A brief history of the fact that Igor is a nutcase

I have a few things in my life I’m a complete control freak about. My calendar is one of those. I’m a chronic list maker and this one basically runs my life.

I have everything in it including my suggested hair and skincare schedule. It’s always stuffed full of little souvenirs from my life. Some people keep pictures, receipt and little memory things in their valet, for me it’s in my calendar.

I’m extremely picky about the calendar I pick out and even buy new pens every year to fill in my schedules and information.

• It can’t have a spiral back because my keys always get stuck in those.
• It has to be one page per day, although one for both Saturday and Sunday is okay too.
• It has to be the right size, A6-A5.
• It needs to have a notes-section.
• It needs to have enough room for stuffing in extra pages, pictures and receipts.

Funnily enough it turned out that Chemist friend is just as weird as me when it comes to calendar so we went shopping together! I have never met anyone who is as weird when it comes to calendars as me.

I found one I had never thought of before, a Filofax that could be completely closed like a big clutch. It was instant love, I had to have it!

 

Here it is next to the calendar I got for hubby. That one is more like the kinds I have usually gone for. I would have picked that one if I hadn’t fallen for the Filofax. Then of course I needed to replace a whole lot of the papers inside it. Why do the Filofaxes always come with one page per week as standard? I don’t know anyone who likes that!

 

Look how brilliant it is on the inside with plenty of room for cards and papers.

But... Big fail: It turned out it was too small to even contain the one day per page calendar. No!! The rings inside were simply too small in circumference!

One heartbroken Igor had to return to the store to see if it came in a bigger size. It did, but then I had to jump to an A4 size and that would take up most of my bag. Fail!

But then I spotted a calendar that were like a combination of the rejected one and a regular calendar. It had the calendar part and a zipped off “clutch” part. The rings were plenty big for the one page per day calendar too.

 

Not as much in love with this one as with the completely zipped off one, but it is still pretty sweet!

 

Now it’s time to start filling it up with information. That always takes some time! Then stuff it full of my “little” collection of souvenirs from my life and people I love.

I really think I have a good plan outlined for healthy hair 2012 and will enjoy filling that in…

Will post pictures of the finished calendar if I haven't bored everyone to death :)

Heh…

And I thought my shedding on the floor was bad?
  

Today’s hair

I wanted to demonstrate the braided crown braid-fake infinity combination for the knee length updo ideas-thread on UTT

So here is today’s hair

 

From the front

 

Side…

You can see the wrapping/braiding pattern from the back

Other side

I have no great secrets to this one. I like Dutch braids because the pattern is prettier, you put one braid around the head in front of the start of the braids and put the hair stick through the end of the first braid, then wrap the second one around the stick in an infinity pattern

Colouring eyelashes

I got a few questions about this, including from real life friends so I thought I would put a post up on it.

This is one of the things I really swear by. It’s quick, efficient and will keep you naturally looking great for over a month with just 5 minutes spent!

Have the following items ready:

• Cotton pads
• Mascara brushes. Old and cleaned ones
• The box with the dye solution
• Toner. Just the kind you usually use

Before you start:

Put your hair up and keep it back with a bandanna. You don’t want any stray hairs getting in the way, in your eyes or accidentally ending up black.

Be aware that once the two liquids are mixed, the result is instantly permanent! I’m demonstrating this over our coffee table, but you should always do this in a place where spills won’t destroy your tables. It doesn’t come off anything, including nails. They have to grow out if you spill or get a smear on them.

I use a brand called Depend, but back in Denmark I used Swiss O Par. It’s exactly the same thing though: Same contents, same method and same colour choices: Black, brown and dark brown. I use black. There are other options out there with a longer dye release, but it sucks sitting blind for up to 30 minutes when you can get it done in less than 5!

 

  
The pack comes with these little “protection pads” to put under your eyes. I don’t use them at all though. I’ve been wearing contact lenses for some 15 years of my life and dying my eyelashes for 10, and my near-eye motor skills are so fine-tuned I think I could do this in a moving car.
 

 

Maybe my lack of spills is also to do with that I don’t use the stupid Q-tips that come with the pack. You’re supposed to use them for applying the liquid on your eyelashes, but to me, that is just ridiculous: You come dangerously close to actually dripping the liquid in your eyes.

  

 
Use them to mop up spills or clean your ears instead.
 

 
Instead, I use an old mascara brush. Dip it into the little bottle with the first solution.
 

 

Then brush the liquid on my lashes. Start on the inner corner of your eyes, it’s easier that way.
 

 

When the lashes are nice and wet, I get the cotton pads ready. Pour a bit of toner on so you’re ready to remove spills if necessary, and you don’t have to fumble around with this after the dye. This will also give the solution a bit of extra time to soak in for better dye.
 

 

Now I brush the liquid on again to make sure I have a good coverage.
 

 

Next, take the tiny comb and the gel solution. Spread a thin strip of the gel on the very outer edge of the little comb.

  

 

Comb your lashes through, starting at the inner edges of your eyes. The gel seems to “plump up” when it comes in contact with the liquid. The mix of gel and liquid turns black and your dye is done!

 

 

Just to make sure I have enough coverage, I take a second old mascara brush and brush through my lashes to make sure I have covered and mixed everything.
  

  
Now it’s time to clean up. This is where you will be happy you have made the cotton pads ready and you just have to reach out and grab them. 
  

  
And voila, done! The dye lasts until your eyelashes shed, so 4-6 weeks depending on their growth.
  

Cassia result

I really worried I had overdone the cassia yesterday, but my hair obviously agreed with it!
  
Soft, smooth, shiny and very, very red!
   
I’m definitely going to skip the tea from now on if it will save me from the dripping issues.
 

Cassia

I’ve been way overdue for a good deep treatment for a while, but I just haven’t bothered.

Whenever my hair begins to need conditioning, it starts retaining water and stays moist and dripping for hours. When it’s freshly conditioned, the water “slides” off and it dries top down.

Since my scalp is still irritating, I decided on the cassia treatment I have considered for scalp exfoliating. My hair was still annoyingly moist from my post gym shower, so I mixed up the cassia and applied it directly without pre-wetting it.

My mix today consisted of more cassia than usual, a pack of henna and placenta, a tablespoon cholesterol treatment, a tablespoon of the Respons treatment that turned out to be too heavy for me in itself (Hubby hated the smell too, but it’s more important that I didn’t like the product. Hah!) leftovers from the Schwarzkopf ultimate repair and I filled up with the blue VO5. I skipped the tea altogether.

I smothered it on trying not to manipulate it too much. I never trusted the grainy cassia structure versus my hair! Then left it under cling wrap with the two heat pack hearts and warm hats for 1½ hour.

Skipping the tea completely solved the dripping-issue I normally have with cassia treatments! Hmm. Worth considering skipping the tea in the future??

Rinsed. Hair felt dry and cranky as usual after cassia. Smothered it in VO5 and put it up with cling wrap, warm hats and heat packs for another 30 minutes. Rinsed again.

My hair now feels fantastic. Smooth, strong and shiny! It’s already almost dry from the shoulders and up, even in the braid. I wonder though: Did the stronger cassia mix mess with the colour? It’s impossible to see while it’s still damp. I will report back tomorrow.

Now, Igor needs her sleep.

Goodnight and sweet dreams everyone!
    

I’ve got mail!

I ordered a replacement for my old TI 92 calculator that got stolen and since amazon doesn’t ship electronics like that to Europe, I had to get a middle woman to ship it to me. Luckily the sweet Triumphator from UTT offered to help me and my calculator arrived yesterday long with some cool and crazy hair colours she couldn’t use anymore. I’m going to have some fun with these!

 

Look how big this thing is compared to my little 10” laptop!

I really love getting mail. Feels like Christmas to unwrap a new package!