Friday 4 February 2011

The Rope Ladder 2010

April 6th 2010. Pre trim

April 7th 2010. Post trim

December 23rd 2010. 9 years since I was bald!

The Rope Ladder 2009

April 29th 2009

October 1st 2009. Post trim

The Rope Ladder 2008

May 20th 2008. Classic length!

December 24th 2008. 7 years since I was bald!

The Rope Ladder 2007

September 30th 2007 post trim

May 20th 2008. Classic length!

The Rope Ladder 2006

May 13th 2006

The Rope Ladder 2005

May 25th 2005. Looking unusually golden!

August 17th 2005. Almost waist and really need those ends evened up

The Rope Ladder 2004

March 8th 2004

August 20th 2004

The Rope Ladder 2003

May 25th 2003. Almost 1½ year after I first was bald, I was finally able to pull my hair back in a pony tail and get it out of my face. The worst part was over!

July 15th 2003. I had some of the thin layers cut off. The stylist took too much and even shaved it up on the neck. I was really pissed at that

August 13th 2003

The Rope Ladder 2002













First week of January 2002 (Not sure of the date)





















March 15th 2002. I actually really liked this length on me. I thought it was really cute!

Thursday 3 February 2011

The living room

Wednesday the 2nd of February
Honey treatment day. Time to prove I actually do learn? I did The Ankylosaurus for 2 hours on the bottom half with a handful of El Vital anti breakage before microwaving some honey and dumping it in the bottle for the rest of he conditioner. I find honey is pretty good at washing with actually. If I don’t use too much of it, it seems to boost the cleaning-ability of regular conditioners.
Honey contains enzymes that will bleach your hair slightly. When honey is diluted and in contact with oxygen, it will form hydrogen peroxide. The enzymes can be broken trough heating. Simply microwave the honey in short burst at high effect until it has bubbled up a few times. Unless of course, you do want the slightly bleaching effect. I don’t though.

On a semi-related note, I signed up for a gym today and I’m waiting for my member card. Hubby and I have gained weight steadily since we met each other and I’m tired of feeling flabby and unattractive. I’m up 5 kg since we met. Of course this isn’t a whole lot, but I’m built to be skinny and I don’t carry the extra weight well. I wonder if it will affect my hair growing. The extra circulation is naturally beneficial for growing hair and in general anything that is “traditionally healthy” for you is also good for your hair. Somehow I find it easier to find motivation in “Its good for your hair!” than in “Moderate exercise will decrease the statistical risk of respiratory infections and diabetes 2”. Heh.

Sunday the 30th of January
Ick. Grease central. WOed thoroughly but my scalp stayed mad at me.
I really should use the The Ankylosaurus more often. I need to make my peace with the fact that the two ends of my hair want completely different treatment.
The top half is perfectly fine with a quick coat of cones once in a while and turns over conditioned and cranky with too much oil or protein. The bottom half seems to suck up just about anything I can throw at it. It feels perfectly fine and healthy, but will still eat up anything I condition it with. The Ankylosaurus is definitely the way to go.

Saturday the 29th of January
You have to love when you can just be lazy… I kept my oily-greasy hair pinned up in different buns for 4 days and no one noticed anything. That’s a thorough oil-soak!
When I took it down again, the tips were almost dry.
Today was cholesterol day, which is something my hair absolutely loves. Unfortunately it’s hard to find good cholesterol treatments in a country where that fine, volume-challenged Scandinavian hair is so dominant. My current cholesterol treatment is something I found in Holland when I was visiting curly-haired friend some months ago. I brought home several tubs!
I mixed up two big scoops of ultra-cholesterol conditioning mask with two egg yolks and a bottle of Barnängen conditioner and stuck it all up in The SexySmurf for two hours. I rinsed, thought I was done and hopped out of the shower. But as soon as I took the towel out, it was obvious the conditioning had been too heavy for the top. Apparently I don’t like to learn and can’t remember a week back when I had the same problem? Sheesh. I guess I got too carried away with adding the egg yolk now that it previously worked so well.
Unfortunately it was too late in the evening and I couldn’t be bothered to try to fix it. Ick.

Wednesday the 26th of January
Olive oil day. I did a rather heavy oiling, braided it and pinned it up in a Nautilus bun. It was almost dripping when I put it up but in the evening it felt “dry” enough to sleep on it like normal.

Sunday the 23rd of January
Ow crap. My scalp became greasy and itchy during the day. The heavy mix from yesterday was definitely too much for it. The length was perfectly happy though. I guess this is a sure sign that your hair is long when the ends react completely different than the rest.
I did a very, very thorough WO wash with lots of massaging and comb-scratching of the scalp and an ACV dip. It cleared it up 99% but I can almost hear the scalp growling at me: Don’t you dare do that again….

Saturday the 22nd of January
Washed with El Vital total repair 5 mixed with an egg yolk and a tablespoon of cholesterol treatment in it for a moisture deep treatment. Hair felt awesomely smooth and shiny!

Thursday the 20th of January
Kept coconut oil in my hair for two days. When I opened the braid again, it was pretty clear that the ends have absorbed more oil than higher up. Not really a surprise, but it gives me renewed reasoning to baby it so I can get out of the damn classic to knee-desert!

Its 1 am as I type this, so it was technically for yesterday I wash with a coloured hair conditioner as according to schedule. This time I used El Vital colour vive.

My Flexies arrived today! It was impossible to get a good picture of them in the artificial light, but here goes
Top left:
Roman style cross with stone-set in antique brass in XXL. Very impressed by this one! Even hubby with his Y-chromosome could see it was awesome and remarked “It looks really antique!” So happy I went with this one.
Top right:
Filigree dragonfly with chunky etched beads in XXL. This will one will make a great contrast to my golden tones
Middle left:
Native inspired filigree with jade heart beadwork in XXL. Very pretty too.
Middle right: Lovely circle stone-set in emerald green with matching bead in XL for comparison. The XXLs are making the XL look wimpy!
Bottom row:
Intricate soaring butterfly with purple-iris metallic beads in L. They made one of them a left-handed version! Hooray! The picture does absolutely no justice to the details and the beads with their deep purple colour with the metallic shine.


Saving this link for future use. Webshop.
They have wheat germ oil and walnut oil which both contain ceramides. Also they carry thistle oil which I tried once and my hair seemed to happily drink up. I have wanted to try that again but haven’t found it anywhere until now.

Friday January 14th, 2011
I tried something new last night: I slept on one of my silk scarfs. We have this awesome couch that’s really good for sleeping on and I covered the upper 1/3rd of it with a silk scarf big enough to go under the mattress.
It went alright. I woke myself up twice when I moved, before I really fell asleep. “Ah! Weird slippery stuff!!” Yes, I have a weird aversion to silk. Yes, it’s really, really weird. I know.

I think this might work. By now I really don’t think I have a chance of getting used to silk pillow cases. Tried that too many times and it didn’t work for me. Silk just creep me out. I like my bed linen to be cotton.
Sleeping in my regular cotton linen and normal pillow case but covering the top part of the bed with silk might work. It won’t decrease as much damage as a silk pillowcase would, but it should take some of it. It should allow my braid(s) to slide easier and be less affected of me rolling over it.

I need further experimentation. Maybe I could fix something like this for the bed: 1 meter wide “strips” of silk that are being secured under the mattress.
But I wonder what hubby would say?

Thursday the 13th of January Yesterday I tried something new: Egg yolks!
I have seen them being mentioned as a conditioning treatment a few times and since yesterday was a protein conditioner-day, I decided to try it. Instead of putting it in alone, I separated two egg yolks (The whites will go in an omelette today) and mixed them with some Tresseme leftovers. Left it under cling wrap and two warm hats for 1½ hour (Resisted the habit of adding a heat pack!) and rinsed with lukewarm water.
Hair feels good. Soft, smooth, happy and easy to manage. It was no miracle cure, but my hair didn’t get mad at me either, so I consider it a success.

According to
Wikipedia, a large egg yolk contains 2.7 g protein and 210 mg cholesterol. My hair absolutely loves cholesterol, but I wonder how much a normal cholesterol treatment contains compared to an egg? 210 mg is not a lot (To put it lightly) but I have no idea how much a cholesterol conditioner contains. Now that I think of it, I don’t know how much protein a conditioner normally contains either. Hm

Today is a Morocco Method thicken date, so I have the scissors out. I have snipped a couple of small splits and one nasty, long “eye”.

My Flexies shipped a few days ago. Now I just have to wait. Sigh! I already found a loving home with our resident mermaid for my old XLs

I’m itching to order camellia oil again. I left my own bottle with my mom since she is always hunting for shine for her greying hair. I wonder if she uses it at all? :ponder: Also seriously considering the silk beanies I mentioned in the previous entry. And some more scarves from coveryourhair.com. Ah, temptation all around me…

Sunday the 9th of January
I have the cold from hell. My nose keeps running so badly I ended up stuffing cotton up my nostrils to catch a break from the constant having to blow it. I think by now, my poor abused nose is glow-in-the-dark red. I’m sore tired and cranky and everything makes me irritated.

I was supposed to do a cassia 4-in-one treatment yesterday, but just the thought of having to get out of the water again makes me feel cold. A warm bath in general would be wonderful, but I know I’ll get cold getting out again and drying myself off. I’ll just sit here and stink in my favourite hoodie instead.

I ordered new Flexies:
Intricate soaring butterfly with purple-iris metallic beads in L and two of them. I asked for them to reverse one of them to a left-handed version. Not sure if they will make that or not, but it’s not super important

Someone also posted a link for silk stuff for hair (Sorry lost track of whom) and I’m itching for
these beanies.
They would be great to have under a hat or scarf!

I keep thinking about the silk pillowcases on the same website. Silk or satin pillowcases are one of those things I really should do for my hair. It might help my temple hair grow in better and it would definitely help me decrease breakage, especially since I’m a restless (side) sleeper.
Unfortunately I have tried silk and satin to sleep on and under before and I don’t like it at all. It’s too cold, too slippery and just feels “wrong”. The last set of satin bed sheets I bought I ended up giving to my mother to make costumes out of for her 6th graders play
After years of trying, I still can’t get used to it. I only like cotton for linen. Of course knowing this doesn’t stop me from being an idiot and thinking “Maybe if…”

Friday the 7th of January
Been S&Ding on the Morocco Method dates. Did an ACV rinse a few days ago.

I was supposed to wash/condition on Wednesday according to my plan, but my mind was completely rebelling again and I “forgot it”. Clearly I don’t like the highly schematised hair-care! I want my haircare to be stress free and easy, thankyouverymuch! Instead of skipping it, I forced myself to deep condition today. I used Barnängen crème for normal hair. I bought 3 different conditioners from that line and was very impressed by them so far.

I’m considering writing down my washing/conditioning routine.


 
Monday the 3rd of January
From today and until Wednesday is Morocco Method lengthen days so I have my beautiful scissor laid out near the laptop to remind myself to look through the ends.
I don’t go through a huge, complicated S&D session usually when I S&D. I simply look over my braid and tassel in front of the computer and often find a handful to snip. I have a theory that because a split end takes up more volume than a regular one, it will pop out of a braid on its own. Just like you can sort uneven sized material by size by simply shaking it in a container and the bigger pieces will “float” up to the surface because of the bigger volume.

Saturday the 1st I was supposed to have done a grape seed oil treatment. I didn’t have any grape seed oil at hand though, so instead I did a deep conditioning with Elvital Total Repair 5. I can’t seem to make my mind up if I like that one or not. It does seem to condition well and makes my hair that little bit irritated it always becomes when I do a good, deep conditioning. But it also seems to build up around my scalp and irritate the skin slightly.

Project Knee length in 2011

When I hit classic length 3 years ago or so, I knew I would be in for a long haul to get to knee, but I wasn’t prepared it would take this long! I never had the feeling that my hair stalled at any point before, but classic to knee is just such a long stretch that it felt I was going nowhere.
So in December last year I decided it would be my 2011 resolution: To finally, finally hit that damned knee length.
I have tried before to make a “hair care schedule” of different kinds. With more or less success, I might add. My theory behind this is that hair can use different “materials” to stay healthy: Oils, protein, cholesterol, aloe vera, cones, ceramides and what have you. If you try to incorporate as much as possible at some point, your hair should be more well-rounded healthy. Hair needs both strength and flexibility to stay healthy and damage free and if you try to “think around” in your care, you will give your hair a chance to absorb what it needs.
Project Knee length in 2011… Please?
Its time to get back to being serious with my supplement routine.
For too long I have slacked off on it and I have let hubby influence me. He thinks it’s somewhat weird and believes a healthy diet is enough.
I somewhat agree on that, but our diet isn’t good enough as it is. It’s me that’s the problem and influencing our diet negatively, hubby is really good at the healthy diet.

I happen to know all too well my body and system thrives on a high level of supplements: For over a year I had blood tests done every two weeks to try to control a painful and troublesome allergic reaction. Every single one of those tests put me in the “normal” range… That was with my supplement routine.

I recently discovered that there are many, many protein supplements in pill form available if you know where to look. So I ordered two different kinds to boost my protein intake both are relatively “simple” and contains both L-cystine and L-tyrosine. I find it pretty funny that I found them on a website targeting hardcore body builders. But I guess if there are people who truly know their chemistry and amino acids, it has to be body builders.

S&D more frequently to keep the length smooth and healthy, which should decrease my urge to trim the ends off. I have added every single entry from the Morocco Method lunar charts
to my calendar as well
(Just for the record, I don’t “believe” in that anything I can do with a scissor can influence my growth, but some people believe the moon affects it and since I have no arguments against why I should cut on one day as opposed to another, I some times follow the Lunar charts as a “Why not?”. I’m open to the idea that they’re right and I’m wrong. )
I will stick to my Hairy Health “Month” plan.
I have added the schedule to my 2011 calendar
(Unfortunately having my hair care scheduled like this makes my mind rebel over the frequency of treatments, but hopefully I can get used to it with time…)

 
Project Hairy Health "Month"

Week 1
Wednesday: Regular conditioner
Saturday: Cassia 4-in-1 treatment followed with moisture

Week 2
Wednesday: Protein conditioner
Saturday: Coconut oil

Week 3
Wednesday: Coloured hair conditioner
Saturday: Deep treatment

Week 4
Wednesday: Olive oil
Saturday: Cholesterol treatment

Week 5
Wednesday: Honey treatment
Saturday: Grape seed oil, walnut oil or other oils (Containing ceramides)

Sunday 30 January 2011

4 in 1 treatment

4 in 1 treatment

Cleansing
Conditioning
Scalp exfoliating
Mud math
50 ml cassia powder
One pot of green tea
200 ml (One bottle) of conditioner

Mix 50 ml cassia powder with 50 ml cold green tea with the bottle of conditioner
Cover hair in the mud and wrap the length of the hair up in a pile (Do not braid!) Cover with cling wrap and a warm hat
Stay warm for 20-30 minutes
Pour the leftover tea in the tub. Fill halfway with water (Or quarter way, at least enough to cover the scalp when you lay down in it)
Remove cling wrap and hat and hop in the tub
Allow length of hair to soak in the water and start scrubbing the scalp (This is why you shouldn’t braid) The cassia mud is excellent at exfoliating the scalp (Enjoy! Aaah… This feels soooooo good! It makes me purr like a kitty )
Soak in the green mud bath (Cassia seems to make my skin and nails feel really good and smooth too)
Follow with a good deep conditioner as the cassia seems to be somewhat drying
Rinse and continue styling hair as usual
Enjoy the feel of clean and conditioned hair and a fresh and exfoliated scalp

I’m a witch!

A kitchen witch that is. At least that’s what it feels like!
For years I have been perfectly happy using ready-bought products off the shelves (Usually whatever medium price range products that are on sale. My hair is not picky that way) and have marvelled at the kitchen witches. The people that can create anything for hair just from whatever stuff they have around the house, ironically from any other room than the bathroom
I was happy in my simple routine.
Then I tried oil again for the first time in like 5 years. No hairy freak-out. Interesting. So I tried again and my hair liked it.
I tried cassia and my hair liked it too. Granted my cassia mix is the simplest I have ever seen on LHC, but it still counts.
I systemised the cassia and the oil and my hair liked it too.
Now I have a bottle of apple cider vinegar with 3 teabags of chamomile tea dumped in it and a big label with “Do not drink! Bad hubby!” (After the Lemon Juice Incident I decided he can’t be trusted around unmarked bottles) Camomile infused apple cider vinegar ready to be tested soon!
I feel like a kitchen witch. I’m experimenting, at least it feels that way!

Supplement regime

Igor’s routine January 2011- March 2011
By popular request I’m posting my revised supplement routine for January to March. I’ll rethink it then and see if I’ll restock or not.

Right now the routine is pretty advanced due to some half impulse buys (Gosh, that sounds absolutely horrible when it comes to supplements?!) of green tea, horsetail, a CLA supplement and a mineral supplement containing potassium which I have always tested low on.

I have always found the recommended day doses very confusing. It seems every serious medical source or website has their own recommended daily dose listed and their own studies quoted.
I guess it’s easy to find a too low and too high dose; In both cases you get ill from it. But what is the ideal daily dose? Right in the middle? Closer to the overdose dose? Or maybe between the middle and the necessary intake? Is it weight dependent?
It’s no use being militant about the RDI when it’s something so hard to get a dose everyone agrees on. One thing that’s for sure though is that mega dosing on anything is not a good thing.

For me personally, I have a very good idea of where I stand on supplements and what I need. For over a year I had blood drawn every two weeks to keep track of a violent allergic reaction. Every single one of them shows me right in the norm range for vitamins and minerals. Except for potassium, which coincidentally (?) isn’t contained in my go-to multi vitamin.
As my listed vitamins and minerals will show, I take in higher doses than recommended in quite a few of them. So does it mean I have a bad absorption? Or maybe that my body requires a higher intake than normal? Your guess is as good as mine :shrug:

New additions
The new mineral supplement has 9 (!) tablets required for the daily dose. I take 2.
More protein in tablet form. 10 g more
CLA and green tea

Calcium: 656 mg (Recommended daily intake 1000 to 1500 mg.)
Chromium: 145 mcg (Recommended daily intake 25 mcg for an adult female, but it seems the RDA was lowered from 200 relatively recently)
CLA: 300 mg (Taking this on an experimental base)
Cobber: 2,3 mg (Recommended daily intake between 0,9 and 3,0 mg)
Fibres: 1,5 g
Green tea extract: 250 mg (Taking this on an experimental base)
Horsetail extract: 300 mg (Still searching for a horsetail tablet that was as great as Futura Silica. Sigh!)
Iodine: 241,6 mcg (Recommended daily intake is 150 mcg but many sources says this is too low)
Iron: 9 mg (Recommended daily intake 10 mg with extra allowed for women during menstruation)
Magnesium: 432 mg (Recommended daily intake 280 mg)
Manganese: 5,48 mg (Recommended daily intake 3-5 mg)
Molybdenum: 290 mcg
Omega 3 fatty acid: 486 mg
(Here of 260 mg EPA, 170 mg DHA and 36 mg DPA)
Plantago ovata: 1 g (Dietary fibre)
Potassium: 80 mg (Recommended daily intake 4000 mg)
Protein: 12,1 g
(Here of 306 mg L-cysteine and 391 mg L-tyrosine)
Selenium: 151,6 mcg (Recommended daily intake 45 mg. Crap?!)
Sodium: 8 mg
Vitamin A: 1500 mcg (Recommended daily intake 700-900 mg)
Vitamin B1: 2,25 mg (Recommended daily intake 1,4 mg)
Vitamin B2: 2,6 mg (Recommended daily intake 1,6 mg)
Vitamin B3: 18 mg (Recommended daily intake 15 mg)
Vitamin B5: 15 mg (Recommended daily intake 4-7 mg)
Vitamin B6: 3 mg (Recommended daily intake 1,3 mg)
Vitamin B7: 225 mcg (See, people? You can grow a healthy head of hair without mega dosing on this. Recommended daily intake is 225 mcg)
Vitamin B9: 400 mcg (Recommended daily intake is 300 mcg)
Vitamin B12: 9 mcg (Recommended daily intake is 2-3 mcg)
Vitamin C: 117 mg (Recommended daily intake is 45 mg)
Vitamin D: 10 mcg (Recommended daily intake is 5-10 mg)
Vitamin E: 41 mg (Recommended daily intake is around 10 mg)
Vitamin K: 150 mcg (Recommended daily intake is 120 mcg)
Zinc: 26,24 mg (Recommended daily intake is around 12 mg)

During period only, also + 25 mg iron
Also some more or less weird extracts in Imedeen: Fish extract (Ew?) Soy fibres, tomato extract and grape extract

Supplements

Alright, here is a picture for all those curious of how big my supplement drawer really is:

Top row, left to right:
CLA oil, Fibre, protein, green tea (Duh), fish oil, iron and last silica
Bottom row, left to right:
Fibre, protein, protein, Imedeen (expensive skin supplement) fish oil, multi vitamin and multi mineral

Haiku hair sighting

Shamelessly I
Stared at a man walking
Beautiful

He had such long hair!
So very attractive
I am a bad girl

Hairgrish

I hereby declare that “hairgrish” is a new word

The word is derived from “Engrish”. Urban dictionary explains:
“A form of English characterized by bad translation from Japanese by someone who is decent at translating vocabulary but has a poor grasp of English grammar. Tends to be a word-by-word literal translation with humorous results for native English speakers. Engrish is most common in old video games and anime subtitles.”

I hereby declare “Hairgrish” defined as:
A form of product description characterized by bad translation from what the consumers wish for their products by someone who is decent at translating the results from the laboratory into what the products can do but has a poor grasp of the basic function and properties of hair. Tends to be a word-by-buzz-word bragging about the product with humorous results for the people who have knowledge about hair. Hairgrish is most common in advertisements and on the label before ingredient lists

(Ah, I crack myself up)

Thoughts on supplements

I caught the end on a show about supplements that hubby was watching. The whole thing made the corner of my lips twitch a little. I’m not sure if it was a smile or a disapproving frown developing.
They had this very clever doctor to analyse some things and make statements on supplements. But no matter how sure or professional she sounded in her statements, she still made it slip that the world of supplements isn’t something you can make sure statements and rules on.

The thing is, that different studies and experiment doesn’t give the same answer, or even a 100% sure answer in itself. The recommended daily dose varies from study to study and source to source. They can’t even agree on how high you need to go to overdose and if so, what the risks and symptoms are. Often you can’t get a clear answer if you ask about overdoses, at least not one that doesn’t start with “Well if you are sick, then you run the risk of…”

The really good thing about the show was, that the expert somewhat came to the conclusion that it depends on how much you want to spend weighed against what you yourself thinks does good for you. I liked that conclusion.

I believe supplements are a good thing. But I also think that the % you see on the labels aren’t everything you should go by. They aren’t the whole truth. Some of it won’t be absorbed by the body and even if it is, the 100% isn’t 100% the truth (Pun intended. Ah, I crack myself up)

“Virgin” hair

I hate that word. I hate that expression. Yes, hate. Hate, hate, hate!
Personally I refuse to use it. I loathe the idea that “virgin” is linked to something that supposedly makes your hair “better” than other people’s hair
Women have been maimed, killed and denied the most basic human rights like going to school, driving, voting and even showing any part of the body they were born into, all to preserve their virginity. All for a little flap of skin, that matters so much to insecure men!
I refuse to use that word for something other than it is: A person who hasn’t had sexual intercourse yet. Not that it makes any difference to me, or should make any difference to anyone
I detest it when people use that word when it comes to hair care
No, even though my hair has never seen any heating appliances, any dye or any bleach, it is definitely not “virgin”. My hair is very experienced and knows exactly how to express to me how we both work together into making daily life as easy and pleasurable for us both!

“Normality”

I’m browsing through LHC when my boyfriend comes up to me and hugs me
I show him a picture of one of the extra-extra longhaired members

Me: “Look, isn’t her hair amazing?”
Him: “Wow. That’s really long. That’s freaky”
Me: “What if I grew my hair that long myself?”
Him: “Why would you want to do that? I think your hair is just perfect the way it is”

I chuckle to myself. I’m amused. I would swear I’ve had the exact same conversation with every single boyfriend I have had since I started growing my hair out

I guess “normality” is in the eye of the beholder and what “we” do will always be the yard stick for what is or is not normal

I beat that somewhere, someone’s boyfriend is calling my hair freaky

A hair pet peeve

Why is it that people insist on referring to damaged hair as ”dead ends”? Hair is dead the second it leaves the follicle! It’s protein and minerals, no nerves, no muscles, no blood flow. Dead. If it was any kind of “alive” wouldn’t a hair cut be something seriously traumatic and painful?
The weird thing is that no one would ever talk about cutting the dead damage of a nail even though it’s basically the same material?!
It annoys me to hear it in the real world but it seriously pisses me off when people on hairforums insist on talking about “dead” hair

Make your own sailor senshi

Warning: Highly addictive!

http://dolldivine.com/sailor.html



(Just a shame they don’t have an option to save your creation that’s easier than screenshot and then save)

Bakkushan

Japanese expression for a woman that looks better from behind than from the front.

Now *he* has hair dreams too?

Last night boyfriend (aka ”Hubby”) had a hair dream

He dreamt he was in a forest and found hair that some animal had hung on a tree
It looked like mine in colour, length and texture and was braided like mine usually is
He picked it up and noticed the elastic was all different and sparkly and it didn’t smell like mine (Here I had to laugh)
So in his dream he decided to bring it home to me to see if maybe I could use it for something

I found it very amusing when he told me

”Us” vs the world

Usually I roll my eyes at threads and posts about how “us longhairs” are suppressed by the surrounding world that just don’t understand us. I don’t feel suppressed and I don’t feel the need to educate people about their hair choices

Anyways

I picked up the April edition of UK Cosmopolitan and they have a Q&A section where this was in:

Q: My friend conditions her hair with oil and it looks amazing. So why does mine go lank when I try it?

Now, if it was me being asked that, I would start explaining about different hair types and penetrability of different kinds of oils

Instead, this is the answer given:

A: You can use olive oil as a deep conditioner (Leave on for an hour or so) but you must wash it out thoroughly. Alternatively, some light plant oils can be worked through the hair before blow drying for glossy, silky strands- but use only a few drops. Try beautiful-smelling Orofluido hair oil, £ 25
Could this answer be any less of a help?!

Random braid pictures

Yes, I am wearing sweat pants, a hoodie sweater and comfy socks. Bite me

No flash

Flash

Thoughts on head covering

I like covering my hair for both practical reasons and because I enjoy keeping my hair semi-private

I want something that doesn’t scream religion. But what that exactly means, I’m not entirely sure of! I guess I’ll be over the issue if I just dress my usual casual self instead of something shapeless?

Ironically, I found one of the most inspiring website to be a definite Muslim place: http://www.hijabshigh.com/

The variation is truly awesome! I like the comments too, seems well moderated and useful to me
(The following pictures, except for one, is all found there)

This one is very close to the way I wear a hair covering scarf (Except for the earrings and shoes, this is very close to how I dress on a daily basis too!) It looks like the length of the scarf is wrapped around the bun itself, a method I use on my biggest scarves (I really should make a tutorial for the wrappings I do) It doesn’t scream “religious” but is a sufficient covering of hair and scalp


It looks like we have two scarves here: An under scarf and a larger scarf wrapped around the crown instead of being tied behind the head. It has a 50s-diva kind of feel to it that I like. I could wear my scarf like this, with or without under scarf


This looks like a mix of the two first ones. The scarf is wrapped around but still with enough left to hand down. I think I like the ends hanging down because it has more of a bandanna-feel to it. I could probably wear a sunhat over this if I just start the bun low enough


I have a hard time figuring out what exactly is going on here, but I think she wears a regular hair band on top of a scarf and the neck scarf isn’t attached to it. Not entirely sure though, but a headband of top of the scarf is definitely something I could do to “religion it down”


This looks like more of a snood type covering. I can’t figure out how it’s done but my guess is: Scarf over the hair, then looped up under it and tied off somehow. I like it a lot. It looks more relaxed than some of the “tighter” styles


(Unfortunately I’m not sure where I found this photo since I only saved the direct link. Sorry)
I’m not sure I’m interested in covering my neck, but I like the idea of a “smaller” scarf for decoration on top of a longer, flowing scarf
(Her makeup scares me! *twitch*)


Another one with a decoration scarf on top. Looks like she tied the sides into little rosettes? I think maybe I could do something similar on top of a scarf-bun like one of the first examples


As much as I’m not personally interested in covering my neck, I find a style like this very cute. There is something about the “big” hijab that goes to the length of a scarf that I just really like. However, I dislike the idea of putting my hair up in a way that requires pins or needles to hold it in place. Being able to tie it off just seems so much more practical and safe


I have seen a few examples of having one side loose instead of pinned back. This is probably something I could do and still not cover the neck. It’s probably going to require pins of some sort though. Hm?


Last, I have to include an example. Not of something I would want to wear. Definitely not. But this is how young Muslim girls seem to wear it most often around here:
The hijab is worn with two scarves, and the shape of the bun is so large it makes me wonder if they actually stuff it to show off.
The “flow” of it is big, covering the shoulders but not going far down the chest to cover it, which makes me wonder if it’s more of a fashion thing, sort of like wearing clunky shoes makes your legs look slimmer. Big hijab = instant slimming?
The rest of her outfit is also a classic example of what I see here. She is fully clothed, all skin except her hands and face covered, but yet the outline of her body is clearly seen, even highlighted. Tight pants, tight dress, even a small waistcoat to really emphasise her chest and waist! Also always included is high, high heels. It’s clear that the hijab is more of a fashion statement and than a religious symbol of your personal moral.
Ironically enough, a lot of Danish girls would find this outfit to be too revealing for them.

Dutch on Dutch

Dutch braid on curly haired Dutch friends wavy haired daughter

(My work. Not entirely happy with it but I think I did well on dry, short hair- and it’s really weird to braid on someone else!)


Two braids spun around themselves and secured with the fork I got from a friend that was too small for me

Salon name that cracked me up! In Wijchen, Holland

Terminal braid?

Okay, I guess this is kinda silly, but…
Following the outline of my braid to see where the lines meet
So according to this I should be able to get to a classic length braid?

Strange milestones

Why are some milestones so weird? Like the first time I “knee’ed” my braid when I crawled into bed. Or having my hair still caught in the butt-crack after I had put a shirt on. Or realising that when hubby leaves his soap on the edge of the bathtub, I have to be careful where I swing my wet hair or it will fall into it.

December 23rd, 2010

Hubby measured my hair: 131 cm or 51,5 inches. Just wanted to have it on record to see how much I grow over the next year

I tried measuring myself by grabbing a chunk of hair and bringing it up to see where the strands ends (That method should make it pretty inaccurate… ) and I got 132 cm

FAQ

I’m new! Hellllp!
Read the articles. Read the stickies. Look around the Mane forum. People spent a lot of time and energy on posting helpful information for you. Honour their effort and read their works instead of whining for the answers served on a silver platter. No one gets paid for their efforts, no one is rewarded for answering your questions, so at least take action yourself by reading the stickies and articles.

I’m afraid of going to the stylist!
That’s a common fear around here. After all, a lot of people end up as members here after their stylist getting “too creative” (Giant air-quotes) and they now try to grow it back.
There are two good approaches to getting the cut you want:
Going to a drop-in place
The money-carrot approach
Going to a drop-in place is a good idea if you want something simple like a blunt cut. They know you probably won’t come back as a regular, so they just want to do what you asked so they can turn their attention to the next costumer. They have no interest in doing something “fancy” that takes a lot of upkeep because they won’t see any money for that.
Do stress that it’s just a simple blunt cut. It takes them a very short time and they can still charge the full price for it = It’s a high money to time spent ratio and therefore desirable. Just make sure you don’t enter at rush hour. Go when business is rather slow, like in the early morning. Even though you don’t want “too much attention” you don’t want them to rush it either.

The other approach is to have a stabile stylist. In this case you need to make sure your stylist sees that he or she doesn’t want to miss out on your business. Your money spent is worth keeping you happy for. This approach takes a little more time and effort but is good if you want layers or highlights or something else “fancy”. If you are going to a new place for the first time, go down there in person to make the appointment for another day. Feel the place out. Make conversation. Look out for red flags. Now buy a product or two to show that you have money and its worth having your business. Even if you don’t feel too excited about the product-range it serves a greater purpose. You can always find ways of using the products anyways. Getting the cut you want is worth that. If the conditioner is too rich for you, it can be diluted up. Buy a shampoo even if you don’t do shampoo-washes. Even though you might not want the shampoo yourself, maybe your man does. Or you can just keep it in the bathroom as a nice decoration (Like that expensive perfume that is too fancy for daily use but you still like seeing on its shelf) and as proof that you’re a Totally Normal Person That Uses Shampoo Once In A While. Or if all things fail, shampoo is good to clean with.
The point is that your stylist has a money-carrot. Do remember to tip. Do ask your stylist to repeat and confirm what you ask for before getting the scissor near you. Do ask him or her to show how much “X inches” is with their fingers. Make polite small talk, nothing too heavy that could be distracting the stylist.

Bring an elastic and braid your hair after if it needs to be contained. Don’t bother putting it up in the salon unless you bring your own, guaranteed hair friendly combs. The handling isn’t worth it if you don’t know if things are seam-free or not.
Don’t go for a wash, go for a simple “as it is” trim. Spend money on something else, like tipping or products. Even if your stylist is nice and gentle, he or she might want to bring out a hair dryer to get it ready to be trimmed.
Don’t go with very damp hair. Hair stretches when wet. Actually it stretches [b]according[/b] to how much moisture it contains, so go when its as dry as possible. Maybe the stylist “over trimming” doesn’t have anything to do with being scissor-happy but with your hair being too wet.
Keep in mind that a lot of members feel they are listened to more at low-end places where high-end places seem more interested in “showing off” what they can do with your hair. Especially if you want something simple, you might want to go to a cheaper place.
No matter what, before going, be sure your hair is in its most manageable state. Is your hair tangly right after washing on wash day and easy to work with on dirty day 1? Wash the day before you go.
Put your hair up in a style that can easily be unravelled with the least combing afterwards.
Braided bun = Bad. That requires combing before its flat down and ready to be cut.
Cinnamon bun = Good. It can pretty much be shook loose.

But last, don’t forget your stylist is human too! Communication is the key.

Will eating water chestnut/sea kelp/eggs/beans/watercress/whatever etc make my hair grow faster?
In my over 7½ years on hair forums, I have seen more of these threads than I can be bothered to count. The thing is that if one single ingredient could make a big difference in your hair growth, people would have figured it out by now. And everyone would be eating it.
But, the answer is probably more accurate as “Yes, but only indirectly”. A healthy, well rounded diet works wonders for hair. But even if you believe that eating X or Y will work miracles, you are still spending more time and effort on your diet than you would without. You will probably eat leaner and healthier, thus getting better growth, even though ingredient X doesn’t directly help.
When people start listing “Good for hair”-foods the list always ends up getting really, really long and it’s very much a matter of opinion. Just eat variated and traditionally healthy (Fad diets doesn’t count!) and you will be fine.

Searching (for short words)
Don’t forget you always have the option of going into Google. Simply search for “hair forum + [short word]”

Someone made a mean comment!
Stop. Breathe.
Now think about the most amazing head of hair you have ever encountered. Visualise the amazing length, the beautiful shine, the pretty colour, the thickness. Do you have the image clear in your mind?
He or she has received mean comments about their hair.
It’s true.
No matter how healthy and stunning someone’s hair is, they have received mean comments on it. Because this is the truth: It has nothing to do with the actual head of hair. A mean comment comes from the person who speaks it, not from anything the receiver did.
People can be mean. No matter their relation to you; boyfriend, mother, co-worker, people can be plain old mean. “Build yourself up by tearing someone else down”.
Don’t let it get to you. Everyone gets mean comments. The rude person wants a response. They want to see you upset about it, that’s half the fun. Come up with a funny comeback or learn to just nod and smile. You can’t kick people every time they say something mean or stupid (Unfortunately that’s illegal) but you can take the fun out of it for them by not taking them serious.

Thoughts on head-covering



My new emerald Ficcare in a simple cinnamon bun. Its so pretty and it holds well. The green really makes the red tone in my hair pop




Since I had a few things to do, I covered the beauty up with my favourite Coveryourhair pre-tied scarf. Under it I have my newly trimmed fake bangs. I like this set of fake bangs a lot better than the other: They’re choppier and the length of the piece is long enough that I can tuck the bobby pins to hold them up under the Ficcares that holds the bun. I used some Bumble&Bumble styling crème for hold
Also trying to show my mysterious bruise. It was there on the inside of my right arm a few days ago when I woke up. How did I get that in my sleep without noticing?? It’s really sore too. Very strange stuff…




Back view of the covered bun. I tucked some of the fake hair behind the ears. It doesn’t show up on the picture but I have a little patch of rather wavy hair in the bottom of my back hairline that blended rather poorly with the fake hair


Later I went to a friends place wearing this and he asked “Do you want me to comment on the hair?”
I sighed and gave him a tired look, expecting a comment about cleaning lady-hair or something like that “Sure. Tell me”
“I like it! It looks like you hang out at a beach a lot” He said
“So you really like it?” I asked, rather surprised
“Yup”
So, this ‘do is friend approved
By now I guess LHC have figured out I like to cover my hair a lot


In the beginning I did it simply to avoid sunburns. Once you have tried having a real, peeling, painful sunburn on your scalp you will be pretty paranoid to avoid it happening again! I have had some bad, peeling sunburns in my life, but the one I had on my parting simply takes the cake as the worst!


After I started growing my hair out, I learned that the red hair colour is the one that will fade the most from sun exposure and since I love that red tone, I want to avoid that. Also, the UV rays break down the protein binds that are the “skeleton” of the hair strand. So generally to protect the mane, it must be protected from the sun too.


But now, I cover my hair just as much because I simply want to.
I’m not sure I can accurately put into words how I feel but I will try:
I think that for pretty much everything about me, I’m between “average” and “good”. I’m not average-looking, but I’m not a real beauty either. I’m not average height, but I’m not really tall either. I’m not average intelligent, but I’m not really, really smart either. Etcetera, etcetera… But my hair… My hair is amazing!
It’s thick, coarse and a beautiful colour. It’s so unusual that it attracts attention in real life. I take great pride in my hair. It is the physical feature that is most “me”


Now, let me use as example yesterday when I went to a friends place. I got up, turned on the TV to have a little background noise while I showered, got dressed and checked my emails and LHC. Then I ran my errands and finally walked through the city to end up at my friend’s apartment. In the span of those hours, I don’t think there were any square centimetres of the female body I didn’t see exposed in music videos, ads, girls in low-cut or too tight clothes and the woman breastfeeding at a sidewalk café.
I realise this might sound prudish. The irony is that just a year or two ago I would have said “Bah, its just skin” but now I guess I have reached a point where I find that nudity and sexuality is being overexposed. Have a mediocre product to sell? Slap a half-naked girl on the ad. Have a shitty song you want to have played on MTV? Bikini-clad girls dancing like strippers will do the trick.
There is simply no mystery left between the sexes unless you live under a rock. Let’s face it; the only mystery left about our bodily functions is that they still insist on using that mystery blue liquid in menstrual product ads when we girls all know it’s more of a red-brownish colour


I’m not a girl who enjoys showing a lot of skin. I’m most comfortable in a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers. Yet, I have nothing hidden under there that any guy hasn’t seen at least a million times already.
Except my hair that is. My hair is something special and people can tell. But it is something I do for myself and not for anyone else. My hair is for me and not to decorate anyone’s world.


Some times when I snuggle with hubby and have my head on his shoulder, he will take my sleep braid in his hand. Gently, just hold it. Feel the weight and thickness in his hand
He watches me comb and put it up too. Just standing there, observing me and asking me questions about what I do and why
He genuinely pays attention and gives me his honest opinion when I ask him about hair stuff
It gives me a real sense of intimacy. He is the only one who sees my mane down and unrestrained. I share that big part of me only with someone I love


I don’t know if this made any sense to anyone


I guess the best way to describe it is what I told hubby when he asked me why I bother to paint my toenails when it’s too cold to show them off in sandals
I paint my toenails and wear naughty underwear and have my long hair covered up because I don’t feel the need to share it with the world. I know its there and it makes me feel good about myself. But I don’t want to share it with anyone
I kind of like the idea that it’s something that only my boyfriend and I get to see. A little secret to share, something just between us

Hair math: Shedding

It makes me think how little just 10 hairs more or less a day can make. Of course these calculations have some problems…
I don’t know exactly how many hairs I have on my head (I would honestly think it’s more than the 140.000 that blondes are said to have)
Some hairs have a longer growth cycle than others
Breakage and trims are not included

365 days with circa 40 lost hairs per day means 14.600 hairs per year
140.000 divided by 14.600 means it will take me circa 9,6 years to have replaced all the hairs on my head (terminal)
A years worth of growth is circa 18 cm / 7,5 inches
It means my hair will circa be able to grow 173 cm / 68 inches

365 days with circa 50 lost hairs per day means 18.250 hairs per year
140.000 divided by 18.250 means it will take me circa 7,6 years to have replaced all the hairs on my head (terminal)
A years worth of growth is circa 18 cm / 7,5 inches
It means my hair will circa be able to grow to 145 cm / 57 inches

365 days with circa 60 lost hairs per day means 21.900 hairs per year
140.000 divided by 21.900 means it will take me circa 6,4 years to have replaced all the hairs on my head (terminal)
A years worth of growth is circa 18 cm / 7,5 inches
It means my hair will circa be able to grow to 115 cm / 45 inches

Look at the difference just 10 or 20 hairs make!

On damp, leave in-conditioner free hair after a CO I measured
Distance from the neck in cm: Thickness in cm
0: 12 cm
15 (Shoulder): 11 cm
35 (BSL): 10 cm
50 (Waist): 8,5 cm
65 (Tailbone): 7 cm

My excel refused to work, so I had to draw in hand and my estimated terminal length comes to around 135 cm which is knee length on me

Hair weight

Just because... Hair weight from march 28th 2008

Completely dry (More than 24 hours since my last shower) the mane weighs in at a little more than 200 grams / 7,05 ounces. My thickness is 12 cm/4,7 inches

That is not exactly heavy. Most hats would be heavier.

What gives me the headaches is when a few strands are carrying more weight than the rest, so the first step for me is to make a base ponytail where the weight is distributed evenly and the elastics hold it firm in place

Summer hair

In the summer I do three things:
Use more conditioner for coloured hair. These some times contains UV filters and claims to be better at protecting the colours from fading. Fine by me. The red shine in my hair seems to be vulnerable to sun-bleaching
I use as much UV-filter leave in-conditioner as I can. They can be kind of hard to find here though, at least for a price I’m willing to pay
Put my hair up in more covering and protecting styles


Bandannas and scarves are good. Also hats. Fake hair is great too: first of all it can cover the real hair a bit and second it makes a covered style look less covered. You can use pieces a shade lighter than your natural hair for “lightened by the sun”-summer look




http://www.tznius.com/cgi-bin/bun.pl
The Tzinus bun




Scarved bun instruction:
1) Put hair up in a pony tail. Use lots of leave in or sun screen for the exposed hair
2) Fold a scarf into a triangle and stick one end up under the elastic with the majority of it hanging down. The darker and thicker the cloth, the less UV penetration! If you use a wet scarf you will get my favourite benefit from this style:
  • If the scarf and hair is wet, the surface water will keep the hair and scalp cool. There’s a moist “core” and the scarf will keep pulling the moisture out to the surface and evaporate thus cooling the entire bun for hours
3) Twist the scarf around the tail until the hair is completely covered
4) Twist the hair and scarf like in a regular bun. Twist it as tight as you can to prevent the bun to get room enough to suck up salt water. You want to have only the tap water you used to wet the scarf and your leave in-conditioner in there
5) Coil it tightly around the base and twist like a basic cinnamon bun
6) Tie the two ends together on top of the bun and either leave them dangling or tuck them in


Tada! A style that completely shields the “tail” from sun and wind
Very secure and comfortable too! Plus it can even keep your head cool




http://www.tznius.com/cgi-bin/ponytail.pl
The Tzinus ponytail


Two braids covered with a bandanna and with some fake bangs




Two braids, crossed at the neck and tucked up under a hat
Put the short end of the scarf on top of your head to keep it out of the coils