Today’s hair

There is a thread on UTT about Pinterest and I poked around in what my friends on UTT had pinned of awesome hair inspiration.

Quite a lot of people had pinned an awesome hairstyle where a woman have done three buns placed vertically above each other. It looked really cute!

I decided to try for two braided Nautilusses. (Nautili?!) 

It felt really weird to braid this way! My muscle memory was so not geared for these moves.

But the braids both felt nice and thick all the way down, not like when I do two braids (One in each side) and the left is noticeably thinner than the right because I part in the left side.

The weight distribution feels a bit off though, but I guess it’s natural when you try something so different.

    

Then wrapped the buns up. It felt like the bottom bun got squished a bit…

I had thought I could use my small Flexies (Size large) but they were way too small to close over the inner parts of the Nautilus.

It would look a lot cuter with Flexies or maybe some discrete Ron Quattro forks instead of hairsticks.

  

It’s not the first time I have wished I had an in-between size of Flexi. I have Larges and megaflexies, so I guess it’s time to buy some XL?

It’s a good thing I discovered a new Flexi-provider, because I am not buying directly from the Flexi-people again.

 

This XL dangly is super cute!

Apparently still growing

I was really looking forward to see my length shots. I honestly had no idea just how long my hair is getting and in what state my ends are in.

Once you reach a certain length it becomes impossible to get a real look at your ends yourself. You turn into an eager dog hunting for your tail when you do that.

So I was pretty surprised to see that my ends are still fairly thick, if they haven’t even thickened up!

I really had assumed I would be approaching terminal length by now.

Once you approach terminal length, your ends will thin out a lot.

Before hair sheds to repeat the growth cycle, they enter a resting phase where they don’t grow. This means a true terminal length has extreme taper since not all hairs grow to the same maximum length anyways.

People who are at real, true terminal length usually have just a few hairs that are super long, so if your ends resemble a blunt cut just remotely, you are not near terminal.

Pretty surprising, but I guess I still have a bit of growth left in my scalp. Question is how much longer I will like it. 

Windy video

11 years hairniversary

Hubby thought it was a good idea to take the pictures outside so we had to rush a bit to catch the little bit of daylight we got.  

As you can see, it was pretty windy!

Then we got too cold and went indoors. But by then, the light had gotten pretty bad, so this is the best we could do.

Happy anniversary to me! 

Today’s hair

Bit of improvisation here… The glittery “scrunchies” are way too small to go over the bun, but I hooked them through each other and looped them over the ends of the Flexi 8. They even covered the Flexi 8 perfectly. I likey.

  

Today’s hair

I look like a completely different person with my hair “down” like this. 

Today’s hair

Not as nice as the little Santa scrunchie from some days ago. Funny to think about that I used to be able to wear this around a single bun!

Merry Christmas!

Today’s hair

Camera was being a bit uncooperative, but I think you can still see what’s going on.

Cassia

It’s been a while since I did a real, thorough deep conditioning of my hair. It would appreciate some cassia!

I have wanted to try adding oil to my cassia mix to see if it helps bind the cassia molecules and oils. And experiment with this cherry tea that hubby and I didn’t like. It develops the richest, deepest red colour I’ve ever seen in a tea. You know you’re a longhaired weirdo when you find yourself wondering “Can I use that in my hair?”

My intended products, left to right:

• The cherry tea. Look how dark red it is!
• Argan oil
• Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate repair (3x liquid keratin) for the cassia treatment
• VO5 to add some volume to the cassia mix and volume for the following moisture treatment
• Schwarzkopf Gliss Total repair (19 ingredient complex) for the following moisture treatment
• And in the front my cassia (“neutral henna”) whose box I took apart to get a more accurate weight on it.

Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate repair (3x liquid keratin) is one of my favourite conditioners because it really feels like it *does* something in my hair, but it leaves it slightly cranky after a treatment. Of course this is not necessarily a bad thing, since deep treatments will mess with the hairs structure and the little “scales” when ingredients are deposited in the core. But of course this means I want a quick glossing over afterwards to make my hair happy and manageable immediately after. 

Mixing up a test batch:

• 20 ml Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate repair
• 5 ml argan oil
• 10-15 gram cassia (My electronic scale only weighs to 5 grams)
• 5 ml VO5
• 5 ml cherry tea

To my surprise, the mix turned out to be pretty dry.

Very strange indeed, because usually I just mix cassia and conditioner with no extra moisture. I guess it is more cassia heavy than usual? I actually had to add more moisture than I had planned.

Scooped the mixture up in a bag and rubbed it into a ball of test-hair.

Tied a knot and left it against a heater. I completely forgot about it and left it for 3 hours.

Results looked like this: Test ball up top and a control at the bottom.

I’m surprised at how little colour difference there is. The extremely red tea didn’t do anything for the colour at all. I guess the pH of the tea influences the colour development?

It was nice and shiny though (Which the picture didn’t capture well) so I guess its not a bad idea to add oils to cassia.

I went ahead with a full sized batch of this.

Cassia mix:

• 180 ml Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate repair (Rest of the bottle)
• 50 ml argan oil
• 100 gram cassia (My electronic scale only weighs to 5 grams)
• 50 ml VO5
• 50 ml cherry tea

Unfortunately it was too cassia heavy and very difficult to smear out. I guess a near-full pack of cassia is too much for a single treatment unless I want to double the amount of conditioner. Of course that would feel like a bit of waste since I don’t really need more than a normal sized bottle plus a bit.

Even though the mix was so heavy, it started dripping horribly after an hour. I guess it’s the addition of tea that did it? My simple conditioner+cassia only mix doesn’t have those issues!

Next time I will try with a bit of oil but no tea.

After two hours of stuffing toilet paper up under the Sexy Smurf to keep the irritating dripping at bay, I gave up and rinsed it out.

Then followed with two hours of conditioning with the blue V05.

Rinsed, towel-dried, applied leave in conditioner and braided it to let it be cranky in peace.

The results this morning is one of these rare instances where my hair feels really, really soft.

Fangirling

One of my guilty pleasures is to read (about) the Swedish top bloggers. For the most of the time, it’s the equivalent of trash TV: The backstabbing, the constant drunkenness, the whoring themselves out for products or money, the eating disorders, the more or less obvious drug problems, the teenager-clique-esque behaviour where one moment two bloggers are BFFs and the next hate each other. You couldn’t make up how amusing it is!

Of all the Swedish top bloggers, my favourites are Kissie and Foki. Kissie for being so entertaining and Foki for making something out of herself through her blog, creating a business and moving somewhere exotic and interesting. I love reading her blog and envying her life!

My least favourites are Tyra and BlondinBella. Ironically, Tyra also “made something out of herself” through her blogs, but her fashion seems to be shamelessly copied from other brands and her riding is extremely unsympathetical to me with her horses constantly ridden behind the vertical. BlondinBella I just can’t stand: She seems to have made a career out of trying to coach and encourage people to follow their dreams, but hold on a minute here: If she fails with a business, she can run crying to mega-rich old daddy. Does she really think the reason people don’t follow their business-dreams is that they haven’t heard or read her fantastically inspirational inspiration? Does she not realise the rest of us mortals don’t have the option of running crying to daddy and it might hold us back to know we will be paying for a failed business literally for the rest of our lives? Delusional much? Yep, I can’t stand her at all.

Anyways. I had a real fangirl moment today reading Foki’s blog. It’s probably completely random, but she had a picture of my expensive Jaguar scissor in a post about her being at her stylist.

See?

Q&A/ Comments and replies

I really need to get better at replying when people post comments

I’m just going to grab the comments from the last two weeks or so, hope no one feels ignored!

Your bun pic and the cute braids :) and neatly wrapped presents all look really good.flash-uTT

Thank you :D We felt we “needed” to go shopping for more presents for us after that, haha.

waou ! it's amazing. your hair is so beautifull, not damaged despite the length ! ! good luck for after. =)
Gwen (operation-cheveux)

Thank you very much!

I have sensitive, irritable skin and rosacea. Yeah I hear you about all those phrases said to people with 'bad' skin. I have heard them all. And I have been suckered in to buying this product and that product. The only range that's done me any good is Avene, and my doctor's own homeopathic/herbal cream. My body likes REN also, and I can get on with Liz Earle. Theodora, I think that Garnier BB cream caused problems for me too. It is super highly perfumed, which I always find is a problem.
Juliette M

*Nods* It’s such a jungle out there with products and “advice”!

I seem to have some success with the Eucerin range I bought a while ago, especially with the rich “winter” facial cream *Crosses fingers* 

That is deplorable. And should be illegal, but sadly, it isn't. If you read the fine print (the kind you need a microscope to read), it says that at any time, a bank can ask for a loan repayment in full. If not, they can seize your money to cover it. This is why many people choose to get loans from different banks than their personal one. So, they can't touch your money. Many people I know call banks legalized mafia. And it's true. They just do their own thing and don't give a damn about rules. I'm SO sorry about this!! and godbless your grandfather, though I'd lodge a formal complaint to that bank because they gave out personal information to someone who could have easily been lying!!! Banks make money off of people who can't pay them. The only time they want their money in full is usually if the bank is in financial trouble. Best to be gone from them and glad you are ok!!
Darkhorse

Thank you, Lynn!

Honestly I just want to get the [bleep] out of there as quick as possible and not let them suck any more energy and effort out of me. I will be signing the papers for my new bank on Monday (Maybe Tuesday if I can’t make it in the opening hours) and hopefully then it will be the end of that sad chapter of my life.

What’s really bothering me at the moment is that I can’t seem to find a bank that is “better” than the rest. They all have some stories of screwing their customers over more or less severely. Meh.

Oh I hear you, and dry skin, and dry nails. I feel brittle all over.
RockPaperScissorLizardSpock

Stupid winter. I guess we really should wish for a humidifier or something?

And I'm french with a little bit polish and asian. I think the asian side help, my great grandmother had beautiful very long hair..
Pauline (Mini)

*Nods* The Polish might help too, I remember having seen some fantastic pictures of Polish longhairs too? But Asian seems to come with thick, strong and resilient hair.

Hey ! I just wanted to say to you that, I took the decision to cut all my hair to begin a very new hair journey from almost bald to knee length ! Your hair is a model to me so, I 'm going to knee length with my natural hair color. If you wanna see the haircut, you can go to my blog on november 30th ! Thanks for the inspiration ! *0*
Pauline (Mini)

Congratulations on your drastic cut! Haha, that sounded wrong I guess.

But doesn’t it feel good to know you are growing out healthy hair with your own natural colour now?

I have to ask though: Have you experienced weird reactions from people yet? I had quite a few of those (But then again, my cut was a bit more drastic than yours) even to the point where it was the last straw for me with a “friend”. Its amazing how some people can make everything you do their own business somehow! It will really make people show their true colours.

For me it has been something I have been happy I tried. Now I know for sure that short hair is not for me and it will never ever tempt me. Sort of like bungee jumping or something. It gives you an experience you will remember and you maybe even learned something from (Maybe not necessarily about yourself, but about some shallow people around you!)

I think there are common cliches about hair, for example that scandinavian hair is very fine and fragile. It goes for every type of cliche, like southern europeans are short and dark etc, that it applies to some, and doesn't apply to others. I am French with Spanish blood on my mum's side and Italian (northern) on my dad's. My mum has very fine thinning dark hair and my dad has a full mane of luxurious light brown hair which has only started graying at the temples very recently. My brother has very thick, coarse "Spanish" hair. I don't know what French hair is supposed to look like anyways, or what French people are supposed to look like either. We're neither particularly northern europeans or particularly southern either. Maybe we're supposed to have average european hair? (sorry for the random musings on hair and nationality here) You should obviously take it as a compliment for your lovely thick hair, but I do feel it smelled very faintly of xenophobia. I'm not accusing your friends of being racist of course, just saying that by pointing out how different your hair is from other people of your nationality, they were sort of "other-ing" you.Theodora

I quite liked your musings. But I have to disagree with the xenophobia though. At least that’s how I felt it, like it just inspired a bit of curiosity because, well statistically Scandinavians DO has fragile thin hair. I know you shouldn’t “expect” certain things from certain nationalities but some times there is some truth to it.

I’ve actually been thinking about making a post about the hair in my immediate family, but I’m not entirely sure how interesting it will be to anyone else. For instance I have two grandparents who had dark hair and brown eyes that somehow resulted in my blonde, blue eyed mother. Did the mailman get involved somehow? Hah.

Great to see you're back, I've missed you! About the hair/ethnic comment, couldn't it be about your hairtype being perceived as different from us more common fineys? I know I for one have oogled your hair, compared to my own spider web thin hairstrands and sighed more than once:) RockPaperScissorLizardSpock

*Giggle* Thank you :) And I do think/hope that was it.

Well, while great hair is genetic, I don't think it's based on your background of where you came from. My family has British, Italian, Polish and some Cheroeke Indian (native american) I believe. Doesn't mean I was guarenteed to have great hair, but my parents both do and so did my grandparents on my dad's side, and since I take after his side, viola. :)
Darkhorse

That is very true. And at least hair genetics is a lot more complicated than say, eye genetics! Hair colour comes from two different pigments and one of them even comes in two sub-types. Once you start mixing in some different types and colours, hair is pretty unpredictable.

That's indeed a strange one! I've seen pepole of all ethnic background with amazing or not so amazing hair. But hey! I'm German, I'm not entirely sure what my background is, but I'm fairly sure that there could be something Scandinavian, probably Swedish there. judging from the odd redhead in my family and looking at populations with a higher frequency of red hair, it should be. Greetings from Germany from Gothic Lolita!

Sounds very likely indeed. I think “red” often comes from mixing blonde with dark hair and then a generation later or so, your odd redhead pops up. So yea, some Scandinavian is very likely.

Just getting around to reading this today - this is a really good post- informative and great graphics/pics too! :) A-1 all around.
flash-uTT

Hehe, thanks. Unfortunately I have decided to stop going to the gym. After a year of trying just about anything and everything to motivate myself, my conclusion is that I just simply don’t enjoy it. It’s not something I do because I find happiness in it, but something that stresses me out because I “have to” do it. I am now on the lookout for a sport or something else I enjoy.

I'm a huge fan of your thoughts on skincare as I'm sure I've already posted before. I just find it hugely interesting to hear other people's thoughts about skincare; not just your mainstream female magazines sort of opinion. For example, I remember very vividly reading one of your entries where you said you didn't believe in nightcream and that you thought skin should breathe at night. I found that really interesting somehow because I'd never heard anyone say this before. (Hope I'm remembering this right and not misrepresenting!) The other reason why I am always curious in your posts about skincare is that I do have fairly sensitive skin too. I actually have a sort of skin illness (which I got from my dad, thanks dad!) called dermographism - I think that's what it's called in English. Basically anything that touches my skin makes it get red and raised. I have to take antihistamines constantly (as in I take 1 every other day) to keep it under control. If I try to leave it an extra day I get so itchy and miserable I cannot function. It is really sucky.
But because of my constant use of antihistamines, I thankfully don't have bad reactions that often. One of the worst I had recently-ish was when I shaved my armpits this summer the day before my wedding. I then wore a deodorant (from Toms of Maine which is supposed to be natural-ish) and got a huge allergic reaction which made my wedding slightly uncomfortable (bright red burning pits aren't necessarily the best)
I also react pretty poorly to water, so last year when I was living in the countryside I was only shaving about every other day. But now I've moved to a city and I feel like I have to do it every day and it just feels awful.
It's not easy with products either, I spent all of last year with these weird little bumps all over my cheeks. I then did a crazy detox of cheapo beauty products, old make-up, made sure I kept all my make-up brushes clean as can be. The bumps are mostly gone now. I'm not entirely sure what caused it, the main thing I stopped using was this Garnier BB Cream.
I find the products I get on the best with are REN products, but they are so expensive.
I was wondering if you've ever tried making some beauty products? Specifically skincare or bodycare ones.

PS: Sorry for the lack of commenting on my behalf in the past few months, I still read you religiously (my husband thinks I'm fan-girling you a bit too much really) but between a crazy move and now doing NaNoWriMo (this thing where you try and write a novel in a month), my internet time has been curtailed greatly!
Theodora

Yes! That was exactly what I wrote. It was a real light bulb moment for me too. A friend mentioned it used in the Dr. Hauschka “method” and it connected to something I’ve read before that skin “cleans itself” in the night time which is why you often wake up with a sudden zit. It just made so much more sense to me than slathering thick cream all over your face at night.

I was actually wondering what YOUR thoughts on skincare is, haha!

No, I’ve never actually tried the DIY skincare stuff and I’m not sure I could be bothered to try… But then again that’s what I said about the kitchen witch approach to haircare and now I find myself doing some beginners-mixing myself.

I have a fan girl? Cool! Hehe.

Hello, love your blog. I was wondering if you could talk about your wash routine. I know you said you use conditioner only, but I was wondering the details if you don't mind. Thank you!
Laura

Thank you very much :)

Well, I rinse my hair almost every morning so I can re-do my updos with damp hair.

I try to do a length only deep conditioning once a week, but I’m very bad at forgetting it!

Other than that I wash my hair using the CO method. (Conditioner only)

You basically wet your hair (In the shower or however you usually wash yourself) then take a big blob of conditioner that you smooth over your hair. I prefer bending over and letting my hair hang down, otherwise I get my face and body covered in slippery conditioner too. Then you “massage” it around like you would with shampoo, comb through or manipulate the conditioner around in your hair as you feel fits you best. You can leave it on as long as you feel like it or even wrap it up under cling wrap to combine with a deep conditioning. Then you rinse it out like you would with ordinary shampoo. You have to rinse quite a bit longer though. Again, I prefer doing this bend over, it seems like water “bounces off” the crown instead of loosening the conditioner if you stand up. I like “scrubbing” my scalp with my fingertips while I rinse.

It takes a long time to switch from being dependent on shampoo to being completely shampoo free: I think it took me a year. I started substituting one shampoo wash with one CO wash per week and gradually increasing. But once you have figured out what works for you, it will be 99% as good as cleaning with shampoo.

There is a nice thread on UTT about this method if you want to know more: Here.

Christmas

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. I like it!

I know a lot of people get annoyed at the decorations and stuff, but I really like it. Winters are so dark, cold and depressing here, so bring on the tacky Christmas stuff!

We started making traditional Christmas foods and have sent out Christmas cards and some presents. (It made me feel slightly sad to see the nicely wrapped up presents go. They looked so nice around the apartment promising loving, thoughtful gifts.) I hung bird balls out on a decorative silk band in front of our windows. It looks like Christmas decorations, especially with the fluffy little morons swarming outside.  

I looked through my hair-drawers to see if I maybe had some Christmas stuff I could wear in my hair.

Not a whole lot!

I even included a red headband that definitely wasn’t bought for Christmas, but it should work too.

I can wear the tinsel-scrunchies in my braids but I’m not entirely sure how to wear the rest.

I used to be able to fit my little buns into the scrunchie, but now I definitely can’t and I think it will be too big to wear around a braid?  

I have an idea of trying them “under” double figure 8 buns, but I will have to try that later.

And I had a green tinsel one too, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Haha, look at those short and cute braids!

Whine.

Well, this will be long. And whiny.

Apologies to those who feel like reading it.

And to everyone who understandably skips it, it is simply an explanation for my semi-absence.

It has taken way more of my energy and will to live than I like to admit.

I trust everyone know by now that banks are pure evil and will happily bring the world to a ruin just to make more money, right?

I had a small loan in a Danish bank for a combined purchase of a great laptop and an apartment I lived in with an ex boyfriend.

It was a small one too. Even with fees and interest it wasn’t a lot. In fact, out of everyone I know, only one person doesn’t have any loans, and out of the rest, mine was the smallest.

I couldn’t imagine so much trouble could come out of so little money.

Some months back, my bank suddenly emails me that they want a bunch of documentations from me. And I do mean a bunch: Scans of my driver’s license, passport, ID, tax documents for last year, a whole list I can’t even remember.

I’m naturally confused and start gathering it all up. But oops, my passport is expired (Haven’t travelled to a country where I would even need it for about two years so I simply didn’t think about it. I guess that’s the problem with the EU, hah.) and there is this one document I can't get out of the government self-service website. When I log in there, I have to pick what county I live in in Denmark so naturally, I can’t get it out.

I was confused over the sudden demand from my bank already, so I decide to call them and inform them about the passport, the paper and ask what the whole thing was about anyways.

Big mistake. I don’t get any information. At all. Instead, they simply lock down my account.

Completely rational response, right?

I now can’t access my account, take money out or even pay any bills.

Luckily all my monthly bills go to the auto pay system and my Hubby can cover expenses at home. Very luckily indeed, or my bank would have completely screwed my life up and I would probably be homeless by now.

I inform them of this. They don’t care.

“My” bank lady sort of just avoid answering anything and keep telling me the same shit about how “She understands and will see what she can do, but she have to ask her supervisor.” Right. We all know she just takes a 15 minute coffee break and then return with a fake sympathy and “I’m so sorry but he said no.”

I call and email them almost daily but they don’t pick up and I don’t receive any answers to my questions. I ask them if it would solve the problem if I pay more off per month, if they could switch me to another account type, et cetera et cetera. It is all ignored.

I’m honestly completely bewildered at the whole thing. I have paid off my interest and fees dutifully every month. In fact it’s been running over the auto payment system, so it has never been even an hour late.

Finally they threaten me with a debt collecting firm if I don’t pay the loan back right this second.

Because, obviously people who have the option of paying off a loan from one day to another actively choose to pay fees and interests, right? It is just because people enjoy having a loan in a bank, right?

I’m pretty sick and tired of their shit and reply with “Fine, do that.” Because I just cant imagine a debt collecting firm being worse than the treatment I’ve received from the bank so far.

But oh, no, they can’t “just” do that. They have to send me, multiple, multiple warnings over the next couple of months while my account is still locked down. Because, you know, that’s the law. Or something.

In frustration I complain to my dad about it.

My dad tells my mum, my mum tells my granddad.

My granddad decided to interfere.

He likes to do that a lot. I can tell you many, many stories that are far more amusing than this one about his “helpful” interferences.

My granddad calls the bank.

The bank has absolutely no problem dishing out my very personal information to some more or less random person who calls them and claims to be related to me.

The supervisor to “my” bank lady tells him that:

A) We have had a dialogue about this.

What? Where was that dialogue? They told me to give them a bunch of documents and after that, refused to answer any questions.

B) That we have had said dialogue for the last half year.

What the actual fuck?

And C) That the problem is, I’m no longer a member of the union that is part owner of the bank.

Huh. I haven’t been a member of that union for… Dunno, years? And it hasn’t been a problem so far. But all of a sudden it apparently was, and they can’t be bothered to explain this to me?

And how exactly had they imagined I could become a member of the union again with my account locked down?

Or, was it rather that they don’t have any interest in actually solving this problem?

Luckily my granddad thinks the bank supervisor-guy is “Full of shit” and “Annoying as seven hells”.

My granddad decided to pay my loan out for me so I can switch banks.

Thank you granddad!

The greedy, evil bank charges him about 1000 kroner (Around 135 Euro and 175 USD for my international readers) extra for… I honestly have no idea. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if there was a fee for finishing your loan because uh-oh, now they wont make money off the interest anymore! Poor them!

Today comes the punch line:

My phone bill has just been paid with the auto payment system and since I have been on the phone so much trying to sort this out, it pushed my account into minus… Prepare to gasp here… 44 kroner. That is just under 6 Euro and almost 8 USD. Gasp!

After not having heard a single word from them for like a month, not even after my granddad paid the loan off, I now receive an email from them asking to pay the overdraft.

I could use bank opinions though: The bank I’m moving from is Lån og spar bank and I’m considering Nordea (Have heard a lot of bad about that one actually, but they don’t charge for taking out money in Nordea ATMs and since they are all over Scandinavia and I travel a lot between Denmark and Sweden, it might save me some money) or Handelsbanken (Because it has great ratings on Trustpilot and I’ve heard a lot of good about them.) 

Winter.

Snow. Wind.

Hot and dry inside, freezing and moist outside.

Constant hat-hair.

That’s a new one…

I’ve heard a lot of hair comments over the years. Some weird, some stupid, some plain idiotic. But last week I heard an unexpected one…

Some girls in my class were talking about hair and one of them turns to me “Igor, you got to have some foreign blood, right?” (That line doesn’t translate well from Danish BTW. It sounds potentially offensive in English and it really wasn’t in Danish.)

I was pretty surprised because I have never had my well, Danish-nes, questioned before.

And I guess my answer of “Errh, well, I’m Danish with a bit of German and a tiny bit of Spanish blood” wasn’t exactly what she was expecting.

Ah, the joy of having sensitive skin…Not.

For some of my readers, this won’t come as news, but to some it might come as a surprise: I don’t actually find hair very interesting.

It’s true, I really don’t.

For instance, “free and loose” shots, I see as something to check overall health of hair, not something that is pretty and admirable. Updos however, this is one of the top reasons I like long hair and maybe the top reason I’ve grown my hair as long as it is.

Updos are cool, creative and fun. Loose hair is like an untreated piece of wood and updos are the multiple things you can create out of it.

I’ve never really understood the appeal of a “hair cut”. Even the most fancy and expensive cut will eventually grow boring if all you can do to it is to drown it in various products.

For instance, I always thought Jennifer Aniston’s famous “do” was painfully boring. She so rarely do anything to it at all and most of the time it just hangs there as a big boring blanket covering her face. Seriously, that sent millions of women running for their stylists? Yawn.

Another thing about hair is that it’s fairly simple. There is only so much you “need” to learn to successfully grown your hair long and/or healthy. Sure, there is much more theory to learn if you want to, but it’s not necessary to function. And even then, if you decide to look into oil and henna-theory, its still not string theory. (Or insert whatever field you find difficult to understand. Personally I’ve never felt I “get” poems. If they’re not funny or dirty, my mind just switches off in boredom. But maybe it’s just me)

Yet, after all I decided to blog about hair anyways.

From the first time I encountered long hair forums, I felt I was capable of processing knowledge and presenting it to people.

And providing inspiration both for actually doing something to hair and spark the thought of “Hey, if she can grow that long from being bald, so can I!”

I like when I make people think that. It makes me very happy.

It’s actually my second-most favourite compliment. (“Kind of compliment” I guess, since I heard that quite a lot over the years)

My favourite compliments ever, are when people tell me my thoughts on skincare have been useful.

I’ve always had sensitive, easily irritated skin. I grew up with it and probably will always have it. I’ve experienced the ridiculous attitudes people have towards people with “bad” skin: You’re probably just completely unhygienic anyways. You’re probably just too stupid to wash, tone and moisturise. It’s just that you use some really stupid product. Why don’t you use Acme product instead, haven’t you seen that sweet new commercial promising supermodel skin in a week?

Ugh.

If you think you encounter a lot of bullshit from stupid people with bad hair when you have long hair, try having “bad” skin. It’s ridiculous how much bullshit advice you will get from people who have naturally “good”, trouble free skin.

Because, it’s not that their skin could be naturally easygoing, of course it’s their overpriced, over perfumed, over hyped products that does wonders and of course they can project their results onto someone with a skintype that is polar opposite of theirs, right? And of course it is that they are so fantastically smart and know everything about skin (From commercials and packaging on their fantastic product) that they should lecture you on correct skincare, right?

Barf.

I know how annoying it is. So the compliments I’ve received on my (Few, but still…) posts on skincare are extremely dear to me.

I’m sure some of you reading this are wondering why I wandered into rant-land. Well, this is why:

Yesterday when I shaved, I nicked my left armpit. (Hm, been shaving for almost 20 years or so and I still manage to injure myself?) Naturally, I covered it with a band-aid (“For sensitive skin!” and “No irritation!” it bragged.)

I had noticed that it was really sore, but didn’t think too much of it. I mean, a skinless area in your armpit has to hurt, right? But today when I wanted to change it, I found that it wasn’t the cut that hurt, but my skin having a reaction to the band-aid itself. A perfect imprint of the band-aid printed in red, itchy hurt.

Sigh. Having sensitive skin sucks.

Ow. 

Heh...

The next time someone gives you that whole “You need a haircut!”-bullshit, maybe it’s time to point out that they would fit perfectly into North Korea?

 Hairstyle in accordance with socialist lifestyle of DPRK

Link and another link. 

I haz sick skills

With a little help from some hairspray I managed a very nice Dutch braid on a friend's layered hair

Braiding video

I just uploaded a video of myself braiding my hair. Like I wrote in my comment:

Over the years I’ve received a lot of questions about my braiding technique. Well, I have now tried to do a braiding tutorial and I had planned to do a description too, but I only managed to confused myself. “Right index finger holds strand number 2 while thumb…” Yea. It was no good.
Either you will find this video useful and answering questions or giving yourself inspiration on how to hold your braid… Or you will find it intensely boring. Anyways. Enjoy.

On an experimental basis I have let the option to comment on the video stay open. It will be interesting to see how many perverts or idiots write stupid things. Either that, or people are actually smart (Doubt it though. Youtube comments seems to be where all intelligence goes to die) 

  

Sunsilk surprise

I went to H&M today and found that they had my beloved orange Sunsilk leave in again. Yay!

I had to suppress my urge to sink to my knees, hug the shelf and gently rock back and forth while sobbing to myself.

Instead I bought 4 bottles which I felt was an acceptable, non-freaky number. The supply should last me about 2 months.

But when I came home I discovered I had two different editions of the product.

One looked like it always did and says “Damage reconstruction program” on the label where the other kind says “Advanced damage reconstruction” and is slightly brighter orange with a smaller silver patch where it says “nutrikeratin” on. Both editions have a lot of the same text, including “Thomas Taw, expert on damaged hair”.

The “Damage reconstruction program” (Left)

Looks and image

Both bottles have that mildly cheap look. Orange plastic, sports bottle opening, no pictures, just some graphics and quite a lot of text. Both are very busy boasting of being created by “Thomas Taw” because apparently that guy is so famous that you should know him and be impressed by his name?

Scent

The “Damage reconstruction program” smells a lot fruitier than the other kind.

Touch

Smooth, creamy formula. Some leave in products are too slippery in themselves and actually makes it harder to handle my hair (!) but this one adds slip to my hair and not to my hands.

Rinse ability

Easy to rinse. I felt no residue even without using soap.

Usability

I love this leave in-conditioner. It has that nice creamy texture and makes my hair so much easier to detangle and manage. It also adds nice hold to my updos and keeps unruly hairs down.

Price and value

39,90 kronor for 250 ml. That is 0,15 kronor per ml. Sometimes I find it at half the price at H&M.

Ingredients

Aqua, cetearyl alcohol, isopropyl palmitate, glycerin, stearamidopropyl dimethylamine, dimethiconol, dimethicone, amodimethicone, parfum, cetyl hydroxyethylcellulose, dimethiconol/silsesquioxane copolymer, sodium C14-16 olelin suffonate, trideceth-12, TEA dodecylbenzenesulfonate, ceramide 2,

helianthus annuus seed oil. This is simply sunflower seed oil.

oleic acid, PEG-7 propylheptyl ether, PEG-7 glyceryl coconate, lysine HCI, disodium EDTA, DMDM hydantoin , methylparaben, phenoxyethanol,

cetrimonium chloride. “Safe for use in rinse-off products and were safe for use at concentrations of up to 0.25% in leave-on products.” Hm. This one isn’t in the alphabetised section in the end that indicates less than 1% in the finished product, so I’m not very pleased with this!

methylchloroisothiazolimone,

methylisothiazolinone. “Safe for use as a cosmetic ingredient at concentrations up to 100 ppm.” Hmm?? We’re still not in the alphabetised section…

PEG-60 hydrogenated castor oil, lactic acid, silica, polysorbate 60, benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl salicylate,

Citronellol. Has a comment on cosmeticsinfo.org if used in a fragrance but none as a non-fragrance ingredient.

hexyl cinnamal. Has a comment on cosmeticsinfo.org if used in a fragrance but none as a non-fragrance ingredient.

limomene,

linalool. Has a comment on cosmeticsinfo.org if used in a fragrance but none as a non-fragrance ingredient.

Two of the ingredients have restrictions tied to concentrations but are fairly high up the ingredient list. Three of the ingredients have restrictions when the ingredients are used in a fragrance. A few of them I couldn’t find. The rest “…were safe for use in cosmetic products.”

Conclusion

I must admit I wasn’t too pleased to see some ingredients with restrictions on the list. But compared to some of the other leave in-conditioners I’ve looked at, it’s not that scary. I know I’m really new at this thorough analysis, but I guess I have to get used to having at least some questionable ingredients on any ingredient-list. differences. But even with this, I haven’t been able to spot the differences.

This is still my favourite leave in product.

The “Advanced damage reconstruction” (Right)

Looks and image

Both bottles have that mildly cheap look. Orange plastic, sports bottle opening, no pictures, just some graphics and quite a lot of text. Both are very busy boasting of being created by “Thomas Taw” because apparently that guy is so famous that you should know him and be impressed by his name? This one also boasts of “New nutrikeratin technology”.

Scent

It has a mildly “creamy”, soapy scent.

Touch

Smooth, creamy formula. Slightly “glassier” than the other one. Some leave in products are too slippery in themselves and actually makes it harder to handle my hair (!) but this one adds slip to my hair and not to my hands.

Rinse ability

Easy to rinse. I felt no residue even without using soap.

Usability

I love this leave in-conditioner. It has that nice creamy texture and makes my hair so much easier to detangle and manage. It also adds nice hold to my updos and keeps unruly hairs down.

Price and value

39,90 kronor for 250 ml. That is 0,15 kronor per ml. Sometimes I find it at half the price at H&M.

Ingredients

Aqua, cetearyl alcohol, glycerin, paraffinum liquidum, hydrolyzed keratin, trehalose, gluconolactone, adipic acid, sodium sulphate,

annuus seed oil. Also sunflower seed oil?

lysine HCI, oleic acid, dimethiconol, stereadmidopropyl dimethylamine, trimethylsiloxysilicate, cyclopentasiloxane, dimethicone, sodium chloride, carbomer,

trideceth-5. “Safe as used in cosmetic products when formulated to be non-irritating.” Kind of a weird way of putting it: Would any product be formulated to be deliberately irritating?

cetyl hydroxyehylcellulose, butylene glycol, disodium EDTA, lactic acid, parfum, DMDM hydantoin,

iodopropyl butylcarbamate. “Safe as a cosmetic ingredient at concentrations less than or equal to 0.1%.” Hm. This isn’t in the alphabetised section so it could easily be in a concentration higher than 1%. Hm?

potassium sorbate, phenoxyethanol, benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate,

benzyl salicylate. Has a comment on cosmeticsinfo.org if used in a fragrance but none as a non-fragrance ingredient.

Citronellol. Has a comment on cosmeticsinfo.org if used in a fragrance but none as a non-fragrance ingredient.

hexyl cinnamal. Has a comment on cosmeticsinfo.org if used in a fragrance but none as a non-fragrance ingredient.

linalool. Has a comment on cosmeticsinfo.org if used in a fragrance but none as a non-fragrance ingredient.

One of the ingredients has restrictions tied to concentrations but is fairly high up the ingredient list. Four of the ingredients have restrictions when the ingredients are used in a fragrance. A few of them I couldn’t find. The rest “…were safe for use in cosmetic products.”

It boasts of “New nutrikeratin technology” and actually has hydrolyzed keratin as the 5^th listed ingredient. One point for that! Its very rare to actually see the ingredient they brag about being listed so high.

Conclusion

I must admit I wasn’t too pleased to see some ingredients with restrictions on the list. But compared to some of the other leave in-conditioners I’ve looked at, it’s not that scary. I know I’m really new at this thorough analysis, but I guess I have to get used to having at least some questionable ingredients on any ingredient-list. This is still my favourite leave in product.

Crown wrap tutorial variation

Actually this is perhaps my favourite hairstyle but the double Dutch braids takes a long time and I’m lazy!

Start with your hair in two Dutch braids. Dutch braids have that nice “bump” that is great for holding back braids.

Wrap one braid around your head. I wrap it in front of the braid bases, but depending on your scalp shape it may work better to wrap behind.

Now “nail” the tassel to the other braid using a hair stick.

Tuck the tassel under and wrap the second braid around the stick in an infinity shape. Pull the braid in under the infinity shape.

Keep wrapping the braid around in an infinity shape, each time pulling the tassel in under itself until you run out of length.

The first braid may feel like its close to slipping here, but it will be fixed soon.

Take the second hair stick and push it through the infinity-shape.

I like putting the sticks in like this for this updo:

(Slightly exaggerated for understanding)

It looks like this from the front: Nice, flat bun with decorative hair sticks and a braided headband.