Thank you AtlantisAllure, NaturalRogue, and Greeklady Sewing is such a great way to meditate!

((((LONGLOCKS GROUP HUG)))))

Five more hours until cherry-picking.... five more hours until cherry-picking... Today we're going to head out and see Henry Miller for hopefully some Royal Annes / Rainiers / Lamberts / what have you. A chance to climb trees and get in touch with the inner child

Degunker comb for wet-scritching. It has tapered "chisel" teeth and lifts gunk really well. This is a Rachael Stephens #42, the one I've been using for regular wet-combing (natural straightening). Wet exfoliation is my new love.

Great picture! Your hair is really growing!

Wonderful picture! With every new pic you post, your hair looks even more awesome than the last.

Awwwwww thank you BikerBraid, Cairn, NaturalRogue, and AtlantisAllure

AtlantisAllure, Your comment about my "shape" means a lot I've been so obsessive about my ends thinning because of natural tapering (I haven't cut for ages) (dust-trimmed several months ago, maybe)... so I really have been obsessive. Thanks so much ((Hug))

Washed hair on July 12th, using C-COW-C because we're out of ACV for rinses. I kinda like shampoo. It's not that bad as long as it's cut with conditioner. Granted my scalp isn't as happy as with regular ACV washes, but as long as I do ACV clarifying often, and most importantly as long as I still WET-SCRITCH, then shampoo shouldn't be an issue.

Yesterday went to work (for my fave PT and client), went to a pizza parlor, headed on out to the orchard, and picked for a few hours. Picked Rainiers and Cavaliers (the Lamberts weren't in season yet, and they could have been mistaken for a Rainier variant. They were so rosy.) Cavaliers are kinda like Lamberts, only softer/juicier and slightly darker with a different ripening season. Lamberts ripen in Augustish.  The Cavaliers look almost exactly like Bing (except plumper). T came to visit and he'd never gone cherry picking before (I don't think) and he really enjoyed himself. We picked about 20 pounds of cherries and paid $25 for them. They're all in a big cardboard box in the fridge.

I took advantage of the pretty cherry trees to take ... hair pictures, of all things. The easy thing was to find a ladder and place the camera on it, setting it for automatic. My July shot is much much longer than I would have expected to grow in a year. Last year's July shot wasn't much past shoulder length.

:: officially addicted to outdoor hair picture taking::

edited to fix smiley

Hair update. I've been damp braiding every day because it's been so hot. They result in rather big waves, since my braid is relatively thick.
On the hairtoy front, not much has changed. I still use Mamacat Wood Creations corkscrews (commissioned, although you can find them on eBay because she doesn't take commissions anymore, until further notice) scrunchies from LisaJaney/TBear/Morticia, and ... that's it. Oh, and a curtain rod hairstick, made by .. guess who.. Mamacat. I have no other non-scrunchie toys that actually hold my hair. Nothing else works. Hairsticks need to be relatively tight coils. I hate claw clips, with the exception of my stainless steel "Legolas" clip for half-ups but it's almost purely decorative.

Mamacat. I can't say enough about her hair toys. At first I was really afraid to mention her around here in previous posts, since she is not currently taking commissions and it would just be like dangling a carrot with no cigar. I didn't want to be mean! Enabling such gorgeous work that few people can get right now! but now that I remember Mamacat Wood Creations does have work on eBay sometimes, I will state it boldly: Mamacat is a goddess. If you happen to be lucky enough to find Mamacat work on eBay, check if the latest bid is a hair forumite and if not, go for it. It's well-crafted and made with real love.

Typical first day of Aunt Flo, nausea and cramps, back pain, etc. I took some IB and drank some raspberry leaf in the form of "PMS Tea" by Alvita. Shoulda tried the raspberry leaf first before taking the IB though, I hear it's wonderful by itself as anti-cramp. I'm such a wuss for menstrual cramps! Need to update on MyCycle.

Saw Napoleon Dynamite with Guest and Hobbit. Oh. My. Gosh. It was like, my 4th grade dork friend V, and Duke, and me mixed together. My favorite FAVORITE scene was when the redneck farmer guy shoots the mad cow, and the kids on the bus screamed in perfect unison.

Oh those are pretty and delicious! Let's not say death, let's say "willing sacrifice to give nourishment".

Thanks NRogue and Styg,

I've been taking regular vitamins that have magnesium, but they don't seem to make much difference for me. Ah well.

Hairwash on evening of Tuesday July 19. Used shampoo yesterday, a mildly conditioning C-COW-C. I did this to remove all the shea butter that had accumulated from shea-and-rinse. It was hard to detangle wet hair while the shea was in, especially as I wash and shower with mostly cold water (even in the wintertime). After wet scritching, and a mostly-shampoo COW, I applied lots and lots of Suave M&H but very little Kirkland cone.
I understand the following is kind of an extreme comparison... C-COW-C still worked nicely in the past, and gave CO-like results. Still, the results of C-COW-C are close enough to CO for me that I might as well compare my two extremes between CO and shampoo.

(1) Shampoo routine: My shampoo'd hair is frizzy and weird today. It's fluffy and the strands move separate from each other, and it feels like somebody else's hair. The whispies stick out. I don't want to say it reminds me of Hagrid's beard , but for some reason that's the image that is conjured. There are some nice things, namely, that it looks really nice when loose and straight. Wavy shampoo'd hair tends to go frizzy and whispy. I'm not sure I could handle that. Then again it might also be the Suave M&H. I do reasonably okay without cones, as long as I wet comb. My last attempt without cones was terrible, mainly because (I think) I didn't wet comb. There hasn't been any noticeable damage. 

(2) CO routine: CO tends to make my hair look great while wavy (without wet-combing) and it's well-defined and bouncy. Then again CO tends to make my wet-combed hair look overconditioned and terrible. I'd have to choose between CO and shea butter. I can't seem to have shea butter without a routine that involves shampoo. I think it comes down to what texture I choose, or whether I need to choose at all.

OMG!! I have this barbie, but she is blonde...Pretty much the same thing, except her dress is more pink than blue. I absolutely loved barbie dolls as a child...My Mother was a complete nut though and I only got to play with a small fraction of what I owned. To this day, if I happen to see a cute barbie... I buy it.   8)