Happy Holidays, everyone! This season is full of festive occasions to get together with family and friends, some of which may even require getting dressed up, curling your hair, dousing it with hairspray… sound familiar? While for some people hairspray may go hand-in-hand with special occasions, I actually use it on a daily basis to tame my locks so that I look presentable at the office. So this holiday season, and every week day, I rely on hairspray.

The Trouble with Hairspray

Perhaps you’re wondering, “what’s the problem with hairspray?” Well, it turns out that there are a couple of issues to consider. To be honest, I hadn’t put much thought into my hairspray usage until this summer. As I scanned my bathroom shelf looking for items packaged in plastic, I noticed that my hairspray had a plastic top and a metal canister. All-in-all though, very unlikely to be a recyclable item. And as we have learned by exploring a low waste lifestyle, recycling should be a last resort rather than the method that we rely upon. Needless to say, I added hairspray to my list of items for our plastic reduction efforts.

When I began researching DIY hairspray recipes, I learned that the ingredients in hairspray are quite problematic as well. Not only is the packaging troubling for the environment, but the ingredients are fraught with horrors for our health. Most shocking to me is that hairspray can actually include little tiny bits of plastic! No wonder it makes our hair stay in curls for hours – we’re basically turning it into Barbie hair!

Sugar Hairspray to the Rescue

Fortunately, there are solutions! I found a number of DIY natural hairspray recipes when I began googling. Apparently sugar water is a classic method for creating hairspray – one blog post that I can’t seem to find again had a cute anecdote about how her Grandfather used to use sugar water to style his hair as a teenager. I think going back to basics is awesome and is often the answer to finding more environmentally friendly options. I tried two simple recipes, one of which works pretty well for me. I’ll give you a quick summary of my experiments:

• Citrus, Vodka, Water: First I found a recipe that recommends using citrus fruits to create your own hairspray. I was intrigued, cause hey, I love citrus! Unfortunately it didn’t end up working for me. It basically felt like I was spraying water on my hair – not exactly what you want to do once you’ve gotten your hair just the way you want it! I used lemons in this recipe because I have light colored hair… the blogger who posted the recipe is a brunette and she uses oranges. Perhaps oranges have more sugar and work better for hairspray?
• Sugar, Vodka, Water: Next I decided to try a Wellness Mama recipe that calls for straight up sugar! Basically it’s simple syrup and vodka. I also added a few drops of lavender essential oil for a relaxing scent. Simple, natural, affordable, and plastic free!

I’m a few months into using my plastic free hairspray and I’m quite happy with it. This is definitely not the firm hold hairspray that I’ve been accustomed to though, so it did take a while to get used to. One of my favorite things about this plastic free hairspray is that my hair is so much easier to wash now! Apparently my previous hairspray was leaving a pretty thick layer of gunk on my hair. Ew.

I’m quite happy with my new gunk-free, plastic free hairspray! I hope you’ll give it a try too.

xo, Nicole