I don't have much experience with hairspray, but recently I planned to go out with my hair in a very heavy, elaborate up-do and I decided that a hairspray with decent hold might be a good idea. Since I hate the smell and feel of commercial hairsprays (and because I am a skinflint) I decided to research home made hairsprays instead.
A quick google search yielded numerous recipes for either lemon or orange based hairspray. Lemon seemed to be the more popular choice, but orange was recommended for dry hair. Since lemon juice struck me as quite a harsh substance to spray on yourself, I decided to try the milder orange variety.
The recipe:
I went with the simplest recipe I could find. The ingredients are: one large orange, about 3/4 of a pint of water, a few drops of essential oil if you want to make it smell nicer, and a few drops of vodka/rubbing alcohol if you need it to keep past a few days.
Slice the orange into quarters, place it in a small pan, pour the water over it and simmer it over a low/medium heat until the liquid has reduced by about half. Then strain the liquid (I used a sieve lined with a few pieces of kitchen paper), and add the essential oil and alcohol if you choose - I used ylang ylang oil, since it's supposed to have a conditioning effect on hair, and because it smells good with orange. You then need to pour the liquid into a spray bottle and leave it to cool (since the hairspray is made with fruit juice, obviously it's a good idea to store it in the fridge once cooled).
The Results:
The spray didn't have an iron hold, but it definitely lent a feeling of security to my up-do and did a good job holding down fly away hairs. I had to use quite a lot, but that didn't bother me since it smelled good and didn't contain any drying/damaging chemicals anyway. Since it was fruit based, I was expecting it to be very sticky, but surprisingly it wasn't at all.
My hair stayed in place all night while I was out, and didn't seem to move or loosen at all, even when I was dancing. The most pleasant surprise of all came when I got home and let my hair down - the spray seemed to brush out very easily, leaving very little residue behind.
All in all I found that this recipe did what I wanted it to with few or no down sides, so I would definitely use it again!
A quick google search yielded numerous recipes for either lemon or orange based hairspray. Lemon seemed to be the more popular choice, but orange was recommended for dry hair. Since lemon juice struck me as quite a harsh substance to spray on yourself, I decided to try the milder orange variety.
The recipe:
I went with the simplest recipe I could find. The ingredients are: one large orange, about 3/4 of a pint of water, a few drops of essential oil if you want to make it smell nicer, and a few drops of vodka/rubbing alcohol if you need it to keep past a few days.
Slice the orange into quarters, place it in a small pan, pour the water over it and simmer it over a low/medium heat until the liquid has reduced by about half. Then strain the liquid (I used a sieve lined with a few pieces of kitchen paper), and add the essential oil and alcohol if you choose - I used ylang ylang oil, since it's supposed to have a conditioning effect on hair, and because it smells good with orange. You then need to pour the liquid into a spray bottle and leave it to cool (since the hairspray is made with fruit juice, obviously it's a good idea to store it in the fridge once cooled).
The Results:
The spray didn't have an iron hold, but it definitely lent a feeling of security to my up-do and did a good job holding down fly away hairs. I had to use quite a lot, but that didn't bother me since it smelled good and didn't contain any drying/damaging chemicals anyway. Since it was fruit based, I was expecting it to be very sticky, but surprisingly it wasn't at all.
My hair stayed in place all night while I was out, and didn't seem to move or loosen at all, even when I was dancing. The most pleasant surprise of all came when I got home and let my hair down - the spray seemed to brush out very easily, leaving very little residue behind.
All in all I found that this recipe did what I wanted it to with few or no down sides, so I would definitely use it again!
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