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Natural Hairspray Recipe

Katie Wells Avatar
Katie Wells

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Homemade natural hairspray recipe from wellnessmama
Wellness Mama » Blog » Beauty » Natural Hairspray Recipe

Hairspray is one of the worst offenders when it comes to chemicals in beauty products. It typically has aerosol, plastics, VOCs and more.

Luckily, like most beauty products, there is a simple, natural and easy to make alternative that is also less expensive and healthier for hair.

Surprisingly, it uses only a couple ingredients, including white sugar (an ingredient that is terrible for the body but can be great for skin and hair).

If you use hairspray, try this natural alternative… your health and the environment will thank you! If you are looking more for a texturizing and volumizing spray, check out this sea spray for hair instead.

Hair Spray Ingredients:

  • 1.5 cups filtered wter
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar (dark ones don’t work)
  • 1 tablespoon high proof alcohol like vodka (I prefer spiced rum for the scent)
  • 10-15 drops of essential oils of choice

What to Do:

  1. Boil water and dissolve sugar in it.
  2. Allow to cool to room temp and add alcohol and essential oils.
  3. Store in spray bottle and use as regular hair spray.

Note: This recipe lasts indefinitely if kept in an air tight container. Adjust the sugar up or down for more or less stiffness/hold (more sugar=stronger hold) but don’t add too much or hair will feel sticky. I have had some luck combining this with the salt from my beach waves spray for a texturizing spray. I reduced the sugar by half and added half of the magnesium.

Not a hairspray user? Here are some other natural beauty recipes that work well and save money:

How to Make Natural Shampoo [Easy way]
Make Your Own Natural Deodorant With This Simple Recipe
Homemade Shaving Soap Recipes
Luxurious Sugar Scrub Recipe
Homemade Lotion Bars
Deodorant Bars
DIY Sunscreen Bars
Bug-Off Lotion Bars
Herbal Hair Color Recipes
Seven Natural Baby Care Recipes
DIY Beach Waves Hair Texture Spray
DIY Dry Shampoo for Dark or Light Hair
Natural Skin Care Recipes
Homemade Make-up Recipes
Feminine Hygiene Solutions

Have you ever made your own hair spray? Share below!
Hairspray usually contains a plethora of harmful ingredients, but this simple and inexpensive homemade version is healthier for hair and for the environment.

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

94 responses to “Natural Hairspray Recipe”

  1. Angela Avatar
    Angela

    I have loved his recipe and have been using it since last November (during the winter months). HOWEVER as soon as it warmed up, my hair was sticky like cotton candy… any suggestions?

    Reply
  3. Ashley Miller Avatar
    Ashley Miller

    I made this and it has left my hair looking stringy. Any ideas on what went wrong and how to fix it?

    Reply
    1. Heidi Avatar
      Heidi

      Try using the Sea Salt Texturizing Spray first. Then this hairspray.

      Reply
  4. Sara Avatar
    Sara

    Are the essential oils necessary for any purpose other then scent? I don’t have any but am using pear Vodka lol

    Reply
      2. Cathy Avatar
        Cathy

        Katie,
        Clarification, the water portion is 1/5 cup. I feel like when I made this before you added more water then that.
        Thanks!

        Reply
        1. Carole Avatar
          Carole

          I also have the same question. I wonder if the 1/5 is a typo and is meant to be 1.5 cups? I tried it at 1/5 (quintupling the batch to get a full cup) and two sprays turned my head into a sticky helmet. I tried it at 1.5, and it seems to be much closer to the correct mixture. Any clarification is welcome — thank you for all of these great recipes.

          Reply
          1. Wellness Mama Avatar
            Wellness Mama

            Yes. Thanks for the catch. Apparently that formatting messed up when we had to switch out a plugin. Thanks for pointing it out and yes, 1.5 cups!

  5. Sheridan Clifford Avatar
    Sheridan Clifford

    Hi there! So excited to try this. Just wondering where you bought the glass (?) spray bottle to put the hairspray in? Thanks!

    Reply
  6. Lesue Tindell Avatar
    Lesue Tindell

    I made this and I love it! Been using it for 2 weeks now and haven’t touched my store bought stuff since. I use hairspray a lot so it’s nice to have a cheaper natural option that works and smells good.

    Reply
  7. Amanda Wallace Avatar
    Amanda Wallace

    I have yeast/ candida issues in my hair… do you think the sugar will be an issue?

    Reply
  8. icalyn19 Avatar
    icalyn19

    Katie, where do you get your containers from? Ae they BPA free? Do you have a source you recommend?

    Reply
  9. LET Avatar
    LET

    I tried a similar recipe- without alcohol- but I didn’t like it. It did hold, but made my hair frizzy. I’m hoping the alcohol will help the spray dry faster & prevent this problem, so I’m going to try your’s. I think I may try chamomile tea in place of water to help lighten my hair a bit.
    Ps I love that you use rum for scent. I made my hubby aftershave with bourbon & everyone thought I was crazy, but that spicy smell you can get in liquors really is great. He loves it, of course, but I think some of that is the bragging rights of wearing bourbon lol.

    Reply
  10. Kirsten McCulloch Avatar
    Kirsten McCulloch

    Thanks, I am interested to try this. My husband uses hairspray to tame his greying frizz, hopefully this will work for him.

    Reply
    1. Gail Maya-g Taylor Avatar
      Gail Maya-g Taylor

      I’m trying a recipe with colloidal silver instead of alcohol (to stop microbial growth or fermentation). It’s posted above with Nicole’s comment. Hope it helps.

      Reply
  12. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    I tried this and was very excited, but then very disappointed. I’ve read other recipes where they say to up the sugar for better hold. For me, as I don’t wash my hair daily, it made it feel very ‘dirty’ and overly sticky the next morning.

    Reply
  13. Spgal Avatar
    Spgal

    Thank you so much for posting this. I think about how dangerous hairspray is everytime i use which is everyday. I can’t wait to make this EASY recipe…. i’ll let you know how it worked for me. 🙂

    Reply
  14. Jessica Boss Avatar
    Jessica Boss

    I tried this yesterday and absolutely love it, I combined it with your sea salt spray and it really worked wonderfully! 🙂 Now I don’t have to debate whether to buy hairspray and moose for family pictures, saved money and is natural! thanks

    Reply
    1. Gail Maya-g Taylor Avatar
      Gail Maya-g Taylor

      Hi Jessica, I’d like to see the sea salt spray, can you add a link or the recipe here? Thanks! -M

      Reply
  15. Kira Avatar
    Kira

    I’m excited to try this!! My husband uses hair spray on a daily basis…maybe I can replace his cheap chemical spray with this natural one!!

    Reply
  16. Irene Tiger Avatar
    Irene Tiger

    I’ll have to try this even though I don’t use hairspray much anymore…but question- wouldn’t the sugar in it attract flies?

    Reply
    1. Sherry Rogers Avatar
      Sherry Rogers

      The sugar will attract slightly but the alcohol will repel them so its all good:- )

      Reply
      1. Gail Maya-g Taylor Avatar
        Gail Maya-g Taylor

        You could also add bug-repellent essential oils ex: geranium, citronella, catnip, etc. I would add very little (they don’t smell so great in quantity) but mixed with other fragrant oils may be quite nice… Hope this helps. -M

        Reply
    1. Gail Maya-g Taylor Avatar
      Gail Maya-g Taylor

      Hi Sadie, I have read other recipes that do use rubbing alcohol as an alternative to vodka. I posted one in response to Nicole’s post (just above). Hope this helps. -M

      Reply
    1. Gail Maya-g Taylor Avatar
      Gail Maya-g Taylor

      Here’s a recipe I’m now trying. The colloidal silver and/or alcohol prevent any microbial growth or fermentation. Hope this helps!

      1/3 teaspoon of honey
      6 oz filtered water (use 8 oz water if not using colloidal silver)
      2 oz colloidal silver (20ppm) and/or 1Tbs rubbing alcohol or vodka per 8oz liquid (prevents any microbial growth)
      6 drops essential oil of choice (ex: 3 drops lavender oil and 3 drops tea tree oil)

      Reply
      1. Dawn Avatar
        Dawn

        You should not use ANY type of silver for it can cause your skin to turn silver (which can not be reversed). There was actually a thing about it on Dr. Oz & The Doctors the other day. This condition is called Argyria. I do not recommend.

        Reply
        1. Terrie Leonard Avatar
          Terrie Leonard

          We use and make colloidal and ionic silver all the time with a top of the line premium silver maker that I purchased from Silver Lungs. Silver is completely safe and is such a God-send. Please don’t be afraid of it; Dr. Oz and The Doctor’s are not one hundred percent natural product supporters nor do they support tried and proven natural cures. Dr. Oz is owned by the pharmaceutical companies and so is the other show. Dr. Oz showed his true agenda when he came out in support of deadly vaccines for human use. At present, silver makers have been outlawed in Germany and the powers that be are trying to outlaw them here in this country. The reason is because using silver works without nasty side effects and works quickly and is one hundred percent effective. The pharmaceutical companies, who almost rule the world and who are working feverishly to take our vitamin and supplement rights away, do not like this because this means that you are able to cure yourself of many diseases when silver is used and this means you are not dependent on their useless, expensive drugs which have terrible side effects that will slowly kill you. Please go to the Silver Lungs website and read all about Paul Gerson; it is there that you can read all about why he turned grey. For years Gerson, even after being warned about what he was doing was wrong when he made his silver, still continued to process the silver the wrong way using ingredients that should never have been used to make the silver in the first place. Dr. Oz and all the others should learn to tell the whole truth instead of lying to an uninformed public who looks up to them and expects them to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth instead of being a patsy for big pharma.

          Reply
          1. Leanne Avatar
            Leanne

            I make my own also with a machine I made myself and I have to agree with Terrie we put it on everything over here…cut your finger put on bandage cuts gone pretty much next day…put it in dogs water if they start eating grass…we drink it if we think we got a bad shrimp…I put it in a salve for my fiancés dad’s psoriasis it keeps it at bay…fiancé lost a toe pre me to allopathic doctors…since then I have saved two more with silver and manuka honey…been doing this for years and have drank loads of it and I am not blue I promise…we are almost never sick either…if one of us gets the sniffles we put a few drops up our noses and its gone.

          2. jem Avatar
            jem

            Twice I SAW a woman in our community who has the GREY SKIN from taking too much silver. It CAN happen! I will never forget seeing her and hearing what happened. She is a Amish woman with GREY SKIN, it sure didn’t help that I saw her at a funeral!

          3. Linda Avatar
            Linda

            You said it perfectly. I also use Silver Lungs colloidal silver. Big Pharma are desperate for you not to learn about all the alternatives that are better for you and that WORK. I’ve used the silver when I feel a cold or something coming on with the nebulizer. Works like a charm. I also take a Tbsp everyday. So fortunate to have my silver before they might take it away. Great idea about putting some in the hairspray for bacteria. I’m making a batch today. So ready to quite inhaling chemicals. Thanks to all who are stepping up to change the world back to natural.

        2. Angela Avatar
          Angela

          Argyria is when there is too much silver in the body and turns the skin blueish. It’s not because people applied the silver to their skin.

          Reply
        3. Christina Avatar
          Christina

          I have no idea what Dr. Oz claimed about using silver but silver is amazing! You don’t want to take it all the time, just take it like you would antibiotics. My 3 year old son had some horrible bad breath all day every day for a few months. My dad thought maybe he was having stomach issues; remembered a classmate of his who had bad breath like my son, and my dad said that little boy had stomach ulcers. So I started giving him silver 3x a day and within 3 days his bad breath was gone! That was the only thing I did differently. Completely gone! I continued to give it to him for a full ten days. And his skin has not changed color. I had to start again because his bad breath returned recently. My next is going to be an elimination diet to find out what is causing the issue.

          Reply
        4. Amy Avatar
          Amy

          This is a myth, I’ve used colloidal silver extensively and didn’t turn grey, silver or blue. Argyria results only when one uses INCORRECTLY MADE Colloidal Silver. Colloidal silver from a trusted source is beneficial and has no negative side effects.

          Reply
        5. Alisa Avatar
          Alisa

          This is false please look at the silver edge they have a lot of info on safety of silver

          Reply
      2. Monique Avatar
        Monique

        Hi Gail, RE your recipe with colloidal & honey – how does the recipe go for making this hairspray – do you boil the water & honey and after removing from heat add the colloidal & oils? These natural hairsprays are a great idea, i really want to try ’em, but I’d prefer to try the colloidal one vs the alcohol one, thanx!

        Reply
  20. May Avatar
    May

    wow this is so interesting. Never seen a natural hairspray like this one. I don’t use it but i am still thinking that is a great alternative to conventional ones. Natural is always better …all the way !

    Reply
    1. Ann Avatar
      Ann

      This natural hairspray DOES NOT WORK and is TERRIBLE!! I have made it following the directions exactly and have also adjusted it with more or less sugar in FIVE different batches. Speayed very fine layers. No lift, but only offers a droopy, sticky mess. I gave this one star as there are no options for a zero.

      Reply
      1. Mary Avatar
        Mary

        Sadly this has done nothing for me either. I have baby fine, very flat, very straight hair. I look TERRIBLE with flat hair and that’s all I get with this. Guess I’ll have to continue to use my mega-hold, full of chemicals hair spray because I’m not willing to look horrible. I’m a real estate agent, I can’t afford to look like I don’t know how to fix my hair!

        Reply
        1. Carla Avatar
          Carla

          There are organic and natural hairspray (non-aresol) alternatives, I would recommend Everecents and also Giovanni as trusted brands…
          Google ‘organic & natural hairspray which will show both websites tht u can purchase these frm 🙂

          Reply
      2. Kathy Avatar
        Kathy

        I use 2 oz water with 1 T of sugar and a few drops of essential oils and it works great!

        Reply
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