What hard-to-find product belongs in your travel bag?
I found the traveling unicorn! And it has gorgeous wavy hair from hair gel powder! For several years, only one thing has been missing from my liquid-free travel toiletries bag – hair gel. For me, I need some hair product to tame my curls. After losing my luggage for a whole 2-week Eastern European trip, I found that there are certain products I prefer to have with me. Conditioner and gel make my hair happy. I discovered shampoo bars and conditioners a few years ago, but the elusive unicorn was a solid hair gel bar.
After intensive internet hunting, I discovered a different type of unicorn than I was hunting. Instead of a solid, powder gel exists in DIY recipes and is for sale by small companies. It comes as a highly concentrated powder you mix with a little water turning it into gel right in the palm of your hand. Brilliant! (Cue the Asana flying unicorns and glitter!)
Most formulas have flaxseed, coconut oils, arrowroot powder, gums, resins, and other natural ingredients. This results in soft hold gel with touchable curls free from parabens, sulfates, and other icky stuff. Some companies can vary the formulas to your hair needs. Some add a bit of essential oils. You won’t get a hard cast but you will get the freedom to travel liquid-free and still have hair gel.
I found 2 natural hair gel powders to try. Both companies had trial-size sets with shampoo, conditioner, and hair gel. Salon Solids has granules that you mix with hot water to activate the shampoo and conditioner in your containers. The Refig has solid shampoo and conditioner bars. There were pros and cons to each. Salon Solids gel powder mixes up well, without any lumps but it was a much lighter hold. The Refig gel powder was a bit lumpy but held better curls.
There are 2 ways to mix and activate the hair gel. You can either add a bit of it ( about 1/16 tsp) to your wet hands or mix it up in a tiny bowl (a small shallow travel container works well). It’s not designed to last a long time since it’s chemical-free, so mixing up a couple of teaspoons of gel when I arrive lets me use it for a few days of travel. I prefer that to mixing it in my hand.
I found that my favorite hair gel powder is from The Refig. I liked that the trial-size shampoo, conditioner, and gel powder all came in their own tiny tins as opposed to the Salon solids granules that came in a little envelope that did not reseal. Now that I know hair gel comes in power, there are probably other ones on the market too, but I’m going to keep using The Refig which specializes in curly hair.
Why travel liquid-free? Why not! It’s one less thing to have to worry about when going through travel security and it takes up less space. I do not use these products regularly at home, but having the small trail-size products is perfect for travel.
Having just returned home from 10 days in Istanbul, Turkey, I can tell you that having hair gel power, solid shampoo and conditioner, and an empty spray bottle for water made my travel life so much easier in the Airbnb and at the airport!
Click here to see the hair gel powder at The Refig.
Want to read more about my travel adventures? Go here and here. Want to buy me coffee because you are so excited to discover hair gel powder? Go here! I’ll share it with my unicorn!
Table Talk: What’s your travel unicorn? How likely are you to try solid or powder hair products?