Today's hair

Yep, even with slightly messy braid bases, this worked pretty well.
It got nice and flat.
Too bad I couldn't hide the bottom braid a little better.
Also, I definitely need some smaller U-pins...

Today's hair

Today's hair is four slightly messy braids that I'm going to try for double Royal buns with tomorrow.

Life in general

My seasonal dandruff really went crazy this year. Maybe because we returned home from Madeira and 31 C (The guides did say it was unusually hot) to about 5 C and a quick transition into winter.
Last year it was just a mild inconvenience, but this year I feel I actually have to put some effort into keeping it at bay. So far, the best solution has been to do a scritching and massage every time I WO.

It's perfect weather to stay indoors and game though!

The wild animals are getting braver when it's this cold: A rabbit now practically lives on our lawn. I guess the short and juicy grass is better than the unmaintained grass in the nearby forest.

The wild birds quickly got back in the habit of calling for food when they see us in the kitchen. Especially the blue tits are fearless and seems to look you directly in the eye and than scream for a peanut. Cute little jerks!

I'm trying to extend a little bit of that holiday-feeling by using the products I brought home from Madeira. Every time I reach for them, I'm reminded of warm weather, a dramatic landscape and seriously good seafood.

Too bad the feeling won't last. But soon it will be Christmas and that has its own charm too.

In other news, I switched jobs. It's a quite unusual niche, and highly specialized. I was immediately intrigued when I saw the opening, and really happy I got it.
It does have a very unusual work hour distribution though. Way longer, but fewer days. You're not even allowed to work past a certain number of days a month when the hours are this long. I don't mind though. My work days generally goes to sleeping, grabbing a cup of coffee and kissing Hubby goodbye, then coming back home and doing basically nothing before going back to bed again. So, now I just have to skip some of the "doing basically nothing" and go right to sleep instead.
I think this will actually allow me to put more hours into work #2, since I get a lot more free days.

This year, Hubby and I got really into stocks. That's seriously addictive! Like a (Now former) co-worker who is very much into stocks warned me: "The day you get hooked on stocks is the moment you will forever be on the hunt for more money to put on your stock account".
She wasn't exaggerating.
One of the things I'm most excited about with the new Job #1 is the possibility of having more time for, and thus making more money out of Job #2.

I have a few days off before I start on the new job, so I try to spend some time on my time wisely and get some Nice To Do items off my mental list.

Hairstyle planner

I continue to be short on time in my life. 

Maybe I'll go into a bit more details on this in my next post...

Anyways. Something I find really nice is to make solid braid-base in the evenings that I can "re-use" for two different styles the next two days.

It saves me some time and effort in the morning.

The crazy thing about this? No one has ever been able to tell. Even when I press my colleagues for their opinion, no one has spotted anything "off" about my hair.

It's like a dirty little, totally awesome secret.

As long as I cycle my styles into obviously different styles, I guess no one can tell and everyone thinks I look well put together and professional.

Base: Horizontally split double braids

This one causes me a little trouble because it's hard to find the exact place to split it to make both braids equally thick. It's always higher up than I think. This one also works well with five-stranded braids.

Option 1: Double vertically stacked buns.
I always thought this style would be considered "childish", but so far I only got comments on how crazy it is I have two, "normal sized" buns.

Option 2: The Royal Bun.

This is a seriously good option for day two. The style "lifts" some of the short, face framing hairs up so they fall out. So it makes for a good "messy on purpose" style. A little leave in-conditioner to tame the short hairs and it looks great.

Alternative option: Bottom braid turned into a braided Nautilus bun, and top braid wrapped down and around. I just don't think this one is particularly cute though!

Alternative option: Top braid turned into a braided Nautilus bun, and bottom braid wrapped up and around. It gets a bit of a "lump" instead of the nice, flatness of the royal bun.

Base: Vertically split double braids

I really like this one. It's very comfortable on its own and something that looks more complicated than it is.

Option 1: Braided Chinese bun. 

This is a really good style for day one, because it benefits from being smooth and flyaway-free, so the details show well.

Option 2: Horizontal double buns.

Option 3: Partially or completely tucked under braids.

This is a really good style for day one, because it benefits from being smooth and flyaway-free, so the details show well.

Option 4: Crown wrap.

At times where "messy on purpose" is in style, this is a good option for day two. 

So maybe the perfectly planned updo cycle for a week of work would be:

• Sunday evening: Wash followed with making vertically split double braids
• Monday morning: Braided Chinese bun
• Tuesday morning: Horizontal double buns
• Tuesday evening: Wash followed with making horizontally split double braids
• Wednesday morning: Double vertically stacked buns. 
• Thursday morning: The Royal Bun
• Thursday evening: Wash followed with making vertically split double braids
• Friday morning: Partially or completely tucked under braids
• Saturday morning: Crown wrap if needed