For many years flax has been known for all of it’s great nutritional benefits, but just recently it has been found to be great for skin and hair health. Here is just one example of a great recipe for making flax hair gel.

To make flax gel:

~ large saucepan – you need room for the seeds to move around in the water

~ wire or nylon mesh strainer – as fine as you can find, but mine is pretty loose, so I passed the strained gel through a smaller one I have – the small wire mesh type you’d use for OJ pulp

~ large bowl – deep enough so that the gel can get through without the strainer touching the surface

~ small wire whisk – not the springy kind you jam up and down like a plunger, but the classic teardrop shaped kind

~ 4-5 oz bottle – for storing your finished gel

Pour 1 cup of water (not warm or hot – just cool from the tap) into a saucepan, then 1/4 cup of flax seeds and then turn the heat on high. Stir every so often to keep the seeds moving and keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once your water comes to a boil, stir gently, but almost constantly. When you start getting a thin, foamy jelly, turn the heat down a little, but keep stirring, watching for the point when you let the seeds settle for a second and they suspend in the clear jelly instead of sinking to the bottom.

Once you hit that point, shut off the heat, give one last stir, and immediately pour the liquid and seeds into the strainer over your bowl. I let the gel strain out of the seeds while I rinse my pan (don’t let the gel dry in there or you’ll have a mess to clean up later!), and then I lift the strainer and check for stray seeds in my gel. If there are any, I pour the gel back into the pan for a second while I swap strainers for my finer mesh, then pour the gel through again. Then, take the whisk and give the gel a good, quick beating (10 seconds or so), just to break up any really gelatinous strands there might be, and pour it into the bottle.

Sounds complicated, but the whole process takes only about 6-8 minutes. It has super holding power! You can also use it as a hairspray.