A How-To: DIY Sea Spray

Noelle requested a how-to and then I could not make up my mind which project to do so I did a few. They'll all be going up over the next couple weeks.

First up: how to make your own sea salt hair spray.

When I posted about the one thing I can't live without and the 4 things I really really like I had a lot of questions about and interest in my Sedu Beach Beauty spray. Coincidentally, while I was working on that post this post from notMartha popped up in my reader explaining how to make your own. I meant to link to it but then forgot. And then I ran out of spray and it became a how-to.

The recipe is really simple:
4 oz water
generous squirt of water based hair gel
1 tsp epsom salt

I just mixed it all together in the same bottle (but any of those little $2 drug store spray bottles would work) and voila:

New spray!

I have mixed feelings about the result. It doesn't have quite the same "stick" as the original (which could probably be remedied through the use of different hair gel but this CVS one was dirt cheap and I am dirt cheap and thus we were meant to be) and my hair got kind of tangly while I was trying to dry it but Aaron mentioned multiple times how awesome my hair looked tonight. So it works just fine, but if you decide to try it you might go with a different gel. The original post at notMartha mentions a couple gels in particular, so maybe try those. I might up the salt too, just to see what happens.

Also, the original has this amazing coconut smell and my version has this vague, watered down floral scent from the gel. I'm wondering if I can find some coconut scented oil or something to give my DIY version that same wonderful whiff of the tropics.

The big bonus of making my own is that I didn't feel like I had to be quite so stingy with it. I have tons of gel and salt left, so running out doesn't mean spending more money. Also, you can mess with the formula after it's mixed. Too sticky? Add water. Not enough stick? Add gel. Easy!