Heating cap in use

Just call me bucket head!

Based on the temperature measurements from yesterday, I have a warm hat underneath the heating cap to distribute and buffer the heat.

Pardon the crappy webcam quality.

It's pretty comfortable since the weight is distributed evenly in the cap!

Park Juns Home Hair care heating cap

This came with the Testerkorea haul I posted about yesterday, but I wanted to talk about it separately.

Direct link to product: Link

It wasn't quite as soft-looking and glamorous as it looked from the picture, but not like I was disappointed in the actual product once I had it in my hands.

It came with a plastic cap and an instruction manual.
The instruction manual is exclusively in Korean, so I can't read it.
I'm seriously considering taking Korean for beginners, is that weird?
Since I get so much knowledge and products for my sensitive skin from Korea, I find myself more and more wishing I knew the basics.
Once I have some more free hours in my day, I will look into it.

Anyways. The cap has a drawstring to tighten it and a zipper going all the way around it along the edge. It also has a good length cord, so you could easily sit in a chair with it plugged into a socket a bit away.

Unzipped, the structure inside looks like this.
It could be a little softer and more shape-able. It has a bit of "bucket head" effect, but I guess the heating system has to be fairly stiff.

Of course, this is where we get to the important stuff: Exactly how warm does this thing get?

I like to compare hair to skin in this situation:
Basically, once warmth starts hurting your skin, it's a sign from your nerves that you're taking damage. While you can of course recover from this, the "uncomfortable treshold" for heat is where will quickly see evidence of the destruction to your skin: Redness, swelling and eventual peeling.
You don't need to go a lot above the body's temperature, before your proteins starts to take damage.
For a very obvious example: This protein damage is how you turn a raw egg into a cooked one and you don't even have to boil the egg to cook it.

As a simplified rule of thumb
If heat is uncomfortable to the skin, it is because your skin is taking damage. The heat will be doing the exact same thing to your hair: Destroying the proteins. 
And where your skin can heal itself and eventually recover, hair damage is forever.

So, this needed experimenting.
I was about to just plug it in itself and observere and measure, but I figured why not compare it to my old heating "system" with the self heating pads?

The self heating pads gets uncomfortably hot, too hot to touch for more than a few seconds, so I always have a hat under them to "buffer" and distribute the heat. And then a hat on top of, to keep the heat in.

For both "systems", I would need cling wrap and possibly also a bandage to keep dripping down. I will exclude the weight of those, since it will be the same for both.

First and easiest test: The heating cap weighs 145 gram excluding the cable.

Two heating pads with two warm hats: 445 gram.

300 gram difference. That's a lot!

It's also important because the pads add a poorly distributed weight for my head and neck. Do a deep treatment with these for some hours and I begin to feel uncomfortable and unfocused. This is of course very undesirable, because I would really love to do this while I'm in front of a computer. Often I find myself having to go on the couch to get support for my head during deep treatments. But then I'm stuck in a half propped up position that's neither comfortable or something I'm capable of doing serious work on my laptop in.

The cap should be light enough to sit upright with and the cable is long enough to reach the outlet under the table.

Now for an effect-test...
Of course it would be too troublesome and not directly comparable if I had done two separate deep conditioning sessions, so I decided for a simulated deep conditioning.

• The heating pads: I put both pads inside both warm hats and try to keep it as closed as possible.
• The heating cap: I pulled the draw string as tight as possible.

Of course when I measured the temperatures, the termometer(s) are in more direct contact with the heat source than if I had been doing a hair treatment.
But as I have described before: The highest possible temperature is very important, because I don't want to damage my hair.

Just a few seconds after I activated the pads, I ran into the first problem: The termometer only measures up to 43 degrees celsius, because it's a standard, household body termometer. Crap!
So I went hunting in the kitchen to find our cooking termometer. That one of course only measures in the 55-100 bracket, since that's all it needs to do.
So my measurements are not as precise as I wanted them to be...

Measurements in celsius

• 5  minutes: Pad: Above 43 C, below 55 C. Cap: Above 43 C, below 55 C
• 10 minutes: Pad: Above 43 C, below 55 C. Cap: Above 43 C, below 55 C

Both are in the process of heating up.

• 15 minutes: Pad: 57 C. Cap: 58 C
• 30 minutes: Pad: 57 C. Cap: 67 C
• 45 minutes: Pad: 57 C. Cap: 58 C
• 1 hour: Pad: 55 C. Cap: 55 C

One hour in and the pad is slowly losing the heat. 

The cap however seems to heat and cool in cycles. When I measure and then remeasure a few minutes later I get different results. I'm interested in the highest and lowest result. The 67 C result is slightly worrying!

• 1 hour 15 minutes: Pad: 55 C. Cap: 58 C
• 1 hour 30 minutes: Pad: 55 C. Cap: 67 C
• 1 hour 45 minutes: Pad: Above 43 C, below 55 C. Cap: 63 C
• 2 hours: Pad: Above 43 C, below 55 C. Cap: Above 43 C, below 55 C

The pads continue to lose heat and the cap gets another slightly worrying 67 C result. I will definitely need a hat underneath to distribute and "buffer" the heat. This of course adds some extra weight for the treatment, which I'm not interested in. But the weight of a hat is more well distributed than two pads.

• 2 hours 15 minutes: Pad: Above 43 C, below 55 C. Cap: 58 C
• 2 hours 30 minutes: Pad: Above 43 C, below 55 C. Cap: 58 C
• 2 hours 45 minutes: Pad: Above 43 C, below 55 C. Cap: 63 C
• 3 hours: Pad: Above 43 C, below 55 C. Cap: 63 C

At first sight it would appear that the cap has stabilized a bit more in the heating cycles, but I think it's just a coincidence that I got those exact numbers. Measured one or two minutes later might have given an entirely different result.

• 3 hours 15 minutes: Pad: 41,9 C. Cap: 70 C
• 3 hours 30 minutes: Pad: 41,0 C. Cap: 70 C
• 3 hours 45 minutes: Pad: 39,7 C. Cap: 58 C
• 4 hours: Pad: 36,4 C. Cap: 63 C

The pads are finally down at a temperature where the body termometer can measure it.
The cap however seemed to get hotter and hotter?

4 hours in and I decided to stop the experiment. It's very rare I deep condition for longer than this, because it's quite irritating and keeps me from doing what I want to.

Highest and lowest temperatures
I'm going to exclude the first 10 minutes where both the cap and the pads needed time to heat up.

• Heating pads: Highest temperature was 57 C and after that, it decreased slowly.
• Heating cap: Highest temperature was 70 C and the lowest was below 55.

Conclusion:
The heating cap definitely doesn't require additional insulation on the outside to keep the heat in!
The heating cap is a good tool and better for head and neck because of the lower weight.
But it will definitely need a hat underneath to distribute and "buffer" the heat. Just like with the pads. This shouldn't be too uncomfortable because it's a more evenly distributed weight.

Testerkorea haul

I'm still impressed with myself that I survived "No new beauty stuff orders until april!"

But my Testerkorea order finally came. And I did a little dance!

I ordered a bunch of old favourites, a facial brush to try and some assorted sheet masks.

Let to right-ish

• no:hj Queen hand packs and no:hj Queen foot packs
• CIRACLE COSRX Pore Control Cleansing Brush
• COSILONG Hand Cream Snail
• SCINIC Snail Matrix Set
• BANILA CO Claypatra Mineral Salt Clay Pack 
• BANILA CO Clay Patra Mineral Salt Clay Foam Cleanser
• It's Skin Secret solution Clear Patches
• FOOD A HOLIC 3D Natural Essence Mask
• THE YEON Jeju Canola Honey Essential Serum
• MJ CARE Essence Mask in Hyaluronic Acid
• MJ CARE Essence Mask in EGF
• MJ CARE Essence Mask in Sea weed

Plus, as always: So many awesome samples!
Seriously, this is something western e-shops and shops in general could learn from and it speaks volumes of the attitudes towards their consumers!

And one item I will describe in detail tomorrow.

Today's hair

Yesterday's braid continued into a simple Nautilus bun held with the small Ron Quattro starlite fork

Today's hair

Two Dutch braids braided into one.

Hair looks really thick today. Hmm?

Birthday gift

The totally awesome Charlaine sent me an unexpected birthday gift!

Everything was packaged so pretty and with such a cute, heartfelt letter!

Two awesome Hercules combs. My favourite comb brand!

The fork is cocobolo wood from Oregon Cedar Products. And such an awesome sturdy, smooth and pretty fork!

The picture doesn't do it justice for the rich dark brown with red undertones.

I'm super picky about my combs because my thick hair tends to twist the combs out of shape and the tension in the updo will hurt my scalp,but it holds really well and without causing problems.
Amazing pick, Charlaine!

Trim

Did I remember to trim last month at all?

I really need to write these things down.... Hmm.

Hubby took off 3-4 cm according to the plan and I put the trimmings out in the kitchen window for the birds. They're probably nesting already judging from how huffed up on hormones and spring they are at the moment! 

I feel rejected though: Usually they love Hubby's blonde hair, but they had no interest in mine. Little jerks!

Today's hair

Yesterday's two twists into to five-stranded braids, turned into two Nautili buns held with my owl-Flexies.

Really pleased with the result. Not the last time I do this!

Today's hair

I had the idea of using the twists in a more advanced way and crossing them over before braiding my hair.

Based on previous experience, I expected it to be quite a pain to keep the twists separated from each other and the loose hair... And it was! 

But, it looked really nice as soon as I finished the twists!

So nice that I went to get a picture of it before I even finished the braids.

I felt really encouraged by the great start, so I "fancied" my planned regular braids up a bit and made two five-stranded ones.
Again: Really pleased with the result!

Today's hair

Today's hairstyle is two five stranded braids.

I'm not going to leave my pyjamas for the rest of the weekend. Heh.

New Clarisonic

Aka: "Part two of why March has been such a bad month for my poor skin".

My beloved Clarisonic broke about a month back. Actually it semi-broke first so I could only use the stupid T-timer function for a few weeks before it died completely. 

I really loved that thing. 

Unfortunately, it turned out (After lots and lots of Googling) that the Plus-model has been discontinued. 

Crap.

None of the remaining models have the body brush option.

Double crap.

All of the remaining models can only use T-timer mode.

Triple crap.

The T-timer is this ridiculous function where the Clarisonic beeps after a certain set time (Like 10 and 20 seconds) and shuts off after a minute. Because it's telling you in what order to wash your face: So many seconds for the nose and mouth, then you must move to the cheek clockwise for so many seconds etc.

It's a stupid and pointless function. 

I'll be the judge of where and for long my skin requires attention, thankyouverymuch.

So for a long time I researched other options.

I almost bought a Foreo Luna 2 for sensitive skin instead. 

Those have rave reviews and are said to be specially gentle for sensitive skin. But strangely my skin always liked the massage from the Clarisonic. I guess because it oscillates instead of rotate?

I ended up rejecting the Luna since I keep coming back to the same thought: I severely dislike the idea that it has no replaceable parts.

No matter how thoroughly I would clean this thing, it would creep me out I could never, ever replace he bristles.

So, sigh, I ended up (Unenthusiastically) getting myself a Clarisonic Aria.

Well, my skin was none the less happy to see a Clarisonic again.
I have an odd feeling of feeling sorry for this thing though: Sorry but I'll never love you as much as much as I did the last one.

Placed a TK order

Aka: "Part one of why March has been such a bad month for my poor skin".

I've had way too many K-beauty products in my stash. Like, way, way too many.
Problem is that I have had so many awesome choices to pick from, that often I found myself putting good products back in the stash just to try even better ones.
It ended up in an overflowing mess.

So I made a rough estimate on how long it would take me to work through a decent portion of them. Then (repeatedly) told myself: No new Testerkorea-orders until April!
This has been really awful to keep.

Damn straight.

I ran out of the "extra" steps about a month back, so no essences, ampoules or serums for a month. My skin became increasingly cranky over that month. Especially when I ran out of toners and creams.
Strangely, the one thing I kept having enough of was cleansers.

No matter how much I tried to replace my "extra" steps with "normal" western products, it failed to make my skin happy.
I guess it just proves a whole different attitude and approach to skincare for me: The Korean products often have some seriously heavy hitters like hyaluronic acid, BHA or snail extracts and doesn't brag about it, because of course Korean skincare products will want to care for your skin.
For Western products a single heavy hitting ingredient will be plastered all over the packaging like OMG!

Well, I guess it was nice to confirm that K-products really are the thing for my skin.
It would have been nice to have been surprised and find I no longer need to order my skin stuff from halfway around the world...

My morning routine which involves SPF was a constant source of headaches and irritation, but I did find two products for my evening routine that worked for me although they also caused me some problems:
Eucerin ultrasensitive soothing care for normal to combination skin
which I used as a "serum" aka. all over my face and neck, followed by
Eucerin soothing skin balm
on my face and neck, excluding eye-area. This one is seriously heavy and greasy and required me to wipe off the remainder after about an hour.
Both products are in fact rather heavy and leave a residue, which triggers my urge to pick and/or mess with my skin. But since they otherwise didn't irritate my skin, they were the best option so far.

Anyways. My skin and I have patiently been waiting for april to come around.
To be honest, I was beginning to feel like my skin resembled Bunbuns after her horrible reaction. It probably looked less dramatic than it felt though.

I ordered some trusty old favorites from testerkorea and single one item for my hair:

Link
KRW 29,800 
23 Euro
26 USD

Park Juns Home Hair care
How to use the Treatment Heating Cap?
After washing hair, towel dry hair, apply lavishly your favourite treatment lotion/cream especially on the tip of your hair.
Put on a shower cap (for extra precaution).
Put on the treatment heating cap and plug in the 2-point switch into your power point and turn it on. Cap will slowly heat up.
It will not be too heated; just the right amount of heat will be applied.
Leave on for around 10 -15 minutes as desired.
Remove cap and leave hair to cool down to prevent hair follicles from being damaged when you just wash off after heating.
Wash with cold water after hair has completely cooled down to give your hair the shine and sheen! Voila!
Caution!
If you feel uncomfortable, which is unlikely, for any reason, remove the cap immediately.

That sounded awesome. A quick Google search confirmed that Korea uses the exact same voltage and power outlet as most of Europe, so I had to have it.

I'm very much looking forward to getting this heating cap. No more heating pads and layers of warm hats to keep the heat in. This will be awesome.

I found a couple of other models on the site, but I think the one I picked looks like the best quality.

Link
KRW 26,000 

Link
KRW 25,000

Link
KRW 25,000

Hairsense bone combs

Hairsense seriously makes the worst combs imaginable.

I've written about it before, how bad, no, seriously incredibly bad these combs are and how weird and/or stupid the owner is.

So I guess it was a serious error on my part to think that the one comb from the order that I have never, ever, ever used would be suitable to keep in my backpack as a backup comb.

For the first time since I bought it, I intended to use it. And what do I immediately spot?

The biggest, nastiest, hair-shreddiest split in a tooth that I have ever seen in a comb.

So here is my updated review of Hairsense bone combs:

It would be friendlier for your hair to dip it in a blender.

And it would be wiser to spend your money on setting it on fire.

No matter what the model name was for this comb, I have a better suggestion...

*drumroll*

I crack myself up.

Today's hair

Two "French" braids wrapped around a Ketylo in that Chinese bun pattern and secured with an extra Ketylo.