Leave in vs. Rinse out

I really enjoy The Beauty Brains blog. It’s a wonderful place to debunk stupid beauty myths and learn new things.

I found this one interesting: Is it okay to use rinse out conditioner as a leave-on?

I know some people can get a diluted rinse out-product to work as a leave in product, but I never got it to work myself. (Well, I tried a lot of “weird” stuff when I was new to the longhair circuit. A lot of things I wouldn’t recommend anyone as well.) For me it always ended in greasy hair and irritated scalp. Well, here is the explanation for it…

Funny of the day

Top knot

I tried a cinnamon bun top knot for the party. It started slipping and pulling after a few hours, booh. I think my bun is simply too large to make a simple cinnamon bun work anymore, I need to braid it or do a nautilus to keep it from slipping.

                          

The cheap and picky longhair is being cheap and picky?

I was running low on leave in conditioner so I had to go shopping for it. Of course the problem was that stupid H&M in the city had stopped carrying my usual Sunsilk leave in conditioner and when I asked, was told they would never stock it again. Augh!

I wasn’t feeling in the mood to go to Nova (Mall in the other end of Lund) just for leave in conditioner so I decided to look around and see if I could find an alternative.

That turned out to be a lot more work than I expected. After some searching through 100, 200 and 300 kronor bottles I finally gave up and got 2 bottles of 50 ml each at Åhlens. 40 kronor each, down from 80! Wow, what a bargain!

Not.

It looked like just plain old expensive silicone drops. What a disappointment.

Even crankier than before I decided to try the stylist around the corner called Delal. The guy there argued for me trying what looked more like a styling cream than the leave in conditioner I asked for. 169 kronor for 150 ml. Uff!

In a moment of madness I went to check at H&M and O…M…G…

They had my trusty old Sunsilk leave in conditioner?!

Baby, don’t ever leave me again!

   

    

I returned the expensive styling cream thing and got some attitude from the guy which I absolutely did not appreciate.

Under normal circumstances I might have kept the expensive product, but I was getting pretty tired and cranky over the ridiculous prices…

Look at this:

The big bottles costs as much as the little ones, after the little ones have had 50% off the price. And the little bottles are just simple uncomplicated silicone drops! Bleah!

      

Today’s hair

Or lack thereof?

Wore my fake bangs today under a beanie today. They feel a bit too thick for my taste but I guess my main issue is that every time I see myself wearing the piece I keep thinking “Dude, where’s my eyebrows?”

   

    

Fish oil FTW

I have taken fish oil again for just 5 days since my order arrived and I can really see a difference in my skin! I know omega 3 has an anti inflammatory effect so I guess that, in combination with correcting the fatty acid balance in the skin (That I read about here) have had a real impact on my skin.

I’m really impressed by how quickly it has been too: I can tell a difference after just 5 days at my normal dosage of 1 gram of fish oil (336 mg omega 3 fatty acids)

For a while I wondered if it was a placebo effect but I’m 99% sure that it isn’t.

One thing I find myself wondering: With all the crappy, obvious, insane, potentially damaging, ridiculous and just plain stupid skin care advice I’ve received through my life, why haven’t anyone ever told me about this?

Attempted top knot

I’ve been thinking ahead for the party on Saturday (Kinda a delayed birthday party for me) and since the top knot seems to still rule the fashion world I figured maybe I should try a test knot.

I was thinking I would go for a rope braided Nautilus for my top knot instead of the sleek or messy knots that seems to be the It Thing.

The finished result
    

First I did a high ponytail. This turned out to be a real headache as my hair absolutely hates changes of directions. It comes with the territory of having coarse hair. My hair doesn’t “slide” smoothly against itself; it tangles if you try to direct it in another way. It took me something like 15 minutes to create a slightly-higher-than-normal ponytail, argh!

My left triceps was burning! I use my right hand to comb and the left to hold, so I had my left arm stuck in an uncomfortable position trying to hold my heavy, damp hair in place. Ouch!

In 20/20 hindsight, the way to go for this step is definitely to bend at the hip and tilt forwards instead of combing upwards. I might try this tomorrow.
     

Now for the rope braid. Hm. Not impressed. Again, 20/20 hindsight tells me to bend forwards next time. I had trouble feeling what I was doing and I couldn’t see it either. Ropebraids have never been a friend of mine so maybe I should just go for a simple braid instead?
 

Front view after turning the rope braid into a Nautilus. It got a bit asymmetrical. Hm.

So what do you all think?

I think it has potential. I think if I practise this a few more times it could be a cool style for me. I like the position of the bun actually. The “lift” is a nice touch and the rope bun is pretty cool. The question is if it would work with a braid too or only rope braids. I doubt I will ever make friends with those #¤%£$ things…

Art :)

Check out what Little Orca did!



She painted it after this picture of me:



I have to admit its one of my least favourite pictures of me. Ever. I attempted to copy the pose of La Naissance de Venus by Eugène-Emmanuel Amaury-Duval but instead ended up looking like one giant chin, ick!



I took the pictures for my 9½ years hair anniversary. Link to the original thread back on LHC.

Maybe I should have hubby take some new pictures of me, some that will actually look good! Some that has me posing, not just for the hair and not looking like an idiot?
  

Trim

I finally talked hubby into giving me a trim. I’ve been trying to bring it up with him before and every time it has resulted in him angsting over the risk of screwing it up. Every time I have said that I feel a lot safer with his cautious trimming than in the hands of some scissor-happy stylist who would prefer to add layers and highlights and…

It’s not like my ends were very even before anyways: I still have that reverse U shape from my bad habit of snipping my braid tassel. I just wanted it evened up a tiny little bit.

                                       

                               

10 minutes and lots of whining and worrying later and my ends looked like this.

Hubby did a great job!

           

                                   

I thought with all his worried complaints and his assumptions that I would be upset with the result that he had snipped a lot of hairs, but no. A sweep of the floor didn’t exactly reveal a lot of hairs!

                                    

                                        

Now I just have to keep from snipping the few longest hairs in my braid tassel so I don’t maintain the reverse U shape.

             

                          

Ridiculously long full length shot! I’m back above knee length I think. 
                            

You know you’re a longhaired weirdo when…

...You have an almost empty tub of protein tablets and find yourself thinking “Hey, that dust in the bottom… Can I use it in my hair somehow?”

I asked on UTT but the answers were pretty inconclusive. I guess I just have to try a test strand!

                                     

                                           

I know a lot of people put their shed hairs out for the wild birds, but I have never done it myself. I’m guessing I need to cut my up to 1½ meter long strands up in much smaller bits, but how small is enough? I’d hate to see “our” fluffy little morons get tangled up. I know how strong my hairs are!

Today hubby trimmed his beard and I found myself wondering if maybe his beard trimmings would be of interest to the little birds. They are pretty short and feel wiry, yet soft. Should definitely keep some little bird babies warm!

I gathered up what I could and will put it out tomorrow and see what happens.

It’s funny how hubby’s beard turns from being blonde with some red, grey and brown patches on him to just dark brown when it’s been cut. Angles and light really shifts the colour of natural hair.

It looks like a warm little nest already!