DNA tests away!

Hubby and I ordered the 23 and me DNA tests. I would have gone with another supplier, but hubby really wanted to check for diseases, and 23 and me are the only ones that seems to cater to that.

Hubby's family just reconnected with some family that immigrated to USA in the early 1900'es and they brought some information on his family with them. It shocked me how much shorter his side of the family lives! Everyone in my family (What I know of) has lived into their 90es, so I understand his worry.

So what do I expect the tests to show?

For me:
I don't expect much for diseases: We have had a bit of skin cancer here and there in my family, but that is probably just from being really pale people in general.
As for the genealogy, I expect a lot of Danish. Like, a lot.
My great grandfather was from an area that was disputed territory between Denmark and Germany, so he experienced being both German and danish in his lifetime. His family name was Langholz, so that fits with the area too. So I expect about 12 % German there.
Supposedly I also have a sailor from the Spanish armada in my lineage, but my grandfather found a hint that he might have been a french mercenary instead? So maybe he was a French mercenary in Spanish service?
I strongly suspect this is where I get my hair from. Scandinavian hair just doesn't grow as thick and strong as mine.

For hubby:
Hubby thinks he will show half Swedish and German of an unknown quantity. His lineage is a bit of a mess, especially since his grandmother was adopted from Germany after WWII, so he could be a quarter anything really.
I personally have an idea it will show more Swedish ancestry than he thinks it will. Hubby has a completely different built than me: He has heavy bones, build muscles just by looking at a dumbbell and gains weight like his body constantly expects it has to live through the fimbulwinter. Take off his modern clothes and hand him an axe, and he would probably be indistinguishable from a historical Swedish viking.
It will be fun to see what it says!

Annoying elastics

Argh. I had yet another broken elastic inside my bun when I took the braid down yesterday.

It seems I have an annoying mix of really good and a lot of bad elastics in my little elastics-jar. Which is super annoying because it wasn't so long ago I cleaned up the jar and replaced them with what I assumed was good elastics!

I had bought a bunch of Glitters (Accessory chain in Denmark and Sweden) elastics, but it turned out that not all of their elastics are the same.

The small elastics that come in a little "envelope" is way stronger and more durable than the ones that come in any of their other packaging! Strange, because they should come from the same factory and "recipe", right? But there is an obvious difference.
So I bought a pile of those to replace them all.

I sorted the contents of the elastics-jar. I spent some time pulling and rubbing on the different elastics to see if I could find any sort of pattern to which ones are good. Some of them even have a very low tolerance for oil and will break apart quickly.
It would be useful to be able to spot the good elastics instead of having to buy and try them all.

I didn't feel I got a lot wiser from that. I have a vague idea that the lesser glossy/shiny elastics have some better grip then the rest. And maybe the more opaque ones are silicone instead of plastic.
But this is just my vague speculation.

I tossed every elastic that didn't look like the new batch.

Done! That took an annoyingly long time, but hopefully the elastics will not irritate me further.

Christmas gifts

Since I'm completely unable to say no to work (My pay is a double edged sword because the money is so good, but it makes it so hard to say no to!) I ended up with a pretty crappy Christmas plan.

Basically I would see my family after Christmas.

That made me feel like an asshole, so I planned, bought and packaged an advent calendar for my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister in law and all of their four boys. 

I dropped it off at my parent's place two weeks ago. 

I made a spreadsheet to keep track of, and organize this!

Then one of my coworkers got herself fired (Which is a whole pile of drama in itself, but meh, I'll try to keep my blog free of that) and I, and my remaining coworkers could make another Christmas plan.

So suddenly I will come for Christmas with my family along with hubby.

Which is of course good news, but it feels a little funny after compensating with the advent calendars for not being there!

The three big gifts are huge and heavy

Oh well. It will be fun! 

Also, we have now fixed almost everything gift-related for our families: We sent the gifts to hubby's family the same day I went to my visit my parents. It feels surprisingly awesome to be done with something that is usually stressful and annoying.

Luckily the gifts we sent for hubby's family were a lot smaller and lighter

I do have a question for my readers though: 

What would you give for Christmas gifts for four boys between the age of 13 and 20?? 

I have some very vague ideas of what games and brands that should be popular, but damn... I'll probably end up giving up and just giving them cash again, but that feels so sad! You might as well just print "I have no idea who you are as a person or what you like" on it.

On weird habits

Often when you explain the basics of growing healthy long hair to other people,you get a weird look. Benign neglect, CO wash, S&D etc. seems like such a bizarre idea to people.

But I have a single thing that even I think is slightly weird: I remove the tags of all my shirts and sweaters to not damage my hair.

I got the idea some 10+ years ago and spent an entire day removing the tags.
You pay so much attention to your tools being smooth and hair friendly, but what about shirts?
After all, you pull something over your head at least four times a day. Surely that must add up to a lot of damage?

Not so sure it actually does, but meh, it can't hurt. Right?

By now it has pretty much become a habit when I get new clothes.

If nothing else, it does limit the itching and scratching from tags. So I guess this falls under the "I'm not sure it actually does anything but I guess it can't hurt"-rule. 

*Shrug*

Throwback Thursday

Hehe. Look at that!

That was the little "nest" I created for the long hours of waiting for the first time I was going to do a light henna treatment. Looks so cozy!

The initial dripping drove me absolutely crazy even with the piles of towels, and later I realized that the best way to deal with that was to stay in the bathtub for the first hour or so. It doesn't change the annoying dripping at all, but since it drips wet on wet, it becomes a lot less annoying.

Story time: Breaking the wash

Back when I first started learning about methods for haircare, one of the things I really wanted to learn was how to do the most gentle washes possible.
I quickly started working on the conditioner only washes. Before I shaved my head, I would shampoo something like 3 times a week. But I started alternating with CO washes and trying to stretch the time before I had to shampoo.
After maybe half a year I had gotten it down to shampooing once a week. But after more months of trying, I just couldn't go lower. My scalp would become greasy and itchy and I would give up.
This was back when LHC was awesome and you could learn everything worth knowing, so I asked there for advice. Someone told how she had the same problem, but after letting her hair go uncomfortably greasy, it was like the plateau "broke" and she could go CO exclusively. She suggested it was something that would recondition your scalp into becoming less oily. I wasn't sure how/if it would work, but I figured why not?
I took the advice and found a stretch in my calendar where I could get away with very little social interaction.
(Who wants to see someone's nasty, greasy hair? We have social standards for hygiene for a reason! Seriously, pandemics have been halted by teaching people basic things like not spitting everywhere on the street. People not washing their hair to be "crunchy" or whatever is one of my pet peeves.)
After a week with no shampoo, I felt greasy and uncomfortable. But I kept going.
I think I managed to go 11 days before I caved in and shampooed. By then, my hair felt you could break it off in bits and light it like candles. So seriously nasty! I could barely stand myself.
But the tip worked. For some reason, and I'm not sure I can formulate the logic behind why it worked, it worked. Being allowed to completely grease over seemed to convince my scalp it needed to produce less grease.
After that, I went exclusively CO. It was very successful for me. My scalp loves CO and is completely at peace with it. CO has managed to help my scalp build a strong and resilient moisture barrier and it feels completely normal and healthy. It is completely different from my skin everywhere else which is highly reactive and irritated.
I still shampoo maybe once a year or so though; Usually in the autumn when my scalp becomes unhappy with the wet and cold air outside and hot and dry air inside, and I can't be bothered to keep CO'ing the flakes.
It was disgusting while it happened, but the result was awesome and worth it!

Today's hair

Two French braids put into a braided Chinese bun. A simple classic.

Christmas calendars

You all know I'm a bit of a nut when it comes to Christmas calendars. Last year I got four really nice ones for myself. This year I have controlled myself a little more.

Wasn't really so hard to stop myself though! Last year had a lot of (surprising) failures and I just didn't feel as excited about the selection this year.

The almost shocking failure last year was Lumenes calendar. I was super excited about it, and it was just a near complete failure for me. The only product two I ever really got any use out of was the beauty serum, which despite the name was more of a BB cream, and the Glow boost essence, which I liked enough to repurchase in full size. But the cream in the same line caused me a painful breakout because it contained sea buckthorn which the essence does not.
The calendar last year also contained a lot of creams, and I've come to a point where I think my skin just doesn't like creams in general? Too heavy products cause clogged pores and irritation for me. I need multiple layers of lighter products such as toners, essences, ampoules, serums and SPF or maybe a light lotion on top. No creams.

The cool thing about the failures from last year was that a lot of the products were so nice that I could put them in my "potential gifts" pile. Every time I had a birthday or event that required gifts, I could grab an extra from the pile. I always found something in the pile that the person could enjoy: A cream I didn't dare use, an eyebrow product I would never use anyways, some handcream with way too much perfume in it... It made me look like a super considerate friend who had spent a lot of time looking around for a luxurious extra gift.

So, here are the two Christmas calendars I have ordered for myself this year:

Look fantastic
This one was my second-favorite last year! And the box was seriously pretty (I kept it, but have no clue what to use it for)
This year it looks less pretty and a lot like the Skinstore calendar from last year, but the contents seems just as promising.

Rituals
The surprising favorite last year was the Rituals calendar!
I used, and enjoyed every single product in the calendar from last year (I think?) within a few months, so I'm getting the pretty 3D model this year.

Cool thoughts and hair theories

First of all: I really love the intelligent feedback on my weird experiments and rants.

So thank you all!
This is what makes blogging worth it!

Funny, I wonder if my scalp gets sore due to the location of an updo/braid.
I remember when my appendix ruptured and I went into hospital with a top knot, and it stayed in that style for four days (Was the easiest to lay in a hospital bed with). My scalp never felt sore----now, I wondered if it was due to surgery and I was SO dry there!! I did brush it out and re-tie it, but it was never tender. I wonder if it's because it was balanced on the top of my head and didn't cause any pulling downward. So, perhaps using that theory if you had more updos at the top of your head, rather than the back, there may be an easier way to stabalize it? Just a thought :)

Darkhorse on An experiment in laziness: Day 5

That´s interesting!

Actually it confuses me a bit: I had the thought that maybe it was the slow moisture drain from my scalp (Since I didn't rinse or otherwise treat it between updos) that contributed to my scalp becoming sore in the end.

But then you describe that you were really dry at the hospital and it didn't leave your scalp sore. Hmm!
But wouldn't you be more exposed to dry at your work? I mean, hospitals have industrial A/C and will try to keep the climate dry to reduce bacteria and fungal growth, but working with horses at a barn should be a really dry climate too. All the sand and hay should really suck the moisture out of the air, right?

I once tried to explain the concept of needing longer hair to do certain styles if you have thick hair to someone and got a very weird look for that, but I know what you're talking about!
Basic cinnamon bun works the same for me, as it did for you: okay on waist, quite bad at classic. It worked nicely at tailbone length.
I can't get a Nautilus right on me, but I recently tried out the Lazy Wrap bun, which I never got to work at phases where I had longer hair, so:
Updo structure of LWB bun x (Waist-to-hip length/iii-hair type) = Good structural integrity
Updo structure of LWB bun x (classic length/iii-hair type) = Bad structural integrity
No matter at what hair length, I never could get anything to work out where you need to form loops and then reach through that loop and pull the remaining length through, there doesn't seem to be a point where I a) don't have enough length to pull through or b) way too much length so that it all falls apart.
Do you notice "sliding" and think that length factors in? No matter how long or short my hair is, buns, braids and ponytails slide down to my nape and disintegrate. I like styles to be quite high, otherwise I look frumpy, but as it all slides down, I frequently have to redo them. It's probably because my hair is unevenly distributed and the majority is on the back of my head and nape area, but not much on the front and sides.

Buchfreundin on Ratios

*Grin*

Oh yes, that weird look. It's just one of longhair things that it seems only the weirdest most seasoned thinks about.
Can you link to the lazy wrap bun? Last time I tried to find a good tutorial I found that there were a couple of different methods and all of them resulted in very different updos for me. It was strange.

I definitely think length factors in. I think once you reach a length where your hair is noticeably longer than necessary for an updo, you will get some sliding. If your hair is so long you just have to take a few extra loops just to get the entire length put up, you will get some sliding. My reasoning for thinking this is that you're "done" with the structure and now you're just tucking length up. If you have to form extra loops, there is nothing anchoring or structural left in the updo and you just keep piling on a slippery mass that is going in the same direction with the same tension and it just adds more load to the updo. You should need to add additional anchoring, structural hold or just a direction change to distribute the tension.
*shrugs* At least that's my theory.
Also, I think hair type is a factor here. Soft/slippery hair should exponentially increase this effect. (Gotta love coarse hair! Coarse hair don't care.)

As for your personal, non-theoretical sliding, I'd like to ask what type of tools you use? I find that using thicker sticks or forks seems to "push" the style apart and accelerate any instability. This is one of the reasons I love the basic Ron Quattro's: They are just so thin that it doesn't seem to affect the updo at all.

Happy Halloween

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