Blogging from A to Z challenge: I is for Ingredients to look out for

This is my personal list of ingredients I look out for in a product. Unfortunately this is not a complete list, since that would be several pages long, but this is just a rough overview. 

As a general rule, I like silicones. It probably comes with the coarsie-territory, but I never had issues with cones and they really help to keep my hair manageable. 

Amodimethicone is a cone particularly prone to build up.

Dimethicone is an emollient and silicone

Dimethiconol is a silicone polymer, which is a non-water soluble film former. Since it isn't water soluble, it's a silicone that builds up easily. 

I also like Quaterniums. I know some don't. 

Polyquaternium-10 is a quaternium ammonium compound that is particularly prone to building up.

Polyquaternium-37 is a quaternium ammonium compound and will bind to the damaged areas of hair.

Quaternium-87 is a quaternium ammonium compound and will bind to the damaged areas of hair.

I generally try to avoid too much proteins since my hair is as coarse as it is. Protein just attaches to the surface and can't penetrate to where it should go, so it leaves my hair crunchy and irritated.

Arginine is an amino acid found in human hair and supposedly promotes circulation and stimulates growth hormones to prevent hair loss.

Betaine is an amino acid with humectant properties.

Cocodimonium Hydroxypropyl Hydrolyzed Keratin is a protein

Hydrolyzed Keratin is a protein

Hydrolyzed collagen is a protein

Hydrolyzed keratin is a protein

Hydrolyzed Soy Protein is a protein

I also have a list of more or less random ingredients I like in my products.

Allantoin has a soothing effect on skin.

Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it lowers the surface tension between oil and water so it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing

Cetyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it lowers the surface tension between oil and water so it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing

Cetyl Esters is an emollient that soften hair and soothes the scalp

Creatine rebuilds and strengthen the hair structure  

Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant.

Niacinamide aka vitamin B3 is a very effective skin-restoring ingredient against ageing and environmental stress. Not entirely sure what good it would be for hair, but I can't protest against having it in a product that touches my scalp.

Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair.

I love sunscreen in my products! I'm not sure how much good it does, especially in rinse-off products, but I don't care. Even the tiniest little bit of effect is better than none.

Avobenzone is the best UVA protection of non-mineral filters, but also protects against UVB. Good safety rating.

Ethylhexyl Triazone is a sunscreen protecting against UVB radiation.

Homosalate is a UVA and UVB protector with a decent safety rating.

Mexoryl SX has strong UVA protection

Octinoxate (Octyl methoxycinnamate) is a powerful UVB protector with a bad safety rating. It also goes under the name of Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate and octyl methoxycinnamate. I dig into this one a little bit more here

Octisalate is a UVA and UVB protector with a decent safety rating.

Octocrylene is a UVA and UVB protector with a decent safety rating.

Oxybenzone is a UVA and UVB protector with a bad safety rating. It could be a problem for sensitive skin types and there are some concerns about its impact on the oceans.

Titanium dioxide is a physical UVA and UVB protector with a decent safety rating.

Zinc oxide has excellent, physical UVA protection, but also protects against UVB. Is a potential acne trigger even though it’s generally considered safe for skin.

I generally avoid extracts, because you never really know what actually is in them. There is an episode of The Snailcast where Shell of Holysnails talks about how a supplier to her webshop offered her ruby extract to add to her products. Which is completely nonsensical, but explains a lot of what extracts can be. It can be something good, but it can also be a root quickly dipped in a bucket of alcohol. What it takes to extract the extract is never specified.

Blogging from A to Z challenge: Habits

 

H is for for habits.
Perhaps the most well known and classic hair advice is to practice benign neglect. And I agree: It's important.
But, I think the advice should probably be more like "Practice good habits" instead.
Benign neglect points to more of a "Do as little as possible"-approach, which is very close, but not entirely the same as building some good, hair friendly habits.

After all, I think for most people "Do as little as possible" can leave you... Well, gross and with boring hair. And why grow your hair long to begin with, if you don't use it for fun and interesting updos?

But habits are important. 

It's a matter of being effective in your care and handling.

Spending just a few minutes extra every day doing something destructive to your hair, or doing something good for your hair, it doesn't seem like much for the day, but after years or even decades... It really adds up.

I try to always do my detangling and updos in front of the mirror. If I start getting annoyed at my hair tangling, my temper wins and my hair loses. So being able to see my face and reactions is often enough to stop me from ripping through the offending tangle.

I keep a scissor near my favourite monitor because the contrast is so good for finding and snipping damage.

I keep a small spray bottle of SPF in all my bags, in case I spend more time outdoors than planned so I can protect my hair and skin. I'm a little obsessed with sun protection for my hair, since it can't repair itself. 

I often use my braids several days in a row. It saves me so much time and it saves my hair a lot of handling.

My weirdest habit is probably that I remove the tags in my shirts. Since I have to pull at least one shirt over my head four times a day, it really adds up. Those little tags can be quite rough. 

Blogging from A to Z challenge: G is for genetics

 

I think when it comes to hair, one of the things that fascinates me the most is the genetics.

Both from the point of view that all you can really, truly do is to maximize the potential genetical maximum through proper care and handling. You can't out-nutrition or out-care your genetic blueprint.

...But also because it seems like so much of the textbook knowledge out there just seems so plain wrong.

Is it just me?

How often do you hear/read that the active growth phase (The anagen phase) is genetically predetermined and is only 2-6 years? 

How often does that seem to be true?

I always wants to say "Well, yes, maybe for balding men, I guess" but I have seen enough balding men with ponytails to say that isn't true. Two years of hair growth is around shoulder length for most people, three years around armpit length. I'd say two years is wrong, but three might be an option if we speak of all people in general, since many with fine, fragile or very curly hair have trouble reaching more length. But two? Nah. Not buying it.

And then there is the maximum active growth phase, so often quoted to 6 years. That should be around tailbone or classic or so depending on your height. Of course when you grow your hair for so many years, you are pretty much guaranteed to trim a lot of the ends off. Actually, I would say it's pretty damn hard to grow nice-looking hair of that length if you don't trim on the regular! 

Anyways. Maybe it's just me, but the numbers quoted of years for hair growth in the anagen phase always seemed off to me.

Back in 2019, Mr Igor and I did the 23andme tests, which is a story in itself. Here and the follow-up here.

It was really interesting from a hair genetics point of view too, because I didn't know there was so much depending on your genes when it came to hair. Now it almost feels like a "Well, duh?" kind of thing, but I guess I never really thought of it before. 

Before that, I just knew of the basics: pheomelanin gives you red hair tones, and the amount of eumelanin regulates how dark your hair is. 

I didn't know that photobleaching was a genetic factor. I always thought it was sort of a by-product of having lighter hair, especially when it seems to be so common among native Scandinavians. Everyone I know with lighter hair gets it lightened in the summer. I mean, most things, such as fabric and wood goes paler when exposed to sunlight too?

The loss of colour comes from a loss of protein and structure in the hair, so the paler colour is a sure sign of damage to the length. I'm only slightly obsessed with SPF in my haircare products. After all, skin can to some degree repair itself after sun damage. Hair can't. 

But supposedly a massive 48 genes plays a role in whether your hair loses colour from sunlight or not. 

How much or little curl you have in your hair is said to depend on the shape of your hair follicle, and this also involved way more genetics than I expected. 

Maybe it's just me, but I find the sheer numbers of genes involves in something so simple to be  fascinating. I remember us using hair colour (As well as eye colour) as simple examples for Mendel's second law in primary school biology, and now as an adult I look at this genetic mess that determines my hair colour and learn that it isn't that simple!

I would really like to know more about how this works though. It seems for most people, their hair pick a narrow range of colours to grow, but for me, I can find individual hairs ranging from light blond to dark brown. 

(And no, I know mr Igor isn't cheating and I'm finding someone else's hairs all over our place. I would be very impressed if he managed to find a side piece who also grows 1½ meter long hair. As far as I know, that's not mr Igor's thing) 

Another hair related trait I was surprised to see pop up was dandruff. I have a tendency to get some very light dandruff in the late autumn/early winter, but I always wrote it off as being due to the weather changing: When it gets cold and wet outside and hot and dry inside, it always triggers some light scalp irritation. But since 23andme doesn't predict that I have dandruff, it might be more of a sensitive skin issue? That I do have.

 

I was genuinely upset that they only gave me a 6 % chance of having red hair. I always felt I had some red tones in my hair and really appreciated them. But meh.

I don't care what they say though. I think red hair is amazing. Maybe it's the rarety of red hair I like. Both for the mostly-Celtic genetic variant and the Melanesian genetic variant. I just think the colour is really pretty! 

The red colour comes from pheomelanin, but you also need to have lower levels of eumelanin for the pheomelanin to really show through the dark colour.

It's funny: The widows peak is another one of those traits I remember from biology class. Along with little tidbits like that how you fold your hands is genetically predetermined (And folding them opposite feels really crazy wrong) and folding left thumb over is the dominant gene. But maybe that's wrong too. I mean, it's been over two decades since I sat in a biology class, so I actually kind of hope my knowledge is outdated?

I also remember that male pattern baldness was tied to the X-chromosome, so since men only have one, it explains why men usually either go bald fast or not at all. They simply don't have a "backup" to soften the effect, like women do. The knowledge seems to still hold true today. But since 23andme didn't bring it up for Mr Igor, I guess that it isn't that simple? Or maybe they don't want to get sued.

The widows peak also have a bunch of genes involved. More than you would think. Okay, less than for some of the other traits, but still. 

Now, one hair related trait I was slightly disappointed in not seeing any info on was hair growth. It would have been fun to see what my maximum genetic capacity is, but maybe such info does exist? 

After all, everyone always assume my hair grows a lot faster than it does, but I only get 1,5 cm each month and 2-3 months in the middle of the summer with 2 cm. 

It's a nice and very average growth rate, but really not impressive in any way. 

It would have been fun to know if I'm even close to maximizing my potential growth rate, or, dunno, I need to eat more proteins? 

Blogging from A to Z challenge: F is for Fia’s hair typing method

 

In internet terms, Fia's hairtyping system is absolutely ancient and have had an internet presence back in 2003 or even before. It is so well known it has even made it's way into Wikipedia's definition!

Why is hair typing useful?

Your hair type can tell you a lot about what should work for you, and what shouldn't. 

It is a tool to help you find similar heads of hair and to take a look at what is working for others with comparable hair types. It also makes it a lot easier to answer questions on the forum and recommend a good routine for your hair type.

How do I find out my hair type?

Wash your hair as you usually do. You do not need to use other products, clarify or change your regular routine. The hair type which really matters is the one you are dealing with day to day and not so much the one you could have if you just clarified. Of course your true natural hair type will come out most when your hair is absolutely clean from all product leftovers and it's also neat to know how much different routines alter ones hair type, but clarifying is not a necessary requirement to type your hair.

Let your hair air dry with the least amount of detangling you can manage to do. Detangling before washing and while your hair is still wet is totally fine, just avoid doing it (as much as reasonably possible) during the time it is air drying. Finger combing, combing and brushing during that time will change the structure of your hair you are just trying to discover. Not all hair types can manage to dry totally untouched, still it's best to keep it to a minimum to avoid changing the results.

Examine your dry hair.

First classifier - Your curliness (or lack thereof)
The straight ones
1a - stick straight
1b - straight but with a slight body wave, just enough to add some volume, doesn't look wavy
1c - straight with body wave and one or two visible S-waves (e.g. nape of neck or temples)

The wavy ones
2a - loose, stretched out S-waves throughout the hair
2b - shorter, more distinct S-waves (similar to waves from braiding damp hair)
2c - distinct S-waves and the odd spiral curl forming here and there

The curly ones

3a - big, loose spiral curls
3b - bouncy ringlets
3c - tight corkscrews

The very curly ones
4a - tightly coiled S-curls
4b - tightly coiled hair bending in sharp angles (Z-pattern)

Second classifier - Individual strand thickness
Many people have a mixture of fine, medium and coarse hair, just pick the classifier which applies to most of the strands.

F - Fine: Thin strands that sometimes are almost translucent when held up to the light. Shed strands can be hard to see even against a contrasting background. When rolling a strand between your thumb and index finger, fine hair is difficult to feel or it feels like an ultra-fine strand of silk

M - Medium: Strands are neither fine nor coarse. When rolling a strand between your thumb and index finger, medium hair feels like a cotton thread. You can feel it, but it isn't stiff or rough.

C - Coarse: Thick strands that where shed strands usually are easily identified against most backgrounds. When rolling a strand between your thumb and index finger, coarse hair feels hard and wiry. As you roll it back and forth, you may actually hear it.

Third Classifier - Your overall volume of hair
Put your hair in a ponytail with as much hair as possible in it. Don't bother with the way it looks - the goal is to have most/all of your hair in there. If it means it sits smack dab on top of your head to include face framing layers or bangs, put it there.

Measure the circumference of the ponytail. If you have short bangs and/or you can't get all of your hair in there adjust according to how much of your hair you have measured.

i - thin (less than 2 inches/5 centimeters)
ii - average (between 2-4 inches or 5-10 centimeters)
iii - thick (more than 4 inches/10 centimeters)

Notes
When to use the in-between classifiers - examples of indecisive hair syndrome
There are lots of different reasons why you can choose an in-between classifier. It is not an exclusive list and just meant to give you an idea for when to pick an in-between classifier.

If your hair shows more structure in one typing picture than in another one.
If you simply can't decide if it's 2c or 3a.
If you can't see a majority for one structure, like 50% 2c and 50% 3a.
If your hair is only containing about equal amounts of medium and very coarse strands, but next to no fine strands M/C.
If you are getting inconsistent measurements for the over all volume of your hair every time you try. 3.5 inches one time, the next time slightly above 4 inches. Or if it's right at 4 inch.

Scalp typing

Personally, I would also like to see a scalp-typing method as well.

Since the different absorption of sebum results in both oily and flakey residue on the scalp, I would think a system like OxFx.

The method to find out your scalp type should be as follows: Wash your hair like normal. Then count the days before your hair is noticeably A) Oily and B) Flakey with no washing. 

So the number would be between 0 and 9 days for both.

And absolutely no number over 9, because gross. No excuse to not clean your hair for longer, especially not for showing off for internet clout. Seriously. Ick.

So a scalp type would be something like O4F2 or something like that.

For a lot of people, the scalps needs are as important, if not more, than the length of your hair.

Having a mostly flakey scalp makes you have to treat it differently than a mostly oily scalp.

Blogging from A to Z challenge: E is for Essential oils

An essential oil is an oil extracted from plants, same as a normal oil, but the "essential" comes from people thinking it contains the "essence" from the plant. So it has nothing to do with actually being essential as with essential amino acids or essential fatty acids. 

For hair use, they are typically added to add a nice smell to the product. But there are also recipes intended, for example, for the scalp to boost hair growth.

Essential oils can be quite strong and can cause allergic reactions, inflammation and skin irritation, especially in sensitive skin. Essential oils should never be added undiluted to skin. 

Many essential oils, especially from the lemon families, can cause photosensitivity which makes skin easier burned by sunlight.

This might sound like I'm against the use of essential oils. But I'm not. I just think people should be more aware of why they use the oils. Essential oils smells awesome, but it adds very little "active" to any hair or skin product. I'm particularly fond of lavender, ylang ylang and jasmine for their smell, but everyone has a preference.

Blogging from A to Z challenge: D is for Dusting

 

Damaged hair can't be fixed or mended, only have the damage smoothed over. But the damage still remains, and will catch and tangle healthy hair around it, which leads to even more damage developing. Not to mention that the damaged hair itself will keep splitting as the damage develops further due to friction and environmental factors.

My understanding is that dusting is called dusting, because you leave so little leftovers from the snipping that it, well, looks like dust on the floor.

The difference between search and destroy and dusting, is that for S&D you look for damage, find the damage and then strategically snip off the damaged part you saw. For dusting, you cut off less of the length, but snip indiscriminately to make all ends fresh, no matter if they are damaged or not.

Both methods have pro's and con's.
For S&D the pro is that you only get rid of the damage you find, and get rid of all the length where you see damage. The con is that you can't always spot all the damage, since it depends on light conditions and angles.
For dusting the pro is that you freshen up all the ends, and get rid of damage that you haven't even spotted. The con is that you might not cut off enough length, for instance if the damage is a little further up the hair strand.
Neither method should affect your overall length though. If it does, your hair needs a normal trim instead since the length is too damaged.

There are many ways to do a dusting. You can bend hair around your fingers and snip off all the ends that pop up. Ends automatically pop out of a day-old braid which makes them easy to see and get rid of.

It's always a good thing to have your ends fresh and healthy. Unhealthy ends have more resistance and will tangle up the rest of your healthy hair.

Personally, I like to combine the methods. I look for damage, but will indiscriminately snip any ends.
I like keeping it with my pencils near my monitor, so when I have some moments where I'm thinking or waiting for something, I can use the contrast from the monitor to snip off damage.

 

Blogging from A to Z challenge: C is for Conditioner-based washing methods

Yesterday I mentioned blogging as one of the best tips I ever encountered when it came to growing out my hair. I think there were three really important tips I learned and valued very quickly:

1. Blogging
2. Conditioner-based washing methods
3. And the last one I will reveal on the 14th

Having sensitive skin, using conditioner to wash with always made a lot of sense to me. It's so much more gentle on your hair and scalp and with the right emulsifiers (And some practice and trial and error), it's just as good as cleaning as shampoo. Just without that dry and stripped feeling. 

I started off with CWC. Conditioning the ends to protect them from shampoo, shampooing the scalp and finally conditioning everything. Then I started working towards CO, conditioner only. I knew it would be a process and it probably took me more than a year to transition from having to shampoo 2-3 times a week to shampooing maybe 1-2 a year. It wasn't easy. Often I wanted to give up. My scalp took forever to realize I had stopped trying to strip it from it's natural oils and it was often greasy and unhappy. But eventually it stopped overproducing oils. It was worth the process. 

If I could CO all the other skin on my body, I would. 

(Yes, I actually tried. Yes, it was every bit as nasty and regrettable as it sounds)

Here's a bit of math:

Say I used to shampoo twice a week just to take the low end number. Say I used to keep the shampoo on my hair and scalp for five minutes at the time.

5 x 2 x 52 = 520 minutes of marinating my hair and scalp in shampoo in a year. 

520 / 60 = 8,6666... Hours in a year. 

We can multiply it with the age of my hair... Uhm, probably 15 years or so at the ends?

That would mean my ends should have been exposed to 130 hours of shampoo, or almost five and a half days straight of being dipped in shampoo.

These things add up. I doubt I could have grown my hair to the state it's in if I hadn't gone shampoo free. Long, healthy hair is all about building solid, healthy habits.

Blogging from A to Z challenge: B is for Blogging

When I first started finding my way into the longhair circuit, it was on the Yahoo groups. This is practically ancient in internet terms!

One of the first, and greatest tips I picked up on was blogging.

The thing is, you can't remember half of what you think you can. No matter how fun it seemed or how inspired you were. So blogging is the way to go to keep track of how products works for you, what updos or things you want to try in the future, updos you can do now and you risk slipping out of rotation, and thoughts and inspiration for the future.

It doesn't matter if you blog on paper in private, on a private, locked blog or have a public one on a longhair site or a standalone platform, or even vlogging for that matter. What's important is that you have somewhere to store your thoughts, pictures and videos (Granted, blogging on paper isn't so good at that)

My own thoughts on blogging
Write what you want to write. It's your own blog, don't try to please your audience. The right people who like your angle on things will come, the people who want you to change and give them the content they want, will be unhappy no matter what.
If you want to go green and natural and inspire other people: Go for it.
If you want to create perfect, elaborate amazing updos: Go for it.
If you want to just write your own mishmash of documenting your growth and daily care and practical updos and inspiration... Well, that's what I do. Find your own thing. 

Seriously though. Blogging is a good tool for this. It helped me figure out some allergies, it helped me figure out my hair doesn't actually grow as fast as everyone thinks, it helped me figure out what products have weird reactions in my hair and it helps me having fun with all the creative things I can do with my hair. And why even have long hair if you can't do something different with it?

Blogging from A to Z challenge: A is for April fools

When you are known for having long hair, it can be hilarious to prank people into thinking you cut your hair. It can also be a lot of fun to play pretend for just one day, even though packing your hair up under a wig cap can be a lot of trouble.

If I were to actually cut my hair short, I would do something like this with it: 

It can show some unfortunate truths about the people around you though. For instance when the person who kept bugging you about your "uncool hair" responds in horror because "You cut your pretty, long hair! Oh noes!" Well, then you know you're dealing with someone who just wants something, anything to nag you about and your "uncool hair" wasn't a genuine criticism but just the first, best thing they could find to pick on.

For the less drastic April fool's, just some fake, colourful hair or fake bangs can be fun too!

On a more serious serious note, I really recommend anyone with long hair to have a wig piece or some fake bangs for those times where you want to try something new with your hair but aren't sure if you want to commit.
Occasionally I consider cutting bangs, but after just a few hours with the fake bangs, I'm over it.

It's funny: When getting fake bangs, you don't only need to consider the colour, but also the texture of the hair. For a lot of the fake bang pieces I've tried, the texture is simply too fine to blend in with the rest of my hair. 

Today's hair

Today's hair is a mega royal bun. Funny, I don't think I've ever done it with three braids before? Four yes, not three.