Tipnut Mailbag: Homemade Hairspray Recipe

Here’s a tip and recipe sent in by Mildred for making your own hairspray. This is phenomenal–it’s very frugal, organic and skips those harsh perfume & chemical clouds when spraying on.

Here’s Mildred’s tip:

I found this recipe in a library book awhile ago and thought I would try it. My hair is thick and this hair spray still held well. I thought all the tipnuts would like to know about it, it is a very cheap recipe to try and easy to make too.

2 cups water
2 fresh lemons
1 tablespoon of vodka or rubbing alcohol

• Peel the lemons and chop them into thick wedges or chunks. Bring the water to a boil, boil for one minute, then reduce heat to simmering. Add the lemons and simmer until the lemons are soft and the water has reduced to about halfway.
• Remove from heat, cool and then strain out the lemon bits. Pour into a spray bottle and then add the vodka. Shake well and then shake each time before using.
• If the hair spray gets a little too sticky, just add a bit of water.
• The vodka or rubbing alcohol is important to include since it will help keep the hairspray from going rancid, but this will only keep for 2 to 3 weeks so don’t make too much at one time. Also boiling the water first before adding the lemons will help keep the hair spray from going bad because it sterilizes the water first.
• If the lemons are organic you can slice them into wedges with the peels on and boil, this is because there are no pesticides on the peel to worry about.

Thanks for sharing this Mildred! I did some searching online and it seems this is quite a common and popular recipe (or variations of this). Oranges will also work.

If you have any commercial hairspray bottles, wash them out well and save them to use for this. If you’re still using aerosol, here’s your excuse to dump those nasty cans!

This is the newest addition to the Tipnut Mailbag section. Share your tips with fellow Tip Nuts by sending in your favorite tip to be featured in the Tipnut Mailbag section. There will be some editorial control and I am interested in items with good details, fairly original or unique and are helpful for everyday living or are Wow! neat to know–you’ll get full credit.

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