Trim

As usual when I visit my parents I have my mother trim my hair.
I asked for 5 cm or so, but I think she took off 7. I don't really mind though.
It's funny when your hair reach a certain length: I couldn't tell I had lost any length by feel, but I can see how the end of the braid has thickened up and the tassel got shorter.

I think I've reached a length where my hair can't keep any sort of hemline or thickness at the ends for much longer. I'm tempted to get a creaclip and maintain here for the rest of the year or so. Either that or just give in to the fairy tale ends, lol.

Sharing a picture

I was back in Denmark visiting my parents for a bit and of course I had to go out hunting with dad. I snapped this quick picture of him in the sunset and I liked it so much I wanted to share it with my readers :)

Another TK order

As the title says, I just placed another order at testerkorea.com.

Why?

Because I wanted this:

ETUDE HOUSE My Beauty Tool Lovely Ettie Hair Band

I spotted it at another K-blogger and just had to have it!
(Plus a bunch of other stuff as usual when I order from testerkorea. Hehe)

It should turn evening skin-time/mud mask time from this

Into this

I ordered two: One for washing and one for wearing for masks after washing. So uncomfortable to wear a wet headband when you have a mask on...

I also ordered a bunch of skin stuff and a single hair product: LOMBOK Mastic Easyment Treatment which should be a leave in conditioner. Huge tub, that one! It will be interesting to see if it's useful to me.

The next time someone tells me they envy me my hair, I will show them this picture...

This is what happens when you have iii-hair in unrelenting summer heat.
Especially if you have sensitive skin, I guess.
Since about after a week into the summer heat I've had a line of irritating little breakouts along/inside the hairline at my neck.
No matter what I did with mud masks, serums, exfoliators and toners, it had no effect.
I guess when you get a slightly sweaty neck in your sleep from the heat, you just cant make up for it with anything you apply to your skin.
It seems like the heat is finally going away now, so maybe, finally, it will heal.

AOA: Short hair

I wish I could understand what they're singing!

At first I was a little offended at the hint that cutting their hair short would solve all their problems. But then I thought of how many people I've met in the longhair circuit who seems to believe that growing their hair long will solve all their problems!

Sailor Moon manga act 9

Anyone else seen the new Sailor Moon remake: Crystal?

My opinion can be summed up with this: 

I really hated it. Like, flat out no ifs and buts, hated it.

I really liked the old Sailor Moon series. It was such a classic. Usagi was scared, girly, clumsy, lazy and in so many ways the weakest link out of all the sailor senshi, but she did her best and saved the world in her own way.

I even liked the live action version (Once I got past the intense cringey feeling) because it managed to balance the seriousness and silliness.

Basically this. So much this.

The new Usagi is aloof and vacant 95% of the time and when she finally shows the "old" Usagi clumsiness it feels shoehorned in. It feels like they just wanted to a produce a show with "mature" and "elegant" girls. And it doesn't work. I miss the old crazy reaction faces and silliness. Both the original manga and anime had that and it really worked.
I have to give the reboot a single point for making Usagi+Mamoru work. In the old anime he was such a dull character until late in the series and it felt like they had to be together because they just had to be together.

Anyways.
In the remake, they include this scene from the manga:
It was a cute little detail.

Her hair grew like crazy overnight but the bangs stayed the same...?
Guess no one cared for George Micheal's opinion on this!

A tip for my USA-based readers

Has everyone heard of the Walmart beauty box?
It's been making rounds in the beauty-bloggosphere and everyone seems to love it. Sure, there are some who dislike some products, but the overall verdict is that for the price, it can't be beat.
Just 5$ for each box which covers shipping and handling. It ships four times a year.
But here's the bad news: It only ships to USA.
Igor says: Booh.

Link

I did something creepy

I saw this woman on the bus the other day. And I snapped a picture of her hair.

Bad. I know.

She was obviously a longhair like me, but I couldn't decipher for sure how she had put her hair up.

Also, what is that hair stick? It honestly looks like some sort of skewer stick more than a real hair stick.

I'm super impressed she could hold her but up with such a wimpy stick!

So, here's what I think she did.

From how thick the lower roll is, I'd say this was the beginning of the tail.
So I'm guessing she first put her hair in a ponytail, then inserted the stick through it horizontally.
Then, I guess she rolled it  up around the stick.
But it looks like the lower part goes the entire width of her bun? So where does the ponytail start?
Did she start coiling left first, then pulled it right?

The next part I'm more sure about: It looks like the tail has continued above the hair stick, but has been pressed downwards by the last bit...

...Where I guess she used the ends to loop around the bun between the bun and the back of her head?

It was a really nice style and I would like to copy it.
But I cant figure out the beginning of the structure.

Any inputs from my readers?

Weight of hair toys

My new Elk&Iron sticks made me curious.
How heavy are my hair toys?

Not all hair toys in picture!
I have a bunch of sticks I never use and I didn't bother to weigh those.
Hm. I should throw those out. All they do is take up space and help unbalance the stick-jar.

Clips

Ficcare set: 60 g for both

Large soaring butterflies Flexi 8 set: 55 g for both

XL dream catchers Flexi 8 set: 85 g for both

XL night owls Flexi 8 set: 90 g for both

XXL Flexies: 50 g each except for:

XXL Greenish Flexi 8 (Forgot the name and they don’t make them anymore): 45 g

XXL Tree of life Flexi 8 (White pearls) 35 g

The XL Flexies surprised me. Despite being a lot smaller than the XXL ones, yet they weigh so much in comparison.

The XXL greenish one I forgot name of weighs the same as one XL night owl. The XXL tree of life weighs less than one XL dream catcher.

I guess the weight really isn’t in the mass of the 8 or the stick, but in the decoration.

Forks

4 Amish pins: 10 g in total

Ron Quattro starlites combo set, small fork: 5 g

Ron Quattro starlites combo set, large fork: 5 g

Ron Quattro copper fork: 25 g

Ron Quattro wavy fork: 5 g

The Ron Quattro forks are so light! No wonder the single Starlites are my go-to!

Sticks

Set of blue corian Ketylos: 25 g

Set of grey corian Ketylos: 20 g

Set of J-list lightsaber hairsticks: 15 g

Set of J-list pencil hairsticks: 10 g

Set of J-list samurai sword hairsticks: 15 g

Set of one kind of wood Ric the combmaker sticks: 30 g

Set of another kind of wood Ric the combmaker sticks: 20 g

Set of smooth Ron Quattro flexstix: 10 g

Set of spiral Ron Quattro flexstix: 10 g

Set of wood Ketylos: 15 g for all colours

Set of wooden hair sticks: 15 g

Single bone WoodArtJewelry stick: 20 g

Single brown Elk&Iron stick: 15 g

Single hair sword: 20 g

Single loop hairsticks I got in a trade, big: 15 g

Single loop hairsticks I got in a trade, small: 10 g

Single TimberstoneTurnings stick: 25 g

Single white Elk&Iron stick: 10 g

It’s funny how the single sticks mess with your head.

I would swear up and down the single TimberstoneTurnings stick is the heaviest single stick by far, but it’s only 5 gram heavier than the bone WoodArtJewelry stick and the hair sword.

But it’s no surprise that the large, massive wood Ric the combmaker sticks are the heaviest set. Or that the simple Ron Quattros are among the lightest. 

Hairtypes and what it means for care and upkeep

"Hair typing" is made up of numbers and letters. The most common system is Fia's hair typing system, which was made up back when the internet was young.

Of course that's all weird and funny, but the information is actually quite useful. If you know the system, you can tell a lot of the beneficial hair care for the owner.

It looks something like this: 1BCiii

(My type)

Straightness/curliness

The first part of the typing, is a number and a letter.

The number goes 1-4 and describes how overall straight or curly your natural hair is.

1: Straight

2: Wavy

3: Curly

4: Coiled/kinky

The number that follows: A,B and C (Except for type 4) narrows the straightness or wave down a bit more. 

But that one is less important.

What gives hair its wave or lack thereof, is literally its shape in cross section.

Straight hair is perfectly round and the higher you go up in the curly spectrum, the more oval/flatter the cross section will be.

What can you do with this information?

It tells us that straight hair has less surface to the volume, which if we go for basic math and physics, tells us that this is the strongest shape.

But it also tells us that it will be easier to introduce beneficial treatments into the curlier types, where the is shorter to the inner cortex.

This also means that moisture will evaporate easier from curly types, because it has more surface to the volume.

In short:

Straighter types are stronger, but more difficult to deep condition.

Curlier types are easier to deep condition, but needs more moisture.

Structure

The second letter in the type, is either F, M or C.

F: Fine hair

M: Medium hair

C: Coarse hair

This is a simplified cross-section of a hair:

Coarse hair type has an extra layer in its structure.

This gives coarse hair a very distinct feature:
It makes noise when you roll it between your fingers. A sort of "crunchy" noise.
Do no mistake this for damage!
Those with coarse hair might also have coarse eyebrows and body hair.
The extra layer makes it difficult for treatments to penetrate deeper into the hair. Those with coarse hair can be very sensitive to build up because the ingredients just attaches to the cuticles instead of penetrating.
Especially oil and proteins can be troublesome for those with coarse hair.

There is no structural difference between fine and medium hair, but fine hair can be extremely fine. There are those who say they can barely see their individual hairs due to how fine they are. Of course this tells us that such fine hair can't take a lot of abuse.
Those with fine hair often dislike cones because it weighs their hair down.

In short:
Fine hair often dislikes cones.
Coarse hair often dislikes proteins and oil, deep treatments are often pointless.

The volume
This doesn't mean volume as in the total volume of your hairs, but rather how many much volume you have with the individual hairs on your head. Those with fine hair doesn't necessarily have little volume and those with coarse hair doesn't necessarily have a lot of volume.

The overall volume of hair is measured like this:
i: Less than 2 inches/5 centimeters circumference
ii: Between 2-4 inches or 5-10 centimeters circumference
iii: More than 4 inches/10 centimeters circumference
When the hair is compressed as tightly as possible.

Usually this only gives a hint of when you can do certain updos:
For instance with the classic cinnamon bun, those with i-type can do it around BSL length where those with iii-type have to wait until around hip length.
Because the hair has to go around itself, having thick hair means you have to grow thick hair longer than thin to get a updo to work.

The thickness or volume also have an ability to amplify the effects of the straightness and structure. For instance, having very curly and thin hair will make your hair even more sensitive to damage because you have less hairs that can take the damage. But if you have thin hairs and a lot of them, you probably wont be as concerned with damage because you have lots of hairs anyways.

In short:
Hair with less volume can amplify hair that requires more care
Hair with more volume can make your hair less sensitive to damage
But in the end, the only real difference is how much length you need to make a certain updo