The final haul

I’ve thought a lot about how much longer I should keep growing. I feel my ends are notably thin now, maybe not so much when it’s dry and loose (My hairs tendency for mad volume makes them fluff up) but I feel it’s just too thin to even bother to braid anymore.

I do think it would be kind of cool to see if I could make my hair touch the floor, but that would take me another two years or so if I don’t get any trims.

But going trim-free again is out of the question. With the ends being as thin as they are, I will definitely need some trims to keep them in decent shape.

So with trims, it would take me another three years or so. Just to see my hair touching the floor. Hmm. Doesn’t seem worth it, does it?

But then again, I can always let it grow and see how it goes.

No matter what happens, I can always take it back to the length I was the happiest with: Slightly above mid thigh aka “reach length”.

That was long enough to do all the cool styles I love, and more manageable because I didn’t have to be “creative” to tend to the ends.

Maybe I should just go for some small trims and see how it goes?

That’s the beauty of hair: It just keeps growing if you don’t screw it over too badly.

Today’s hair

Some time ago I found a tutorial for a knotted headband updo. The lady split her hair in two and then literally knotted it along the length before pinning it around her head.

It looked really cute and romantic on her hair, so I knew by experience that it wouldn’t translate to my hair.

(My mane does not do “cute” or “romantic” updos, nuh uh)

I figured maybe it could translate well into a bun, so I made a ponytail, knotted the length and pinned it up.

Well… It’s not like I dislike it. It’s just that it looks like just about any other bun I ever made, more or less.

This requires more experimentation though. 

Summer is coming

One of my favourite things about spring/early summer is all the wild flowers around this time. They form a real blanket in places, sometimes even on the manicured lawns of the city parks.

Trim mishap

Here’s what happens if you don’t pay enough attention when you do a S&D… 

Q&A

How are your new hair toys working out? Are they heavy at all? Are they sturdy? Adelina

They are awesome! I can absolutely recommend them: Sturdy and super smooth and hair friendly.

You made me curious so I put them on my kitchen scale.

In comparison my butterfly Flexi 8 is 50 gram…

Left to right:

Stick set: 15,5 cm long and 10 grams.

Stick set: 18 cm long and 10 grams. This set is a bit too flexible for my liking. I never had any problems with them not holding my hair up, but they don’t feel “right”.

Fork: 18 cm long and 25 grams. I need to grow into this one, lol!

Small fork: 15,5 cm long and 5 grams. So far this one is my favourite.

Big fork: 15,5 cm long and 5 grams.

(Those two seems to be meant to be used together, but they work perfectly fine alone)

Fork: 15,5 cm long and 5 grams.

Pins: 10,5 cm long and 10 grams for all 4. I have to admit I simply haven’t tried these pins yet…

Please could you do an up to date vitamin regime?Anonymous

Sure. My current vitamin regime is: “Try to remember to take a vitamin, a fish oil and a fibre each day. Shrug and realise you tend to forget it.”

My dedication to a supplement regime comes and goes since I can’t see any difference. At the moment it is just about entirely gone.

How gorgeous! Igor, I forgot what you do for a living--I think it's in the science field---I want to say nursing, but I could have you mixed up with someone else. Anyhow, looks like you had an amazing place to stay at! Darkhorse

Thank you :)

For now, my profession will have to be a secret since it makes me rather easy to recognise IRL.

oh, will try! Btw, I made the mistake of going to a hairdresser the other day. Stupid is as stupid does /face palmrockpaperscissorlizardspock

Ugh. Sorry to hear that! We really should find a time and place where we can meet up and exchange trims :) I have my ridiculously expensive super-scissor ready to go

Figure 8

Figure 8 with my new Ron Quattros

Collagen light therapy

While I was away in Denmark I ran into a tanning salon where they have the collagen light therapy/ infrared light therapy.

I’ve read about this a couple of times before, so I was instantly up for trying it.

It has a number of claims:

The light frequency claims to generally improve the circulation deep in the skin and improve skin cell renewal, which leads to prettier and firmer skin. It has claims of reducing wrinkles, reducing liver spots, reducing acne and reducing stretch marks.

To the cynic in me, this sound like one of those claims that makes me mentally finish it with “…And with this amazing product, your coffee will never be cold and you will never step in dog poo ever again!”

Yea.

It is said it has a proven effect on (winter) depression. Now that one I do actually believe.

Anyways.

Cynic side aside (Heh), I actually wanted to try this thing since first I heard of it.

This is something I could actually believe would benefit skin. I could just never believe that any cream, no matter how sci fi-fancy, could actually penetrate deep enough and “rearrange” skin enough to make a difference in its appearance.

Fade stretch marks and scars? Sure. But maybe just rubbing a normal, cheap cream on would do the same. Wouldn’t the stimulation of the circulation and some simple moisture help too? How would you know you wouldn’t get the same effect from a cheaper cream? You wouldn’t.

The scars on my lower legs have come a long way (A long, long way) but since they are still sensitive to just about anything and everything, I crossed my fingers the light therapy would help.

It came with a hefty price tag: Their special offer was 12 treatments in total for 995 kroner.

133 Euros and 184 USD.

Ouch.

They had a complicated system to determine how often you should go to begin with and how often you should go after for “maintenance”, but since I didn’t care about the anti age claims and all that, I just went for once a week.

It works almost like a normal tanning bed: You go in, you lie down and you wait until it switches off again. Only the “bed” is even less comfortable because it’s not ergonomical at all and the treatment time is 20 minutes instead of however long a tanning takes.

A bright pinkish light starts up and it seems to increase in strength through the treatment, but that might be an optical illusion.

20 minutes is a long time. The first time I was bored out of my mind. It didn’t help that I couldn’t figure out how to kill the damn radio either. Is there anything more obnoxious than radio hosts? DJ’s maybe?

Meh. I couldn’t see any difference after the first treatment, but I had not expected that either. 

The next couple of times I learned to relax in the infrared bed. The bright pink light and the warmth are very relaxing. Combined with the quiet hum of the air conditioning, it just made my mind blank out. In the end, I ended up falling asleep a lot.

When I had used up the first 12 treatments, I couldn’t spot a difference for sure. I didn’t look younger, my scars hadn’t faded noticeably and my freckles were still there.

I did however think my skin had a healthier glow.

And my skin was definitely crazy soft a full 24 hours after each treatment. Like, crazy soft: No cream had ever worked such magic, ever!

Hubby complimented it on me several times too (And we’re talking about a man who never notices anything like that)

So I ended up refilling my card twice with two special offers more. Definitely more money than I liked having on what is basically an unsecured credit card. Hmm!

Would I recommend it?

Yes. Even with the hefty price tag.

I do think it did do something to my skin. Maybe something I could have spotted if I did a before and after-shot. Maybe I did need to follow the complicated schedule. But I didn’t.

It definitely made my skin softer though. Noticeably.

I would go to an infrared light therapy treatment again if there were one in Lund. To my knowledge there isn’t…

Oh, and you know you’re a longhair when you end up having to turn that little “pillow” around to make room for your bun instead of resting the back of your head on it! 

Dammit

My cute little 10” laptop died. I had it in to get it checked, and they said it was the motherboard.

Typical. It’s 2 years and 2 months old so it’s just not worth the time or money to do anything to fix it up anymore.

Sigh. 

Braidwaves!

Ron Quattro haul

I got my first Ron Quattros and I’m very pleased with them.

Strong, hair friendly and a wonderful finish. They feel like they would never chip or peel.

The Flexstixs feels a bit too… Well, flexible. Haha.

Otherwise, I just know the rest of these will be my new favourites!