New tool

I have just placed an amazon order for this:

I've been considering getting a Creaclip for a very long time, but ended up ordering this one from Etude House.
It seems to be the same system: Where a Creaclip set comes with a long, curved clip and a short, straight blue clip, this set comes with a single short, pink clip.

From looking at pictures of the two systems, I'd say the Etude House is an exact copy of the straight Creaclip.

I ended up ordering the Etude House since the Creaclip comes with a white clip I will have no use for. I just need a simple clip for trimming my (thin) ends.

There's something I wonder about though: If this system is designed to cut bangs, why can't you buy a clip that curves around your forehead? Wouldn't a straight clip be interfering with the straightness of your bang-line? A straight clip would make the sides of the bangs longer than the front, right?

Anyways. Tips on "How to train your hubby to trim your hair" would be appreciated!

Today's hair

Hmm. My theory from yesterday didn't seem to hold up.

The five strand braid-base didn't make the buns any flatter really.

And you couldn't even really see the cool detail of the five-stranded braids unless I leaned back a lot.

And even then, it didn't really stand out.

Today's hair

Tomorrow I have to get up really early to do a presentation in Denmark. So I need something I can whip up quickly in a bun, so I can sleep a bit longer.
I did two five strand braid that I'm going to put up in two Nautili buns. I hope the flatter braid-basis will make the buns flatter and more discrete.

Project Paranda part 3

Okay, before I start typing a lot, I will let the picture speak for itself.

Cringe.

Okay, so that didn't work.

It leads me to some conclusions though...

1) The advantage of a traditional Paranda is that you can cut it off where ever it fits you. You don't have to attach and braid it with a lot of precision. Something like this needs to be added and braided with precision, or it will look like crap. Despite the care I took in where I put the elastic and cut off the fibers, it just didn't work.

2) I still think the idea of a four-"legged" Paranda is an idea to keep developing on. If you want to add some fibers for fun or a splash of colour and not to add bulk to your braid, I think it would be a good idea. It would offer the playfulness or contrast before countering the natural taper.

3) I see why the traditional Paranda is popular: The way it's added to the braid makes it very sturdy. No risk of it working itself out of the braid in the beginning when it's secured with three legs the way it is.

4) The longer Paranda, the (Probably) better.

5) I like the idea of artificial hair fibers instead of yarn. But where do I find any long enough for me? The obvious solution is to get an artificial super long wig and turn it into long accent braids...
Something like this, maybe? Depending on where they measure the length, it would be almost as long as my own hair.

Anyways, project Paranda was a fail so far. But even "Okay, that didn't work" is a legitimate result and it has made me come to some useful conclusions.
I will re-try this again later.

Project Paranda part 2

Continued from yesterday..

First of all, here is why the purple extensions don't really work for me.

Pros
Good colour for me
Even a good tone
The texture of the fibers aren't too far off from my natural hair

Cons
Well... This.Stupid lumpy, scrathy plastic lump to keep the fibers collected.
I'm guessing it's supposed to be one of those extension-types that are supposed to be welded onto your hair or something?

It makes a big "lump" in my hair and even though the plastic is curved so you would think it could fit perfectly around a strand of hair, it doesn't. It works itself out of my braid in a matter of hours and looks really stupid. Bleh.

My tools for the project
Comb
Scissor (Regular one, not my extensive S&D one!)
Glass of small silicone elastics
My idea-sketch
Improvised braid-holder
TonyMoly leave in conditioner (Offers too much hold and texture for my hair and ends up tangling it instead, so I figured it would be perfect for this)
And naturally the purple extensions

Setting up the structure. Using plenty of the leave in conditioner to keep it gathered.

The finished result. And... I'm not pleased with it.
No matter how much I messed around with the little extension-pieces, I would get some "chunks" coming out of the braids.
It looked worse in real life than the photo shows!
So I figured the only way to get out of that effect, would be to make a more linear "Paranda" where I add more and more pieces and cut it off before the first pieces pops out. So, more of a traditional Paranda where it ends up taking over the braid and the ends are Paranda only.

So wie man plant und denkt...

*Shrug*

Tried to braid one of the strands differently.
Decided I liked that better, even though it means a lot of wasted length....

All 3 strands done differently. It got so short!

Cleaned the ends up a bit. I'll try the "Paranda" tomorrow in a simple braid....

Project Paranda part 1

Aka. "Projects I start when I should do other projects, like work."

I've been thinking of making a paranda after Ohtawen commented on the Hair inspiration post.  

I can see why that style inspired you - it's really beautiful. Unfortunately I don't have enough hair for an additional bun, so I won't be attempting this one. I sometimes do just a coronet braid, but I have trouble with the taper... I dislike asymmetry probably as much as you :) 

That's why I usually cheat and do a Dutch braid at the nape of my neck - just several passes, from one ear to the other. Then I braid as usual and wind the braid around my head, tucking the thinnest ends in the braided base and thus making the braid more uniform. 

But I like your idea of a scarf to even out the thickness of the braid. It's totally worth a shot. Maybe even a paranda could help? 

Ohtawen

So I started looking Parandas up, but I keep getting stuck at the idea that Parandas join in the hair in one big bulk. Hmm. 

I'd like my "extensions" to offer some gradual bulk and maybe even taper down again in a more natural-looking way. You know what I mean?

Like, more of a fun little detail instead of taking over the entire braid.

But then in the middle of doing more important things like finishing up a project for work *cough*, I got an idea.

Shit I do when I should do more important things.

Ink on paper

Igor, October 24th 2015

So, let me explain the idea:

Instead of 3 parts, I make 4. The 4th one is the beginning part that is braided in first before being joined by the other 3 parts.

Instead of wool, I will be using the purple extensions (mentioned here) that I haven't had much success with. I will explain why tomorrow when I get home. The numbers are how many of the individual pieces I will use and how.

The "Paranda" will have taper in both ends.

I'm actually looking forward to play around with this tomorrow! 

New skincare routine

I suspect my skin isn't so happy with the Secret Key-centered routine (I found a zit on the way and since it's extremely rare I get those, something must be wrong. Naturally I absolutely destroyed the skin in the area to get to it, so now I have a huge red patch. Oh yes, much better!), so I stuck it in storage and took out the Scinic-products.

• A'PIEU Clean Up Herb Source Cleansing Water Tissue for makeup removal when needed
• BANILA CO Clay Patra Mineral Salt Clay Foam Cleanser for the first cleanser (I find that I dislike the oil-cleansers in general. And they often mess with my contacts) This is perhaps my most favourite cleanser ever
• SECRETKEY Snail Repairing Foam Cleanser for the second cleanser (Keeping this one despite putting the rest of the Secret Key-products in storage)

All Scinic-products came from this set

• SCINIC Snail Matrix Toner
• THE YEON Jeju Canola Honey Essential Serum This one is a surprise favourite. Especially for the price. It's good for the first step after toner
• SCINIC Snail Matrix Essence. This one smells like glue! Weird
• BENTON Snail Bee high Content Essence. Still liking this one
• SCINIC Snail Matrix Emulsion
• SCINIC Snail Matrix Eyecream
• SCINIC Snail Matrix Cream

Today's hair

Ah, the glamorous femininity of having long hair.

Hah.

Hair has been deep conditioning since yesterday evening in DAENGGIMEORI Honey Intensive Hair Mask with a Lador Perfect hair filler ampoule in. It's perfect for a long deep conditioning while I work.

The not-so-dreaded "If you weren't so pretty I would murder you in your sleep!"-look.

After scowling at Hubby some more, I saw the humor in it and decided to post his pictures.

Today's toes

I have a bunch of stuff on my have to do-list. And a bunch of stuff on my nice to do-list.

So what do I do?

I decide it's time to tramp up my toes.

Or rather, tartan up my toes I guess?

On a happy note, I finally "tamed" that cool nail decal transfer kit I bought ages ago.

Step 1: Throw away that awful, cheap white polish that came with the kit and was supposed to go under the design to make the pattern stand out. Why didn't I figure this out sooner? That awful thing never seemed to harden no matter how long I left it to dry.

Step 2: Allow each layer a lot of time to dry. I fitted an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force in between each layer, so like 12 minutes between each.

Favorite episode.

Ugh. Even this post turned into procrastination.

L'oreal extraordinary oil oil-in-cream

Matas had these for a really good price, so I grabbed three of them.

First impression: Pretty tube (And hard to get the details of. So shiny)

Second impression: Smells good. Vaguely fruity.

Ingredients

Aqua/water, cetearyl alcohol, Cocos Nucifera Oil / Coconut Oil, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetyl Esters, CI 15985 / Yellow 6,CI 19140 / Yellow 5,Chamomilla Recutita Extract / Matricaria Flower Extract, lactic acid, phenoxyethanol, Behentrimonium methosulfate, trideceth-6, chlorhexidine digluconate, Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil / Sunflower Seed Oil, Nelumbium Speciosum Flower Extract, benzyl alcohol, cinnamal, linalool, Linum Usitatissimum Flower Extract, amodimeticone, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, caramel, Gardenia Tahitensis Flower Extract, Rosa Canina Flower Extract, bisabolol, bht, Cetrimonium Chloride, Glycine Soja Oil / Soybean Oil, parfum/fragrance

(And WTF. It's so cringe-worthy that L'Oreal doesn't have the ingredients listed on anything on their website! Seriously, seriously unprofessional!)

COSDNA spits out this analysis of the ingredients:

Hm! Kind of a mixed bag here: Even parts green, yellow and red? Not so good.

2 marked as a "2" on acne

1 marked as a "3" on acne

1 marked as a "4" on acne

1 marked as a "1" on irritant

2 marked as a "2" on irritant

23 ingredients are marked with colours for safety:

13 marked as "green" which is 56%

6 marked as "yellow" which is 26% (And a cluster of four of them are fairly high up the list)

4 marked as "red" which is 17%

Statistics-wise, this is perhaps the least impressive product I have analysed.

Also, I took a double-take at that it contains "Chlorhexidine Digluconate". Hm.

I'm a little confused about the "6 precious oils", so I took a look at what they were.

I found exactly 3. That's half of what it was supposed to be.

Cocos Nucifera Oil

Coconut oil. 

Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil

Sunflower seed oil.

Glycine Soja Oil

Soybean oil.

Had a bunch of flower extracts though. I wonder if those were supposed to count as oils?

Matricaria Flower Extract

Chamomile

Nelumbium Speciosum Flower Extract

Lotus

Linum Usitatissimum Flower Extract 

Flax

Gardenia Tahitensis Flower Extract

Gardenia

Rosa Canina Flower Extract

Dog rose

So: 3 oils + 5 flower extracts = 6 precious oils.

That's some advanced math right there! 

Anyways. The product itself though turned out to be pretty nice. Good hold, pretty glossy effect. The scent is barely noticeable once it in my hair, but Hubby still approves.

Fairly easy to rinse off my hands too.

The verdict
I'm honestly a little put off by the COSDNA analysis, but the product is pretty much exactly what I look for in a leave in product. Sooooo...
I guess I will figure out if I will repurchase or not when I have run out... If I can still get it by then. Leave in products seems to pop up and disappear randomly on the Scandinavian market.
For now, I will enjoy the product, but be on the lookout for any skin reactions.

Today's hair

It's been so windy lately. Not particularly cold, just the wind and windchill. Brr.
So since I had some errands to run, I figured I would try to use one of my fake bangs as a forehead-warmer (lol)

Those long pieces at the sides have a tendency to curl up. I guess the whole piece could use some professional styling and trimming too. Maybe I could get the long pieces flat ironed?

Hubby was being funny so I smiled.
Arrrrrrrrrrgh I hate that stupid smile with the stupid fat cheeks I get when I smile

Oink.

Hair inspiration

This is one of those styles that just looks so nice and simple. A slightly squished cinnamon bun? Should be easy, right?
This woman even look like she has more hair than me, so if she can do it, so can I.
Right?

Yea, perhaps not so much.

To make this style hold, I think I would need to start off with a ponytail. That would give this bun a total of three anchorpoints to hold up the bun.

So I did that, formed a cinnamon bun (Took some work to keep it from beebutting) and squished it to make the megaflexi fit.
To my surprise, it actually held.
Didn't feel secure, didn't feel very stable, but it held.
The Flexi slid down a bit in one side, but that was all.

Would I do this style again?

No. Although it was an unexpected, pleasant surprise that it held up, I will not do it again.

It "just" looks like a cinnamon bun and I already have one fantastically stable and simple cinnamon bun I can do. Why do something lesser good when it looks about the same?