Running

My Hubby shot this short video of me warming up at the gym. He thought it was funny how in movies hair always moves in this slow, sensual S-shape and my braid only sort of flings around. Naturally I’ve never seen what my hair looks like when I run so now I have to agree with him. 

[Bleep!] yeah!

I had Hubby take off another 2 cm today following my reverse U shape theory. (We didn’t take pictures of the process since we did that already)

Then I braided it.

And, well. I’m trying very, very hard not to get too excited here.

I know you can never do braids 100% accurate and you can never completely copy a hairstyle.

But…

As I was nearing the end of my braid, I noticed how the 3 strands were matched perfectly in length and thickness.

And the result?

This.

But yea, I’m trying very hard not the get super excited about this since it may just be more or less random luck, but the way it looks right now, we absolutely nailed the effect I wanted: More thickness all the way down and a short, fat little tassel.

We will have to see how it looks the next time I make a braid. 

Hi everyone!

Despite the cheerful title, today’s Igor is a cranky Igor. My parents came to visit two days ago and I showed them around Lund where we managed to get caught outside in what can only be described as a tropical downpour complete with the streets turned into rivers.

I didn’t think much about it until I spent all day yesterday sneezing and feeling sluggish. Damn!

Well, I ended up cancelling the yoga class I was going to attend with Chemist Friend today, just to be on the safe side. I really, really don’t want to get sick.

Of course having cancelled the class, I’m now feeling almost completely fine.

Then I decided to do a girly beauty night instead only to find that my beloved epilator had died on me. Sigh! I mourn for it. It has served me well these past… 10(?!) years. Oh well, pedicure and face mask and all will be done anyways.

The good thing is it gives me lots of time to spend with you guys! *Creepy smile*

First, I would like you all to take a read at the comments on A bit more of Q&A. I think stories like these should be required reading, not for having long hair but for being a person living among other people in general. Sheesh. I don’t hold much love for the human species in general, but this still left me lost for words.

I like the “horseshoe bun”. (I think I may give it a go, if my tailbone length hair is long enough.)
If it is comfortable and stable, then you have found the solution to your problem on your own. ;)
Super Clips (http://www.ficcare.com/Products.aspx?collId=56) can hold more hair than the Maximas style. Unfortunately, the choice of colours is quite limited. Have you looked into these?
Camille

I actually bought a set of two of those in large and black. I only kept them in my hair for a grand total of 2,3 seconds in 3 attempts. I think they have too much of a “scissor” effect instead of a “pliers” effect and all 3 times they shot out of my buns. It wasn’t nearly as funny as it sounds like: One of them nearly broke a mirror. I ended up trading them away.

About your border Ficcare clips flaking along the edges... Well, I have a blue one and it does that too... I would not buy clips from the Border collection again. However, the Lotus collection have a better finish, although the design is not for everyone...
Camille

*Nods*

You know, its weird/funny that before I bought them, everyone seemed to rave about them but after I bought them it seemed to be common knowledge that duh, the border collections totally flake, didn’t you know that? Argh.

Wow! Gorgeous! I had no idea these photos were from a phone--what kind of phone is it? It's pretty darn good!
Darkhorse

All my pictures are taken with my Nokia N82 which is a really old model. I’ve kept it because it has a good camera with a good flash. Unfortunately I really need to replace it now because the battery is dying on me and I refuse to pay the very high price to replace the battery when I can buy a new phone for that price (Seriously, F you Nokia. That is so not cool!)

And even more unfortunately, I’m super picky when it comes to phones: I don’t like touch screens so it needs to have a full slide out keyboard for texting and a camera that is better than what I have now (5 MP) and a good flash.

I would swear I saw a nice Nokia the other day with an 8 MP camera, flash and slide out keyboard but now I can’t seem to find it on the website or any other place at all, so WTF? Frustrations!

I’ll probably end up getting this one though: Link. Even though the camera isn’t better, which is what I wanted.

So pretty! This style really suits you, Igor :) I like the idea of securing the 'do with the braided-in scarf. Does the other braid slip? I know it looks like it firmly sits between the Dutch braided part and the scarf braid, but I would like to know if you threw in a few pins for fortification ;)
Ohtawen

No pins!

The first braid started slipping, but then I held it in place and wrapped the second one around my head and held it in place with it. At some point where I wrapped the excess scarf around the braids, I wrapped it around the “loose” braid ends and pulled them through and around with the scarf.

Errh, I’m not sure that explanation made any sense at all?

I’ll put it on my to do-list to take pictures of the process next time I do this style!

Dear Ida, I can't figure out how to post a private message to you, so please forgive me asking here: I've hair nearly as thick as yours but not nearly as long (I'm hovering between classic and a bit below, I always cut back). I have to wash my hair every 2 days, otherwise it's a greasy mess that ichtes. And I just can't seem to get my hair entirely dry. I wash in the early evening, leaving it open to dry. But my nape never seems to dry, it's always a little damp and looks greasy, even if I shampoo with harsh stuff. Since you have thick hair as well I'd love to know how you do it. Thanks! Greetings from Germany Anni Gothic Lolita from LHC
Gothic Lolita

Hi Anni!

Hm, gosh I think it sounds like you have a separate scalp and hair issue going on here. Lets start with the scalp: I do get some itchies/flakies but they seems to have almost disappeared now which leads me to conclude it was a winter problem from being cold and moist outside and hot and dry inside… But if yours persist even though its summer now, it must be something else. I know I have seen threads on itchy, greasy scalps but I never really paid attention to the so, hmm, on top of my head…

I wonder if your harsh stuff is maybe so harsh that it irritates your scalp into producing more grease. Have you tried scalp scrubs such as sugar scrub or cassia? If you have a tendency to get flakies, these will be a good supplement to your shampoos. Have you tried ACV rinses or dips to finish your washing routines? ACV will help restore pH problems if that is what irritates your scalp. (One tablespoon to a normal kitchen bowl sized amount of water) Other than that, I wonder how hot your washing water is: Too hot water is known to provoke greasy-attacks. Does my memory fail me or was there something about Monistat fixing scalp issues too? Hmm? Anyone?

About your hair, I wonder if maybe it needs a good clarifying. Hair that feels “confused” with dampness or greasies some times needs to be clarified. I know you wrote “shampoo with harsh stuff” but I still wonder if it is the “right” kind of harsh. After a clarification hair should literally squeak (!) which is the sign that all the natural oils have been stripped. If it’s done with the right shampoo, it shouldn’t be necessary to repeat it.

On the other hand, I wonder how long the greasies have been a problem. Is it fairly recent or is it ongoing? I know Little Orca had a problem like this not too long ago and the only thing she could do was to wait it out.

My hair seems to dry slower when it needs to be conditioned. It quite feels like my hair needs to conditioner to fill it up and expel water or it will act like a sponge for a long time.

I think what I would recommend is to look for “the right” kind of clarifying conditioner available in Germany, shampoo it without following it with a treatment and see what happens. How your hair acts after that should tell you more about what state it is in. I’m fairly sure I saw an article on LHC about what you can tell from how your hair reacts after a clarifying?

Other than that, I would try washing at a lower temperature and finishing with ACV rinses.

I hope you figure out what’s wrong!

Hi Igor I heard you were the expert on biotin and I have a cystic acne outbreak on my face from too much biotin. My doctor wont help me and it hurts so bad =( Do you have any advice? Im sorry to admit but I used to think you were wrong and biotiin was harmless but my doctor said it was deinfetely from biotin so I want to be anonymous
Anonymous

Hi Anon.

Sympathies!

I really feel sorry for you. Cystic acne is absolutely horrible!

For those who haven’t experienced it, I can describe it as having a splinter in your face. Except that it doesn’t just hurt, it has that distinct sick feeling to it like an infected wound. I’ve experienced a lot of pain in my life, broken bones and really bad sprains but cystic acne is up there on the top 10 of the most painful things I’ve ever been through. Usually when something hurts, you can do something to relieve it: Put ice on it or put the injured limb up, but with one of those nasty underground zits there is no relief. It sits right there in your face at all times, hurting when you eat, you smile or even when you shift positions in your sleep!

My advice is this:

Look up anti-inflammatory foods (I could do that and give you a list from Google, but go through it and find something to your own taste instead) and eat a bunch of them.

If you can get away with wearing a band aid on your face during work or school, do that. It will keep you from scratching and further irritating it.

When you can get away with it, smear the strongest Tiger Balm on it you can find. Try just putting it on the “cotton” part of your band aid.

When picking a band aid, pick the cheapest and most “plastic-y” ones you can find. You don’t want something that actually allows your skin to breathe, you want to create a real little sauna under there. Heat and moisture will help promote circulation and help your body clear it up.

Once you think you can actually drain it (Which is never as soon as you think or wish anyways!) try steaming it for a long time to open the pores before squeezing.

Today’s hair

Double Dutch braids wrapped around as crown braids and secured with the silk scarf I braided into the left braid. Scarf wrapped around the neck in an infinity-figure to secure the braids.

Some pictures

I want to share the pictures I found on my phone. Usually when I ask Hubby to take pictures of me, I find some I didn’t ask for. Usually close-ups of my boobage. But these were pretty cool…

Reverse U-shape experiment, part II

I had Hubby take a relatively cautious 2 cm off in the back today. Even though he didn’t feel like my head deserved to be in the picture (Ehh…?) I think you can see how I separated it anyways.

 

Then I did a simple English braid again.

Even though I know we took off very little of the back and that you can’t do braids 100% the same every time, I was still surprised to see my tassel was longer than yesterday.

Of course the braid looks slightly ticker before tying it off with the elastic than it did yesterday when I braided it down further, so for now, I’d say the 2 cm reverse U shape have had no effect.

Tomorrow we will take off a bit more. 

Reverse U-shape experiment, part I

First I wanted a regular normal trim so I could tell if and how the shape made a difference. So despite Hubby’s increasingly desperate pleading to let him off the hook, I still got him to do it for me.

Poor guy still haven’t realised that is why I prefer him doing it. I’d rather have someone terrified of doing it wrong than someone with the “Awesome! A blank canvas for my sick skills!”-attitude *cough*stylists*cough*

Anyways, here is the slightly blurry before-shot

And the after-shot

Hubby did a good job!

Actually I was the one who messed it up: We started talking about if I maybe could cut it between my own legs so I pulled it between my legs and snipped it the best I could. But when we put it back behind my shoulders again, it was uneven. Hubby evened it up for me so I lost a bit more than the 2-3 cm I asked for.

And then I braided it into a simple, low English braid.

Tomorrow we will do the reverse U-shape! 

Today’s hair

Well, a couple of days ago anyways?

I have felt pretty cranky and unmotivated for no apparent reason lately and it has affected my haircare too. Meh.

The funny thing is, I was very unhappy with the braid when I put it up but it looks pretty fine in the picture.

And uff, I really need a new phone. See the tape used to keep the battery in? Yeah, hehe. Oops.

A bit more of Q&A

I’ve wanted to do a remake of the biotin rant for a while. I was never really happy with it: It was written as a direct reply to someone back on LHC and I think it shows in the whole post. I even had to cut it down to get it to fit the 10.000 characters post limit. The whole thing reads as one long reply to someone and not an “article” or a piece worth linking to or remembering. I was actually a bit surprised it was taken so serious and became so popular.

Anyways. For the last two weeks the word document that contains it has been staring accusingly at me from its little icon and my desktop and I… Have been experiencing a complete writers block on it. The only thing I’ve managed to do is to clutter the document up with links and quotes.

I guess I just feel completely demoralised on putting some “real” work into it. I know those who already agree that moderation is the way to go will agree with it no matter what I write. And those who thinks I’m a jealous bitch who isn’t half as smart as them anyways (Also, I have bad hair!) because they found the magical pill for hair growth and just I’m trying to keep people from learning the secret to super hair growth will disagree with me no matter how many studies and recommendations I quote.

So yea, it feels entirely demoralising to put my best effort into it. It feels like just asking people to consider moderation will be met with a loud “Pfft!” complete with flying spit and all.

Meh.

So, time for more procrastination and replying to my gentle readers!

I think it's awesome you wanted to go bald. I've known a few people who have done this for that reason, or for charity events, but they wanted to try it and chose a cause so to speak.
It's sad that people can't do anything like this for their own reason. I mean, heck, it's your head, your hair and it suited you! and it seemed like fun--well, outside of the odd hair growth phases--to see where your hair would end up/how it would look etc.
Very admirable. :) 

~ Darkhorse

That’s a good point. Maybe you get less attitude from people for being bald if you can inform them you did it for a good cause? I guess if I had known of a worthy charity that could have benefitted from my bald head, I would have done it for them instead of only myself.

My only regret is that I didn’t get dreadlocks or something cool before shaving it. Why not do something like that if you’re going to cut it anyways? I could have used more planning!

Thanks for replying! I found one 400g container of cassia at the local health foods/organic goods/homeopathic excesses store. Sounds like that's more than enough!
I've been curious about the thickening properties in part because my mother has really really thin hair and worries about it a lot. If I try cassia and it works for me, I might suggest we try it together sometime. 

~ gossycrafts

Most welcome! I try to reply to people’s posts when they take the time to comment or ask me something, but I’m really bad at remembering it. Same with emails. I always forget to reply after reading.

I have a single additional thought to cassia: I guess depending on how thick (Cassia heavy) your mix is you may want to double the volume of how much treatment you usually use. A standard 200 ml conditioner bottle can give me a nice coverage for a deep conditioning, but I think I need to almost double the volume in total for cassia. It’s a lot harder to spread and you probably shouldn’t try too hard when it’s so “rough” and grainy. (That’s a good quality if you want to exfoliate your scalp though!)

OMG I really really enjoyed you talking about shaving your head and people's reactions and general stupidity. I find it very impressive that you're so sensible about stuff like this, I find people in the "long hair community" (not the forum with that name just people online who grow their hair long and care about it a lot) react really weirdly to things like shaving your hair. It's almost like long hair is "sacred" or something and if you do anything like dye/cut/damage/shave it, you're a criminal! 

~ Theodora 

Haha, thank you, thank you!

Uhm, gosh where to start here…

1) Thank you. But I said that already.

2) Someone once used the term “long hair circuit” and I kind of liked that. That should cover all forums and non-forums and groups and tumblrs and what have you. It’s not meant to correct you or anything, I just kind of like it.

3) Completely agree on the “sacred” thing. And I totally don’t get that!

I mean, most of us live in societies where shoulder length hair is considered “long” and waist length is “Holy effing crap!”-long. Hence, people with really long hair get a lot of crap from people who don’t get it (Just see how many threads with “My [Blank] said something mean about my hair!” you can find on any hair forum) and naturally it’s nice to go on a forum where people understand you!

And yet, you get a lot of crap about “ideal” hair. And a lot of people being busy passing judgement on hair that in their personal world is “weird” (Because their own hair is of course normal)

You would think you could find a “sisterhood” in having long hair and having other people not understanding, but instead of supporting each other in their “weird” hair, so many pass judgement on hair, treatments, cuts and methods?

I’ve even had people getting upset over plans to trim my hair. Yes, people get upset because I wanted to trim my own hair. I don’t think I can explain my reaction to that without using several curse words.

It’s like if you have “good” hair you absolutely have to grow it super duper long. Which I really don’t get. And seems to be indirectly/passive-aggressively rude to everyone who doesn’t have “good” hair. Because it is not “Such a shame!” if someone with thin hair cuts it? Errh…

Long speech short: I agree. I don’t get it. I don’t get the pushing for “the perfect length” and I don’t get why people are so busy passing judgement on other people’s hair.

(Boring anecdote: On LHC someone posted how “World record long hair would be crazy!!!1!” and I replied that it wasn’t very nice since someone with “world record long hair” could easily be a member there. I mean, honestly, what kind of idiot would go on a long hair forum and then post about how crazy extra long hair is? Anyways, apparently that was very rude of me and I got an infraction for it. Shortly after, she posted about how she had overheard a comment that might have been about her hair so naturally she came to whine and moan and get lots of sympathy on LHC. How do you like your tall glass of karma, bitch? Unfortunately in her case, it didn’t come with a side order of “learning from your experiences”.)

4) I just don’t think I’m a shallow person in that way. I’m not beating my own drum and I know everyone probably says so too, but I really don’t think I am.

Maybe it comes with having super sensitive skin. I always had people drawing conclusions about me based on the state of my skin (“Filthy pig who can’t do a simple wash-tone-moisturise routine” seems to be a surprisingly common conclusion) and I guess I just never felt the need to take my frustrations out on other people. Appearances don’t say much about the real person inside.

5) Before I shaved my head I did a lot of fun things to my hair. Mostly bleaching or colouring in crazy coloured stripes. I actually quite liked the crazy streaks. It was fun, easy, you could display them or hide them and didn’t take too much upkeep: If you aren’t super dedicated to colouring-upkeep it seems all crazy colours eventually fades into a disgusting rotten moss-kind of colour. With just stripes, you are a lot freer.

But no matter what crazy colour thing you do to your hair, someone else has done it already. It probably won’t shock anyone but a few conservative grandparents. Being bald on the other side… Well, no one sane would voluntarily go bald, right? Right!

So up to shaving my head, I had never really experienced anyone giving me crap for my hair. That all changed though.

But all criticism and meanness depends on where it comes from.

My mother was deeply disturbed by my bald head. But to quote Chandler Bing on Friends: “I expect this from her. She has always been a Freudian nightmare.”

What I didn’t expect though, was that my closest friend at that time acted like that too.

The following might be offending, but I think I need to explain anyways: She used to be fat. Like, not “curvy” or anything. She was a fat girl. But once she went off to university and away from moms home cooking and was busy with school and taking care of herself (Less time for snacking?) the weight just dropped off her. She told me about how angry it made her that people treated her differently. How annoyed she was that guys never looked twice before. How people treated her with more respect now. How everyone suddenly stopped treating her like “the fun one”.

In short; I thought she was a non shallow friend. I thought she had learned from her personal experience how awful it is when people are shallow jerks.

I guess I assumed there was a version of “Do not do unto others what you would not want them do unto you.” that went “Do not repeat unto others what others have done to hurt you.”  

But with my waist length hair gone and a bald head instead, she turned out the be embarrassed to be seen with me!

That hurt me really deeply. I still can’t believe that someone who should have learned that beauty comes from the inside and that shallowness is awful and hurtful would act like that. We ended up just sort of going our separate ways and I haven’t talked to her in 10 years, but I will never forget that experience.

Other than just plain being a bad friend, it had me thinking: What if I got a sickness that affected my looks? What if I got cancer and turned bald “for real”? What if I ended up in an accident and in a wheelchair? Maybe covered in scars?

How would she react to that if she was embarrassed over just my bald head?

No, people like that have no place in my life.

And on that sunny note… Good night to all!

Random amusement of the day