Greetings all!

I just registered today, but I've been browsing the site for a while, and finally decided to stop lurking and introduce myself. :)  I feel like I've learned so much from you all already, and I'm glad to have finally joined the group officially.  So, a few interesting facts about me. . . I just recently moved to Florida, and I am loving the weather down here.  The heat really seems to agree with my hair, thank God!  I have a twin sister whose hair used to be way longer than mine, but she cut most of it off after major problems with knots, and now it's a very cute chin length cut that nevertheless makes me shudder when I think about doing that to my hair :P  One of my favorite hobbies is riding horses, which I've been doing for less than a year.  My instructor has a horse named after Eowyn, from LOTR, and since I have long blonde hair like Eowyn and love horses, that's how I got my username.  I also love to sing, hence the pic, until I can take a picture of my own hair.

OK, so on to the hairy details ;D
My hair is natural blonde, very fine and thick, and mostly straight.  The straight strands have wavy hairs mixed in, and these tend to be coarser and darker.  I think the varied texture of my hair is what makes it tangle so easily, but I have learned to be patient (usually  :)) I have never measured my hair, but it's nearly to my hip bones by now, and I plan to keep growing it until it annoys me.  I get no pressure from anyone to cut it, which is nice.  Whenever I go to my stylist for a trim, other customers gasp in horror, and say "You're not going to cut that all off, are you???"

Hair care regimen
Since my hair is very fine, it tends to get oily, so I wash every other day.  I comb my hair with a plastic detangling comb before getting in the shower, then shampoo and condition with Garnier Fructis Long and Strong.  I only put conditioner on the length now, after looking on this site, and I also started rinsing my hair in cold water.  After I sqeeze out the water, I detangle my hair with my fingers before even getting out of the shower.  I didn't use to do this, but it works much better than using my VO5 spray-in  conditioner.  VO5 is great, but it sort of soaks my hair so that it takes longer to dry.  After I comb out any last knots, I put a drop of jojoba oil on my hair while it's still wet and comb that through.  I only use jojoba on wash days, or my hair looks too greasy.  I tried my first ACV rinse 2 weeks ago, using Anais' instructions, and it worked great.  People told me my hair looked "blonder"  However, I think that clarifying allowed my hair to absorb more oil, and it gets greasy quickly now after washing.  I've stopped using jojoba for now, as I don't seem to need extra oil ;D and I'll play around with the vinegar concentration in my next rinse.

I am so grateful for all the great advice I have found on this site so far!  You guys taught me all about BBBs, cold water rinses, ACV, jojoba, S&D, sock curls, and satin pillowcases, which I still have to buy.  Now I don't just like my hair; I love it!  Thanks!

Welcome!

Glad you decided to join in the fun.  Sounds like you have been keeping up with all the great hair care ideas.  I look forward to hearing some of you ideas.  :D

Welcome Eowynsmane!  Glad you've found some great hair info here -- We all have ;)  Your hair sounds lovely.  

Greetings and welcome, Eowynsmane!

Your hair sounds just like that of the real Eowyn character from the LOTR books. She was always my favourite...  ;)

It sounds like you really have learned a lot from your lurking days here. Maybe you'll come to learn even more here with time.

Look forward to knowing you and your hair better. Good luck and happy growing!  :)

Thanks Bikerbraid, Precious Locks and Angel Spun for the warm welcome!  I'll make sure and post some questions later.  Still so much to learn!  By the way, do you have any advice on what to do with my hair for a wedding?  My mom's getting remarried in June, so I've started thinking about the most important detail . . . my hair! ;D It would be nice if I could do the style myself, but I could always find a stylist to help.  Again, thanks for the welcome, and take care.  I'm going to go attempt to Dutch braid my hair.  Keep your fingers crossed for me; I'm all thumbs ::)

Hi and welcome. :)  Your hair sounds beautiful..  Enjoy the wealth of info. on the board.

I'm sure your hair would look beautiful in either a french or dutch braid.  If you've never done these braids, start practicing now.  They do take a bit of practice.  I did my practicing by braiding my hair each night for bed.  No one would necessarily see the braid, but it helped contain my hair while sleeping and gave me a reason to practice my braids.

One thing I like to do with long braids, like you would have, is to wet my hands (actually I just wet the right hand) while braiding.  This dampens the hair and helps keep it in the braid longer, but I'm not dealing with a heavy wet braid when I am done.  A bit of aloe vera gel is also excellent for taming those pesky flyaway hairs!

Good luck!

Welcome!  :)

I've practiced French and Dutch braiding with BB's method, and it really works. Great thing about these braids is, that you'll learn a whole bunch of styles with little extra effort: French tuck (the braid is tucked under "French part" and pinned), Nautilus, Classic braid and other amazing styles are really easy once you've mastered basic French and Dutch braiding.

Welcome Eowynsmane! :) :)

You can probably find some ideas in the Wedding Hair Styles section.

Good Luck :)

Welcome.
It sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what your hair needs and likes. Keep it up and happy growing
Meg

Welcome, Eowynsmane :)
I'm glad to hear the instructions helped.

It's nice to meet you and I look forward to learning more about your fabulous hair.

Anais

Thanks everybody for the welcome and the styling ideas!  I sooo need to practice my braiding.  It usually looks great, but it's tangled when I take it out because I have a  hard time keeping the strands separate.  Puttting water on my hands helped a lot though.  I just wish I had eyes in the back of my head!  If I get good at braiding by June though, I might put my hair in a French braid for my mom's wedding and put flowers or ribbons in it.  I also liked Meg's pictures of possible styles for her wedding :)  Meg, how did you do the top one?
Thanks again all, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you better too!  :)

wrote on Mar 28^th, 2006 at 4:21pm:

I also liked Meg's pictures of possible styles for her wedding :)  Meg, how did you do the top one?

First of all, that's not me. I just found the picture and liked it. So, in truth, I can't really tell you how she did it, but I can give you my version.

I think it's just a half up (more like a 1/4 or an 1/8th up) half down do. She has curled it all and added flowers to the top part. For me, I have curly hair, so I wouldn't have to curl.

I hoped that helped.
Meg