’s something about Mary’s hair gel…
I was waiting to see who was the first to make that comment… Can’t believe it took five entries to let that one go. Time to jack the comments section with load more like Cat’s.
So many double entendres!
I know- I actually thought I was going to be first.. I had lost all hope for humanity if that was the case!
I know- I actually thought I was going to be first.. I had lost all hope for humanity if that was the case!
I make my own hair gel at home…sometimes twice a day.
That’s the first thing I thought of when I read the article title!
Hahahha, seen that guy a couple of times walkin’ the streets of the Vill…
i’m a Dapper Dan man.
I don’t want Fop, God dammit!
Watch your language, young feller, this is a public market. Now if you want Dapper Dan, I can order it for you, have it in a couple of weeks.
Well aint this place a geographical oddity? Two weeks from everywhere.
You can find a pretty good size bottle of clear, odorless hair gel for $1 at Dollar Tree. Generic hair gel can be found very cheaply. Of course it’s filled with chemicals that you can’t identify let alone pronounce, but it’s cheap.
Main ingredient in hair gel: Water.
Main ingredient in humans? Water.
It’s made from people!
I’m always uncomfortable with products from Dollar Tree. I get the feeling that somewhere in China they are liquifying kittens in lead pots then stirring in arsenic before stuffing the goop in the bottles to ship to the US.
“You know, I once made my own Goldschlager by mixing Red Hots, mouthwash and some tinfoil from a chocolate Easter egg. Surprisingly not good.”
seriously? that’s awful. it hardens to a rock solid finish in a couple of hours and will take some of your hair with it. i’ve used it for quick and dirty FX prosthetics before and it’s a real pain.
if you have to go there, use egg whites. that’s the way we used to do our mohawks and liberty spikes back in the day
egg whites and motor oil works too if you wanna get fancy
When I was in high school, one of my classmates styled his hair into a foot-tall spiked mohawk using Liquid Nails. Sometimes I wonder if he has hair now…or a scalp.
Back in college, one of my friends had a Mohawk and used this method. He claimed it was easier and cheaper then the hair gel with the added benefit of being able to eat whatever chipped off of his hair. He also claimed it washed out clean in hot water. I’ll spend the buck or two (same price for the gelatin) and get something specifically for my hair. Then again, I bought a bottle of gel about 5 years ago and it is still over half full, so I guess I am not the person this article is targeting.
Yeah, Knox gelatin works great for mohawks. A bonus is that you can bend the mohawk down and put on a hat. When you take your hat off your mohawk will spring back into shape. It was great for when I was working foodservice, and it does wash out very easily with hot water.
I make my own hair gel at home, it’s called spit.
That man in the pic is my new hero
And these are my old heroes:
http://www.va.com.au/womadelaide/artists/f/Leningrad_Cowboys.jpg
Somehow I don’t think this will do the same job as my DevaCurl AnGel, which is conditioning, lightweight, and soft (i.e. doesn’t make my curls crunchy). I’m ok with it costing $18 since it’s just that awesome. Not to mention the 30min it would take to make an inferior product is time I could spend making more than $36/hr.
Some things just aren’t working cheaping out on.
For some reason, I don’t think you are the target market for this post.
L. A. Looks Mega Mega Hold – bought a big bottle on sale for $1 nearly 10 years ago. I’m FINALLY getting to the bottom of it. So yeah, let’s do this to save me approximately 10 cents a year.
Why do people come up with stupid ideas like this? I’m pretty sure you can find a massive bottle of cheap hair gel for about the same amount of money you’d spend buying gelatin packets.
My gel smells like what I ate this morning. I’ll have to ask my gf if it tastes like it. LOL!!
Am I the first one who immediately thought of Futurama?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfbjmEtf_DY&feature=related
I used to use the LA Looks level 10(sports). The times I could not get it and would have to get the level 8 or 9 crap it was like a night and day difference. The level 10 stuff would hold nice and solid. Anything less was like putting water in my hair. This was like… 10 years ago btw haha. Later I moved on to ICE hair glue. That was even better but so pricey and hard to get out. I don’t use styling products anymore.
I found a DIY video once for making your own pore-cleaning strips out of gelatin and milk. It sort of worked… and stank, oh my god it stank. Not quite like milk, not quite like gelatin, but 100% ewwwww.
Did I meantion it only sort of worked? No thanks.
I don’t use hair gel, but considering you only really need a small amount of styling goop even for long hair, this is not where you want to save your money. My ideas include getting shorter haircuts so you need fewer of them per year, learning to trim your own bangs, buying adequate shampoo in bulk (unless you have very special hair/scalp needs, you can find a decent product for not a lot of money). Also, rainchecks. If you see your favorite styling products on sale and sold out, even if you dont need at at the monent, get a raincheck. It will be on sale when you want it.
I’ve been using this hair gel (with a bit more gelatin added, brand name Knox) for almost a week now for my flat top. It works great, and it dries MUCH faster than the Suave bottled stuff! And if it works better, and lacks chemicals, there’s no reason not to use it!