Washing

I always love seeing my hair floating in the length of the tub when I wash. It moves around as the water pushes it and the ends almost look like flames in the wind.

I got my darling hubby to take a picture of it but I guess it’s hard to catch the true effect.

  

Stylist speculations

When I decided I wanted to get some trims done, I had happily forgotten one important detail: It requires me to actually go to a stylist.

Crap.

I don’t trust them. I really don’t.

Back before I started growing my hair out again and I didn’t care that much, they always wanted to “add layers for movement” or “thin it out”. Ugh. Even back then I knew my hair well enough to know that ended in a giant unruly puff-ball. One length blunt cut has always been the best for me. Some times I wondered if it’s because Danish stylists are trained on the dominant hair type of volume-challenged thin and fine and it’s because my thick coarse hair is so rare for a native Dane, but maybe not. On LHC there was an abundance of threads on traumatic cuts, “add layers for movement” and “thin it out” no matter location and hair type.

I have been lucky enough to avoid traumatic cuts, but I have still experienced enough of them to know that they don’t know anything about hair and the only thing that stands between them whacking off half my mane is my half-scowling-I’m-watching-your-every-move-look. I guess I have a way of radiating “I won’t pay you if you get “artsy” and I will make a scene”. Hah.

Even then I always ask them to show with their fingers how much they think xx cm is. They always show at least double and I always push their fingers together until they show how much xx cm actually is. Yep, I can be a condescending bastard, but it still blows my mind how often they mistake 2 cm for 5. Seriously. You would expect a 5^th grader to be able to show that, but stylists fail it Every. Single. Time.

So far my attitude has saved me from any scissor happy accidents, although I had two minor bad cuts.

• One was back when I had maybe 3 cm of hair on my head and I went to get the bottom cut to get away from the uncharming microphone-head look and make it look like it was actually a haircut. After the stylist had trimmed from the ears and down, she took a few cuts into the top as well. It was just a few quick snips that most of all seemed random and I didn’t get to stop her. I still wonder what the heck she was doing. Some sort of idea of thinning it out maybe?
• The second was when the top hair had reached about mouth length and I asked to get the back cut back to the level of my neck hair line. The stylist used a trimmer in the back of my neck and I thought she removed some fuzz or something but no. She actually removed the bottom of my hairline. I had an extreme case of mushroom-head for a month after that. Uff!

I had two experiences with bad use of equipment…

• Back when I had an ugly mullet-y thing and wanted to cut the hair in the back, the stylist placed me under some sort of rotating heater/blower thing set on such high heat that it made the skin on my shoulders hurt!
• At around classic length I went for a trim and when I shook my hair out, the stylist wanted to take a brush to my hair to detangle! One of those wide paddle brushes where the “teeth” looks like little nails with a head hammered into the cushion pad. To make it even worse, she reached directly for my scalp hair! Sheesh. Even pre-school girls know you detangle from the bottom and work up!

I got a bunch of more or less bizarre advice too…

• “This permanent colour isn’t damaging!” Gag.
• “Your hair can’t grow any longer than it was when you were 12!” I don’t even begin to understand this one! So the information on how long your hair was when you were 12 is somehow saved in the follicle and it can never grow beyond that?
• “You must colour your hair to the colour it was when you were 12! That is the most flattering colour for you!” What’s the obsession with the age of 12? And seriously, like almost all leverpostej (That too dark to be blonde and too light to be brown-colour that is extremely common here) I was blonde as a child and darkened with age. If I bleached my hair to the golden blonde I had then, I would look like an onion with ears. No thanks!
• “Your hair is so thick, we should thin it out” Yea, just what I need. The sexy pipe-cleaner look for my braids. And more volume.
• “Your hair is so thick, you must have a lot of scalp problems and dandruff!” Huh? Because hair doesn’t allow air to circulate or something? Or is it like if you’re very tall, you will definitely have foot fungus? What?!
• Not a hair advice but still, fresh from the stylist’s mouth: “You should always pluck your eyebrows in the direction you want the hair to grow. It will grow out that way next time the hair comes out.” Does this work on cowlicks too? I think a lot of people would love if that worked!
• Stylist: “You should colour your hair this colour!” *Shows picture* Me: “But that’s just a tiny bit blonder what mine is already” Stylist: “Yes but it will deepen and intensify your natural colour!” Ehh…? So I should damage my hair by colouring it to almost the same colour as it is already?
  
• The classic “We should add layers for movement” even though my hair is always up. Of course this would end in a lot of volume which I definitely don’t need.

Zoom out

A bigger version of the previous picture… It involves a bit of skin and an annoying hubby trying to avoid getting elbowed (Hence my expression) in the face so I had to crop it a lot

          

Regrowth progress

I experienced a very sneaky shed from stress and depression about 3 years ago. When I say sneaky, I mean that I didn’t even know I had it until I saw the irritating halo from regrowth. I probably lost just a few extra hairs per day which is nothing even the most eager and attentive longhair would notice.

The regrowth in total is about the thickness of a finger if I gather it all up, so I lost quite a bit!

It has been a giant pain in the ass to deal with the halo and right up until I could get it into a ponytail and hold it in with the up do, I’ve been very dependant on headbands.

Now that the majority of it is shoulder length, I barely notice it.

I had some strands poking out of my braid today in a kind of cute way and took a picture of it.

My mane looks really impressive when I zoom in on it like this, heh!

1 year’s blog birthday

Well, actually the blog has existed for longer than that since I spent a day or two setting up stuff, but my first post was a year ago!

So happy birthday to my blog!

   
When I first started this blog I didn’t have many expectations, after the whole LHC fiasco I just wanted to move my blogging to a more independent site. (Some times regretting the choice of Blogger when the comments option acts up but done is done)

I really didn’t expect much. After all, it took me years to build a reputation as being worth listening to and I didn’t expect people to get used to visit my private blog (Or be able to find it)

It was a really pleasant surprise to see my little blog grow over the months.

Now one year later I have 231 posts with this one, 50 followers and over 50 thousand page views in total!

I’m very happy and surprised, so thank you to all my followers! You are what make blogging worth it!

Oh and just because I find it a bit amusing, here is my traffic overview up to today… What’s with the weird spike around April?

Build up question

After revisisting the articles I can find on the subject and generally poking about on forums and blogs now taking into account information on the different properties of different types of silicone. Looking at the sunsilk leave in I know we both use it contains both dimethicone and amodimethicone. Now amodimethicone is in itself not water soluble but together with trideceth-12 it is and since sunsilk contains trideceth-12 it should be removed just fine (according to the sources I used). However, dimethicone which is also in the sunsilk leave-in balm isn't water soluble. I notice other people write about clarifying in order to remove dimethicone build-up but you've never mentioned clarifying your hair, yet you don't seem to experience problems from build-up, how do you solve the build-up issue, and how often do you have to deal with it?

~msn00b

It’s pretty simple…

I solve the build-up issue by not having a build-up issue.

Honestly, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had to clarify and still have fingers to spare.

The times when I’ve had to clarify has all been ”back in the day” where I was new to the whole longhair circuit and was way too eager to condition and care for my hair.

It’s been some expensive lessons a few times: Once back when I had shoulder length hair I had used a coconut oil-leave in thing (Think Palmers Coconut something-something?) that got super greasy and weird in my hair. I then used shampoo to get it out, but it didn’t seem to work on the first round, so I shampooed again. Then it just got even worse! I swear, somehow the fatty coconutty-coney thing fused with the cones in the Fructis shampoo I used and turned into some sort of disgusting lumpy super-coconutty-coney-greaseball. Yikes! I shampooed and shampooed and eventually emptied the bottle and had to go to bed with greasy-icky hair and run to the store next morning to get a clarifying shampoo. I had to shampoo nine times in all to get my hair back to normal! My scalp felt completely fried after that.

Well, I learned my lesson on over-conditioning healthy hair then.

It wasn’t until I was at around waist length before my hair even accepted any kind of oil or protein without flipping out on me.

Coarse hair has an extra layer (That is what makes coarse hair coarse) and it makes it difficult for oil and protein to penetrate, so they just “sit there” and can mess up the texture of the hair. It seems that coarse hair simply needs to take some damage before it will accept oils and protein. Not sure it’s a good thing I can oil my hair now!

Of course I knew people were saying that, back then but I didn’t want to listen. I wanted to try all these cool new things, especially this coconut oil that everyone seemed to love so much!

The whole “Benign Neglect” that the super long hairs always praised just seemed so boring. Hah, now I’m being one of them too.

Now I condition 0-2 times a week, usually in connection with having to wash my scalp. It’s obviously not enough to cause build-up or other issues for my hair type.

I try to add some more care to my ends since they can “take” more conditioning than the roots by doing an  Ankylosaurus without the heatpack overnight. It works really well. My ends love the extra care and I don’t upset the top and risk over conditioning it.

So well, boring anecdotes aside my answer is: If you don’t overdo conditioning, cones or no cones, you don’t have to clarify.

Skin speculations

I’m really not sure what to think of the La Roche-Posay skin care line (Now there’s a brand name I will never, ever be able to remember!) that I have been using for two weeks or so now.

On one hand, I think the tendency for my skin to be red and irritated has gone down a bit and it looks a bit better, but…

About half the times when I apply the skin tonic and cream, my skin feels “flushed” and irritated for about a minute. That is definitely not a good sign. In my opinion there are only two times where redness and irritation is not a bad sign: After an exfoliation where the skin has been mechanically manipulated and after a mud mask where the skin is irritated after having been dried out or having the pores opened and gunk hauled out.

Redness when applying cream does not mean that the product is working! Redness means that the skin hates the product!

Also I have a breakout coming right at the left side “bend” on my jaw line. As someone who gets maybe one normal zit per year on average, this is definitely a warning sign. Especially since it’s been there for a day or two and it doesn’t seem to be “squeeze ready” yet. I’m worried it might be a cystic mo-fo in the making… Yikes.

I have experience one of those many years ago in a crazy moment of “Hey, let’s take a handful of B vitamins to grow the hair faster!!!1!” and it was unbelievably uncomfortable and disgusting.

Strangely with those two big fat warning signs, my skin generally seems to be doing better. Huh?!

Q&A

I've been meaning to ask you, (you don't have to answer if yu don't want to i comlpetely understand that you have bettr stuff to do than answer strangers' questions) perhaps this is a silly question ... but I've gone from no cone's to cones because I like the idea of a protecting "film" over the hairstrand so I started using Sunsilks leave in balm, but now I'm sort of struggling with my own thoughts.

Here goes: The protecting film of silicone also protetcs from good stuff ie oil etc so in your experience, is there any way of getting the silicone film off of the hairstrand using CO or WO so I can "feed" the hair some oil on ends once or twice a week?
I hope it's ok that I asked
regards

Ms.N00b

First of all, no I don’t mind answering questions.

Second of all, I really think this would be a question better asked to Little Piggy or (^(oo)^) on UTT since she seems to really know her stuff when it comes to product ingredients and especially cones.

Anyways, it’s funny timing because I just CO washed some leftover hemp oil out of my hair after an overnight Ankylosaurus oiling. Last night I took half my braid out, put oil on it and rebraided it for the Ankylosaurus. Last morning I had used my normal old coney Sunsilk on it when I braided it. This morning I washed it out with some coney VO5. So I applied oil on cone’d hair and washed it out again with cones.

I never ever felt I had issues with “not penetrating” when it came to oil and my hair. But of course my personal experience isn’t really an explanation in itself.

Anyways. I find it annoying and yet funny when people talk about “cones” like it’s just a single ingredient that works in one single way. “Cones” are a huge and diverse group. Some are water soluble, some are more prone to build up than other, some are heavy some are light.

“Cones” is not a single thing. It’s as stupid referring to “cones” as a single ingredient as to refer to “oil” as a single ingredient that only works in one single way.

Of course when you put it as “protects from good stuff ie oil” I want to ask how much you think other ingredients really penetrate?

The fact is that most ingredients in products don’t go very deep. Most of them only deposits in the outer layer of the hair strands. Of course this depends on hair type as most coarsies will have problems with proteins not being able to penetrate the extra layer of their hair that makes coarse hair coarse.

Not all oils penetrate either!

Even if we did say that cones coated the hair strands so thoroughly that nothing could penetrate, would it be so much worse than when other “good stuff” fills up the hair strands? I mean, this is exactly why we condition our hair in the first place: To fill up the damaged areas and protect the strands on a microscopic level.

Of course it really isn’t the case even though one of the most common “anti cone arguments” is that “It blocks out moisture!” which makes me wonder how people can get their hair wet at all if that’s the case…

Anyways, I guess my point is that you should just try it. I could write page up and page down about penetration and ingredients and oils, but in the end it comes down to your hair type and the state of your hair strands. Some experiences build up easily and others with the same hair type never had issues with it.

My personal experience has been that my cone usage never interfered with oils. (Except for olive oil, but that has to do with the fact that my hair doesn’t like olive oil, cones or not)

If you’re feeling worried about “blocking” maybe you should shampoo before using oil, then you can always add some cones afterwards if you think it will lock the oil in?

More goodies for me!

Look what Biologist Friend/American Scientist Friend brought back from the US for me (And hubby)!

     

    

• Teriyaki beef jerky, one bag for each
• Hair mayonnaise (Why does my hair have such an unreasonable love for “black hair” products? And why are they such a pain to find here?)
• Teeth whitening strips (No kidding, but that’s one of the things I really miss from the US. The teeth whitening products I can find legally in Denmark/Sweden are completely ineffective and expensive)

      

New comb

Yay, look what arrived in the mail today!

The detangler (207) from Hairsense in Bakelite

I got it from the very sweet Teufelchen on UTT. My idea was to try just one example of their work before placing a big order at Hairsense.

Now that I have it in my hands, I’m very impressed. It’s smooth, extremely strong and just feels like quality.

I love it already!

She also included a yummy chocolate that I’ll share with hubby later and a print out for a webshop. Hmm, Teufelchen, are you trying to tempt me?

Figure 8 bun

Best blog comment award

Goes too…

*Drumroll*

ms n00b!

Couple of non-hair comments and answers

Well, I guess it isn’t really a Q&A so in random order…

I love Terry Pratchett! I recently re-read The Colour of Magic and I swear it gets funnier and more insightful with each read!
~ umphie

So true! The first time reading his books I just want to know what will happen next and the second time around I can really just enjoy the “ride” and his insights

Really sorry to say that, but what's wrong with your legs? It seems they all are covered with bruises...

~ Anonymous

That would be the result of a severe and painful allergic reaction about 6 years ago. I had a violent reaction to something unknown and was treated for a year at a dermatological department. Unfortunately they treated the reaction with a whole lot of steroid cream and after half a year or so of treatment and without progress, an allergy test revealed that I’m allergic to budesonide, one of the steroids in the cream. The skin of my legs is thin and fragile and will probably never return to normal ever again. Even ingrown hairs or simple scratching results in bruising and big dark “wounds”.

Luckily my hubby and my friends aren’t so shallow they feel the need to comment on it or judge me for it (!)

You're such cute woman, you deserve better clothes, honestly! Wish you the best ^_^

~ Anonymous

Well, I take donations or cash towards that if you feel it’s such a big problem that you need to comment on it?

I know you're been considering getting a satin sleep cap so I thought I'd give you a review for mine.
First off the slippery part of the satin is on the outside of the sleep cap so it won't touch your skin. The bad news is that it hurts my ears a little because of the elastic.
Here's a link to the one I got, I believe they ship worldwide: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Satin-Hair-Bonnet-Night-Sleep-Cap-Large-Size-/370574373403pt=US_Hats&hash=item5647f4321b#ht_1816wt_939

~ Adelina

Cute! Totally cute in a kind of old fashioned way! Too bad it hurts your ears though. I think that would be a “deal breaker” for me? Think you could maybe stretch/expand the elastic a bit?

I was actually thinking of trying one of these: http://prettyanntoinets.com/category_4/Beanies.htm and cutting a whole in the back of it to pull my braid through. They look pretty “snug”. Or maybe one of her loc covers. Hm?

Do you have Aveeno products available where you are? They are amazing for skin issues--I use them in my bath (a powder to stop itchy skin) and they have lotions etc. My skin gets itchy after I'm at the barn and get sweaty and such, and I find these really help.
I've also found neutrogena moisturizer that my mom gave me as she couldn't use it, and it helps with flaky skin--I get eczema on my forehead and between my brows, and this helps better than the prescription stuff.
I have wanted to try clinique--I've also used marcelle brand items and they are hypo-allergenic and they were good, but neutrogena has really helped with my flaky, itchy patches--now, if I just kept up with it ;)

~ Darkhorse

I’ll put Aveeno at the bottom of my suggestions list. I quite literally have a document with all the product recommendations I’ve ever gotten. Once a product screws up for me, I go to check out the next one on the list.

I have some different Neutrogena visibly clear in my product graveyard. They had no effect at all and I felt I ran around smelling of the chemical “icy mint” thing all day.

Now ain't he cute eating your laptop. How often does he eat? It could get expensive feeding him...

~Kathy

Hehe, he was a pleasant surprise since he and a little crocodile buddy was a Christmas gift from my mother in law and last year she got us both… A small decoration pillow with a fox motive… *Twitches*

Do not disturb.

Guess who got their greedy little paws on the latest Discworld novel?

I wanted to buy it right away but hubby pointed out that since we couldn’t find it in paperback it wouldn’t fit into our collection. He does make sense from time to time.

So, I had to settle for the library version for now.

My plans for today and tomorrow pretty much only involves the book and tea. Yay!

    

Arginine

Took a detour to H&M on the way to the gym. I meant to pick up a few things: Cotton pads of the large kind since I have a weird aversion to the smaller ones and new eyelash colour since my “old” one seemed strangely non colouring the last time I used it. Can dye lose its colouring ability? Hmm?

They had an Elvital conditioner on sale that I’ve never seen before: Arginine resist x3.

The last couple of years I haven’t used Elvital a lot. They seem to aim for slightly higher prices than most “supermarket” brands and that makes me not pick them up unless they’re on sale.

Why would I use a conditioner for 40 kronor when one for 20 washes and conditions just as well?

Hah: Having long hair has made me really cheap!

It was 49,50 and down to 19,50 so I picked it up just to try. The ingredient list looked alright: Glycerine high on the list, some cones, protein high on the list, followed by arginine and ending with a lot of ingredients I could recognise the name of but not remember what was exactly.

But what was with the arginine? All I could remember about it was that it was an amino acid, so… Protein.

   

     

Once I came home I Googled for it but didn’t have much luck in getting the information I wanted. All I could tell after trawling through page after page was that it’s a kind of wunderkind to hair loss promising to promote circulation and stimulate growth hormones. Hmm. In that case I guess the claim of “Nourishes the hair root!” isn’t quite as “Hah!!”-inducing as I first thought?

 

The whole time I kept having a feeling of déjà vu. Like I should recognise the dramatic black bottle. That I had seen it before. A very persistent feeling that wouldn’t go away.

I “thumbed” aimlessly through my blog hoping something would spark my memory and sure enough: Here.

What do you all think?

• An unusual black bottle (Did they run out of the cutesy plastic dye at the plant?)
• Highly contrasting pink/gold details
• Unusually hair science specific ingredients

I really should run the low risk of my hair disliking this one and stock up on it…

Hair diary

Sunday the 1^st of January

CO scalp washed with a handful of the red VO5. Slept on the couch with my hair draped loose over the arm rest to get it air dried as “down” as possible. Hubby has a good laugh over my awkward set up with towels and sleeping on the couch.

Monday the 2^nd of January

Took 10 years anniversary pictures!

After the photo session, I braid my hair dry. It’s so slippery and unmanageable to handle when dry!

Wednesday the 4^th of January

Did an overnight walnut oil Ankylosaurus according to my healthy hair project.

Thursday the 5^th of January

Washed the oil out with some blue VO5, some honey and a bit of leftover leave in conditioner. Mane goes up in a braided Nautilus bun and I slip a coveryourhair.com pre-tied bandanna over it.

I go to the gym for the first time in a month and feel really guilty for not having gone. Luckily Huff Huff-Girl is there. No matter how much I can beat myself up for not having used my gym membership, I’ll never waste it as much as her. All I have ever seen her do is power walk on the treadmills, she never uses any other machines and she doesn’t even stretch. Why would you pay for a gym membership to power walk when we have plenty of parks? It doesn’t make it better that she walks with this self-important look on her face and she actually speaks out the “huff huff huff” noises while she walks. She probably thinks she is doing an awesome job of getting in shape and burning fat. She amuses me so much.

   

Friday the 6^th of January

Although I would happily trade our bathtub for a big shower, it does have its advantages: I start the day with some meditation in the tub. I mix in a big bowl of strong green tea, a big blob of honey and some ACV. My skin, scalp and hair absolutely love that.  

Another braided Nautilus bun for the mane. I slip another pre-tied bandanna over it. I’m really growing out of them and I need to look into the fitted ones from annabandana.co.uk since they are supposedly roomier in the back. Unfortunately they don’t ship outside of the UK territories. I so hate when they don’t do that! Personally I wouldn’t mind paying even steep shipping as long as I can get the things I really want, but to get anything from them I would need to have someone in the UK receive it and ship it to me. So much trouble!

Saturday the 7^th of January

Got a bit too eager on making up for my lack of workouts. Now I have a blister and a sore back! Taking a day off from the gym and calling the laundry chore a workout.

I’ve been wearing a lot of braided nautiluses lately. Since it’s so cold, I cover my head a lot and the braided nautilus is simply the most compacted bun I have on my repertoire.

Monday the 8^th of January

Went shopping. Picked up some cassia and skin stuff too. I’ll use the cassia with my last pack of henna n placenta and see if I get the same awesomely red results as last time. (Why is it that when you see they only have 2 packs left you pick up both even though you only came for one?)

Since my skin has been irritated the last month and I’m not sure if it’s the weather or my products, I consulted with my list of future skincare lines to try. Clinique has worked pretty well for me for half a year or more, but I can’t be sure that it isn’t that the products have started irritating me, so I have transferred them to my products graveyard.

Going to try the new brand for a month to compare.

Sigh, if only my skin was as easy as my hair!

  

Package arrived

Since the package has arrived, I can reveal the secret item back from here.
I had this made for my awesome designer Madison!

The full text is

Thank you,
Madison Zoepel
Official graphics designer to
http://www.skincareroutineformen.blogspot.com/

Growth?

I just compared my latest length shot with the 9½ years one (Back from June) and I’m surprised at how little growth I’ve had in 6 months. I know I’m not the fastest grower, but still…?

My hair is slightly wavier in the last shot and the ends seem thicker, but I think I should have grown more. If I look at the knee crease it looks like the ends were just a cm above in June and a cm below now in January.

What do you all think?

        .

        .

And since I have your attention, what do you all think of me taking off half my “planned” 2012 growth so I’ll gain 9 cm and lose 9 cm off the ends?

10 years anniversary photos

I’m just going to shut up and show off

Late night fridge raid

Hubby took this picture of me raiding the fridge in my pyjamas and a bathrobe to dry off my freshly CO washed hair. I quite liked the picture!

Note that I’m wearing little claw clips to keep my hair out of my face. I have absolutely no natural parting and need to tie my hair up or pin it back to see!

I must admit I’m very shocked at how my ends look! I knew that sticking with no trims in 2011 would take its toll on them, but I thought I would be closer to my usual blunt cut than this. Now I’m really itching for a trim!

My opinion on the ends aside, I think it looks pretty cool that my hair goes so far down the almost floor length bathrobe.

    

Hello, 2012!

I hope everyone got well into 2012 with no fireworks injuries and hangovers?

2011 was the year where I started this blog and where I finally reached that cursed knee length.

Going to focus on what I’m good at for my blog for a while; Writing. At least I think that’s one of my strengths?

We’ll see if I return to the videos at some point. But for now, I have a new page up: Hair geek dictionary.

Hubby and I had a pretty quiet new years eve together. He managed to get me with the influenza he had over Christmas, so both Christmas and new years ended up pretty subdued.

 

Look what my darling hubby got us for New Years Eve:

   

 

I have the best hubby in the world!

  

Totally random Christmas present picture:

Cute!!