Nautilus bun

The other day I realised that although the braided Nautilus is my absolutely most used and most loved updo, I have never, ever done a non-braided version before.

Weird, huh?

Feeling incredibly sorry for myself

I have overworked my Achilles tendon. Too much walking and standing for too many hours during the day and not allowing it to rest.

To precise, I have damaged it where it attaches to the bone.

I have had problems with my Achilles tendon before, back when I used to run a lot. I think something almost all runners go through at some point. But the issue has always been higher up, in the tendon itself.

The attachment pain has been one of the most painful injuries I’ve ever experienced.

Usually I factor in if you can relieve the pain too, for instance when I broke my tailbone it “rated” as more painful than my complicated ankle fractures (That ended my running “career”) because there isn’t a damn thing you can do to stabilise or relieve the pain from a broken tailbone. And the cystic acne breakout I got from a biotin overload felt more painful than when I impaled my hand on some broken glass because it was right there in my face, just like a papercut on a fingertip can be much more painful than a deeper cut some other place.

But yea, the attachment pain to the Achilles tendon? Brutal. I could feel how cold sweat broke out just from having to work the pedals in my car, despite having eaten the painkillers I had with me in my bag. I think it’s been like 3 years since last I had to take any…

The doctor prescribed me some seriously strong painkillers. They make everything feel a little soft to the touch.

To add insult to injury I have overworked the adductor longus in my thigh from limping so much. I’m actually kind of impressed I managed to do that!

Well, I take it as a hint that I need to relax a bit, so I took today and tomorrow off. Spent most of the day doing gloriously nothing. Watched too many silly videos, spent unhealthily much time on 4chan and generally saw way too many memes and funny images for one day.

After having done lots and lots of nothing, I started going through my pictures. I’ve taken a lot of pictures over the summer. Hair pictures intended for the blog too. “For when I have the time…”. Hah, who knew I had to wait almost until winter before I found the time for them?

Still alive

Hi everyone!

Been a while, haven’t it?

Nothing much has changed… Still crazy busy, still doing benign neglect. Although I’m beginning to wonder where the “benign” part ends.

That’s part of the reason I made a new page… Figured it would be interesting to see how my routine changes over time. If nothing else it could be interesting to compare routines later to my bordering on actual neglect-current one.

I can’t wait to get more time on my hands. My free time definitely isn’t free as I have about a hundred things on my “should do” list. (That list that is my list of things I theoretically would like to get through should I ever get done with my “to do” list) As things are now I find myself answering skype messages even from my Hubby just because it’s stressing me out and I’m desperate for the damn flashing to go away.

I was spending a bit of time on UTT today and found myself reading the Would you rather game, hair edition-thread. I found a clear pattern in it: The members of UTT would rather lose some length than take overall damage through the length. It made me pretty happy: These people know what’s up with haircare and they don’t believe in any of the weird crap you can find on other sites. Such a difference from other places like youtube where expensive, complicated and time consuming hair care ideas run rampant.

No particular reason for mentioning this, no deeper meaning… I just found it refreshing and awesome.

To make up for this lame post, here are a couple of links I stumbled upon today

16 life truths only bottle blondes will understand

Haha, I still remember some of this!

DIY headbands

Some of these are cute and could be done without too much trouble…

From one of my daily E-stops, B for Bel

Finally…

…I have found the time to re-upload all my pictures to a new (And functioning) site.

Now I just need to find the time to re-link all the pictures on my blog. Yea, that doesn’t sound like a massive amount of work, does it…?

Anyways. Here are my latest length shot back from August 15^th (Or so), re-uploaded so you can actually see them! 

Cute videos and a sad story

Unfortunately there was no happy ending for this…

A co-worker found this little swallow flapping around helplessly on the parking lot. Since I have experience taking care of (injured) birds, I took it in.

I think this is a big baby that just wasn’t ready to fly, or was exhausted and landed on the parking lot. Swallows cant take off from the ground, so it ended up flapping around helplessly and probably got further dehydrated.

It spent most of the first day in my care just sleeping, so I guess it was exhausted. I cut up a sock to put it in and carried it around inside my shirt. That always calms little birds down :)

A friend volunteered hunting insects with me and force-feeding the little guy or girl and I even bought mealworms for when I just couldn’t catch any other insects (Must have given the neighbours some good laughs at that!!)

The little swallow became quite tame as you can see!

I researched how to release swallows and tried releasing it twice each day I had it in my care, but it just fell helpless to the ground again.

“We” even did flying-exercises together (lol) and it “hopped” around on the floor like a bat, so it seemed like it really tried it’s best to gain strength and get to fly again.

I really thought he or she would make it and I could get to release it successfully some day, but on the third day I came home from work to it being cold and dead. It made me very sad… 

Progress. Or not.

The upload issue has cost me more time and energy than expected.

Step 1: Chose a new upload site.

After much research, I chose a place called Shutterfly. It had great reviews. Free, no upload limit and no size limit. Seemed perfect.

Step 2: Renaming pictures.

When I first started taking hair pictures and uploading them, I didn’t always know what styles would “stick”.For instance when I first saw a Celtic knot I thought it would be my most favourite style ever. 

But since it only looks like a slightly lumpy Chinese bun when I do them, that didn’t happen. I had a lot of braided Nautili buns stuck under “Updo xxxx” since I didn’t think that one bun would become my go-to.

In general, most of my pictures needed an extra “0” in the file name to keep them ordered or some renaming that made more sense.

Step 3: Sort in categories for easy upload.

Makes it easier when I have to find pictures again too.

Step 4: Upload everything to new site.

Phew, good thing I didn’t have to upload them one at the time!

Step 5: Insert new picture address in old broken images.

I decided to start with a brand new picture and take a length shot.

…Only to discover that Shutterfly doesn’t allow you to link a picture as easily as I expected. At least not in full size. And what’s the [bleep]ing point then? Sure I can make albums and invite people to see them, but why can’t I just stick my full sized picture in a simple [IMG]?

[Bleep] you, Fluttershy. [Bleep] you, [Bleep] you, [Bleep] you!

Anyways. Here are the largest pictures [bleep]ing Fluttershy allowed me to post.

(Including the weird white BS on the sides taking up room)

I think I’m actually getting close to terminal length. My growth appears to stall and the ends are getting pretty thin.

Oh well, another thing to take a look at when I have more time. 

Annoying stylist experience

Usually I try to get small trims every 3 months. It keeps my ends feeling smooth and happy.

But I haven’t had a trim since… May? Gosh, has it really been this long? Yikes. How strange that my ends still feel good.

I guess the benign neglect routine has been good for my hair: CO wash when needed, otherwise daily WO and putting it up with some leave in-conditioner. I’ve been good with spraying it with SPF products too.

But yesterday I had a bit of time and decided to go for a trim. I went to a drop in-place a work buddy mentioned.

I explained what I wanted: A trim of 3-4 cm. She nodded and seemed reasonable enough.

Then I took my bun down. I swear I saw stars in her eyes. She started eagerly talking about all the things she should do to my hair: Semi-permanent dye, bangs, layers, I think I even heard something about a perm in there in the mass of words.

Pretty much she wanted to change every single thing about my hair.

It’s not actually the first time I encountered someone who wanted to change everything about my hair, but this woman really got on my nerves.

Usually when people talk about what you “should” get done to your hair they hide under the intention of it being more flattering for you, or cut back for health. Of course with total disregard to how much time and product you feel like spending on a certain style.

(Funnily the maximum hair length you can carry “for healthy ends!” is always the longest the other person has ever had. Ever notice that? And what would “Be the most flattering for you!” is always closely resembling what the other person has, no matter your differences in figure, face shape or even colours. Odd, isn’t it?)

This woman just seemed like she wanted to change everything just because she could.

I left without letting her touch my hair.

Back to benign neglect it is. 

Igor's glorious day off

Today I came the closest to having a day off I've been in weeks: Didn't have to go to work #1 and I only needed to compose 4-5 emails for work #2.
So what did I do with all that time on my hands?
Did I go explore the city of Ringsted that I've been in since April and still haven't had the time and energy to check out?
Did I curl up with a good book to relax?
Did I just play computer games and waste my day on nothing?
No?
Maybe I did something useful?
Did I do something for work #1 that wasn't entirely necessary but could be useful?
Did I look ahead for work #2 to take on the next project?
Maybe get started on sorting my pictures for my upload?
Again, no.
So what did I do?
I cleaned.
Seriously.
When I first came to see the place where I'm renting a room for work, I did notice it wasn't very clean anywhere. But I figured it might even be a good thing because I wouldn't feel obligated to keep it clean.
As long as the bathroom and kitchen was clean enough to use, I only had to think about my own room. Good thing when you know you will be busy.
So with Hubby safely in the neighbour country, I could indulge in some serious foul bachelorette frog-behavior.
But it turns out I have been getting more and more irked by how dirty the common areas are. I like being able to walk around in bare feet at home...
Oh well. I tracked the two hour vacuuming-spree on Fitocracy. Haha.
Things are still pretty stressful, but at least I get more exercise than usual, eat fairly healthy and get enough sleep.
All things good for hair.

But I still should try to relax next time I have a day off.

My new Flexies are here!

I'm pleased to announce that my Flexies have arrived.
And I'm very pleased to announce that my choice of styles has good quality beads all of them!
I'm mildly displeased I still don't have a working upload so I can show them off, but the upload is literally item # 137 or so on my to do-list.
But I'm extremely displeased with the fact that I had to pay import! 
Seriously, Flexi? All the other places I've ordered from over the years have avoided causing me this extra expense, why can't you too? 
1067 Danish kroner for the Flexies and 390 kroner for the stupid import.
I could have bought almost 3 megaflexies for that. 

Pricey and pointless purchase averted

Hmmm. It seems like the only thing I really “do” with my hair at the moment is buying things for it?

Other than taking it down to wash it and feeding it some oil once in a while, it’s been stuck in a braided Nautilus bun.

Oh well. Benign neglect rules. And at some point I will have the time to really play around with my new goodies.

I ordered some new combs in hard rubber. Looking forward to get them!

 

Will be nice to finally get to replace those awful, awful, awful Hairsense combs.

Then I ordered a few SPF products for hair…

 

 

A “few”.

Hehe…

And finally I ordered a clip on bang-set.

I’ve wanted one for a while but I find it difficult to find the right colour or cut for one. Oh well, I’ll try this one and see how it goes.

This colour:

Unfortunately this one is made from real hair, not synthetic. Meh. Not very pleased with that. So it probably means I will wear some poor misguided Google-impaired LoL donator’s hair on my head. Ick.

To my surprise, Lyko.se carries Nexxus. 

So far that has been the only brand that has succeeded in making my hair feel really soft, so finding it ”here” was a pleasant surprise.

I may have to return at some point to purchase every single Nexxus conditioner product they have in stock!

They have this one product I’ve never heard of before: Nexxus Polymedic Emergency Reconstructor.

Some name!

At first glance it sounded like a serious reconstructor, even calling for shampoo to get the excess out and Google provided some very favourable reviews. I just couldn’t find an ingredient list anywhere and it kept me from ordering it.

(Well that and the fact that I could keep my hair happily and routinely conditioned with mid-price supermarket products like Schwarzkopf, ElVital and Tresseme for like 6 months for that price!)

Luckily I could get an intelligent opinion on UTT on this product.

Yea, not going to buy this one. Might get a few other products from Nexxus some time in the future, but not this one. Heh, they always had me there…