Today's hair

I had an idea to tuck in the ends of my braids when I do a crown wrap.

Hair is in two Dutch braids...

I wrapped the braids around, tucked them under themselves, then pulled slightly to keep the wrap tight.
Then used a small elastic to tie the two braids to each other at the ends.

Twisted the two braids together.

Pushed a Ron Quattro pin through the braids near the elastic.

And tucked everything under the braids.
Good thing my ends are thin enough that a little "bun" like that can be hidden under the braids, haha (Cry)

I really liked it.

Quite smooth to look at, with none of the usual hair sticks to hold everything up.

Sigh

This is with CC cream and cushion foundation. Ouch.
When you are so sensitive to an ingredient that you also need to check the ingredient list on your partners products.... Sigh.
It turned out that the reason the skin around my mouth has been freaking out the last week is Hubby's new shampoo (That he also uses to clean his beard) which contains aloe vera.

(Actually it's not as simple as "I'm allergic to aloe vera", because I'm allergic to the skin of aloe vera. So if the aloe vera has been peeled first as opposed to squeezed whole, I can tolerate it. Of course this is not something that is mentioned on the products. Ever. So it's trial and error for me. For instance, one of my old timey favorite product lines Secretkey's Snail Repairing line contains aloe vera and I didn't know until after I started using i. I just prefer not to gamble on my luck with aloe in products.)

Stuhr hair protection spray

You thought I was kidding about this SPF spray for hair, didn't you?

I don't mess around when it comes to sun protection.

So now I have one in my shoulderbag and one in my bathroom.

Hair inspiration

So a rope braid, wrapped up going around itself (I think? It's not too easy to see from the second last picture) and secured somehow.

I can't do rope braids.
But I can do Dutch braids. I usually wrap them down around the neck before going up again through.
It's worth a try to see if it looks better or different from going up first and wrapping them around themselves.

Unimpressed Igor is unimpressed.

This was really not cute at all.

I think this would be a super cute style if your hair was just long enough, that the braids can "reach" each other and do the little twist on top before tucking them under themselves.
A lot of length is definitely not good for this one. I had to wrap them around the "base" of the braids before wrapping up again.

Or maybe if you have less volume?  It did get very bulky.

Oh well. Was worth a try.

Throwback Thursday

Ah, I actually miss this style. It was just a scarf pulled through a ponytail-elastic, wrapped around the ponytail and then wrapped up as a cinnamon bun before tying it off.

Now if I try something similar, it beebutts....

Shopping suggestions for me

I was on Etsy today to check if maybe Ron Quattro was making those cool neon hairsticks again. Did anyone else see those? It seemed they were there for so short, then gone again.

Etsy then started suggesting items from NightBlooming and it hit me: I've never tried any products from there before. Isn't it like a longhair must-have/must try kind of thing?

I mean, it seems someone is always raving about the Panacea salve on the hair forums at all times.

I should try that one, right?
Maybe the sample pack with all three salves?
The scalp scrub and herbal detanglers looks great too. Maybe try a rise? Or a hair tea for drinking?

Anyone? Opinions? What should I try?

Today's hair

The failed infinity bun the other day kept annoying me.

I get it: You always get a different result when you have completely different amounts of hair (Both thickness and length) from the person demonstrating an updo.

But still... Felt like I was missing something to compensate for my extra length.

So I tried something today...

I love it!
Such a "clean" and pretty infinity shape!

I didn't know I would have loved the result this much, otherwise I would have taken pictures of the process. So here is a paint-explanation...

Here's what I did
First step: Put hair in a ponytail and poke a fork through vertically.

Form the first loop around the fork (red)

Form the second loop around the fork (green)

Pull the ponytail through the middle of the infinity shape (blue)

 Pull the ponytail through and behind the first loop (yellow) so the ponytail is squeezed in between the hair fork and the first loop

Tighten the infinity shape a bit, then twist and continue wrapping the tail around in the opposite direction (pink)

My instinct the first time I did the bun was to keep wrapping in the same direction I came from, but this was what caused the lopsidedness. You need to change directions to even out the shape from your natural taper.

Continue wrapping and tuck the ends under the bun (white)

Hair inspiration

I never got the infinity bun to work for me, so I hoped these simple instructions worked for me.

Well... They sort of didn't.

First of all, I couldn't get any pins or scroos to hold my hair at all, so I tried with a Ron Quattro fork.

I couldn't really tell what she did at step #8, but at #7 it looked like she just tucked the tail under?

Anyways: It got pretty lopsided. And wasn't pretty at all. Hmpf.

Personal success

I generally try to keep my blog on track: It was made as a personal "scrapbook" for my own hair, but some beauty stuff and other off-topic stuff tends to sneak in there.

But, today I have to share a personal success story: I survived the dentist today!

Okay, you need a little more background to understand why it's important to me...
I'm terrified of the dentist.
Like, scared shitless.
Terrified.

Before moving out from my parents', I had encountered two dentists. One of the regular family variety and one for braces.

The regular one was just plain useless. I was never sedated enough and by now Every. Single. Filling. he ever did has either just fallen out or had to be drilled out because an even worse cavity was forming underneath it, from not having been fixed right in the first place.
Completely useless.

The one for the braces was known among all the children in the area for being completely crazy. Everyone knew it: Even if you just went there for an assessment, you would leave with braces. No one escaped. Ever.
So of course I had to have braces too. And I suffered the headaches and shredded lips for 6 years. The result? Well, not much. Looking back I can't see why I needed them in the first place.
Oh, and my bite got too narrow after all those years (Funny how that happens when you keep tightening a brace like that! Shocker.) so I was fitted with a retainer for some years after that.
Sort of to get my teeth back to where they were before.

Like I said: I have my reasons to fear dentists.

After a while it becomes a Pavlovian response and not something you can actually control.

Today I went to the dentist to have a tooth fixed. A piece of it had fallen out some time ago and it looked and felt exactly like if someone had cut a piece out of a cake.
Of course it turned out that it was a cavity formed under the crappy work of dentist #1 which had undermined the tooth and broken off. Shocker.

It was seriously terrifying, especially since the dentist and the dental nurse said it wouldn't be easy (gulp) but I survived!

Last week in hair

Monday
Why did I rinse my hair out the other day? I might as well just have left it in.
I repeat what I did Saturday, only with adding an Lador ampoule. Then put the same pyjamas back on and go back in front of the computer.

Tuesday
Hubby is coming home today.
Uhh...

Good news
I have done a lot of work on my project and is ahead of time now. Maybe we can even have a little vacation together now that Hubby can travel again?
Bad news
I have played foul bachelorette frog for like 5 days in total. I have spent an unholy amount of time on 4chan. The apartment is a mess with pizza cartons, takeout boxes and empty soda bottles everywhere. Whoops. I probably ruined all my dieting now. Also, I barely saw sunlight since Friday.

So... Cleaning. Finish washing hair. Prepare nice dinner (Mixed, oven roasted vegetables, steaks, fried mushrooms and whiskey sauce) and pick Hubby up.

Hubby doesn't have to know. Unless he reads my blog.
Damn.

Hair? Braided nautilus.

Wednesday

Near the bus hub in the middle of Lund, there is a little bubbly pool. Quite often there is at least one duck there. It's pretty funny how much they love their water. People, dogs and traffic? No problem, we have water!

Just when I was about to take a picture, they decided to take off. I though the picture was ruined, but it turned out pretty cool!

Hair is in a Chinese bun.

Thursday

I intended a deep conditioning with Schwarzkopf Gliss million gloss conditioner. But it turned out to be one of those conditioners that starts dripping intensely much after a few minutes. Just a minute after I had finished wrapping it up in cling wrap and putting the heating cap over, it started dripping like crazy. 

I don't know what it is, but some conditioners have a crazy dripping going on. It's like the product separate once it comes into contact with hair? 

Anyways, my intended deep conditioning turned into just 20 minutes. Couldn't stand any more.
To make everything even more irritating, the conditioner didn't even add any real shine. Total fail product!

Hair is feeling pretty slippery and unmanageable, maybe I didn't rinse it out enough?
I put it up in a simple braid.

Friday

Nurse-friend send me the picture underneath with a joke about how much it looks like me.

Gosh.

She. Is. Gorgeous.

There is so much I love about the picture: The "hime" style short parts. That her hair is longer than the skirt. The hint of waves or curls.

Gorgeous!

It doesn't happen a lot that I'm jealous of someones hair like this.

Does anyone know this woman? Does she have a blog?

Hair is in yesterdays braid, wrapped up in a nautilus bun.

Saturday

It's cold and windy, but I decide to do something fun with my toenails and wear sandals out anyways. 

The result was too shiny to capture, but it's a pink snakeskin-like pattern with shiny silver details. 

Trampy toes :)

Hair is in a figure 8 bun.

Sunday
I'm really happy I got through reviewing some of the products that I've had around forever. It was beginning to make me feel bad I had so many products piled up in the "to review"-pile. Although I am very surprised at how bad the cosdna analysis of the cholesterol product was!

Hair is back in a simple braid.

Hubby annoyed me today, so I whacked him with my braid. Somehow I managed to get my braid right into his eye. Whoops.