Methods and materials for treating a cerebrospinal fluid leakage are described herein. One method for treating cerebrospinal fluid leakage includes occluding cerebrospinal fluid leakage by administering an effective amount of a self-assembling peptide solution to a target area of a cerebrospinal fluid leakage, where the self-assembling peptide is between 7 amino acids and 32 amino acids in length and the self-assembling peptide solution forms a hydrogel under physiological conditions.