Today's hair

Today's hair is four small braids made with five strands each. Going to be lazy the next few days!

Product showdown

Philip Kingsley Body Building Weightless Conditioner
Philip Kingsley Moisture Extreme Conditioner

Philip Kingsley is a little out of the price range I usually like my products to be in, but every single product I ever tried from them has been really good.

Philip Kingsley Body Building Weightless Conditioner

Aqua/Water/Eau, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Dimethicone, Isopropyl Alcohol, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Ethylhexylglycerin, Parfum (Fragrance), PVP, Triethanolamine, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate.

Excluding water, there is 12 ingredients in this product.
2 ingredients rated a "2" for acne triggers. 14 %
1 ingredient rated a "1" for acne triggers. 7%

1 ingredient rated a "2" for irritant. 7%
1 ingredient rated a "4" for irritant. 7%

Excluding water, 6 ingredients are rated green for safety. 42%
4 ingredients are rated yellow-green for safety. 28%
2 ingredients are rated yellow for safety. 14%

Link

Philip Kingsley Moisture Extreme Conditioner

Aqua/Water/Eau, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, PPG-3 Benzyl Ether Myristate, Cetyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Caprylyl Glycol, Orbignya Oleifera Seed Oil, Panthenol, Persea Gratissima Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Germ Oil, Bis(CB-15 Alkoxy) PG-Amodimethicone, Silicone Quaternium-18, Parfum (Fragrance), Trideceth-6, lsopropyl Alcohol, C14-15 Alcohols, Trideceth-12, Ethylhexylglycerin, Citric Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Butylphenyl Methylpropional.

Excluding water, there is 26 ingredients in this product.

3 ingredients rated a "2" for acne triggers. 11%
1 ingredient rated a "5" for acne triggers. 4%

3 ingredients rated a "2" for irritant. 11%
1 ingredient rated a "4" for irritant. 4%

Excluding water and Bis(CB-15 Alkoxy) PG-Amodimethicone which COSDNA can't find, 17 ingredients are rated green for safety. 65%
2 ingredients are rated yellow-green for safety. 7%
6 ingredients are rated yellow for safety. 23%

Link

Shoelace bun

At my last attempt of the braided log roll, I had one more thought I wanted to try: Instead of using a hairstick to create a "scaffold", how about just using the Dutch braids themselves to weave the braids through?

And holy crap!

This looks awesome!
I haven't been this impressed by an updo since I got the rope braids to work for me.

This updo (I guess you can't really call it a bun?) looks so much more complicated than it is. It was very flat and super comfortable. A win all around!
I guess the only problem is, you need a lot of length to create this. I'd say knee length minimum.

I really thought I was onto something new, but after some digging, I found another blogger who have created this before (Well, more or less since she makes a weird detail when she starts the braids) Even under the same name. I was very disappointed by this.

I did however feel so inspired and enthusiastic after this, that I'm considering making a series on updo videos for practical updos for long hair: Updos that actually looks different and is worth your time to create.

Trim and measure

Mr Igor trimmed my hair and helped me measure in for the first time in years: Around 152 cm or 59,8 inches.

So whats up with Igor?

I had a long moment of self pity over how incredibly screwed everything is because of the Corona virus. I felt genuinely sorry for myself, even though my work is essential, stable and continues as planned, even though my school continues as planned (Just might be online again this autumn like it was this spring) and even though no one I know has gotten sick.

I still have no idea when I will hear something new about my surgery. Still postponed, that's all I know. By now I really just want to get it over with. I'll make another video once I do.

Strangely, I find the Buffdudes road to recovery playlist very useful even though it's a planned surgery versus an accident. If I plan for it correctly and take my recovery process seriously, everything will be well eventually.

Anyways. We don't dare to count on travelling anywhere any time soon, especially since we have two different nationalities and there are a lot of differences in what different nationalities can do in which countries, and it seems to change on a daily basis.
We can't even really go anywhere here in Sweden because they banned you from travelling over two hours away from where you live (And no, we have absolutely no clue how they think they can check, calculate and judge that either).
Even local summer events has been drastically reduced.

To do something useful with our time, mr Igor signed up for an advanced programming course and I picked up another work #2 since old work #2 went under in the Corona crisis.

I might have overdone it though. Good thing we have a planned trip to Læsø in week 38 and 39 coming up. I need something pleasant to look forward to.
This is what my calendar looks like now:

      

Colour codes
Light blue: Work #1
Dark blue: Work #2
Orange: Things I do voluntarily, but isn't really fun
Red: Fun stuff
Yellow: School

But what can I do for fun this summer?
What is there to do for dopamine and seratonin?
Of course there is always food and snacks, but that's a pretty bad strategy.

Then I thought of one of my favorite things in this world: Christmas calendars. Which I have posted about on this blog way too much.

But surely, there will be no Christmas calendars left over on the market in July.
Would there?

The answer might not surprise you.
Since, obviously yes, otherwise I wouldn't have made a post about it.

On a site called parfumdreams, I found three different ones and I bought them all.
Verveine Advent Calendar by L'Occitane
For Her Advent Calendar by Alcina
Xmas Advent Calendar by Alessandro

Except for the L'Occitane calendar, I've never heard of the brands before.

But hey, this is a little bit of fun every day, that doesn't involve calories or leaving the safety of my home for unnecessary trips. I'm going to open one on the 1st to the 24th for the next three months.

Braided log roll variation II

Okay, another thought on the braided log roll variation: What if I simply made two Dutch braids, pinned a stick up between them, pinned the two braids up and over the stick, and then "weaved" the two braids through the pinned braids?

And... I loved it!

This was super easy to create and it held really well.

Also it looked highly unusual and nothing like any other bun I have in my current updo rotation.

So I need a name for this. My suggestion is "woven log roll"  to play with the "braided log roll" buns name. What do you think?

Braided log roll variation

I got an idea from my last attempt of the log roll: Since a five-stranded Dutch braid still didn't flatten the updo enough, how about if I made two Dutch braids that I braid into one at the neck, and then pin the log roll itself up again between the two Dutch braids?

And it turned out okay.

It's not great, but I do think it looks better than last I tried it.

It did give me another idea though, and I will try it soon.

Another Nautilus variation

The Nautilus variation the other day gave me an idea: What if I used two coils for the outer part of the Nautilus bun?

This was surprisingly hard to create. Keeping two coils "out" and still trying to maintain the right tension was pretty difficult. I also thought that it would show with the two "outer" coils, but it really doesn't. Even if you know, you can't really tell.
I liked how flat the bun got, but it got some serious lopsidedness going on, which I disliked.
It also got noticeably less stable than a usual Nautilus bun, but that might be connected to how much harder I found it to keep the two "outer" coils free.

Luisa's Nautilus bun variation

Luisa commented this on my semi-failed Nautilus bun:

I have an idea: try coiling once or twice as nautilus and the rest of the length as a cinnamon bun. I did that once but only on extra greasy hair because it had grip. on freshly washed hair my houdini hair escapes any updo lol

I tried it and this is the result:

I would have liked this to be a lot flatter, but I think I say that about all my buns?! The "cinnamon" part seemed to push the bun outwards a little.
But what I do like, is that it didn't alter the Nautilus's awesome stability, and that it didn't get that weird lopsided effect I've been getting with Nautilus buns lately. I think this is a bun I can actually grow into and would benefit from longer hair... wow.

Cassia treatment

Edit: Fixed gifs