Hi people, what's been on?

My hair had been in a wash and go for sometime now and I didn't even bother to do much when it got old, just spray with clean water and put it in a bun. I was itching to wash it but kept putting off washday because I wasn't ready for a wet head. For the Enugu Meetup, I just did my usual updo without even taking my hair out of the bun.
Lazy easy breezy natural hair.

At the event, Natural Nigerian gave me a pack of flaxseeds to try out and was explaining the wonderful things I could do with it. I remember "Put on oats", "no cholesterol", "good source of magnesium" but all I thought was "flaxseed gel, I hope it won't be hard to make or I'll just waste this". I might eventually sprinkle it on my oats but I know it'll be short lived and the only way it will have a useful life is if I can manage to convince my health conscious mum that without it, every thing can go downhill.....



I took it home, put it in the beverages cupboard and got down to all the work I neglected.

Insomnia struck me hard and I was looking for ways to get tired enough to sleep. This usually involves late night rustle in the kitchen for midnight snack. I spied the flaxseed gel and thought "this is a good time to try this gel".
I consulted Prof. Google, ignored designer flaxseed gel recipes and settled on this one...

1 cup flaxseed in two cups water, bring to boil then simmer until gel starts forming. Sift out the seeds using a sieve. Gel done.



After making the gel, I decided to test it out on a section of my hair, spied my bendy rollers aka flexirod sets and the rest is history.

I used just the gel only and wrapped around flexirods from tips to roots. I used 20 rods. Rolled my hair randomly without parts.

Procedure was
- Pick random section, apply flaxseed gel, detangle with finger then brush, apply more gel to ends then wrap around the flexirods.

By the time I was done, I was almost sleeping on my feet (score!). I tried to speed up drying with a new soft bonnet dryer I got but wasn't in the mood for the heat, so an uncomfortable night sleep it was. Luckily for me there was a point on my right side where the rollers lay flat and didn't poke so I was forced to sleep on my right side. No tossing and turning for me.



In the morning, I applied coconut oil to my fingers, undid the rollers, separated out and used NappyGirl Pudding to add shine and a bit of hold to frizzy bits.

Peep my final look.







Overall, I can say I like this gel and won't feel the pressure to replace my already half full without backup Cantu Shine and Define Custard.
It has wonderful slip (good detangling potential) and gave me beautiful shiny defined set that lasted. My hair didn't feel dry either.

The downer is you have to use within 2 days or it'll go funky on you. You can refridgerate it to make it last longer but still.....
It's safer to make a new batch when you want to style.

Before I conclude, here are tips that helped make curl sets a breeze for me.

- Starting with stretched dry hair helps make rolling my hair easier. I noticed that when I tried to curl wet hair, my sets were not smooth and they were poofy.

-Starting with dry hair also helps your sets to dry faster. The reason your sets have poofy roots and defined ends is usually because your roots were still damp at the time you took out the rods.

- Applying styling products to dry hair allows as much product to be absorbed by my hair which means the stylers can be able to hold my hair better in the shape I'm trying to curl it in.

- Start with clean dry hair. Use less products if you know you'll want to set your hair to avoid flaking when your product doesn't play well with your styler.

- Try not to over separate and overfluff because you want big hair. It will only reduce the lifespan of your set. Two or three separations per set is ideal. As your hair gets older, it will get bigger.


Interested in trying it out?

You can purchase flaxseeds here.


Have you tried using flaxseed gel to set your curl?