Will probably take a little break

So for the last... dunno, to be honest, many years I have blogged at least every three days. 

Now I need to adjust that a little. I'm no longer studying and I'm no longer working from home, so I don't have the same time and access to a personal computer anymore.

Instead I have a workload of totally 56 hours/week, and *drumroll* we are moving!

We just signed the papers today and hope we can move in soon. Within two weeks with a little luck.

The hair is still there, being long. It's just me that will probably be pretty occupied mentally with the new apartment and the new job for a while.

Funnily, this is my 1500th post on my blog! 

Today's hair

The sunlight really highlighted the fuzz! Royal bun on two five-stranded braids. 

Today's hair

Day two of the five-stranded braids and the fuzzies are beginning to show...

Challah bun made out of two braids.

Today's hair

Two vertically stacked Nautilus buns for the gym today. Held well!

Today's hair

Heh, I did two vertically stacked five-stranded braids and thought they looked really awesome. So I wanted to take one of those instagrammable, cool pictures of it, only to have the light conditions refusing to cooperate. Oh well.

I got his cool shot instead:

I really do love the structure of the five-stranded braid!

Throwback Tuesday

Throwback Thursday Tuesday: "A blast from the past"

I loved this style so very much when my hair was short. For a while, between my hair reached flip length/shoulder length and until it reached below bra strap length, this was my only real option for properly putting my hair up.

The style is so very simple:

1. Make a ponytail and secure it with elastics
2. Then pull the end of a scarf through the elastic
3. Wrap the main part of the scarf around the ponytail to cover it
4. Wrap the scarf+hair around like making a regular cinnamon bun
5.  Then tie the two ends of the scarf together to hold it up

I tried this style again today and fully expected it to slip, but it actually held well!

It must depend on how much friction the scarf offers, because a regular, unbraided cinnamon bun would slip like crazy for me. 

This is still a wonderful style, but for different reasons than it used to be. Now it's a good sun protecting style for the length instead of a way to force my short hair up in an updo.

Okay, this is embarrassing...

I just found something I had completely forgotten about in my pile o' mess/totally-on-my-to-do-list-to-work-through-definitely-totally-pile... 

Back in September 2020 I asked on my instagram if I should buy this wig:

The answer was yes, so I bought it, received it, put it in the totally-on-my-to-do-list-to-work-through-definitely-totally-pile, and then completely forgot about it.

It's a synthetic fibres wig that actually matches my own hair texture very, very well. Completely opposite of all human hair pieces I've ever felt, which have had completely different textures from my own. It has some waves to it, maybe? From the pictures it looks like the waves are mostly at the ends and it might be pretty straight if I cut it shorter...

I vaguely remember looking up some wig tutorials and deciding there were too much of them for my energy level at the time, so maybe I should try to take a look at it again now.

Does anyone have links to good and simple tutorials for how to style your wig? And how to hide a whole bunch of hair under it?

Mr Igor harassing my hair

For a few seconds I thought mr Igor was being cute and playing with my braid, but nope, he was doing the giddy-up with it and filming it like a weirdo. I couldn't help but laugh after, so I wanted to share.

(Video is hidden so it should only be found through my blog)

The Hammerum girl hair

I was working through some of the stuff in my "Hair inspo" folder since I was planning to go through some of the pictures I've saved. Quite a few of them are historical updos, and one of them was a picture of the Hammerun girls hair.

The Hammerun girl was a late Roman iron age bog body found in Denmark in 1993.

The drawing I saved of her hair, looked pretty cool and definitely doable. 

But as I was googling for more information, I just found myself getting more and more confused. 

This was the drawing I originally saved:

Headband braid placed very far forward, maybe Dutch? And a braided, low bun. 

I feel this has very much a classic Greek statue-look to it.

But it also reminded me of something, namely the one in the middle of the picture here:

However, after checking the text in another picture, this is not the same updo. This one is the woman from Lønne hede (Can't find a non-Danish source, sorry) another bog body. But, the two bog bodies are from around the same time period and something similar has been depicted on other finds, so I guess this style was in fashion around there. The other bog body is more famous for her vibrantly blue dress btw.

The Hammerun girls hair looked like this in the grave:

Text says, left to right:

Braid under smooth forehead hair

Small braids by the ear

Neck-knot

And it has been reconstructed as this:

Which doesn't exactly match up to the above description. 

But it has also been reconstructed as this:

...Which also doesn't entirely match up to the description?

So I guess the best reconstruction is something along a headband-braid where you feed loose hair in through the headband, and then put it up in some sort of bun?

Maybe this could be turned into something more wearable and less time consuming to style. Hmm...

Updates

So... I got the job.

Pay negotiations are done, benefits negotiations are done.

But I have some drama from my current job, since they don't want me to go.

Right now I'm at a weird point where new work is willing to let me get away with 32 hours/week (4 workdays) even though they asked for 37, and old/current work is willing to let me go down to 24 hours/week (2 workdays) just so both places can keep me. It's weird to be so wanted.

I'm honestly thinking of saying yes to that offer.

Pros

Old/current job has the best pay (by far) and a workload that is really easy. 

New job has the awesome title that will look showy on my CV, and it will be a fun challenge to fill the position.

Cons

Old/current job has the worst administration I have ever experienced. Seriously.

New job is located on the "wrong" side of main Copenhagen, so I will want to move closer as soon as possible (We have talked about this for years, so it's not really something new as such)

What would you guys do?

So... Now what?

Now that I'm done with school (For now. I could see myself returning at a later point) I find myself at this mildly weird point. For so long I have run the blog more or less on auto pilot because I haven't had the energy to get really creative. But now I have all this time freed up.

...At least for a few months, since by the time this post goes up I'm in the middle of a job interview for a job that I'm slightly overqualified for degree-wise, but will land me at more of a boss role than I've ever done before and I'm slightly underqualified for (lol) And since I'm not sure I'm mentally prepared to leave my current job, I will see if I can do both with current job maybe at part time.

So... Now what?

I have a bunch of notes and saved up pictures for inspiration I would like to work though. Some of them are embarrassingly old and have been stuck in my "inspo"-folder for ages.

I'd like to make a few more videos: I was thinking of a "Professional updos for the superbusy superlonghair", I would like to make a few more basic updo videos for superlong hair and I would really, really like to make a hair edition of Stella Jang's Colors song (Which would take a crazy amount of planning, time and effort, but would be super cool!) 

And I could see myself having some sort of "Summer of love" plan, since I haven't made a real, conscious and planned effort for my hair health for ages. 

But... What else?

And yep, that's what I'm asking you guys: Now what? 

What do you like to see, what do you like to read or watch? What can I do that the other longhairs in the longhair circuit doesn't do?

Captain's log

Almost six hours ago I turned in the final project for my last degree. And I. Am. So. Tired. Holy shit. The last semester has been awful and I have felt tired and crappy the entire time. But now it's done. Over.

....Unless I fail.

Today's hair

I tried something new today: A Challah bun but made with two vertically stacked braids and held with a Ron Quattro fork.

And I really loved it! 

It was seriously pretty, simple and held fairly well. Not the last time I'm doing this bun.

Morocco Method order

I always knew Morocco Method sells hair products, but I never tried any of them. Well, time to change that!

Morocco method only has one conditioner I can use since the rest of them have aloe vera in them. 

The floating lotus conditioner has four extracts which I tend to avoid, but that may or may not be a problem. Luckily my scalp is pretty resilient compared to the rest of my skin and has a strong moisture barrier, so fingers crossed that the extracts are okay to use.

Ingredient list

Aqua (Water), Opuntia Ficus-Indica (Prickly Pear) Extract, Acetic Acid (Raw Apple Cider Vinegar), Saponins (Green Tea), Xanthan Gum, Montmorillonite, Cannabis Sativa (Hemp) Seed Oil, Linum Usitatissimum (Flax) Seed Oil , Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Phenylpropanol, Salicylic Acid (White Willow), Tocotrienols (Vitamin E), Gaultheria Procumbens (Wintergreen) Leaf Oil, Salvia Sclarea (Clary Sage) Oil, Glycerin (Vegetable), Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Citrus Aurantium Amara Fruit Extract, Citrus Sinensis Peel Extract, Citrus Reticulata Fruit Extract, Lactic Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Linalool

Oh, hey, xanthum gum! 

I just had to try the Diamond Crystal Mist Conditioner & Moisturizer for the wackiness of "highly energized liquid crystals from the Himalayan Mountains of India". 

Sounds much better than those boring old weakly energized liquid crystals from the Saint Elias Mountains of Canada! 

Ingredient list

Aqua (Water), Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Quartz crystals liquefied into a base of Hypericum Perforatum (St. John's Wort) Oil, Rosa Rubiginosa (Wild Rose) Oil, Santalum Album (Sandalwood)Oil, Boswellia Carterii (Frankincense) Oil, Commiphora Myrrha (Myrrh) Oil, Vitis Vinifera (Grapeseed) Oil

I also ordered the Mineral Mud Hair Mask

Ingredient list

Montmorillonite, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, Prunus Dulcis (Almond)Seed Oil, Corylus Avellana (Hazel) Seed Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Oil, Lavandula Officinalis (Lavender) Flower Oil, Pogostemon Cablin (Patchouli) Leaf Oil

Today's hair

Yesterday I did a Chinese bun where I had all three braids in play to create the bun, instead of finishing one braid at the time. So I wanted to try something similar for a Nautilus bun with all three braids, but it's a little hard to explain and I think I will have to make a video on it.

1. I crossed the two top braids where the bottom braid is
2. Then wrapped the bottom braid into a Nautilus bun
3. I pulled the outer loop of the Nautilus out bigger than it needed for the inner bun
4. Then caught the two top braids under the hair stick along with the inner bun
5. And finally I wrapped the two top braids around the bun

It got super flat and very comfortable!

Today's hair

I turned the three braids into a Chinese bun. Instead of fully wrapping a single braid at the time, I basically had all three in motion at once to wrap them more nicely. I think it worked pretty well?

I brought the hair stick home from Lanzerote last year and I really like this one!

Today's hair

Today's hair is three cinnamon buns. I like how they are big enough to touch each other and stay nice and flat on my head. I do wish I had some more discrete hair pins though, but I'm not sure smaller ones could actually keep the buns under control?

Today's hair

Today's hair is three braids split with two on top and one at the bottom. I hope two get three days of updos out of these, so I don't have to think about my hair for work.

Product smackdown

   

A while back I reviewed the conditioners from this brand and now I'm trying the spray-based leave in conditioners. 

I'm going to compare them on a few different factors:

First impressions
Effect: Shine and manageability
Ingredient analysis and interesting ingredients such as "actives": Oils, fruits, keratin, sunscreen

Luksus Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume
Balsamspray til Tørt og Beskadiget Hår Uden Parfume
Mild Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume

Translated... 

Luksus Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume (Luxury conditioner spray for normal hair without perfume)

Balsamspray til Tørt og Beskadiget Hår Uden Parfume (Conditioner spray for dry and damaged hair without perfume)

Mild Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume (Mild conditioner spray for normal hair without perfume)

Luksus Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume (Luxury conditioner spray for normal hair without perfume)

First impressions 

This really doesn't smell like anything! Like, maybe vaguely of cardboard or something?

Effect

This one made my hair feel a little crunchy at the ends?

Ingredient analysis
Aqua, Glycerin, Betaine, Hexyldecanol, Hexyldecyl Laurate, Behenamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Polyglyceryl-2 Dipolyhydroxystearate, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate, Sodium Gluconate, Lactic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Benzoate

Interesting ingredients

Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant

Betaine is an amino acid with humectant properties

Hydrolyzed collagen is a protein

Balsamspray til Tørt og Beskadiget Hår Uden Parfume (Conditioner spray for dry and damaged hair without perfume)

First impressions 

This really doesn't smell like anything! Like, maybe vaguely of cardboard or something?

Effect

This one felt pretty good. Nothing fancy that really made me notice it, it just did a good job keeping my hair moist while I finished braiding it.

Ingredient analysis

Aqua, Glycerin, Bis-(Isostearoyl/Oleoyl Isopropyl) Dimonium Methosulfate, Creatine, Behenamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Polysorbate 20, Panthenol, Caprylyl Glycol, Dicaprylyl Ether, Glyceryl Oleate, Triticum Vulgare Protein, 1, 2-Hexanediol, Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Gluconate, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Benzoic Acid, Sodium Benzoate, Phenoxyethanol

Interesting ingredients

Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant

Creatine rebuilds and strengthen the hair structure

Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair

Triticum Vulgare is wheat, so wheat protein

Benzoic Acid has trigger warnings for both acne and irritations

Mild Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume (Mild conditioner spray for normal hair without perfume)

First impressions 

This really doesn't smell like anything! Like, maybe vaguely of cardboard or something?

Effect

This one felt pretty good. Nothing fancy that really made me notice it, it just did a good job keeping my hair moist while I finished braiding it.

Ingredient analysis
Aqua, Glycerin, Betaine, Hexyldecanol, Hexyldecyl Laurate, Behenamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Polyglyceryl-2 Dipolyhydroxystearate, Allantoin, Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate, Sodium Gluconate, Lactic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Benzoate

Okay, this is funny: The only difference from Luksus Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume (Luxury conditioner spray for normal hair without perfume) is that Mild Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume (Mild conditioner spray for normal hair without perfume) contains 

allantoin instead of hydrolyzed collagen. Other than that, the ingredient list is a complete copy+paste of each other. So hydrolyzed collagen is luxurious, but allantoin is mild? Hm, actually that isn't half wrong, since allantoin is known for having a soothing effect on skin. Not sure it extends to hair though?

Interesting ingredients

Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant

Betaine is an amino acid with humectant properties

Allantoin has a soothing effect on skin

In conclusion..

Lady Igor says

None of these really did a whole lot. But my favorite is: 

Mild Balsamspray til Normalt Hår Uden Parfume (Mild conditioner spray for normal hair without perfume)

It doesn't contain proteins and it doesn't contain the potentially irritating Benzoic Acid.

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Surprise awesomeness

I was ordering some other stuff from my usual training store, and on a whim, I threw some Under Armour headbands in the basket too. I've seen headbands used at the gym a lot, but I never really liked them before, so I'm honestly not sure why I got them....?

One of the things I got on purpose was the cool new water bottle. I wanted something to clip my gym card and keys onto, and I feel very clever for doing it. Heh.

Anyways, the headbands looked surprisingly nice!

They have that sticky silicone (?) line on one side of the headband to provide resistance and keep your hair in place. It was hard to catch in a picture though, since the layer is see through.

The seam welding the two ends together not only seemed strong, it is actually lowered compared to the rest of the fabric. No nasty sharp ends, nothing sticking out. I'm impressed. These are actually hair friendly!

Compare them to my old headbands that have a sticky silicone thread woven into them and a nasty sewn seam that sticks out a lot. 

I went with a black and white theme for my workout. White headband, black water bottle and I matched it with black and white workout clothing. (Except for the elastic support for my bad foot, which is more beige) I felt cool and well put together. Funny how much that can motivate you?

Pretty, new, hair friendly Under Armour headband and a black leather Flexi 8 holding my massive bun. The braided Nautilus bun is still the undisputed ruler of stability for the gym.