New skin care line

Sigh. Yep, another line. I’m so tired of buying stuff and trying stuff and hoping every time but knowing it will most likely be another fail.

Seriously, how much have I tried over the years?

Product lines

• ACO. The toner didn’t seem to do anything and the cream seemed too fatty and irritating.
• Bulldog. It’s specified for male skin but I tried this it anyways because it doesn’t have parabens, sodium laureth sulphate, artificial colours, and artificial fragrances but instead contains a bunch of natural extracts and stuff. My skin didn’t care for it and I really missed having a toner in the line.
• Clinique 3 step line. My skin actually seems to be pretty okay with this line, but I’ve heard and read a lot of critics to the line from people who really know their skincare stuff. It sucks though, it seems to be the line my skin liked the best out of the list!
• Decubal. I love, love, love the body cream! But didn’t care for the facial line. The cream was too fatty for my face and I really missed having a toner in the line.
• Dove deep moisture. Made my face itch.
• Dr. Hauschka something-something cream that contained sea buckthorn. Made my skin boiled-lobster-red and my face swell!
• Dr. Hauschka. The products felt too heavy or greasy for my skin and I really missed having a simple cleansing gel available, I never liked using cleansing creams.
• Elisabeth Arden 8 hour line. Made my face itch and I hated the scent.
• Garnier Scandinavian skincare line. For the first time ever I found a cream that was too light for my skin!
• L’Oreal youth code. My last attempt of using an anti-age-line. Sensitive skin and anti-age doesn’t mix!
• La Roche.Posay. My skin didn’t like it and a few times it felt “crawly” when applying products.
• Lancôme something-something I can’t remember. My skin didn’t care much for this.
• Matas basic line. Cleansers and toners don’t seem to do anything at all and my skin didn’t care for the creams.
• Neutrogena rapid clear. My skin didn’t like it and the cooling effect felt mildly uncomfortable.
• Nivea the classic blue cream. Makes my face break out but I love it on the rest of my body!
• Ole Henriksen. Expensive! And my skin didn’t seem to like it.
• Plaisir Scandinavian skincare line. My skin seemed to love it at first but gradually developed irritation to it.
• REN clearcalm. Holy crap this was expensive! And my skin didn’t seem to care.
• Vichy, several lines. My skin seemed to love it at first but gradually developed irritation to it over a year or so.

 …And probably a bunch I’ve forgotten!

“Alternative” products

• “Kitchen witch routine”. This was a rather funny routine where you exfoliate with ground almonds, dap cold coffee on your eyes, wash with oatmeal and stuff like that. No effect.
• Aloe vera gel as moisturiser. Didn’t seem to do anything for my skin, but I guess I should be glad! I have later learned that I’m allergic to aloe vera but since I didn’t break out from this particular aloe vera product, it seems I’m allergic to aloe vera pressed with the skin and not just the pulp.
• OCM. I have blackheads and whiteheads extremely rarely so they didn’t do anything for me. They do feel quite nice though, but are too much upkeep for no effect on my skin problems.
• Rubbing raw, undiluted lemon juice on my skin as cleanser and moisturiser. It bleached my eyebrows and my skin ended up being tender to touch.
• Spraying cooled green tea on my face several times a day. No effect.
• Washing and moisturising with honey. It bleached my eyebrows platinum blonde but otherwise had no real effect. Honey as once-in-a-while face masks are nice though.

Things to eat or drink

• Fasting with protein drinks to maintain a protein intake. Well, this shot a big fat hole in the “Processed foods are bad!”-theory. There can’t be a lot of foods that are more processed than protein drinks.
• Fasting. My skin seemed to like this, but of course this is not something I can keep doing just for my skin!
• Grapes. Supposedly really good for your skin, but had no effect even when I ate so many I got sick of them. 
• High water intake. It did seem to help a little when I had increased the “dose” to some 3 litres a day, but it felt like I had to run to the damn toilet constantly and in the end it annoyed me too much to continue deliberately drink a lot of water.
• Organic only food. Expensive! Also no effect on my skin.
• Pineapple. Supposedly really good for your skin, but had no effect even when I ate so many I got sick of them.
• Raw food diet. I missed meat!! No effect on my skin.

Things to not eat

• Avoiding dairy. I don’t eat a lot of dairy products anyways and it had no effect on my skin.
• Avoiding gluten. Had no effect.
• Going vegetarian. I missed meat!! No effect on my skin.
• Not eating anything processed. This was pretty troublesome and it had no effect.
• The master cleanse. My skin seemed to like this, but of course this is not something I can keep doing just for my skin!
• No soda at all in any form. I missed soda! A friend remarked it made my eyes clearer though (Eh?) No effect on my skin.
• No sugar allowed at all. This was mildly troublesome and had no effect.
• No white bread or pasta. I don’t eat a lot of bread or pasta products anyways and it had no effect on my skin.

Supplements

• Aloe vera in pill form. This was where I added two and two and realised I’m allergic to aloe vera when pressed with the skin. It made my stomach burn and my skin didn’t improve.
• Birth control of various forms. Estrogens and/or progestin only pills. None of them made a difference, even that one brand that was marketed as “The modern pill that also fights acne!” Yea. Right. 
• Evelle. Expensive! No effect.
• Fish oil. This actually seems to help my skin.
• Grapeseed extract. No effect.
• High dose vitamin B complex. I read it was supposed to “purge” the skin and a lot of people recommended it. Yea, I wasn’t always that boring anti-biotin-nutcase, hah. It didn’t improve my skin and I got a huge cyst on my chin from it (It hurt for months before I could finally steam open and drain the disgusting ball of puss)
• Hudpleje (“Skin care”) No effect.
• Imedeen. Expensive! No effect.
• Ren hud (“Clear skin”) No effect.

Things to do

• A weird little tapping/massage routine. It was supposed to improve circulation and natural skin processes but it had no effect. I guess it couldn’t harm though.
• Disinfecting things you touch a lot every single day: Keyboards, headphones, phones, remote controls, tables. It’s supposed to be good for people prone to picking. Every day is a little too much but I still think it’s a good idea to do once in a while. Especially keyboards get icky!
• Exfoliate often. This just pissed my skin off further. Sensitive skin shouldn’t be exfoliated more than once a week!
• I tried wearing those white cotton gloves at every chance I had (Wasn’t in public) to keep myself to touching my skin. 
• More sleep. The theory was that if you go to bed so early that you wake up on your own in the morning before the alarm goes off, you give your body the time it needs to finish the natural processes it needs to go through to cleanse and regenerate itself and stuff. Yea, lol. It may have had a little effect but was actually quite annoying!
• Steam face daily. I guess it couldn’t hurt since it does stimulate circulation but other than that it took a lot of time and had no effect.
• Wash + tone + moisturise several times per day. I think it made my skin a little happier but not enough compared to the time and effort! 
• Washing my hands every hour. It’s supposed to be good for people prone to picking. Every hour was a “little” excessive, but I still think it’s a good idea to remind yourself to wash your hands often.
• Zone therapy. It was very comfortable and I guess it couldn’t hurt, but it had no effect.

This got really long and I still think I forgot something! 

Ficcare attempt no. 1

I gave the braided Nautilus bun a shot with the Ficcares. First I tried the centre held version but that one felt extremely uncomfortable and was really asymmetrical (Something I try to avoid since an asymmetrical updo always ends up pulling or being uncomfortable sooner or later)

My best shot was this one…

Even though it looks acceptable, the Ficcares were forced open so hard to fit over the bun that the ends were pushed into my scalp and felt uncomfortable within minutes.

I took them out and put a Ketylo set in instead.

Thank the Follicle-gods for my awesome readers who gave me so many ideas! It’s wonderful to have tips and styles ready to try. I will try more tomorrow! 

Ficcare help please

I have 3 sets of Ficcare that I can’t seem to get any use out of.

• 2 icy silver in large from the pearlized collection
• 2 blue jeans in large from the border II collection
• and 2 emerald from a border collection that appears to be discontinued both at Ficcare headquarters and headgamesonline. Hmm?

(Yikes, that is 252 USD worth of hair toys I don’t use!)

   

 Some years ago I could wear them for cinnamon buns

But then cinnamon buns lost their stability and I started using them with braided buns

Then the braided buns lost their stability too and that was pretty much the end of me using them.

I have tried an experiment to see if a crown wrap would work

Slightly messy in the back because it was just a quick attempt. I could make it look sleeker if I braided it to the side to begin with I think?

But I guess it doesn’t matter how it looks in the back because it looked huge from the front!

I tried holding a Figure 8 bun with one and it looked good from the back but…

...It gapes uselessly over most of the bun and looks ridiculous from the side

I tried one in each Figure 8 last I made doubles, but even that they are too small for!

I mean, Ficcares are even almost too small for just gaping over my base braid!

(Okay, this is a “Fakkare” from Evita Peroni, but the statement still stands)

I thought of putting them up on the trading board alongside the Hairsense brush that doesn’t work for me at all: It just “slips” over my hair without getting through to my scalp. (Figures that the brush would be a disappointment too!)

But I can’t get myself to do that. They blue and green ones are flaking and peeling along the edges and I’m generally not very impressed by them. “The Rolls-Royce of hair clips”? Hah.

I did get double Ficcares to work for holding a rosebun, but they also almost drown out the details of the bun.

I got a single Ficcare to hold a braided Nautilus 1-1½ year ago, but it wasn’t completely comfortable or stabile.

Maybe I could use doubles to hold the centre first and then slip the outer coils around the Ficcares later?

Now that I’ve gone digging through my old photos I found an old favourite I haven't done in ages: The “horseshoe bun” or “super flat bun”

I wonder why I stopped doing these? I really can’t remember. Hmm? 

Annoying picture-spam aside, I guess tomorrows hair-plans are to give the braided Nautilus a shot and see if I can hold it with one or two Ficcares. And if not, see if the “horseshoe” bun still works.

Anyone have another style that might work?  

Some inspiration

I was sorting through my fitness folder and found two motivational that I think are pretty fitting when it comes to growing long hair.

It’s not the occasional treatment no matter how fantastic and expensive it is that grows your hair; it’s the persistent daily effort of good habits and not doing any harm.

Seriously, why are people who don’t want long hair or like hair so busy pushing their personal opinions onto those who are happy growing their own hair long? 

So how bad is it?

I took this picture of my lazy (Sloppy) braid today. Honestly I think the taper is acceptable. Yes, I do have taper. Yes, the end of my braid is way thinner than the beginning. Yes, I do wish my braid stayed thicker all the way down.

But I don’t think my taper is “unacceptably” high. My taper is pretty much what comes with the natural and unavoidable xx shed hairs per day. I even think my shedding is under normal but since I’ve been growing more or less actively for some 10 years, naturally it results in taper.  

The tassel on the other hand. Yikes, that’s thin and long. The tassel pretty much only consists of the middle part of the 3 parts forming the braid. When I simply can’t braid anymore, I tie if off with an elastic.

I really think that if I went with the reverse U shape I could change that. My theory is that it would result in less braid-length but I would be able to braid further down and it would make the tassel a whole lot thicker. I measured the tassel to around 15 cm and its all from the middle part.

   

    

I feel like I’m becoming obsessed with this idea, hah… 

And then the summer came

Holy crap it’s been hot the last few days!

   

  

I really don’t tolerate heat well (I’m really more comfortable with ice and snow) so the heat has turned me lazy and constantly cranky.

My plan for yesterday was basically to return our rented DVDs and go to the gym. Instead I spent half the day vegetating in front of the computer where it’s nice and cool, before hubby and I grabbed a book each and went outside in the sun (Gasp) to read. 

   

     

There is this weird little place around the corner from us: Literally like someone removed the house from a garden and now it’s mildly overgrown. There is a hedge surrounding the place and decorative bushes and trees and it’s pretty private to lie around in.

   

   

      

Then we decided to go see Avengers and try the new burrito place that just opened. (A recommendation for RockPaperScissorLizardSpock to go check out Bonito Burrito near Saluhallen, they are as good as the Wraphouse hear the central station but a lot cheaper) 

    

You know you’re a really weird longhaired person when you in the middle of a dramatic scene spot a set of hair sticks and want to poke your hubby and squeal “Look, hair stick!!”

Did anyone else spot them in the Stuttgart scene right where the camera pans over the kneeling people?

    

Summer means two things for sure:

• Taking out all my scarves and bandanna to protect my scalp from sunburn
• And cute pedicures for sandals

   

    

I had really hoped that my skin had healed enough and my scars faded so much I would be comfortable wearing shorts this summer, but no. Another year of long pants for me…

    

The Nodosaurus

This is very close to the Ankylosaurus, but since it doesn’t have the “club”, I’m naming it the Nodosaurus.
    

You need

• A bandage
• A plastic bag
• Conditioner or treatment of your choice
• Wear something you don’t mind too much getting spills on. I went with my pyjamas

Braid your hair normally down to about shoulder length.

Add conditioner or treatment to the hair and braid it.

Poke a “hole” in the braid around where you started adding the treatment. I have my thumb through here.

Hook the end of the braid up though itself.

Pull a plastic bag over and wrap it around the length.

Wrap the bandage around the bag and up the braid with “normal” tension.

Then wrap over wrapping tightly to encourage the treatment to be distributed and pushed into the braid. Wrap the bandage above the bag as well to make sure that any accidental “spill” will be absorbed by the bandage and not your clothes or bed linen!

It’s more convenient and less heavy than the Ankylosaurus. You will be able to sleep normally while doing a deep conditioning, unless you sleep on your back. 

Reverse U shape for long hair?

I’ve had this idea rattling around in my head for quite a while:  

Would a reverse U shape be the perfect haircut for a longhair who wears the hair up a lot?

I wear braids a lot but I often find myself being unhappy with the taper. I want them to stay thick all the way down!

The natural taper is accented by the braid-parts having to first “travel” around the head to get to the back where it will be gathered into the braid. Naturally since the hair from the front has to take that “detour” it will “run out” first when braiding and the tassel will be mostly the braid-part from the back of the head.

The same happens for any buns as well: The hair has to go around before being gathered into a bun. When my hair was short the layers actually helped me secure a bun, but now at knee length a near-blunt cut has been just fine.

So would it be beneficial for a longhair wearing a lot of braids to maintain a reverse U shape?

        

 

         

Now that I think about it, actually what you should do it have a slightly shorter “under layer” instead since the hair from the top of your scalp also needs to “travel” a bit too. Especially if you wear Dutch or French braids where the top is lifted and shaped.

         

 

           

Maybe the ideal shape isn’t as much a “revere U shape” but a slightly shorter under layer for a section of your hair?  

Something like the green rectangle, maybe with the top slightly arched instead?

    

         

I think I might go for this some time after I have walked for the modelling. But of course this raises a few questions?

Would it thicken up my braids all the way down?

Would it make my buns less stabile?

Would I notice a shorter under layer when my hair is down?

Would I be happy with this?

And… How in the world would I explain this to a stylist? 

Hair comments in the real world

I went to my first yoga class ever with Chemist Friend yesterday. I’m not really sure what to make of the whole yoga-thing: It seemed to be some light stretching, light meditation, some static body weight exercise and some balance exercises. I think we will try again though, even if it didn’t feel like a “workout” it was still pretty challenging and different.
  

I had my hair in a braided Nautilus bun but it kept getting in my way whenever we were on the back. Even when I pack my buns as tightly as I can, they’re still about the size of an orange. I took the Flexi out but then my braid seemed to enjoy “snaking” itself around me and irritating me.

   

Any hints on how to wear long hair for yoga? Maybe a crown wrap?  

    

After the class when we went to get our clothes, a girl in the shower room suddenly asked me about my hair. I get so completely confused and embarrassed whenever people ask about my hair!

    

Maybe I should read up on the Hair comments in the real world thread so I can learn how to have a normal conversation about a simple subject with strangers?

                                                                   

Between my mumblings and half-answers I managed to give out one of my cards  so maybe she will be reading this. In that case: Hi! I swear I usually make more sense than I did yesterday!
          

Crazy 88

I felt the urge to do something different with my hair today and came up with this…

Double figure 8 buns.

I’m not sure they will hold though; they’re put up with only 2 small claw clips and a hair scoo each and don’t feel entirely stabile. Unfortunately all my other toys are either too big or too small.

Slightly crooked but I think I like…