Here at the The Best Bees Company, we have a lot of beeswax. Between wax cappings from honey harvesting, and old retired frames, all that wax adds up. We don’t want it to go to waste, considering how hard the bees work to make it. In order to reuse the wax, we melt it down and purify it, so it can be used in various natural products! One product I was interested in trying out is a hair wax.
Part One-Natural Ingredients
I use hair product every day, so I thought it would be great for me to find a healthy and all natural alternative to what I use now. In order to design a great, beeswax-based hair product, I needed to do some research. During the course of my searches, I found that there are a few natural oils that are extremely beneficial for hair growth and strength.
Jojoba oil is one such example. It’s a popular and well known moisturizer; a few drops rubbed into the scalp can help soothe an itchy head and minor dandruff. Coconut oil is also very beneficial, and good for all hair types. It’s used in many shampoos and conditioners. Finally, I also decided that I would use hemp oil, which has similarly beneficial effects as jojoba and coconut oil.
Part Two-Trial and Error
Now that I had determined the general ingredients I would be using, it was time to create the hair product. I made a few different sample runs, with different amounts of jojoba and hemp oils. I also modified the ratio of wax to the rest of the liquid oils in order to achieve my desired consistency.
The general smell of the resulting product, while quite natural and raw, was not exactly something I wanted to rub in my hair. I decided to experiment with some essential oils to improve the scent of the product. I haven’t determined any final scents, but as of now, Eucalyptus Grapefruit and Honeysuckle were the most popular among friends.
Part Three-The Process
To create my amazing product, I melted the wax in a double boiler, then added the oils one at a time, ensuring they melted and combined in the mixture before adding another oil. Once all the oils had been combined in the double boiler, I removed the mixture from the heat and stirred it while it was cooling. This helps add a whipped texture to the product, while also making it more malleable and easy to work with.
And Finally… Natural Looking Hair
The final product came out great, and feels great in your hair. It provides long lasting hold without being too cakey or leaving any feeling of residue. Because the product is so heavily oil based, it stays in the hair for a while, sometimes even after a wash. However, this is not a concern because the product is just made from all natural beeswax and three natural oils that are known to be good for hair. This means extended wear is better, because it will give your hair some time to absorb all the wonderful nutrients and oils provided by the hair wax!
Peter Kilian is a first-year beekeeper with The Best Bees Company and student at Northeastern University. He works in the field, and the lab for our affiliated non-profit. When he isn’t beekeeping or doing bee research here and at Northeastern, Peter likes to experiment with making things from wax and honey.
