Well, my new style lasted for about 5 days before it was just too matted for me to be happy with it - but still! That's very reasonable - I could alternate this style, and my 'protective' style to give me some alternation.
Anyhow! It's been about 6 months since I've started on this hair journey. My hair is a little shorter than it was when I started (by my choice!), but I have more skills, more knowledge, and a cabinent full of wonderful substances for the health of my hair both externally and internally. I'm not as healthy as I would like to be overall - in fact, I feel LESS healthy at the end of this year - but that is one of my main goals in the next - to get back on track with the physical changes that I was making, and prepare myself for my next adventure.....
Happy New Year's Yall - may this year be your best year ever!
Wrapping it up!
I think this style is ADORABLE - makes me look at least ten years younger - though it doesn't show up in pictures well. Well, I think it makes me look 16, I'll have to ask hubby if he agrees when he gets home.
ETA: *LOL* I had spoken to DH earlier, and told him that I thought it made me look unreasonably young (I'm quite proud of all my years!), and as soon as he walked in the house, he took one look at me and said 'My gods, I've robbed the cradle' *LOL* we agree, it's the part in the front that REALLY does it.
Now - is there ever a reason to look YOUNGER than you are? Discounts for the underaged?
I basically made about 20-30 two strand twists, and then twirled them into bantu knots (which are basically tiny, tiny, beebutts) and slept in it overnight. I had planned on using it as a style to let my hair dry straight, but this morning, as I untwisted them, my hair had dried into these tiny, tiny, tight little curls. I pulled the twists/curls apart a bit to hide the parts, and voila! I'm really interested in seeing how this ages - it might be a way for me to wear my hair 'out' without trying to wear it in in a 'fro or using heat to straighten it...
WHoohooo!!
Okay - it's been a busy weekend, hair wise. I took Friday off, just because I felt like it, whic of course, gave me more time to play with my hair!
The haircut! I cut my hair on Solstice, because - well, not ONLY was it the right moon time, it's the season of renewed growth and energy.... so, yeah.
I took down my 'normal' hairdo, combed it out, then put it into about 12 tight, tight braids.
I then snipped off most of the thin, gnarly ends....
Leaving me with this.....
I figure that I cut off about an inch - maybe a little more, maybe a little less, in some areas. I FINALLY got why some folx said that when they cut off the thinner ends, their whole head of hair felt thicker. I don't know why, but it suddenly felt like I had about twice as much hair on my head as I did BEFORE I cut - and combing it out was a dream! But then, I'm comb happy anyway.
So - Thursday night - after I cut my hair, I mixed up a new bunch of henna. I know, I know - too soon! But - I really wanted to see how the FNWL henna would work - and I give it an unabashed thumbs up.
1) Dye released in about 45 minutes - and all I used was hot water + a little citric acid.
2) VERY goopy/snotty/stickytogethery - I just put a LITTLE conditioner into it, and it went into my hair with ease.
3) STRONG dye - I started putting it in with bare hands (brain fart) and by the time I realized it, my hands were a BRIGHT orange - which, is very pleasing.
4) Rinsed out easily - I left it in for about 14-16 hours, and I was worried that it would dry out, but nope - it rinsed out like a dream.
I ended up with the same great henna conditioning/shine - and I noticed that my hair was DISTINCTLY thicker - something I don't remember noticing before.
I had clarified my hair with baking soda & conditioner before I henna'd, so it was extra curly, but it combed out with no problems with the conditioner - and I didn't even leave it in that long - I did the whole thing in the shower. I finished off with my usual cool water rinse.
Then - I went to go and condition/style it. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, so I just parted it, coated it with WP, and put it into about 20-30 two strand twists. Then, jsut becuase I was bored (and I didn't like the Pookie look) I put all the twists into bantuknots, and went to bed.
So - that brings us to Saturday. I needed to go out, so I figured that I would take out the twists, comb it out, and put it into my usual style, but once I started pulling them out, I found that they pulled out into tiny TIGHT little curls - I've seen folx whose hair naturally looks like this. I pulled them all out, and separated them a bit to hide the parts, and voila! New style!!
I'm really interested to see how well this lasts after sleeping on it, etc.
Hmmm..... this is gonna be a choppy entry...
[*] I did a coconut soak over the weekend - actually slept in it overnight, and let it dry out a bit (I'm such a slacker). It was - *thinks* coconut milk (I mixed it up in the can, and it was FAR too watery - next time, I'm sticking with just the creme, and skipping the water), citric acid (in lieu of limes), honey, CASH oil, and a bit of Humectress (to make it thicker so it would actually stay IN my hair, rather than drip down my forehead and over the back of my neck.
When I Rinsed my hair, it was soft (sooooo soft) but I didn't see any loosening of the curls - I have some really cute lil spirals right behind my ears - but, I'm very cool with that, as I'm slowly starting to accept the fact that I most likely won't EVER be able to wear my hair 'out' until it gains a good bit more length.
It was also VERY easy to comb out - I combed it out 'naked' (no product) just standing in the shower flow.
I then styled it - just a little shea butter in it to lock in some of that moisture, and some Burnt Sugar to tighten up the twists once I was done. I was in a rush, so instead of doing the two strand twists in the back and bunning them, I just did flattwists going straight up and down - it's cute, though I need to get soooo much better with my parts.
[*] One more week til trimming time!! I need to dig up my scissors - they are well hidden somewhere in the bathroom, as DH has no concept of single use tools. I twisted my hair into fat twists as I was buttering them, and ooooohhwee - it (and I!) will definitely appreciate having some of these tired, tired ends gone. I'll have to go back and see how long it's been, but I think it's been at least 3 months - and moon willing, I won't be going THAT long again. I know that I missed one trimming window - I wonder if the Farmers Almanac has trimming days. I'm thinking I'll end up taking off about 3/4 of an inch, on average. There were some sections of my hair that I could 'feel' weren't too bad - and others that were really bad. Even on the not so bad parts, I could still FEEL where the virgin hair ended and the colored hair started. I'm also much less worried about losing the ability to do my 'favorite' style, because I can just vary the size of the twists, and even if I cut ALL the colored hair off now, I can still do them with my virgin hair alone.
[*] Henna! And other conditioners! I'm trying to plot out a reasonable hennaing schedule. My hair DOES pick up some of the henna color - it's subtle, but after the last hennaing experience I could definitely see a - purplish - glow, almost in my hair. And the strength! It's still not as strong as it was at the end of my last henna'ing streak - but then, my hair didn't start breaking off, either! So - I'm trying to figure out a good schedule. I'm thinking about a once a month kinda thing.... every 4-5 weeks or so. In between, I think I'll do at least one coconut (or other milk soak - after seeing the new thread on veggie milk soaks), and potentially a trim, and *thinks* there was something else I was thinking about squeezing in on a weekend, but I can't remember what it was.
[*] Supplements.... so, I've been pJ'ing it up. I've brought Lenzi's Request (some scalp stimulating creme people have been raving about on LHCF) Hair Souffle (a moisturizing creame) and I'm still on the lookout for some cheap sulfur so I can make my own MTG. I'm doing all this so that I can start to move away from the internal supplements - gearing up for TTC and all that - and I figure that I should be taking my babymaking supplements (which I still haven't purchased - I need to take advantage of PP's 60% off sale) for at least three months beforehand - so I need to start taking them at the turn of the year as well. I'm also getting low on HH - but I wanna try out the hair souflle to see how that works, before hand. I figure I don't have to be CRAZY money spendy.
[*] I want to come up with some sort of spray that I can use to moisturize my hair while it's in braids. I know there are several commercial ones, but I know my hair ain't all that fond of glycerin, which is what most of the commercial ones have. I'm thinking about a nice lil mix of honey, conditioner, a lil oil, and some distilled water - mmm, that sounds like a recipe I've seen around here somewhere. It would be nice to be able to moisturize my hair in the middle of the week without taking it down, and just leave the DC for the weekends. But then, I KNOW how my hair is, and even with a daily spray in moisturizer, I'm not sure how happy it will be with me. Hrmmhrmmrmm, decisions, decisions....
Hrrmmm. I think that might be it. Not as choppy, but more booklike than I planned. *sigh* It's almost 11:30 - I suppose I should be heading to bed soon. Blech.
Hah!
I really just need to stop doubting myself, and TRY things, before I assume that they will be too hard/too much work/my hair isn't long/thick enough, or that I just don't have the talent needed.
I've been realizing over the last few days that I REALLY needed to figure out a new hairstyle - not because I didn't like the one I had, but because I was starting to get worried about repeatedly parting my hair in the EXACT same spot straight down the middle of my head. I would put a satin cover over the headrest of my car, but I could still feel little hairs rubbing against the satin. Now, I'm split pretty evenly on whether those wee hairs are new growth (I've seen several tapers!) or broken off hair (and I'm still losing red hair and a rapid rate) but - still! Thinning hair or not - if it hadn't happened YET, it was sure TO happen.
So, I rummaged around the web, and starting thinking about yarn braids again (I already have the yarn and EVERYTHING), and then figured- heck! I'm redoing my hair tonight ANYWAY - might as well try something different, natch? First, I had to figure out HOW I wanted to do my hair - I'm not all that imaginative when it comes to hair, and I'm really 'trapped' in thinking that my hair needs to be longer to do ANYTHING with it (which I am pulling myself out of), and finally I just settled on doing what I've been doing - flat twists, but doing them ACROSS my head, instead of from front to back.
I ended up with four flat twists, joined on the left side, with a 'twist minibun' (two strand twists, twisted together and secured with a bobby pin into a tiny, tiny, button bun) - and - well, it's LOVELY. Also - I'm thinking that this might last longer, since each flat twist is smaller, so even though it takes about twice as long to do, I shouldn't NEED to redo it quite so often. So, this might be my new hairdo for the rest of the most of the winter. And I doubt that I will runover the EXACT same line when I redo them - they'll be a little bigger or a little smaller each time....
I'm amazed AGAIN by how thick my roots are, and how THIN the bleached hair is - I mean even when I look at a strand of hair - I can SEE the difference in size. And if I stress test a shed strand, 80% of the time, it will break RIGHT at, or a little below the demarcation line between dyed and undyed. I realllllllllllllyyy can't wait til all of this damaged hair is gone - and I don't think it's going to be all that long - I figure by the summer, I'll be all virgin haired. Doing the twists for the back showed me JUST how much hair needs to be trimmed - man, going for this long without trimming has REALLY shown up in my hair - the ends were downright STRAGGLY - not even all curly and smooth like in the twists picture that I took. Now, part of it might be because my hair was dry when I twisted it, and I twisted it without gel, so there was no moisture to encourage my hair to 'curl' up around itself - but YIPES. I would - based on those - cut off about 1/2 to 3/4 of the red I have left.
One more week, and I get to TRIM!!! Whoohooo!
So - henna'd and conditioned my hair over the weekend - then left it out in a wild free fro, and oh, the tangles! The knots! My hair is just plain NOT happy about being left to it's own devices.
Anyhow, I was looking at my hair, and I was moaing over how SHORT it is. Yes, yes, I know it's short - but sometimes I'm - shocked - by how short it is. This awareness in no way shape or form makes me want to NOT trim - as I've set it up in my mind that - well, that I haven't really started GROWING my hair just yet - I'm just getting it to be at a healthy baseline. And in my mind, that healthy baseline is when my hair is all virgin - no bleached, fragile, worn out ends - all fresh hair. And from THAT point - that is when I'm going to seriously start GROWING my hair. *pats head fretfully* I have to keep remnding myself that it's only been - what - 8 months, and I have at least 4 inches of fresh growth - which includes the wintertime (during which my hair does jackall) which means I'm growing a good 1/2(or so) a month - which is rather good. So. *deep breath* Patience, patience, patience, I must always remember and be patient.
So - my hair is neatly bound up now, and I've started doing something new with the ends - twisting, then braiding them into a single braid, and tucking it into the middle. Not only does it hold the whole style more securely, it also 'conceals' the usually fuzzy part in the back, making the whole thing ever so much neater.
In general - the roots are distinctively thicker than my ends. I'm not sure if it's just the curliness of my hair, or if it's the broken offness of my ends, but - I do remember dealing with this before - my roots being so much thicker than my ends, but then again - I haven't had VIRGIN hair on the ends of my hair since - god. Since.................97? 95? I honestly can't remember - I've been dying my hair for SOOOO long. So, this should be interesting. It's also funny seeing how the texture of my hair changes - when I clarify, or when I deep condition, or when I get it wet and let it airdry - each one gives me a different type of curl, a different color of hair - I feel like a hair chameleon at times. Of course, it's always short though - unless it's dripping wet with conditioner, it's barely long enough to be called an actual afro, and pulling individual strands is almost a magic trick along the lines of the never ending hankercheifs.
But occasionally, the rampant difficulty of my hair will give me hope - like when I discovered a shed strand of hair had tied itself to one of the strands that was still atacched to my head, thus giving me a strand that was twice as long, as was CLEARLY APL - which thrilled and delighted me to no end, as that means I'm halfway to APL, which in my mind is another year and a half - which isn't that long at all.
I've also started to think about how I'm going to have to/want to/need to change my supplement list, assuming that I want to get knocked up in the next six months or so. I know that I'm going to have to stop taking the MSM - it can act as a blood thinner, and we want the blood to be nice & thick. The biotin I will stick with, and I'm going to switch to a topical sulfur mix - homemade MTG. The Omega 3/6/9 I'll also most likely stick with - though, I might add some EPO to it as well, if needed, to help regulate my cycles. I've gotta get a basal thermometer, so that I can start taking my temps. I'm actually getting excited thinking about this - the process and so forth. I refuse to even consider how we will handle it if it takes a while - though, after reading more about fertility, really, it seems like a miracle of timing that ANYONE gets pregnant at ALL - especially by accident. OF course, getting knocked up is a grand way to get the hair growing - though, it doesn't stick around, but STILL.
Hrrm. I think that's about it, for now.
I've been looking forward to trimming my hair - it REALLY needs it, for one thing, and - well, I'm just excited about it, because it means that I'm getting closer to having a head full of natural, mostly virgin, healthy, hair.
My biggest question now is - how much should I cut? I've been eying the sections over my ears, and muttering under my breath about doing a HUGE chop and cutting off 80% of the dyed ends that are left - but I'm thinking that most likely just a WEE bit unrealistic (ie crazy). I'm still thinking about the ten twists bit, and how that will influence the amount that I cut. I would like to stick to just cutting the thinnest/weakest/messedupest bits off, and leaving the sturdy/healthy/thick bits. It's been interesting FEELING my hair though - I feel like I'm growing out a perm almost - the difference between the density/thickness of the virgin hair vs. the colored, as well as the difference in curl/texture - it's rather obvious, and I'm loving the natural hair.
Hrmmm what else? I'm noticing henna type color in my hair - I can tell the difference between my 'roots', the henna'd bits, and the dyed bits of my hair. Of course, it would take ME to notice it, in bright light, squinting at my roots, but I really do think that as I keep doing it (for many, many, years) my hair will gradually start to go red. The finest 'baby hairs' around my hairline are the most obviously colored - they are so thin that the dye makes a definite difference - the rest of my hair just say's NWAH! But - I'm hoping that it'll show up more clearly in the summertime - my hair gets lighter anyhow, so it should be interesting to see.
Hrmmm. I think that I need to figure out.... *laughs* I love this journal. I was going to say that I need to figure out a new way of dealing with my hair when I put it up under the showercap for conditioning, because slicking all my hair UPWARDs, and then having to comb it out DOWNWARDs - well, not the best thing. But - as I was writing that, I went - DUHH!! twist my hair into a couple of fat twists, wrap them around themselves, and roll on! See - just writing stuff out answers my questions sometimes.
Okay - it's taken me like three hours to write this, and I think I'm done now. I love it when problems solve themselves.
Now - off to investigate insulation!
Hmmm - I've been thinking of random things over the last few days that happened that was hair related...
1) My mother and my hair. She has a LOVELY head of two year old locks (that I talked her into getting) and I'm amazed by how long they are already - but then, I don't remember how long her hair was when she first started them. anyhow - I'm sitting on the couch, combing out my hair to condition it with some HH and retwist it, and she says in this 'Poor, poor *****cat' voice 'Poor thing, you've never been blessed with hair'. Now, at first, I wanted to buck up and get all - I just too kmy locks out! It's breaking off cuz of the dye! Do you SEE all this virgin growth??!?? but then I realized - ya know what? I don't WANNA be 'blessed' with hair - because that implies that it was just - given to me. I take great pride in earning what I got, and I know that I am going to (and have been) EARNING every. single. inch. of hair on my head. I might never be 'blessed' with hair - but I know that I'm going to have full, thick, long, lovely hair at some point, and it's gonna be because I worked for it. Dammit.
2) I started doing my 'style' in a slightly different manner - I'm starting out with tiny bits of hair - thus making the whole thing 'tighter' and smaller. Not only is it MUCH neater, it also seems to 'stay' better - I've got fewer stray bits and pieces - though, the fact that I'm now twisting it slightly HIGHER on my head means that the patchs of hair from in front of my ears tends to escape. If I remember in the morning, I give them a bit of extra love and leave them out to make cute little tendrils. If I forget, I jsut make two wee two strand twists, and tuck the twist behind my ear.
I like the thinner ones though - they are MUCH neater looking, and seem to fit my face better - I feel REALLY cute in them.
3) It's getting closer to trimming time!! I was looking at the thread on the Morrocan method, but I'm puzzled by how he achieved his dates - his date for trimming to encourage length is during the WANING portion of the moon, not the Waxing, as is usually said to be best - so I'm wondering where he is pulling these dates from. I think I'm going to stick with 'old schooll' lunar methods where you know the sign the moon should be in for hair growth, and you trim during the earliest part of the waxing moon in that sign. Hmph. I also think that I will henna -hmmm... I plan on trimming the 23rd (new moon is the 20th, and the solistice is the 22nd - so I'm not only getting the waxing of the moon, I'm also getting the waxing of daylight!), and while I would LIKE to henna the weekend before that (the 16th) I know that I'm going to at least ONE Yule Party that weekend - which pushes it back to THIS weekend - which would make it a full NINE weeks - that's OVER two months. And yes, yes, I did use cassia a few weeks ago, but that's neither here nor there - and besides, it didn't do me as well as my henna does me. So! I shall be *happy squeally noises* hennaing this weekend!! Whoohooooo!!! :) :) :) :hollie: But - I want to do the henna so that I have the BEST hair possible to trim with - as I'm going to base the amount of the trim on general thiness, as well as the feeling of the ends - and henna will let me 'cheat' on both.
I think that I'm going to do *thinks* 10 twists - five on each side - and trim mercilessly. If I trim too short to be able to do my usual style, I'll just switch back to the 'front bang' then 'side twist' style I started out with. I'm really lookin forward to having all virgin hair.
4) I've calmed down PJ wise - I'm still all over my vitamins, and I'm kicking around making some MTG to add to my usual hair oil (CHASM oil? *ROLFLOL*) and maybe trying out this 'Lenzi's Request' stuff...... and otherwise, I'm really satisfied with my hair.
My skin, on the other hand, makes me want to scream, and scrape it all off at once. I have what I like to call 'facedruff' - it's like dandruff, but it's not on my SCALP - it's on my face, and OCCASIONALLY it will creep into my hairline - esp. at my wee widows peak. I've been OCM'ing for - years - which helps CONCEAL the horrid patchs of flaky dry, dry, dry skin on my face, but hasn't really gotten RID of them. And if I 'exfoliate' them off (no matter HOW gently) it'll form little scabs, which then give me wee scars, which leaves me skin TORN up. So - I was reading up on this, because I wasn't really sure as to what the hell was going on with my skin - but I think it's dandruff - just - STUBBORN - dandruff. So - I think that I'm going to get some teatree oil and mix it in with my OCM oil. From what I've read, dandruff is actually an 'over reaction' or 'overgrowth' of your skin to a naturally occuring fungi that normally kicks in on our skin. Sooo.... the TToil usually both calms down the skins reaction AND the fungus - and makes things even better. Other than that - I really don't know WHAT to do with my skin. *sigh* And I drink more water than any one person (who isn't a camel) should so.... yeah.
Okay - I think I'm done now.
I realized that the hairstyle I was rocking wasn't all that good for my hair - at least not all the time. I wasn't sure if it was new growth (hopefully!) or the part starting to break off my hair, but I was feeling a LOT of little hairs all along my part. So, I tossed and turned and thought - and came up with this new hairstyle.
The amazing thing - it only took me about 40 minutes to do this - and my hair wasn't even PARTED when I started. *sigh* and it was soooooooooo tangled at the ends - I used a little Oyin Honey Hemp to soften the ends, then combed out the part.....I so need to trim my ends - just another week until I can....
I'm thinking - seriously thinking, mind you - about trimming off all the red, and putting in yarn twists until I gain enough length to start putting it into twists again. But then, I think that I can do this style, even with a wee bit less hair. Hmmm... maybe not the twist bun in the back..... I'll have to think about it.
Boy, it's really been a while.
Hair related - I've been rocking my 'standard' hair style - I've deep conditioned once, and redone my hair about three, maybe four times. I've cowashed once, and that's been about it.
Thanksgiving was nice - wonderful really, until the trip back home (we drove) where we drifted off the side of the road, spun out, hit a tree, and totalled my car. Praise the Gods that we both strolled away (so to speak) - DH had a few bruised ribs, and I had a wee cut on my hand.
It's actually been really nice to be - casual about my hair. I haven't taken a vitamin for two weeks, I haven't been on the boards for OVER two weeks, and the only thing I've purchased was this ultra cool (and cheap) 'gift set' of Nexxus products the day of the accident - dammit, I was stressed, and needed to splurge! I also got a shower comb - seamless - that I LOOOVVVE - it's called a Goody's ouchless, I think, and it will be my travel comb so that I don't have to fret about traveling with my bone comb and potentially breaking it.
I think that I MIGHT - MIGHT - henna my hair this weekend - but then again, I might be out buying a new car this weekend, so really - who knows?
And I'm SOOOO tired. Despite being on 'vacation' the stress of the accident wiped all that out, and I'm sick, and I was out of town again last weekend (though it was WONDERFUL fun in the woods with mah girls - we don't believe in sleeping when we are together), and it's suddenly decided that it's high time that it gets right and cold - IF I go car shopping this weekend, that will most likely be ALL that I do. When I came home from my trip this weekend, DH was in the kitchen, cleaning, and I wanted to fall down and weep with joy because I was DREADING walking into a house that showed that I haven't had a chance to be home and do things proper for almost three weeks!
Okay. I think I'm done, for now - now I must go and catch up!!