Why is my hair devouring flax seed gel?

[CurlyCap]

Last week, I tried to make a homemade detangler by applying flax seed gel (with a bit of natural butters in it) to my wet hair in the shower.

The process did NOTHING for detangling, but I noticed that my hair drank it up. I ended up applying 1.5 cups to my damp hair and 10 minutes later, my hair rinsed pretty cleanly.

Since then, I've done 2 more treatments by boiling 3 cups water with 1cup flax seed and applying the goop to my dry hair. I let it sit for an hour and then co-wash the mess out. I am left with AMAZING, well-defined, super soft hair.

My suspicion is that flax seed gel works as a humectant, but that doesn't make sense because my hair dislikes aloe and honey. Also, I rinse the flax seed gel off (there is no residue feel on my hair), so it's not acting as a styling product.

My hair is well cared for, has not recently been dry, and has well-trimmed, non-brittle ends.

I can't figure out what my hair is getting out of these treatments! So I thought I'd post.

Any thoughts?

[MandyBeth]

It works similar to a protein treatment on my curly minion. But, her hair will soak up all I put in.

[chen bao jun]

My hair soaks it up, too. Curly hair loves flaxseed gel and it makes your curls wonderful. I don't know why. It just IS that way.
If you want slip, you need marshmallow root (operative ingredient in a lot of products like kinkycurly, etc but you can jsut buy bulk loose marshmallow as tea online or in healthfood stores) I think you can actually use flaxseed and marshmallow together to make one all purpose jelly thing which looks nasty but is great for hair. Google around and check.

[sakuraemily]

I think it is the mucilagy thing in flax seeds that is giving you the softness.