I got a compliment on my figure 8 bun today.     It was so exciting, and the gal's hair is pretty long too, so I told her how to do it.  All I've been doing w/ my hair is english braids or buns, gets boring, but I don't have time for much else.

I decided I wanted to try something new on my hair in these wee hours of the morning that I can't seem to sleep.  I checked out the recipe page, and the only one I had ingredients for was the beer and jojoba conditioner.  So I went ahead and mixed some up--I thought regular beer smelled awful, but warm was even worse.     I dipped my ends in the bowl, put my shower cap on and massaged it into the roots.  This way the smell didn't bother me so much.  When I rinsed it out, my hair felt sooooo soft.  I CO'd, then did a final rinse w/ ACV to make sure not beer scent would linger.

I got the color done today.  The top looks a bit darker than before but its not entirely dry.  I really like it though.  I think I might be a convert to mouse brown.   

I'll do a deep conditioning treatment on Saturday to get more of the softness back. 

My friend was great, she said she would have loved to cut it to my shoulder blades but never would since I like it so much.   She did seem shocked when I told her that I was growing it longer though.

oh and I forgot to mention that everyone loved the color at my job.

Let's see... I love the color, still haven't put pictures up yet though.  But I'm so sad about the damage.  I have so many splits... I never found my hair cutting scissors so I'll have to go buy more this weekend to start trying to get rid of them.  Part of me thinks it is hopeless though.  I find comfort in the fact that I had billions of splits when my hair was collar bone length, and I seem to have the same # w/ hip length hair. 

I also think I'll be going to a salon to get my hair styled for the wedding.  It may have just been a bad week, but if it is more than a bun, I can't seem to get it to look right.

Yesterday I did a lace french classic braid w/ a left side part, and tried the gathering sections from the length every other time.  Not horrible, but I may not be able to get that one down. 

But last night I did an upside down dutch for the first time EVER that looked decent, and I think that I've found a new possibility.  Add a couple rope accent braids, have my shoulder length 'bangs' swept across the front in nice big rolling curls, and the braid, and top section of hair in a high bun.  Pin in some rhinestone bobby pins, and some baby's breath, and well anyway, I think it could be very very nice. 

I'm going over to my mom's this weekend, and also a friends house, to work on 'girling me up.'  The hair styles that I think I want to focus on, and choose one are: a classic french lace braid, leaving the length of my hair down in big curls, an upside down dutch as described above, maybe a classic dutch braid to a bun--(I was looking through my braid book by Karen Ribble, and she has such elegant pictures of her hair in that style, but mine just isn't as thick so I don't think I can pull off the same effect), Styg's 2 rope figure eight, and a style on the loom that was posted, with big loops pinned up, and she had white roses in the loops--my bouquet will have at least one large blue iris, so I was thinking something like that would be pretty nifty.  I did find a very cute antiquey looking butterfly claw clip at 'the icing' last night, that I may go back for.  If I do my hair myself I want to have a couple 'back up' styles if the first choice just doesn't work, and I think that that would look nice just pulling up some hair in the clip and have big loose curls.  More casual than I'm hoping for, but as I keep reminding myself, no stress, no hassle, just fun. 

I finally started calling around to salons yesterday, but shocker, most of them aren't open Sundays.  I found one gal that would have been willing to come in, but she has a hair show in Denver that day.  Probably best this way, save some money anyway. 

I went shopping with my mom last night which was fun.  Bought my bodice, and other under things, some hair stuff, and shoes.  The shoes are so neat, I'll have to remember these for dress shoes.  They look like heels, have the ever so popular pointed toe, but are completely flat, so my toes aren't pushed into the point, I can walk with no problems, and my partner won't be trying to stand on his tip toes to be taller than me.   

So now that my shopping is done, and my hair stuff might actually be coming in place, the last 'issue' is makeup.  I managed to lose all my makeup and good hair cutting scissors.  I was running around all the time with a travel case of everything, since I usually put on makeup for the 2nd job, and the case is MIA.  I'm mostly ticked off about losing my scissors.  I'm going to hopefully replace the makeup with some higher quality stuff than I usually buy, and will suffer through the malls yet again to have their make up people, teach me the 'art' of makeup. 

The half gibson went well.  Will definetly be an option.  I would do smaller curls for the hair that is left out. 

And my hair was OILY yesterday and this morning for the first time since I dyed it.  I slept in an olive oil and honey conditioning treatment Thursday that I rinsed yesterday.  I went to work with my hair damp, in a braided pony tale, so the slicked back look was good and I didn't even realize how oily it still was.  Normally I'm sure this would be a bit irritating, but I was beginning to think that instead of buying a bottle of jojoba I would have to switch to pure olive oil with my hair being so damaged.  I washed today w/ Anais' COW method, adding more shampoo than normal, conditioned w/ Kenra that I got from my MIL and so far my hair feels very good.  I had it pulled back before I remembered I need it down to dry so that I can have people help me with it today.

I found my travel makeup case with my hair cutting scissors!  YEA!!!

I see a major dusting coming up.