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Message started by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 4:49pm

Title: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 4:49pm
Hello all~!

I've decided to start a journal here, to sort of help contain my rambling, and to keep track of lengths, stuff I've been doing, stuff I've been using, SISNUA (stuff I shall never use again), etc.  :D

Life: Passed my yellow belt test on Saturday. It was 2.5 hours of drill, exhaustion, and bruises.  However, being presented with that belt and the party we had afterwards made it all worth it. I wore my hair in two french braided pigtails, woven together at the nape in a sort of dual-stranded infinity bun and pinned it down to within an inch of its life. Thing didn't budge the entire test for which I am grateful for.
We actually had trick or treaters! Since I was recuperating after my test, DH did all the door answering. He reports 2 groups of kids t|ting with their parents, 2 groups of parents t|t with their kids, and one group of assorted teens. That's up 1000% from the last two years.

Hair:  Washed this morning with CW, ACV+Honey and detangler spray afterwards on damp hair. I've been using Chemistry Salon's SLS and ALS free shampoo, and I'm really liking it. I tried Organix for about a month and wasn't really wow-ed. Hair is measuring in at about 33.5 inches long.

Does anybody else add Honey to their ACV? I'm giving it a try to see if it helps moisturize my hair, and so far so good. We have this huge jug from Costco, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to use up a bunch of it for hair related purposes before it crystallizes. :)

Wrapped my hair up in a pretzel bun with two claw clips while it was wet. Just now I've tried doing Kirsten braids using clips instead of ribbons. Looks pretty good, but I really should re-try with hair ties.

Favorite hair toy/tool/technique of the day: Madora Ivory Detangler. I had such high hopes for this comb when I ordered it and was initially pretty disappointed when it arrived. It felt light weight, had some sort of faux blonde tortoiseshell effect I was not expecting, and smelled weird. It also had a mirror smooth sheen that would not slide over my hair. It was as if it were smooth to the point of sticky and caught on my hair. But after using it a couple of times (being my only wet-hair-safe comb) it's really grown on me. Glides pretty well now (since it's probably been coated in conditioner and oil at this point) and the smell has dissipated. Wish the teeth were just a little more widely spaced, though. All and all, I'm pretty happy with this comb.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 5:14pm
Congratulations on your journal and on achieving yellow belt!

I have never added honey to my ACV.  Sounds interesting, I might try it next time-I just did one on Saturday.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Midnight Angel on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 5:40pm
Welcome to the world of hair blogging. :)

Honey has never done me any favours. It leaves my hair a sticky mess when added to rinses, and if I add it to conditioning treatments, it thins them to the consistency of water. :P I find eating it much more enjoyable. ;)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 7:08pm

Sakina wrote on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 5:14pm:
I have never added honey to my ACV.  Sounds interesting, I might try it next time-I just did one on Saturday.

Sakina, be sure if you don't want the honey to lighten your hair to heat it up first! I melt the honey into the vinegar with hot water, and it kills the peroxide.  :)


wrote on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 5:40pm:
Welcome to the world of hair blogging. :)

Honey has never done me any favours. It leaves my hair a sticky mess when added to rinses, and if I add it to conditioning treatments, it thins them to the consistency of water. :P I find eating it much more enjoyable. ;)

Thanks, Angel!

I'm using just a dollop of honey, kinda about the amount I'd use to sweeten tea. When I add the hot water, I shake vigorously to make sure every bit of honey is dissolved. I haven't noticed any stickiness.
Haven't tried any conditioning treatments, yet. Been too busy.  :-[
Otherwise, I agree. Especially in cookies and tea... or a spoon...  ::)


Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by la diosa on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 7:55pm
Congrats on starting your journal! :)

I'm with Angel about the honey. 

People rave about it so I tried it twice, but it never does anything special to my hair.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by MichelleR on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 12:23am
There's peroxide in honey?  I didn't know that.

Congrats on your yellow belt!

What's a Kirsten braid?

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Drear on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 4:43am
Peroxide in honey!  I learn something new every day. :)  I never thougth of using it on my hair.  With my luck, it would just caramelize and then there's probably only one thing to do.....Congratulations with your belt!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 6:30am
Congrats on receiving your yellow belt!  It's a great acomplishment,I know you're proud!!!!
Glad you started a hair journal,you'll like it!
I'm using Organix Coconut Milk shampoo and conditioner right now and I am not wowed either.  It smells great,leaves my hair soft,but nothing spectacular for the price.  Eh,live and learn.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Isabelle on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 7:17am
Congrats on the yellowbelt! My Don has a black belt in Judo. One day we will go to Japan so he can get a degree on it.  I once took Kung fu ages ago. After to many bruies and a black eye I said no more! lol!!

Honey...hmmm I tried it once but found it works better in my tea! lol! :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 11:36am
Thanks, everybody, about the belt! I am quite happy with my new rank, and I am getting to attend the "grown up" class tonight.  ;D

Isabelle: I tried Kung Fu and Shotokan karate. They were too hands-on violent for me. I love my Kali class, because our instructor is death on unnecessary violence and injury. We wear shoes in class, and we never actually hit each other. I used to leave Shotokan covered in bruises and blisters. I quit after the instructors accused me of being a lying, lazy person who didn't have large enough male-anatomy equipment.


MichelleR wrote on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 12:23am:
There's peroxide in honey?  I didn't know that.

What's a Kirsten braid?

Raw honey, when mixed with water, reacts by making peroxide. It's much weaker than your standard bottle peroxide, so if you're using it for rinses, it's not too bad. But some people use it for longer lengths of time, or larger amounts, like for hair masks. Sometimes, this is deliberate, I've read some people using honey masks to bleach out henna, but occasionally, people accidentally lighten their hair, and are unhappy afterwards. If you cook the honey first, it doesn't make peroxide with water anymore, and isn't antimicrobial anymore, but it still stays a decent moisturizer.

Kirsten Larson is one of the historical American Girls from the Pleasant Company line of books and dolls, etc. She wore two English braids tied into loops around her ears with ribbons.

CurlGirl64: I experienced the same thing with the Shea butter Organix shampoo & conditioner. Soft, but that's about it. Didn't even really care for the scent. Fortunately, my local RiteAid has a TON  of SLS and ALS free shampoos, at least when compared to the local grocery store. Unfortunately, I can't use anything with mango, cashew, pistachio, or almond oils/butter/extracts, so a lot of the "organic" stuff aren't safe for me to use.

Hair: Detangled with horn comb, and brushed out with BBB. Didn't oil today, since I had a bit of an oil disaster last night. Tried to put my hair up in Kirsten braids again, this time with the aid of hair ties. It went much more smoothly, enough to show DH, who thought they were adorable. But sadly, the braids were a bit too fuzzy towards the end, so I took them out. I will have to wait until either I have fewer layers or the layers grow out a bit more to pull this style off convincingly. Or, I'd have to be more willing to use product on my fuzzy braids. :'(

Health: Still haven't caught the plague that's spreading through our office. Coworker next door has been sounding like death all morning, and we've had at least two cases of confirmed H1N1 in the office. Good thing I'm naturally resistant to the flu! Leftover Halloween candy, on the other hand, are a completely different story.  :D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by MichelleR on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 5:17pm
Wow!  I learn something new everyday! 

I hope you can stay out of the way of that virus, it sure is nasty!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Midnight Angel on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 7:37pm

Quote:
Kirsten Larson is one of the historical American Girls from the Pleasant Company line of books and dolls, etc. She wore two English braids tied into loops around her ears with ribbons.

Was I the only one who understood the "Kirsten braid" reference?
Samantha was always my fave. ;)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 8:04pm

wrote on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 7:37pm:

Quote:
Kirsten Larson is one of the historical American Girls from the Pleasant Company line of books and dolls, etc. She wore two English braids tied into loops around her ears with ribbons.

Was I the only one who understood the "Kirsten braid" reference?
Samantha was always my fave. ;)

Squee!
Samantha's my favorite, too! I have the Samantha doll back at my parent's house with a bunch of her period accurate clothes, too. I need to rescue her next time I visit, since a daughter of a friend has been eyeing my doll covetously every time my parents invite said daughter over.  >:(
But I got to admit, I think Kirsten had the nicest hair.
... She had the longest hair, too, didn't she? And it was blonde. Grrr! Jealous? Me? Never.  ;D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Midnight Angel on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 8:34pm
;D Blonde envy? Aww...I loved Samantha's dark hair. Never had any of the dolls myself, so I couldn't say which one had the longest hair. I also liked Felicity and Molly.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 10:44pm

wrote on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 8:34pm:
;D Blonde envy? Aww...I loved Samantha's dark hair. Never had any of the dolls myself, so I couldn't say which one had the longest hair. I also liked Felicity and Molly.

Don't get me wrong. I love Samantha's dark hair, too. It's actually similar enough to my own hair that I didn't bother to buy into the "just like me" dolls they offered when I finally scraped up enough allowance to have afforded one. ;)

Speaking of dolls. I just realized that my Samantha doll is almost 17 years old. She's almost old enough to vote! :o
I'm not really sure if that makes me feel old... or young.   ;D
Anyway, I never went by the length of the doll hair. Kind of hard to determine BSL, Waist, TBL, etc on a 1.5 foot doll! 

I usually went by the descriptions of the girls in their books. I read those books avidly until I felt they'd gone a bit overboard with introducing new girls. I personally felt that they lost site of the goal when they started running down the PC sidelines.  :P

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 11:55pm
Thanks for reminding me that honey can lighten hair.  I plan on using cassia to lighten for the renaissance festival since that was common for the period.  Perhaps I'll use the honey, too.  :D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 4th, 2009 at 4:51pm
Hello journal!
Decided to post some pictures. Sorry about the complete lack of natural lighting here, but Pittsburgh isn't great for having sun. We're not as bad as Denmark, but we're regionally famous for dark, dreary, cloudy gray days.

First picture with the brown shirt is from Feb 2008. Can't see the tips, but it was about BSL. It's also super shiny because it was just after I got back from the salon, and my stylist did all sorts of stuff like spray strange concoctions on it, flat iron it, blow dry it, spritz stuff on afterwards, etc. I went back 2 or three times every 3 months or so, until I decided that regular styling wasn't my thing, and decided to grow my hair out again.

The other three pics are from the last couple of days. Took two length pictures because the first one ended up kinda fuzzy. The last picture is me trying out the nautilus bun for the first time, and playing with one the LL hair stick my DH gave me.  :)


Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 4th, 2009 at 5:09pm

Sakina wrote on Nov 3rd, 2009 at 11:55pm:
Thanks for reminding me that honey can lighten hair.  I plan on using cassia to lighten for the renaissance festival since that was common for the period.  Perhaps I'll use the honey, too.  :D

Nifty! Have you ever tried lightening your hair with chamomile tea? After my year see-sawing lightening/darkening dyeing habit in college and mostly hating every minute of it, I'm scared to death of altering my natural color. Both my sister and I get nasty burnt-orange colors in our hair when we try any kind of lightening or bleaching.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Isabelle on Nov 4th, 2009 at 5:49pm
Wow!  You have such beautiful hair!!Love the bun and the stick! :) 

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 4th, 2009 at 8:17pm
Great pics!!  Your hair is beautiful!  I myself just got one of the Chimes sticks and can't wait to try it.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by MichelleR on Nov 5th, 2009 at 12:22am
You have beautiful hair!  I love that bun.  I hope when my hair gets long enough I can figure it out!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Nov 5th, 2009 at 12:40am
I have used chamomile and callendula as a rinse that lightened my hair, but they made my scalp itch so I quit doing it.  I guess I could add it to my cassia, or as the water in a honey rinse.  I was probably making it too strong.

I wish my hair was long enough for the nautilus-yours looks great!!!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 5th, 2009 at 4:44pm
Thank you all for the compliments!  :)
I do love that stick very much. I re-thanked DH for it after writing up my post.

Hair: Slowly stretching out my washings to once every four days. With the new brushing and washing techniques, it's not being as oil-erific, it's still being a bit itchy and flaky at times. I looked at neem oil at the convenience store, but didn't pick any up since I already had a ton of stuff in my cart.  :-[
Hair is also being kind of unruly. It seems to go through phases where it hates a hairstyle and will fight me every time I put it in, and then meekly acquiesce to it and behaves for a while, and then capitulate so fully that the style just falls out when I reattempt it.  It's frustrating, but it does keep me cycling my hairstyles, which I suppose is better for it.

Today's style started out as the hypno bun with hair stick. Later in the day, it started falling out, so I tried the cinnabun and nautilus (but I guess I've overused them lately and hair still wouldn't cooperate) so I replaced it with a braided bun. So far, so good. We'll see how long it behaves with that!  :D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Midnight Angel on Nov 5th, 2009 at 5:48pm
My my, you do have lovely hair! I love the colour and the wave. http://www.smilieshq.com/smilies/happy0034.gif

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by la diosa on Nov 6th, 2009 at 10:53pm
Gorgeous hair! I'm really loving the last pic! :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by MichelleR on Nov 6th, 2009 at 10:58pm
I was reading Sakina's journal about how she is going to do her hair for her festival, and Googled Italian hair taping to see what it looks like and how it's done.  I saw this website and from the girl's description of why/how she does it, thought of you and your struggles to secure your hair for your martial arts classes. 
http://community.livejournal.com/longhair/2412414.html

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 9th, 2009 at 10:30pm
Awww. Thank you so much guys!  :-*  :)

Wow, Michelle, that hair style looks really awesome! I'm definitely going to have to try that out.

Life: Not too much happening. DH and I went and got new phones over the weekend. We are now with VZW, and we are so far enjoying it. DH has really been looking forwards to getting new phones. Two year contracts don't SOUND like a long time, but two years is plenty of time for the market to develop tasty new toys to tantalize the technically temptable.  ;D

Hair:
Been sticking with the 4 days between washes routine. I added a healthy dollop of honey to my ACV rinse this time, almost equal parts honey to vinegar, and it felt pretty good actually. I might be leaving it at this amount, because I think that using more would make my hair too limp.

I've been working on my braiding techniques when I bind my hair up for sleeping. I have finally mastered the twist. Hooray! Now I'm working on the 4-strand braid-rope, and I can do it pretty well behind my head, but it all falls apart when I run out of arms and try to bring it around in front.  :(

Now. Steeler's game is too engrossing to continue blogging. Leaving to go watch! Later all!  ;D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 10th, 2009 at 3:33am
Wasn't that game good?!  When I was little and started watching football, the Steelers and Terry Bradshaw were my team.  I've been a NY Giants fan since 84.  That game yesterday was a heart breaker!!  Did you see it?
Now I'm waiting for Thurs. for a NY Ranger game to come on.  My poor husband!!!  Not a sportsfan,but will sit with me ask questions and want to learn when a game is on!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 11th, 2009 at 4:26pm

Curlgirl64 wrote on Nov 10th, 2009 at 3:33am:
Wasn't that game good?!  When I was little and started watching football, the Steelers and Terry Bradshaw were my team.  I've been a NY Giants fan since 84.  That game yesterday was a heart breaker!!  Did you see it?
Now I'm waiting for Thurs. for a NY Ranger game to come on.  My poor husband!!!  Not a sportsfan,but will sit with me ask questions and want to learn when a game is on!

Oh dear.
I'm not actually all that much of a sports fan, either.  :-[
I never grew up watching any kind of pro sports, so I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to sports. I know a bit about football from being one of those dorky people running around on the field during HighSchool football halftimes in strange uniform-type get-ups with musical instruments.  ;D
Anyway, DH really wanted to watch this year, which is unusual for him, too. So, we're taking baby steps and only watching Pittsburgh teams right now. Maybe if DH's enthusiasm for sports viewing grows, we will start watching other teams as well!
The last Steeler's game was pretty interesting. They had some nifty plays that were fun to watch. And I didn't mind all the close-ups of Polamalu's hair!  ^^;;

Life: In general, nothing terribly exciting. I managed to make it to the gym this morning and ran a bit and did intervals on the ellipticals. Stuck with my diet all day except for one small piece of chocolate. Watched Biggest Loser last night, which had one of the saddest endings yet, this season. Next week is Make-over week on BL, so I'm kind of dreading what they're going to be doing to the few remaining ladies.

Hair: Washed yesterday with the usual CS, Rinse, ACV+Honey, Detangler leave-in and oil routine. I really need to pick up and do some deep conditioning but I've been resisting so far. My hair doesn't seem dry or brittle, so I can't quite build up any urgency. The last time I used a deep conditioner was when we picked up some by accident in Japan (we couldn't read the labels, since they were in Japanese!). Mom and I were using it like regular conditioner, and I used it twice twice that week like the way one would use regular conditioner. My hair *did* get very soft, but it was SO soft that it was breaking when I was attempting to detangle. Kind of makes me nervous about deep conditioning.  :-/
Styled it in a nautilus today and secured with two hair sticks. My hair stick situation is becoming dire. I have approx. five hair sticks in various stages of ordered but lost in the mail or ordered but on hold due to supply issues or ordered but delayed. I feel like it would be irresponsible if I were to buy any new hair sticks while I wait for these orders to resolve themselves, but the waiting is so hard.  :(
Ah well, that's life with a hair-toys addition for you! ::)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 11th, 2009 at 5:14pm
I agree,his hair is gorgeous!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by la diosa on Nov 11th, 2009 at 6:50pm

Quote:
And I didn't mind all the close-ups of Polamalu's hair!


I love his hair!  That Head and Shoulders commercial that he did was pretty funny!


Quote:
Watched Biggest Loser last night, which had one of the saddest endings yet, this season. Next week is Make-over week on BL, so I'm kind of dreading what they're going to be doing to the few remaining ladies.


Ugh, talk about a shocking ending. :o 

I can't wait to see the makeovers.  I can't see them doing anything too dramatic to anyones hair this time...at least I hope not.

When did you go to Japan?  Did you enjoy it?

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Nov 11th, 2009 at 7:06pm
I sure hope you get your sticks soon!  How frustrating and disappointing!!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 11th, 2009 at 7:08pm
He does have amazing hair. Especially in those H&S commercials! Wow!  :D

la diosa: My mother and I went to visit Japan last November. It was actually a two week trip, the first half was to tour the area around Tokyo, the second we went to Beijing to get qipao made for my wedding.  :)

It was a ton of fun, and I'm trying to see if I can get out there again before DH starts demanding an accompaniment to our duet!  ;D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 13th, 2009 at 2:57pm
Life: Attended martial arts last night and got a freebie private lesson because nobody else showed up. So, we got to run through all the material for my next stripe test in one evening. Awesome.  :)

Finished playing through The Pitt add-on for Fallout 3. I felt kinda like the plot line was a bit short, but I really should go back and play it again, since I missed out on quite a bit of the scenery.

Hair: Slept last night with my hair loose, partially as an experiment to see if I could get away with that with my new silk pillowcases, and partially because I spent too much time on the internet last night and was too tired to braid up, etc, when it was time to go to sleep. Conclusion this morning, not good. Hair was -very- knotted and unruly. Oh well, I will try variations of braiding tonight.

Tomorrow is wash day, so today I decided to have some fun with my hair! Detangled carefully, brushed out my crown, oiled the lower, detangled after oiling and brushed the oil through. First I tried putting my hair up in Mickey Mouse ears, but my hair is just too slippy. So, I did my hair up in odango, instead. It involved four hair ties, and it took two tries to get them looking right, but thankfully no bobby pins. I'm not used to using any kind of hair product, so I tried to keep some of the shorter hairs from sticking out with mousse, which didn't work. So I ended up using some hairspray to keep the fuzzies from poking out of the odango. All of my hair products are ancient, from that last time I got all my hair chopped off some half dozen years ago. I'm surprised they still work! Anyway, I am really liking this style, and it wasn't -too- hard to put up. Posting pictures here, let me know what you think!  :D



Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Nov 13th, 2009 at 7:16pm
I'm so jealous of your length!  The odango look awesome!!!  I love to play with dirty hair.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Midnight Angel on Nov 13th, 2009 at 7:35pm
That is totally anime. ;D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 13th, 2009 at 9:11pm
Looks good!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 17th, 2009 at 12:14pm
Life: Life's been pretty stressful. Work's been piling up at work. Got a whole bunch of projects I'm trying to finish up before the hundred other projects hit me after Thanksgiving. I'll be traveling to visit family down in TX, too, for Turkey Day.
Got to the gym this morning and did intervals on the treadmill and followed it up with stationary bike. I've never used the stationary bike before and I have got to say that it was not fun. Calves are very unhappy with me now. Not sure if this is a sign that I should use the darn bike more, or less.  ;D

Hair: Washed this morning with just shampoo. No conditioner or ACV today, as an experiment. Towel blotted, sprayed with detangler, and then oiled with camellia. It was definitely a bit more challenging to comb out, but not too bad. I'll def. be adding the ACV+Honey back in. It just so happens that we were out of ACV this morning, and just using honey didn't seem right.

Hair has been feeling thinner lately, so I did a new thickness check and I'm down into the normal thickness range.   :(
Not sure why this could be. I think I've been shedding more lately, and I have been stressed. I'm hoping that the new thickness is in part because my hair is less frizzy now because I'm taking better care of it, seasonal shedding, and because maybe I measured it wrong when I did the first measurement. How do you ladies measure thickness? Braid circumference? Tie a string around? Measure just below a tight ponytail?

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by MichelleR on Nov 17th, 2009 at 1:26pm
Where in Texas are you visiting? 

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 21st, 2009 at 12:53am
Michelle, I'll be visiting the outskirts of Austin. I have some family in the area, and maybe I'll catch up with an old friend or two, if they haven't all made plans already or moved away. :)

Life: Same old, same old. Will be working partially over the weekend trying to get ahead of the grind. Had my second "private" lesson last night when, once again, nobody showed up to Martial Arts except me. Been worried that my hamstring tendonitis has been flaring up again. It's coinciding with my attempt to return to doing productive things at the gym, so I hope exercise isn't exacerbating it.

Hair: My experiment in not using in-shower conditioner and not rinsing with ACV was a failure. I went back to my old routine this morning with new conditioner and ACV + Honey and got my old results. I'll try to pinpoint what my hair is really wanting, but I'm getting the sneaking suspicion it's the silicone. I think it might be silicone-withdrawal symptoms I'm facing, instead of silicone-dependency, since I know through previous years of not using any conditioner that it's not strictly necessary for my hair. Does that even make sense, silicone-withdrawal?

Hairtoys have finally begun to arrive, and boy am I excited! DH surprised me with a lovely hair stick I'd been eyeing on Etsy, and a hair stick pair that had been lost in-transit finally made their way to my door. I also finally got around to ordering some deep conditioner, so I might give that a try this weekend, time allowing. Perhaps I'll even write up a review.  ;D

Still no word yet on the Amish hair pins. I'd contact them, except it did say 4-8 weeks to ship most things on the order form ( it technically only has been about 7-ish weeks ) and it says on their website that it takes 2 weeks for them to reply to email, and they don't list a phone number. I suppose I should get around to poking them anyway, since in 2 weeks the 8 weeks will definitely be over, but I think I will try waiting just a bit more.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by la diosa on Nov 21st, 2009 at 8:38pm
I never measure hair thickness.  I'd imagine that you'd wrap measuring tape around the base of your ponytail. 

I guess silicone withdrawal could be possible.  Some people have hair that just does better with cones.  Just keep experimenting, I'm sure you'll find what works best for you. ;)

How cool that all of your hair toys are arriving, so exciting! :D   

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 24th, 2009 at 9:54am
la diosa: Thanks! It's silly, but sometimes I don't know what excites me more, what's inside the shiny boxes the postman brings, or receiving boxes in the mail!

Life: DH invited over a friend over last Sunday. I told him I didn't mind cooking dinner that night, but no way was I going to clean the house, too! Weekends are a precious thing, and it takes roughly a day to clean the house. I'm not going to waste my entire weekend for him to have a guest over!  >:(
So he agreed to clean the house, and it took him a day and a half. I think he now has a new-found appreciation for the frantic house-cleaning I tend to do when the looming threat of visitors pops up!  ;D

Thanksgiving is drawing ever closer, and this will be my first time going home since getting married earlier this year. Excitement! Nervousness! Parents have apparently redone my old room in anticipation of our arrival. They've also redone the kitchen. I'm scared of going home and feeling like I've gone to a stranger's house.  :-[

Hair: I did a deep treatment last night with an over-night leave-in conditioner. I've just rinsed it out, so we'll see how I like it when it dries! This is only the second time I've ever done a deep treatment, so I don't really know what to expect.  :)

Now I need to figure out how to pack for my new hair regime. In the past, my hair toys consisted of ouchless hair tie, a claw clip, and a paddle brush. Clip and possibly brush were optional. Boy have things changed!  ;D

I purchased one of those little travel accessory kits that come in a clear vinyl bag. It's got a little oil dropper, two taller bottles, a spray bottle, two small screw-top cosmetic jars, and a two-compartment flip-top thingie, and a sheet of labels. I've pretty much decided that contents will be, in order, camellia oil, shampoo and conditioner (or maybe full-strength ACV to dilute later... not sure), detangler, and I guess facial cleanser and maybe sunscreen in the little screw top cosmetics jars. I have no idea what I'd put in the flip top thingie. Not even sure what it's for... cotton balls? I guess I'm leaving it out at any rate.

I haven't made decisions about combs and brushes, but I'm guessing I'll bring the whole lot of them. At least I'm not bringing make up or hair-drying appliances.  I also don't know if I'm going to bother with bringing any satiny pillowcases. I think my mom might be offended if I do? That, or I'll get merciless teasing.  :-?



Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 24th, 2009 at 5:39pm
Bring the satin pillowcase!  Your hair will thank you for it!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 24th, 2009 at 11:12pm

Curlgirl64 wrote on Nov 24th, 2009 at 5:39pm:
Bring the satin pillowcase!  Your hair will thank you for it!

Ok ok! You've convinced me.  :D

Now all I have to do is remember to take it BACK with me.  ;D
Maybe I should invest in a nice silky sleeping scarf.  :)
Oh Cuuurlgiiirl! Care to take commissions?  ;)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 25th, 2009 at 11:14am
lol!! ;)
The scarf sounds like a nice pampering luxury!  Who doesn't need pampering? :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Nov 25th, 2009 at 11:14pm
Curlgirl, everybody needs some pampering once in a while, and why not while you sleep?  :)

Life: Absolutely miserable day at work today. I got dumped with a ton of work at around 3pm today, the kind that looks like it'd be a minor job, but then snow balls into a bigger and bigger nightmare. I got most of it done, so at least the people not in the US can limp along without me, but I'm still peeved that it happened and and didn't get finished.  >:(

However, we went out for sushi after my lame evening, and the lady there, I think she's the manager of the restaurant, complimented me on my hair. Helped perk my spirits up!  :)

I'm about to start packing for my trip home. About to, eventually, maybe tomorrow morning! Procrastinate? Me? Never.  ;D

I do want to take some hair goodies with me, but I'm scared that my hair sticks would be viewed as weapons at the airport security. Does anybody else travel with sticks regularly? I'm only taking wood ones in a toothbrush case. I'm going to put them in my laptop bag with the pens and pencils and pray that they get overlooked.  :-/


Hair: Thought I would report how my first attempt at deep conditioning went. So, I picked up a small jar of Thriven to try out. Washed my hair Monday evening and combed through the conditioner while damp. It was actually less odious that I was expecting. Relatively little fragrance, and it went in easily. I then wrapped my head in a plastic wrap turban (which really amused hubby) and baked my head under a heating pad while we watched left over football. Rinsed it out in the morning and was... disappointed. Hair felt pretty well... weird. Like I'd spent the day at the beach, which I guess some people might view as a plus. It all sorted itself out, however, when I oiled it that night. I'll have to remember that this stuff needs oil to finish whatever it is it does.  ;D

Off to pack. Tootles.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by MichelleR on Nov 25th, 2009 at 11:27pm

kittennoodlesoup wrote on Nov 25th, 2009 at 11:14pm:
I do want to take some hair goodies with me, but I'm scared that my hair sticks would be viewed as weapons at the airport security. Does anybody else travel with sticks regularly? I'm only taking wood ones in a toothbrush case. I'm going to put them in my laptop bag with the pens and pencils and pray that they get overlooked.  :-/


I think you'll be OK.  After all, they allow things like nail files now.  Here's a website with a list of prohibited items.  A wooden hair stick that doesn't have a sharp point doesn't resemble near anything on this list.  There are some interesting items on here that I wouldn't have thought of though (gel shoe inserts!).

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm#4

HTH and have a wonderful and safe trip!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 26th, 2009 at 9:03am
I don't know about international flights,but domestic flights here in the USA on JetBlue I can help you with.  Last February when I went to see my mother in S.C. I wore Ketylo sticks in my hair on the plane.  I wasn't stopped or questioned about the sticks,I was stopped and put through the security pat down because I was in a wheelchair and I think security wanted to show everyone that no one was excluded from the security system protocol,even the disabled.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Nov 28th, 2009 at 8:01am
KNS, I think it was you that said something about the 120 second time delay in posting.  Just an FYI, it has been changed to 90 seconds.
HTH :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Dec 2nd, 2009 at 12:01am
Michelle, Curlgirl, thanks for your reponses and I'm glad to report that YES! My hairsticks flew from PA to TX and back with no problem whatsoever. Such a relief. I transported them in a toothbrush holder that was tucked into the same bag that held my BBB and combs. Will need to get more toothbrush holders!  ;D

Curlgirl: Thanks for letting me know! I know I saw some other posts about the post limit, and I'm glad that it was reduced.  :)

Life: Whew, thank goodness Thanksgiving is over. DH and I flew to TX to visit my family, and after all of the fuss with traveling and visiting, I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation! Alas, there was no respite for me at home. I'm pretty much the black sheep of the family, and I am never perfect enough for them. At least the long hair took some of the focus away from my other more glaring faults. I have an easier time defending my decision to grow my hair long and to wear hair-protective styles than some of the other things my parents disapprove of.
The final icing of the adventure was how obviously allergic I am to everything in Austin. I ended up having nasal allergies most of the time I was there, so now I'm nursing the sinus infection that developed from all that congestion at home. Blech.

Ah well. And my parents wonder why I'm settling down here in PA, instead of moving back "home".  :P

Hair: I definitely had a harder time taking care of my hair these last few days. Remind me never to fly with a spray bottle again. It ended up exploding in my little ziplock bag.  :(

Did my hair in twin french braids for the flight to and from. I picked up a silky scarf to wrap my hair in. I found out on the first flight that my hair is too slippy to really do any interesting wraps (or maybe I was using the wrong kind of scarf), so on the return flight I just used it to protect my canopy, and drew the braids over my shoulders so they wouldn't rub between my back and the airplane seat.

Had some major build up from my last deep conditioning, so I ended up washing my hair two days in a row this vacation. The second time I scrubbed twice with clarifying shampoo before doing my usual C+S routine. I was really worried that my scalp would flare up from all the soap, but it seemed to be okay after my hair dried. At least it got all the grundgies off!  ;D

Wash day is scheduled for later this week. I'll have to remember to take a measurement after that. Until then, I'll be trying to do a little extra babying of my hair to make up for how badly I treated it over Thanksgiving.  :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Drear on Dec 2nd, 2009 at 4:49am
I totally understand about needing a vacation from your "vacation" because with travel involved and if the vacation is spent with family - well...at least for me it means I'll come home and feel like I need another vacation!  I was the black sheep until I married this perfectly shining white sheep so at least I can do something right. ;)  On the other hand, hub's a martyr and a prince in his family and anything they don't understand or disagree with must be...my fault! :D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Dec 2nd, 2009 at 3:17pm
KNS,thanks for saying that stuff about the exploding spray bottle!  I'm leaving tomorrow for a trip back down south with my mother and I'm wondering if my eyeglass cleaner will explode,too! :-/  I also packed a little plastic bottle of jojoba oil,wonder if that'll be ok.  I'm thinking it will be since it's not a spray,but who knows! ::)  Got things in ziplock bags so I should be fine.
Glad you're back and I'm sure that being back will be like a vacation from your vacation!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Dec 2nd, 2009 at 3:29pm

Curlgirl64 wrote on Dec 2nd, 2009 at 3:17pm:
KNS,thanks for saying that stuff about the exploding spray bottle!  I'm leaving tomorrow for a trip back down south with my mother and I'm wondering if my eyeglass cleaner will explode,too! :-/  I also packed a little plastic bottle of jojoba oil,wonder if that'll be ok.  I'm thinking it will be since it's not a spray,but who knows! ::)  Got things in ziplock bags so I should be fine.

My leave-in detangler spray was what leaked out all over the zip lock bag. There was no way to "lock" the spray part, so I tightened the screw on bit for the return flight. No leaks on the way home, but then again, there wasn't hardly any spray left.  It had also leaked into some of my other jars I had in the bag that I hadn't tightened obsessively since they didn't have "runny" stuff in them. Trust me, they were runny by the time I got to TX. Detangler spray + facial cleanser = runny unpleasant smelling mess. >:(

If I go again, I'll probably find a separate screw-on cap for the flight and just take the sprayer part separately, and swap them at my destination. Or, fill a separate container with the detangler and leave the spray bottle empty, and then fill up the spray bottle when I need to use it.

I took my camellia oil with me in an oil dropper. It's a little cylindrical bottle plugged with a silicone stopper with a small hole in it. It then has a screw top that clamps down on the plug and has a second small plug that goes into the hole in the silicon stopper. Quite a nifty design! It didn't leak at all.


Curlgirl64 wrote on Dec 2nd, 2009 at 3:17pm:
Glad you're back and I'm sure that being back will be like a vacation from your vacation!
Thanks! It's great to be back.  :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Dec 10th, 2009 at 10:54pm
Life:
It's been super cold where I'm at, and it feels perpetually dark. I think I must be stressed about something, because my eye keeps twitching in the most unsettling manner. In the past, that'd only happen when I had project due soon in school.  :)
I've been asked to help out a fellow Martial Arts student with his yellow belt test on Saturday. I feel sorta obligated to help him out, but I'm soooo not looking forwards to doing that test again.  :(
On Sunday, DH and I will be looking at what I've dubbed "The Super Asian House". It's just a split level (one of the rare ones in the area), but I swear that every single Asian family I knew when growing up lived in EXACTLY the same kind of house.  ;D
The holiday season is rapidly approaching, so to spruce up the house, I've restocked my fish tanks. I set up a nice little betta sorority, and a new male halfmoon got the empty 2.5 gallon tank. Both tanks got a complete make over with new gravel and a ton of aquatic plants. The new male is a black and yellow mustard gas that DH and I have decided to name Ben.  No names yet for the new girls. ;D


Hair:
I did my first crown braid last night! It was really comfortable, too, so I'm going to have to give crown braids more attention from now on. It's also really good for layered hair, so I'm really excited about that.

I've been really disappointed with the amount of shedding I've been having lately. I think it's a combination double whammy of the season and because I've gotten off the pill. Anyway, I've decided to give Biotin a try. We'll see how it agrees with my hair. Rest of my regime is as per normal.

Out of curiosity, when doing a deep conditioning, what exactly should I expect out of it? Softer hair? More shine? Mostly, all I notice is some sort of build up on my hair. Maybe I'm not rinsing thoroughly enough. I dunno. I think I'm going to cut down on the deep conditioning to once a month instead of once every two weeks. That, or try something radically new, like cassia.  :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Dec 11th, 2009 at 1:06am
For me, being a wavy/curly, I mostly count on my deep treatments to keep frizz away and to make my hair softer.

You may have filled up your hair shaft enough to go longer between treatments.  Also, you might have silicone in your deep conditioner.  If your hair gets crunchy, there's too much protein in it.

How long are you leaving your treatment in?  Are you using heat with it?

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Dec 11th, 2009 at 7:58am
Sakina: Nope, no silicone in the deep conditioner, I made double sure of that before purchasing it. It does have a saturated vegetable oil in it though, avocado I believe.

I put it on in the evening after I wash my hair, and then I pop on a plastic cap. I will use some heat with it for maybe about half an hour. Then I go to sleep and rinse it out in the morning. This last time I tried doubling the rinsing time, and it helped somewhat, but I still didn't feel as soft and shiny as I do after just a normal wash.

My hair doesn't get crunchy. I suppose it is sort of soft and pliable afterwards, but not slippery or shiny. It doesn't go back to feeling like hair until I've shampoo'd out the residue. Or is that the general intent with deep conditioning is that it does something intrinsic to the hair that should last past shampooing or clarifying?

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Midnight Angel on Dec 11th, 2009 at 11:36am

Quote:
I think I must be stressed about something, because my eye keeps twitching in the most unsettling manner.

Gaaaah, I hate that! Those always seem to stick around forever too. :P Could it be lack of sleep?


Quote:
I did my first crown braid last night! It was really comfortable, too, so I'm going to have to give crown braids more attention from now on. It's also really good for layered hair, so I'm really excited about that.

You go, girl. Braided coronets are so elegant. ;)


Quote:
Out of curiosity, when doing a deep conditioning, what exactly should I expect out of it? Softer hair? More shine?

A boost of moisture and softness. Perhaps a bit more body. Beyond that, nothing really. ::)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Dec 23rd, 2009 at 2:39am
Thanks for the responses guys! I guess I'll stop trying to overestimate the magickal properties of teh Deep Treatment!

Hair: Cranky as usual. It just doesn't seem to be growing. I really really hope this is just a resting phase, or something. I'm taking vitamins, and I've started hair supplements. I am literally 2 cm from tailbone, and it's driving me batty! Hair is such a tease.  ;D

My amish hairpins finally arrived! I finally had to poke them with an email, but they've arrived, and I must say, I'm glad I got a pack of every size. The two shortest ones will be good for more intricate 'do's, but for buns, the second longest one is what I have to use. I also got myself some "Magic Invisible Hair Scroos". They are currently my favorite hair toy. They literally are Magical. Invisible. Hair. Scroos. 'nuff said.

Hair routine staying the same. I'm considering stopping using my BBB for oil distribution and focus on using it for between-wash cleanings. I think it's too adept at pulling out the hairs that are in the "resting" phase, and it's making me cranky. Coconut oil was put on this morning after the wash, we'll see how it looks tomorrow morning!

Life: is driving me bananas. Work, rather, is driving me bananas. They are giving me too much work for what I'm being paid. If I do not get a raise this year, well, things may become dire.

I had a ton of bloodwork done yesterday. It was extremely unpleasant, since I had been avoiding bloodwork for several other doctors and decided with the most recent one that I'd kill 3 birds with one stone and do 'em all at the same time! Note to self: kill 3 birds with one stone is bad analogy. Correct analogy is kill me with 3 blood-thirsty doctors! Either way, not doing that again any time soon.

Well, that's most of what there is to report. Now, I must go finish going berserk on the house. The parents are coming over for Christmas this year, and the house still looks like a disaster. Oh noes!

Have a happy holiday season, everybody!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Drear on Dec 23rd, 2009 at 5:40am
I hope you end up having a nice holiday too.  It could just be my perception but a lot of employers are using this "situation" to overwork people without extra pay because they know it's hard to find a job right now.  Well, this could come back and bite them in better times...

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by la diosa on Dec 24th, 2009 at 12:12am
Despite everything else, I hope you have happy holidays too!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 1st, 2010 at 2:16am
Drear: I'm pretty sure that the job difficulty right now is contributing to the problem I'm having at work right now. Hopefully, things will ease up in 2010.

Thanks, Drear and la diosa for the holiday wishes!

Life: The holidays have come and gone! I had my parents over for the first time since hubby and I have been married. What with work being so harried, I put off doing decorations until about a week before Xmas. So! I rushed out to get a little Charlie Brown tree, put mini ornaments on it, and stuck a glowy Snowman on top. Hubby, who's sorta Jewish, mostly watched in bemusement. Holiday fooding was a bizarre mix of Chinese and English feast-fusion that involved hotpot and duck. Nobody in the family seemed to mind though.  ;D

I gave mom some gift cards to iTunes and Barnes and Noble, and Dad gone some accessories for his model train hobby. Hubby received a docking station for his phone and a soft and hard cheese rotary grater (it's hard to tell which he likes better). Parents got the two of us a KitchenAid stand mixer, and hubby got me a lovely cocobolo and mother-of-pearl Graydog hairstick. Was a good holiday all said and done, but not relaxing in any way (parents are not the relaxing sort of people).

I have finally hit the bad dosage for allergy shots. The allergy shot I got at my last appointment made a big half-dollar coin patch of EXCRUCIATING itchiness on my arm. It's still itching a day later. I will have to tell them about my reaction at my next appointment and begin the tedious "dancing and backing off around the reactions" procedure. Allergies are no fun.

Hair:
I've been trying out a shea and coconut butter concoction for my hair. It's being kinda tricksy so far. The first time I tried it, my hair love love LOVED it. It was shiny and soft and you could almost hear it purring. Since then, however, I seem to be getting the proportions incorrect, and it's been making my hair kind of ... well ... weird. Shiny, but stiff and unmanageable. Dry but kind of oily, too. Maybe I'm using too much.  I also ordered some neem and tea tree oil shampoo to try on my itchy scalp. I tried rubbing camellia oil directly on my scalp the night before washing my hair, and it seemed to really help with flakiness, but my scalp was still itching most of today.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on doing a deep conditioning treatment. Sort of a start the new year off on the right foot kinda movement.

Hope everybody is having a great start to the new year!  :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Jan 1st, 2010 at 2:41pm
Yikes about the allergic reaction!!!!!  I hope you didn't put cortisone cream on the spot!

I'm glad your holiday celebration was a success!

Oh, let me sing the praises of neem oil on an itchy scalp!  I currently like Max Green Alchemy scalp therapy shampoo and conditioner.  I also like Theraneem shampoo and conditioner as well as applying neem directly to the scalp.  Smells like bawang goreng-deep fried shallots.

The hair reaction might be to too much protein.  You may need to trade on and off with a regular "deep conditioner" and the shea/coconut butter concoction.

Good luck!!!  Happy New Year!!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 1st, 2010 at 2:52pm

Sakina wrote on Jan 1st, 2010 at 2:41pm:
Yikes about the allergic reaction!!!!!  I hope you didn't put cortisone cream on the spot!
Oh, I didn't. I try not to use any sort of medication if I can help it. But out of curiosity, why shouldn't I have used cortisone cream?


Quote:
Smells like bawang goreng-deep fried shallots.
Hehe! Can't say I'm familiar with what bawang goreng-deep fried shallots smell like. However, I will say that the neem oil smells.... unique?  :-?
I use tea tree oil to treat my fish tanks on occasion, so I'm familiar with that smell. The neem oil took me completely by surprise. I hope that the neem oil shampoo doesn't leave too strong a scent on my head.  ;D


Quote:
The hair reaction might be to too much protein.  You may need to trade on and off with a regular "deep conditioner" and the shea/coconut butter concoction.

Good luck!!!  Happy New Year!!
I'll give alternating a try. Thanks, and I hope you have a great New Years, too!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Jan 1st, 2010 at 3:01pm
According to my naturopath, putting cortisone cream on an itchy patch of skin will drive the allergy deeper into your body.  It could land in an organ like your lungs and cause asthma.  It also prohibits the body's natural healing powers from functioning normally.

Bawang goreng smells like fried onions.  If the neem oil smell lingers on your hair, you could try diluting it with a carrier oil like camellia, sesame or coconut and adding some essential oil to cover the smell.  The Theraneem shampoo has a grapefruit scent (the grapefruit oil doesn't really cover the distinct smell of the neem) but doesn't leave my hair smelling like straight neem.  What brand of shampoo did you get?

Be sure to read how much protein is in the deep treatment conditioner and try to get one that has as little or no protein in it.  I hope it works out for you!!!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 1st, 2010 at 3:15pm
Ahh. Well, I left the itchy spot alone. Last night I tried (failed at) putting a little bit of Benadryl on it, but I checked the ingredients and it's just a topical analgesic. It's one of those liquid-in-a-stick type dispensers, and I couldn't get it to dispense.  ::)

The shampoo I got is actually a neem and tea tree oil  shampoo bar. CV uses mostly essential oils to add fragrance, and I think they use stuff like peppermint, rosemary, and thyme in this particular bar. Since I'm testing for any allergic reactions to it right now, I've been letting the bar sit out to breathe a bit. Today, it's smelling a little bit more like peppermint, and less like the pharmaceutical section of an ethnic grocery store. Not too bad.  ;D

Checked my deep conditioner. Unless avocado oil is particularly protein filled, it looks protein-free to my amateur's eye.  :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Jan 1st, 2010 at 8:23pm
I have not had any luck with shampoo bars.  I hope it works for you.  Having an itchy scalp drives me crazy!  I don't have a lot of allergies, but I do have sensitivities.  What a PITA it is!

I don't know the protein content of avocado oil.  If it has been working for you, it should be OK to alternate.  Do you use ACV rinses when you do a deep treatment?  I think they help it penetrate better.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by la diosa on Jan 2nd, 2010 at 2:25am
I'm glad that your holidays went well. :)

If you ever figure out how to make a good shea butter mix, please let me know.  I've tried pure shea once and didn't like it at all. It made my hair stiff too. I've heard of people making their own concotions to make it more suitable. 

I'd like to try some diffterent recipes myself, but don't feel that I have the patience for that. :P

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 3rd, 2010 at 7:32pm
Thanks Sakina and la diosa!

Sakina: I didn't know if you meant ACV before or after, so I tried both!  ;D
My hair's drying now, so I'm looking forwards to seeing how the ACV plays with the deep conditioner.

la diosa: I'll keep an eye out for good shea butter recipes. I'm actually using a pre-mixed oil from an Etsy shop. Here is a link to the sample size she has.

Life: Itchy spot finally went away on my arm. Hooray!
Hubby and I also chewed through our entire co-op delivery of kale last night in the form of Zuppa Toscana. It's a re-creation of the Olive Garden recipe, but I changed things around a bit by using more kale and substituting turnips for some of the potatoes. Hubby and I really liked the result. It was still very Toscana-y, but more... hearty? The turnips and kale gave the soup a very rustic flavor that both of us really liked. At any rate, kale and turnips are officially on our "veggies that are tasty" list, now.

Steelers won today. Hooray! But most of the other teams that would have had to lose for the Steelers to get into the playoffs didn't oblige, so boo. On the bright side, now I'll get the TV back on Sundays again.  :D

Hair: I tried out the neem and tea tree oil shampoo bar on my hair. Debated for a bit if I shouldn't deep condition or not, as I wanted to see how the shampoo did on its own, but decided to go ahead and deep condition anyway. Deep conditioned overnight and rinsed out this morning with another ACV rinse. We'll see how that goes!

Scalp is still itchy. Hopefully, continued use of the neem and tea tree oil will help remedy this. I think all the extra product and rinsing and just being wet for longer may have irritated my scalp a bit.

Through TLC and nice combs, I have encouraged hubby to let me comb his hair more often. He's got lovely goldeny-brown curls and I think this is giving me great practice for future (I hope!) curly-haired children I might happen to have. Unfortunately, his ends are terribly split, since it's at scrub-against-office-chair length and he does not wear protective styles. I do a mini S&D every time I comb out his length, but it's rather daunting, and I wonder, perhaps, hopeless. If he won't wear protective styles, what good does trimming off split ends do? I can't help but think that all it's doing is reducing his overall length and giving the evil office chair new fresh ends to munch and chew on.  :(

Any tips?

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Angel on Jan 3rd, 2010 at 8:15pm

Quote:
Any tips?

What about maintaining a length just above, er, office chair munching level? Since he refuses to cooperate. Just a thought...

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 3rd, 2010 at 8:43pm

Angel wrote on Jan 3rd, 2010 at 8:15pm:

Quote:
Any tips?

What about maintaining a length just above, er, office chair munching level? Since he refuses to cooperate. Just a thought...

  :o

Seeing as how the office chair comes up to above his shoulder blades, a non-munchy length would have to be collar-bone length.
I'd probably be traumatized and go into hysterics.
Then again, I have real issues with change. Especially ones that involve the local men messing with the amount and length of their hair. ;D

I think I'd personally rather he have longer damaged hair than shorter hair (which most likely would still be fairly damaged, to be honest).

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Jan 3rd, 2010 at 10:30pm
I recommend that you only do your deep conditioner for an hour and then wash it out.  Keeping your scalp wet all that time could be very irritating not to mention you can over-condition your hair.  Keeping oil on your hair overnight is a different story, however.

I only do an acv rinse after shampooing and before conditioning.  I leave the acv on for about a minute and rinse it out completely before using the conditioner.

Perhaps hubby could use some oil or deep treatment himself.  Does he condition after he washes?

Any chance you could put a piece of silk fabric on the back of his chair?  Something like one of these: http://www.riverjunction.com/catalog/mensfurn/bandanas.html

I'm so glad your itchy spot went away on its own!!!

I love kale with soy sauce, sugar and toasted sesame seeds!!!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 3rd, 2010 at 11:25pm
Well, I did do the ACV after shampooing, and I doubt the one after rinsing out the conditioner hurt any.  :)

The deep conditioner I use, actually, is mostly oil based. It's based on avocado oil, and I guess I don't really follow the instructions properly. It's more of an overnight leave-in deep conditioner. I'm supposed to let it dry completely (instructions say to blow dry), sleep with it dry in my hair, and then rinse out the next morning. I usually give it about 20 minutes under a heat cap, though, because, well, I like to over-engineer stuff, I suppose.  ::)

It ends up being wetter longer because I hate using the blowdryer.

As for hubby, I do put a little bit of camellia oil on his hair some nights. I'm trying to coax him slowly into some of the more arcane hair rituals, nothing too "girly" or involved, so I don't scare him away.  ;D

He does condition his hair after washing. When we first met, he didn't, but my look of horrified shock and incredulity made him see the error of his ways! That, and the fact the conditioner made it so much easier to brush out might've convinced him, too... maybe.   :)

That's a good idea about a cover on the back of his chair. I betcha if I pad it correctly, he might even be enthusiastic about the cover.
...
Maybe I should make one for me for using at work. Hmm...

Do you use fresh kale? I tried stir frying fresh kale with soy sauce and ginger, once, but it was too tough! The only success I have with kale involves blanching it to half to death, first.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 8th, 2010 at 1:13am
Life: I went to the gym yesterday morning. It was the first time in quite a while. I blame holidays, overwork, and not enough time! Anyway, apparently my body did not know that I had scheduled a workout, and was a bit in shock when I started asking it to do stuff. My arms are a bit pouty right now, but my legs are definitely not on speaking terms with me. Coworkers were snickering at my painful shambling about the office today.  ::)

Allergist decided to try the same dosage of trees in my other arm at my latest checkup. Reacted again, but thankfully the reaction was less severe. The reaction this time was about the size of a quarter instead of half-dollar, and less itchy. Hopefully, the next round will get me to the no-reaction stage and I can start moving on again. Those sexy sexy trees cause me so much angst!

Hair: I think the neem and tea tree oil is beginning to work! Hair is much less itchy, still oily, but blessedly less itchy and flaky. What a relief! It's too soon to really tell, though, so I'll be keeping an eye on the situation.

I wore my hair up in this tutorial today. I used a hairstick instead of a hairfork, and it worked decently well. The only bad part is now I'm wanting a hair fork. Must Resist Buying More Hairtoys!  ::)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 14th, 2010 at 10:59pm
Life: Whew! My legs were very unhappy at me last week. Fortunately, they forgave me just in time for hubby and I to go around looking at houses again. Good thing, too! Pittsburgh houses are notorious for all the stairs. Most houses are at least two if not three or four stories tall around here, not including the basement. And since they tend to be on hills, there's almost always an additional flight of stairs just to get to the house!  :P

There is one house that we saw, though, that we really liked. We're thinking about putting an offer on the house. Our first house! Eeek! Talk about serious first-time-house-buyers jitters!  :D

I got a package today from my father that was a pack of sponges. Call me silly, but there's a certain type of sponge that my parents buy down in Texas that the stores around here do NOT sell at all! I'll have to show my gratitude by sending back a couple packs of Playtex gloves that my Dad admitted not being able to find down in Texas. Since Dad and I are silly, we're probably going to keep using the same box over and over and take bets on how long it takes for it to disintegrate during shipping.  ;D

Hair: Been feeling kind of blue about my hair.  I've been having to shampoo a day or two sooner on the shampoo bars than when I was using liquid shampoo, but I'm hoping that it's just a transitional period. I'm also trying to transition to a more natural-ingredient regime. I'm not at all sure if it's any more effective, but it is a little gratifying knowing that the products I've been using could be made at home if I wanted to.

I found some old photos of me from the Christmas before last, and can't help but feel that my hair might've looked better back then. It looked very sleek and shiny, and it makes me wonder if my hair still looks as good now that it's longer.   :-/

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Drear on Jan 15th, 2010 at 5:18am

Quote:
Most houses are at least two if not three or four stories tall around here


:o


Quote:
Talk about serious first-time-house-buyers jitters!
  Good luck! :)


Quote:
Call me silly, but there's a certain type of sponge that my parents buy down in Texas that the stores around here do NOT sell at all!


Not silly at all.  My dad brought me Burt's Bees (sp?) chapstick and lotion and I'd have had him bring more products if he would've been allowed to take them in his carry-on.  I've just requested Fiesta plates.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Jan 16th, 2010 at 2:27pm
Good luck with the house hunting!
I used to be a Residentail Mortgage Underwriter.  Don't get overwhelmed by all the things to gather for buying your first home.  Just be organized and calm.  That's half your battle!!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Drear on Jan 17th, 2010 at 11:08am
Just remembereds - We had a lawyer undersign the papers when we bought this house.  I don't remember about the first house. :-[  Turns out the lawyer is the sister to a none direct neighbor we've now fallen out with. ::)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by la diosa on Jan 17th, 2010 at 6:22pm

Quote:
Pittsburgh houses are notorious for all the stairs. Most houses are at least two if not three or four stories tall around here, not including the basement.


That's one thing that I miss, and was coincidentally comparing the houses in Pittsburgh to where I am in Georgia just about a week ago.  The house that I'm in now only has 2 stories and it seems that most of the houses around here do.  Don't even get me started on Las Vegas and all of the ranch houses. :P  I want my next house to at least have a basement too.

Good luck on your search! :)


Quote:
Since Dad and I are silly, we're probably going to keep using the same box over and over and take bets on how long it takes for it to disintegrate during shipping.
   ;D


Quote:
it is a little gratifying knowing that the products I've been using could be made at home if I wanted to.


That's exactly how I feel.  I'd love to be able to make my own hair products.  I'm sure that one day I will.  I found this site over the summer.  http://www.ingredientstodiefor.com/category.php?category_id=77
You can buy so many product ingredients there. 


Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Jan 20th, 2010 at 12:28am
Thanks everybody for your positive house vibes!

Life: Hubby and I had our counter to the seller's counter offer offer accepted. We have a house! This weekend I get to go march through it with the housing inspector. We won't actually officially close until April because of our very strict lease we are currently with but I'm excited all the same.  :D

la diosa: You'll be happy to know the house we picked does have a full basement. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a 3rd and 4th floor. Oh well. Nothing a contractor can't fix!  ;D


The new house has well water. What fun experiments I will have acclimating my hair to well water! Our inspector, of course, is going to be doing potability and flow rate tests on the well. I'm also really excited because for the first time ever I will be able to have my own rain barrel. Excitement!

Hair: I have finally found my shampoo bar groove, and I must admit that I am really liking it. I need to lather at least twice with the CV shampoo bars. The application that works for me is not combing from hairline to nape, like the faqs led me to believe. In order to get enough suds, I need to hold my hair up like in a ponytail and go back from the hairline and up from my nape towards the base of the ponytail. Since discovering this, things have gone much more smoothly, especially since I am now not rinsing my ACV rinse out. So far, I am still very happy with my "natural" products.


Quote:
That's exactly how I feel.  I'd love to be able to make my own hair products.  I'm sure that one day I will.

Yeah, I really hope that I can try out some of that stuff when I finally get some free time. I'd really like to play around with oils and butters, though, but they can be really expensive!

Tonight, sort of out of accident, I let my hair dry completely naturally and down. No combing, bunning, claw-clipping, oiling, etc.  It turns out that I actually DO have waves. Like, real natural waves not from a bun or braid! It's very surprising for me, since I'm still sort of stuck in this mentality that I have the same hair as my mother, thick, straight, coarse "Asian" hair.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Feb 4th, 2010 at 11:13pm
Hair: Still very happy with my poo bar routine. Still sudsing twice and using a leave-in ACV rinse. I've slowly started adding more variables back in, like trying out coconut oil sparingly once maybe every week or two. The experiments continue!

I also picked up some horn combs from ebay. Not too bad a haul, but I think I might have to pick up some fine-grit sandpaper to smooth some of them down a bit. I'm using one of the nicer ones to do some scalp scritching before bed, now.

I just finally hit tailbone. It makes me happy, except now my hair is doing that thing that I haven't seen since shoulder length. It's doing a weird swoopy out thing! I hope that I can get a few more inches of growth in so that it stops deciding to mimic the curve of my derriere.  :P

Life: Life has been a surprising mixture of stressful and well, kinda nice. The last two weeks have been a flurry of work, house inspections, visiting mortgage agents, going back and forth with real estate agents for signing and paperwork, etc. For a largely introverted and sedentary person, like myself, this driving around and talking to strange people has been an exhausting marathon test of my interpersonal skills, which I will freely admit generally suck.

On the upside, there are plenty of things I am happy about. I am very happy with my relationship with hubby, that I hit one of my goals for my hair, the the seller agreed to our post-inspection requests, and that with high hopes there will be nothing but smooth sailing until April. So, all in all, a weird blend of happy-tinged panic. Does that even make sense?   :-?

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Drear on Feb 5th, 2010 at 4:04am

Quote:
Hubby and I had our counter to the seller's counter offer offer accepted. We have a house! This weekend I get to go march through it with the housing inspector. We won't actually officially close until April because of our very strict lease we are currently with but I'm excited all the same. 


Wow!  I know my English is rusty and probably never was fluent but I had to read the first few lines a couple of times. ;D  That's great!  I hope it all turns out great.


Quote:
For a largely introverted and sedentary person, like myself, this driving around and talking to strange people has been an exhausting marathon test of my interpersonal skills, which I will freely admit generally suck.


It's no comfort but I'm the same and I find myself outside of my comfort zone more often than I like it.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Feb 5th, 2010 at 9:47am
Yay!!!  Congrats, KNS!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Feb 6th, 2010 at 1:08pm
Thanks, Drear and Curlgirl!

Hair:
I "accidentally" fell asleep last night and didn't put my hair in a protective style. The results this morning were horrible! How did I ever manage before?  :o

Today will likely be a deep conditioning day. Yay!

LifeSnow:
It snowed last night. About two feet. Driving home after work on Friday was only marginally death-defying.
I shoveled half of the driveway this morning. And a small bit of the neighbor's driveway. My back hurts now. And I was covered in snow afterwards.
I think in addition to deep treatment day, this will be a "Catch Up On Heroes and Drink Hot Cocoa Day with Aleve" Day, too.  ;D

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Feb 6th, 2010 at 3:38pm
I think that sounds like a wonderful idea!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Mar 25th, 2010 at 10:42pm
Life: Wow, long time no writing. Things sure have been busy.  Work, thankfully, ramped down a bit, so I had a bit of a breather. April will be pell mell again, so I am trying to grab my free time when I have it.  :)

The seller of the house contacted us about a week or two to let us know, to our relief!, that the house was not damaged by the 4 feet of snow that fell on Pittsburgh in February. Whew! Hubby and I were worried there for a bit, since the roof is one of the older parts of the house. Movers have been hired, and we will be moving in mid April! I'm so excited to actually have a garden to work with this year, not that the patio last year was disappointing at all. I might still do some container gardening this year, since it was much fun last year, but the scope is so limited compared to ground gardening, that I'm really looking forwards to my new options.

Hair: Still sticking with my regular poo bar routine with ACV and camellia oil. I've cut back a bit on the coconut oil, since the blend I have has patchouli in it, and too much patchouli is well.. too much!  ;D
I still love to use it for the tip of my braid when I'm braiding up for the night, but full hair treatments are rare now, these days.
As for the poo bars, I've picked up some bars from Sweet Creek Herbs on Etsy, which I am enjoying immensely, as well as a few sample bars from Henna Sooq. All the bars are quite nice, but alas, a few of them just refuse to lather up. I blame my very hard city water.

I did not bother taking an official measurement for March. Hair definitely did not grow at all during Feb, and I blame all of the snow. Hopefully, some sunnier days in March will have encouraged some new growth for my April measurement!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Drear on Mar 26th, 2010 at 5:52am
Yay!  Glad there's no snow damage and you know you'll be moving for certain and when.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Mar 26th, 2010 at 8:18am
Glad all is ok with you,KNS!  What an exciting time for you! 

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Aug 26th, 2010 at 10:25pm
Hello all!

Long time no see.

Just popping in to say hello to everybody and post a brief update.

We've moved. House is lovely, and of course we STILL haven't finished unpacking entirely. My current project that's taking up all my time is making a little human being, and she's about 75% complete.

We adopted a kitten two months ago. He's fuzzy and adorable, and his name is Kupo. We love him to bits.

Hair is still growing. I've reached 38.5 inches by hubby's last measurement a couple of days ago. I'm about 3 inches from classic.

Hair routine has been pretty well pounded out; poo bar shampooing once a week. I've given up on ACV, since the new house has a water softener, so the ACV is a bit redundant. No conditioner, either, except for monthly deep treatments. Summer has made it so oiling is a no go, so no oiling either. Simplicity at its simple-est!

Well, that's all for now. Bye!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Aug 27th, 2010 at 9:24am
Glad to hear from ya!
It sounds like you've been busy! 
You've got a new kitty!  How wonderful is that!
I'm sure the house,kitty and "little human being" in the works, you'll be up to your eyeballs!!! ;)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Aug 30th, 2010 at 10:48am
Congratulations, KNS!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Oct 15th, 2010 at 10:29pm
:)

Thanks, Curlsgirl & Sakina.

Hair is now 39.5 inches long. Routine has been mostly the same. Since the weather has been cooling and drying off, I've increased my deep treatments to once every two to three weeks instead of a full month, and occasionally I'll even use some conditioner after shampooing. I have also resumed using one to two drops of oil on damp hair, but any oil on dry hair is still giving me the oilies. Le sigh.

Babassu oil has been ordered, as I really want to try coconut oil but am leary of all the proteins in it. Babassu was available for fairly cheap on Etsy, so we'll see how that works!

I've been participating in a "hair challenge" where I have to wear a different hair style every day for 60 days, no repeats. I'm on day 56! Only four more styles to go. Hopefully, when I'm done, I'll still have time to go back and take pictures of the styles I missed, so that my photo journal will be complete.

Life has been pretty hectic. I'm at 37 weeks now, so the bean is full-term. We had a scare back at 34 weeks where she was still breech, but an external version performed at the hospital this Wednesday flipped her right around. DH and I are relieved! Now I just need to coax her into a final good position before I pop. I hope it's soon! I'm tired of being so big!

House is now unpacked. I blame the baby shower that I had three weeks ago. Nothing like having strangers over at your house to add that extra little oomph of incentive to clear out all the cardboard!  ;D

The kitty cat is also doing quite nicely. He's getting huuuuge! Everybody who visits refuses to believe that the li'l guy is only 5 months old, he's so big now. :(
He's still our purring little kitten though, prone to bouts of crazy flying about the house.

Not much else to report. Hope all of you are doing well!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Oct 16th, 2010 at 12:12am
Its nice to see you on the board, Kitten. 

The yoga posture Downward Facing Dog will turn the baby to optimal birthing position.  Good luck!!!

I hope you'll post some of your hair challenge pics!

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by kittennoodlesoup on Oct 16th, 2010 at 10:33am
Thanks Sakina, for the tip.

I've tried a few downward dogs, but my carpal tunnel doesn't let me do very many. I'm trying out a few positions that are very similar to downward dog that are easier for very pregnant ladies to do.  ;D

No changes in hair today. Hair is still EXTREMELY unhappy at me for having:
1. Blowfried it
2. Braided it damp
3. Scrubbed it against a hospital bed on Wednesday
and 4. Leaving it in for 2 days, since I was too exhausted to take care of it after the version.
It's expressing it's unhappiness by tangling if I even look at it funny. If I manage to comb it out, just putting down the comb will cause it to snarl up again.  :-/

Oh well. Hopefully after the midwife visit today, I can take some extra time to pamper it, and give it a deep treatment, so it forgives me. It's so unhappy it hasn't even been complaining about all the extra oil I've been using on it to try to tame the frizz.  :(

Kitten had a litter box incident this morning that resulted in him having to have a bath. Poor kitten! He's all damp and sad now. There is something so pathetic about soggy long-haired cats.  ;D

I'll try to post pictures from my 60 style hair challenge journal after I'm done with the challenge. I think today's style is going to be the cowrie shell bun, since my hair is sooo cranky at being braided so much. Honestly, by the time you get to style 40, you run out of all the nice nontwisted bun styles, and you end up having to do lots of elaborate braided styles. My goal is to do something super fancy for the last day.  :)

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Curlgirl64 on Oct 16th, 2010 at 2:20pm
Good to hear from you KNS!  It sounds like all is well with you,hubby,kitty and the little bean! ;)
If Downward Facing Dog on the mat is trouble for your CTS, I'd recommend doing a modified version using a sturdy chair.  Send me a pm and I'll give details and specifics.

Title: Re: Kitten and her Coat of Many Layers
Post by Sakina on Oct 16th, 2010 at 6:21pm
Curlgirl64 beat me to it- definitely use a chair to modify, and make your legs quite wide apart for a comfy belly.

I'm excited to see your hair challenge pics.  I love elaborate  braided hairstyles.   :D

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