Dog Days of Summer......

I ain't gonna lie, I've been being lazy. I've come here, eye'd the blog, sighed, and went on to do something else - I think I might be coming to the end of a hair-mad cycle, possibly.

Personally, I like that 'rest' point between cycles, because - well, it's dull, true, but it's when I settle into a nice, tried and true regimen, when I just KNOW that my hair is happy, and in general, I'm happy with it. Of course, that also means I let the blog slip (because same old same old ain't all that interesting), but I'll try to be better, this time.

Okay, let's do a catch-up (be warned, I'm gonna ramble and subject skip).

Last thing I posted about was the salt treatment - which I'm officially doing once a week. I usually do it during my Saturday DC, because that one is done on loose hair, and I can be sure that I'm rinsing everything out. I skipped one week, and I could tell - my head needed that mid-week DC, and it just felt generally dry all week. *headshake* My hair just loves being treated right. Thus far, I'm in LOVE with the salt treatment - I think that my hair prefers the Sodium Citrate over Sodium Chloride, and I've considered seeing if I can buy the stuff straight, to skip the drippies from the water co-product.

What else? I started to notice some breakage - not a lot, but more than I have been used to seeing, for a while. There was a thread asking 'What is your hair telling you?' and I swear, it was like my hair leaped into my brain and answered - "I need to be henna'd, damn you, you hair-deaf woman!!!"

Being the obedient hair-owner that I am, I gave my hair a GOOOD henna over the weekend - I actually used up the last of my FNWL pre-mixed packets that I had frozen, because I thought that they might be kinda weak. I also decided (since, ya know, they were weak) to not wear gloves. Well. Thankfully, the palms of my hands are no longer orange, but I suspect I'm just going to have to let the fingernails grow out. I'm so glad that I don't mind henna-tinged nails. *lol* Looking like I have jaundice. *lol*

The breakage stopped, almost instantly. I got so used to my hair being so strong, and breakage free, that I totallllly forgot about how influential henna has been in maintaining that. So, now I know the 'signal' for when my hair needs henna - if it starts breaking, and a good DC doesn't stop it - which, considering how I DC, it should, anyhow, then it's time for a henna. I need to look back through the blog and see when the last time I henna'd was - I wanna say it was in April - so that would be about 4 months? Most reasonable.

While I was in Philly, I swung by Trader Joes and got some NourishSpa Conditioner, as well as the Replenish conditioner, too. I've tried the NourishSpa, and meh. Thankfully enough, I'm not over the moon about it (at least not as a Con - I haven't tried it as a leave-in, yet), so I won't have to bribe my mother with BBQ sauce for her to keep me in stock.
Honestly, it reminds me of my cheapie V05 I have in the cabinet - not as strong smelling, true, but otherwise - definitely nothing to write home about.
I'll have to see what I think of the Replenish - and watch, just because I only got two bottles, I'm going to LOVE that one. Tis the way things usually go. *lol*

I've also finally broke down and gotten some hair sticks!! There was a sale at CrystalMood.com - 50% off a lot of their stuff - and I got quite the selection of hair sticks - mostly wood, but a couple of metal ones too. I also got some cloisonne hair combs and matching barrettes - hopefully they should be in the mailbox tonight. It's a long weekend, so I might have some photographic fun, and show them off. My hair is still too short for the hair sticks, so those will go into hiding until next year, most likely.... assuming I don't gift them away over the holiday season.

Still using MT, though, as usual, I got all thrown off of things while I was on vacation, so the hair took a little break. I've also made the decision to go back to twists til the end of the year, redone weekly. One benefit of having longer hair is that I can make fatter twists that still look good (esp. since all I'm doing with them is putting them up), which cuts my twisting time in half.
The twists make it SO much easier to apply the MT (since my hair is pre-parted), and it's soothed my on-going 'over-manipulation' paranoia. Faster growth or not, my hair is not ready to be handled loose on a daily basis.

I haven't noticed any super significant changes/increased growth from the MT/MoeGro mix. I haven't been using it as diligently as I should have been though, so I'll keep keeping an eye on it. I'm so - I don't know - sad and ancipatory about my poor hairline, that despite me thinking that just MAYBE it's filling in, I'm relying strictly on pictures, for this one. The biggest thing is, I guess, is that it's never been out and out bald - it's just always been (or for as long as I've been really paying attention to it) thin. And since the rest of my hair is so danngone thick, it's looked bald, in comparison.

I think that I've settled into a pretty good weekend regimen - it's so funny how it flucuates to suit whatever I'm doing. I think I have a very flexible, yet regimented regimen, all at once. It's actually hard to describe, because I might not do the same thing at the same time, every weekend. The one consistent thing is that when I go to bed Sat. night, my hair is in it's fat braids, drying, so that I can put in twists on Sunday.

I've totally and officially fallen in love with using a tiny bit of castor oil on my hair. I smooth it through my freshly DC'd twists right before I give them the last brushing of the week and put them into my drying braids, and I smooth a little onto my twists right after I finish them. The combo of the castor oil and the salt is leaving my hair - light, yet soft, and moist - so, so, very moist. It's almost making me nervous, because it almost feels like it's overmoisturized - I'm talking one good DC away from mushy, but it's not there. *happy sigh*

I've also (and this might become a later blog) perked up and checked out the whole ceramide thing - the science behind how, and why it works is pretty darn interesting, and there are a couple of oils that are supposed to have ceramides in them, and ya'll KNOW I'm going to break that down at some point - I might do that over the weekend to, as a quick skim just won't do. *wiggles nose* It was most intriguing though, the little bit of research I did off-hand.

Anyhow, since the castor oil seems to be working so fabulously, I'm thinking about maybe making a nice, thick oil mix - castor oil, wheat germ oil (for the ceramides) and a lil Surivivor (because that stuff is REALLY thick) to be used on my hair as a 'sealer'.

Ooh, that reminds me - I'm almost out of my leave-in conditioner - I REALLY hope I noted down the recipe - if I didn't, I guess I'll be experimenting with something new, this go around. *lol* The basics for me seem to be butters + conditioners + honeyquat & SAA - it's just the details that vary.

Oh! Something else - since I've started using the salt, I've TOTALLY abandoned my daily misting of my hair. *shrug* Hair just plain has NOT needed it. That, to me, is the biggest indicator that there are good things going on with my hair.

I think that's about it (and that was plenty!) for now. Stay tuned for hair toy pics, and a detailed breakdown of my thoughts about the Ceramide Craze. ;)