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.