Sensitive skin sucks

Me: My skin is so sensitive...

You all: How sensitive is it?

Me: It is so sensitive, I get breakouts from my Neutrogena light therapy mask. 

Yea, it´s not really that funny. Sorry.

No joke though: I get really annoyed when people "abuse" the classification of having sensitive skin.

Too often have I heard people say they have sensitive skin when they flat out abuse it. 

If your skin is dry and cranky and your only "care" is to let your shampoo wash over your face when you rinse and maybe, maybe slap some crappy low SPF sunscreen on if you have to be outside in burning sun for too long, you don´t have sensitive skin. If your skin is oily and breaks out and you "care" for it by using whatever trendy, perfumy, brightly coloured, unicorn-themed product some editor was paid to advertise for in a glossy magazine, you don´t have sensitive skin. If your response to "Do you know if you have any allergies?" is "Uhhhh.....", you don´t have sensitive skin. 

So. Back to how sensitive sensitive skin can be.

For over a month, I have had this annoying breakout happening at two spots near my hairline. Above my ears, symmetrical placement.

Usually a breakout at my hairline points to a sensitivity to one or more of my skincare products. Because of the "massaging" motion, you end up pushing excess products into the hairline with your fingertips. Especially the hairline around the forehead is a typical area to get breakouts if the culprit is a product. It never really spreads very far into my scalp-area though: My scalps moisture barrier is strong and resilient and rarely causes me any problems. CO washes are my holy grail to protect my scalp from dehydration and irritation. I wish I could do the same for the skin on the rest of my body.

But the breakouts only happened right there. Slightly below where my glasses rests. Just in these two spots.

But I finally figured out what the problem is: It´s my hacked Neutrogena light therapy mask.
The mask fits a lot tighter around my face than a pair of glasses, and the earpieces touches my skin right there. The plastic ear pieces. Of course.
*Sigh*
I already knew that you should be aware what you let touch your face when you have sensitive skin. And I knew that you should always look for silicone tools since they are less reactive to any chemical (And therefore any product it might come into contact with) and more resistant to bacteria colonizing it.
But still.
This was a surprise.
And now I need to figure out what to do about it. Removing the earpieces would ruin the point of the mask. Maybe wrap something around right at the contact point? Like a bandaid that I can replace often?

Awkward selfie trying to show where the problem is.

That was kind of funny...

I was looking for my leave in-spray with SPF when I realized I have three completely identically shaped leave in-conditioner bottles. A quick Google search revealed that Garnier is part of the LÓreal group. Huh, I didn´t know that. Well, that explains it.

I bought the Garnier Fructis on Madeira last year, but for some reason I just keep bumping it to the back of the shelf and never really used it. Hmm.

Today´s hair

Braided Chinese bun.

Today´s hair

Double Dutch braids. Again. I feel like I live in these now??

And another silly Igor injury: I burned myself on the oven.

Hair: 1 – Ron Quattro: 0

Well, add this to the list of things my hair has destroyed: A Ron Quattro fork. I´m actually a little impressed. It made a nice, obvious bend on one of the sides.

I mean, destroying elastics (So, so, so many elastics) is easy, but a metal hair fork?

Today´s hair

Figure 8 bun.

I haven´t done these in a long while!

I´ve been just living in braids that can be turned into buns in the morning for months. It´s just more convenient for me to make a nice braid or nice braids in the evening and then wrap them up as buns in the morning. It saves me time in the morning and I still look and feel well put together.

But since today was a free day, I felt like doing something not braided.

I bought this (Gandalf the white) stick for the exact purpose of doing figure 8 buns, but it´s actually just a bit too long for comfort: When I was getting in the car, the top of it hit the opening and I made a totally not embarrassing squeaking noise in surprise. So happy no one saw or heard that! 

(People totally did. Sigh)

Caroline von Holnstein II

Darkhorse suggested I try my own version of Caroline von Holnstein´s hairstyle. I liked the idea!

What I liked about the last try I did of this
I felt that the back bun in my attempt had a good placement. Even though this was way, way too low down if you look at the original painting. It had a sort of long and elegant neckline-look to it.
In fact, I liked it so much that I might start placing my buns higher for normal wear!

What I disliked about the last try I did of this
The center part. It flat out hurt my scalp.
(I have such an odd natural parting: My follicles twist just a few degrees above my left eyebrow, but there is a lot of resistance and strength in the direction)

The weird sort of "ram horn" sort of shape of the front braids. I just don´t have anything to nice to say about that. It just looks plain weird in real life.

Nightgerbil shared pictures of the show Victoria, where she wears a sort of "reverse" version of the front braids. Wrapping the front braids down and around is way more wearable. Here is a good picture where it shows the partings were way further back than for Caroline´s.
On a side note, the style probably evolved into this, since Caroline's (Age 19) updo is from 1834 and Victoria's recreation (Age 18 in the beginning of the show) is from 1837.

Anyways. Here goes...

Two asymmetrical front braids and a back braid.
I got really bored braiding those long, thin lengths.
This must be the First World Problems version of the longhair circuit!

Look how thin my front braids are compared to Caroline´s:

I know this shows my thinnest braid best, but still:
Her front braids are almost as wide as her lips. Mine? Maybe as wide as my nose?
It´s a pretty big difference in the amount of hair in the braids.
Definitely either some false hair added, or some PaintShop. You are still all obligated to laugh at Mr. Igor´s joke. Thank you.

I had the thought I would make a five stranded back braid, but I just couldn't be bothered.....

Back braid up in a Nautilus.

And the two front braids wrapped around. Except that my front braids are wrapped tight around my head, this looks a bit like the pictures Nightgerbil shared of the show Victoria.

I took this picture to show how just the exactly wrong angle can make any updo look bad. It´s funny how every single updo have that one angle that just makes it look... "Meh".

After taking the pictures out of the phone, I realized I had put one of the front braids in the wrong "track". Arrgh!

Not so cute at a direct side view either. Nautilus buns can sometimes result in that awkward cannonball-effect where a bun becomes too "high" for the base.
Maybe a Royal bun would work well with this?
The flat, wide Royal bun with the two accent braids could result in some huge head-eating bun.

I did like the discrete, face-framing effect of the front braids!

Today's hair

Heh, that turned out pretty cool. I need some pins of a more fitting length though: These are too long, but every other pin I have is too short!

The top bun ended up pretty high on the head though, so every time I saw myself in the mirror, it left me with ½ second of confusion. I'm used to seeing my buns in the mirror, but usually they only show on the side or sort of the bottom of my head?

Today's hair

Three English braids stacked on top of each other. Going to see if I can turn them into three braided Nautilus buns stacked on top of each other tomorrow.

Throwback Thursday

Ah, the time where I managed to stuff all my hair up under a wig. Doubt I could do that now without looking like a scary cone-head.
I quite liked it actually. Wonder where that wig went? Probably lost it last time I moved?