Your pics look great!  If you have a Michael's craft shop in your area, they regularly have satin ribbon on sale.  I've used their thin fabric ribbon in my braids many times.

I was almost tempted to get out the blow dryer today.  I thought how nice it would be to wear my hair down and straight, something I haven't done for close to a year.  I didn't do it, and need to wrap my hair up soon in a bun.  Hopefully I let it air dry long enough that when I take it out of the bun it will be smooth with big waves.

I did my first CO wash yesterday w/ Suave daily clarifying.  My hair feels good, although it had only been 2 days from my last wash and I can usually go 3-4 days.   I feel like I've washed my hair a ton this week.  I get a lot oilier when I'm at the gym everyday. 

This week I'm going to try deep conditioning my hair at night, sleeping in it, then washing in the morning after the gym.  I can wrap a bandana around my hair at the gym.  Hopefully I'll be able to fit in more conditioning treatments this way.  I'm skipping them more often than I should right now, since I try to time them before a wash and it hasn't been working out.

I'll CO again tomorrow w/ a vinegar rinse.

Thanks Strawberryfine!  I'm really missing vacation where I had all that time to just practice new braids, but hopefully I'll start working on them again.  I really want to try to work more with ribbons.

Beautiful hair, Valerie! 8)

I did my 3rd co wash yesterday.  I'm really oily on the sides.  I'm going to try a vinegar rinse tomorrow.   Part of it was that I forgot to dilute my biolage conditioner so the length of my hair is really weighted down too.

I've been massaging the conditioner into my scalp while I take a bath, then wrapping my hair in a towel and let the conditioner sit for 10 minutes or so.  Then rinse and rinse and rinse in the shower.  I'm doing a ton of massage when putting the conditioner in and rinsing it out.   There must be an easier way to do this though.  At least I hope there is since my showers used to last 2 minutes and now seem to last forever. 

My dutch braids have gotten very neat which is nice.  I'm trying to spend time working on a varied style every other day or so. 

I'm almost certain that I will dye the length of my hair to match my roots.  I just have to find the time, energy and funds to do it.  Several weeks ago I had this dream that I had almost knee length hair and only the last 5 inches were blonde.  It looked quite good for some reason in my dream, and I thought I wouldn't dye it, but then decided that if I get my hair to knee length I could dye the bottom 5 inches.   I think my hair looks good in a long braid even with the length blond, but on the rare occasions that I wear it down the color difference is really noticeable.  Also, I'm sure I'm just over analyzing, but I think my buns look a little wierd with the color difference.  I'm too lazy to do anything about it soon.  Who knows, by the time I'm ready to do it, I'll probably have changed my mind again. 

I got the job and I'm very excited about it.  I spend this month continuing to take training classes.  Tax season will be horribly busy.  I don't have any good plan for how to run the house while I'll be working so much, but hopefully we'll figure it out pretty quickly.  I'm sure I'll end up in buns and simple braids to save some time. 

Why am I not tired at night?  I'll really regret this in the morning.

and it worked.

I'm still adjusting to working 2 jobs, and having to go into my first job an hour earlier and have been sleeping in WAY to late.  Yesterday I got up with only 1/2 hour before I had to leave and my hair was way to greasy to go in public with.  There was no way I had time to do a CO wash.  I really didn't want to call in late, so I decided that I would try and wear a scarf to cover up the oiliness.  I got out a silk and velvet scarf, wrapped it over my hair, then braided the ends of the scarf and my hair into a simple braid.  I tied off the scarf, wrapped these curlers I have in my ends (left the curlers in until I got to work), and ended up with a really cute look that got a ton of compliments.  I wish I had gotten a picture, but I was running too late yesterday morning, and then too tired last night.   I had to 'dress up' a lot for me anyway to really pull the look off, and actually wore makeup which I doubt I've ever done in my 2 1/2 years working there.   

If I do this style again, (which why not?) I will pull back the top part of my hair and secure with a barette, and secure the scarf and ends of my hair at the base of my hair line before making the braid. 

Anyone who thinks they can't pull off a scarf look, try again.  I assure you that I never thought that I could, and if you asked my friends and coworkers they would probably have agreed with me.