Oy..
My computer's kaputt, thanks to a well-placed storm, and the surge protector that couldn't handle it.. *sighs*  Ah well, looks like I'll be making my additions to my hair journal from the library for a bit. 

Not much news on the homefront here, just waiting (impatiently, mind you) for the insurance people to come and investigate the harried redhead who is clamouring for a new computer *laughs*  I've let my hair get.. very dirty lately.  I'm hiding under hats and the like, because the winter is playing havoc on my tresses and I think my hair just needs the oils.  I've made it a total of 5 days... and well, this is the most I can stand! 

How long can you ladies make it?

Bought some new things for my hair collection...

A pack of velvet scrunchies.  I don't wear scrunchies normally, but I wanted to have something I could tie my hair up when I go to sleep that won't cause a crease in my hair.

A pack of sponge rollers.  Yep, the pink spongy kind.  Make me look like an old lady *laughs!*  At any rate, I've been wanting to see how I could add some curl to my hair now and again, and since hot rollers and curling irons are out.... Well, I'd see how sponge rollers would take.

Now, I've tried to sleep on sponge rollers before; not fun, I tell ya.  But if I want to curl my hair, I need to do it at night, or wander around in the daylight with pink sponge in my hair.. erm.. not an option!    So, trying to figure out a balance of being able to sleep while curling my hair, I came across this..

Set your hair in a high ponytail.. smack dab on the top of your head.  (This is where the velvet scrunchie comes in.. no crease marks!  Hurray!)  Divide the ponytail into however many rolls you want to make (I made 8) and roll each section after misting with a bit of my water/EO/leave-in conditioner concoction.  Since the rollers sit on top of my head, I can sleep comfortably on my back without plastic roller clipies poking into my head.  I wrapped a silk scarf around my curlers (to cut down on friction) and in the morning...!!!

Nice fat sausage curls that can be left as is, Georgian-style, or fingered through for a mass of curly froth.  And it lasted all day without the help of hairspray!  A miracle happened on Fat Tuesday.. who would have thought it?

Now that it's Ash Wednesday.. well, I have yet to take my curls out this morning, but we shall see.  I expect to have the same results.

Well, I used the honey-vinegar rinse on my hair Saturday and my hair turned out LOVELY! It's got mega-watt shine and banished the -cone dullness I was getting. Overall my hair is shiney and bouncy. I wore it down all day yesterday and I got the nicest compliment when I went out to brunch. And yes, world... this is *MY* hair. Not extensions... LOL!

I put my hair in a high ponytail with a velvet scrunchi, then spritzed the tail with water and rolled it with four big sponge rollers last night. This morning the ends are just beautiful loose spirals and add a lot to my hair. 

Considering experimenting with aloe vera gel to make hair gel. I have a lot of "baby hair" wisp around the front of my face.. it looks really pretty when I have all my hair pulled back but it gets a little annoying when I have my hair down with all these tiny flyaways. I know a couple of girls from the boards have had luck using aloe vera gel as hair gel and I think I'm going to try mixing some aloe with water and appyling it just to the areas around my temples. I wonder if it's okay to apply gel to dry hair? I've never used gel before... but I guess if it doesn't work out, I can always just rinse out my hair.

On another note, I'm trying a new wash system. I've been trying and trying and trying to go to a CO wash, but my hair just ends up flat no matter how "light" the conditioner I use for the scalp. But I really like the idea of a one step wash, so here's what I tried:

Wet hair. Apply Suave Milk and Honey condish to the length (up to the ears) and comb through. Add a tiny dallop of a -cone condish (right now I'm using Aussie Mega) to length. In a old ketschup bottle I mix a quarter sized squirt of Silk Elements moisturizing shampoo with about 2 oz. of water and shake. Then I apply the shampoo froth to my scalp and exfoliate my scalp with my fingertips. Then I leave the whole mess in (shampoo and conditioner) while I finish doing my other shower duties, then rinse my hair with cold water, followed by the vinegar honey rinse. Squeeze out excess water, wrap in towel. Then I comb it out and use a little bit of leave-in condish or a drop of two of JoJoba oil for the length, depending on my mood.

This is working out great for me.. I get the greasies taken care of without drying out my scalp, I get to shampoo and condition in one step, and my hair still has a lot of body without having to use a blowdryer. Usually when I use shampoo on my scalp, I get really bad frizzies on the top of my hair, but the diluted shampoo really seems to keep that at bay, plus the honey vinegar rinse seems to help give my hair some body.

AND... four days after a wash like this, my hair doesn't feel uber-icky. Yay! 



Honey Vinegar Rinse:
3 to 4 generous TBS honey

1 to 2 TBS vinegar (Apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar for dark hair, white vinegar for bondies)

4 cups of water


In a large container (I use a small plastic bucket for this) mix the honey and 1 cup of WARM water (from the facet) until the honey dissolves. Add the vinegar and 3 cups cold water, mix well.

After shampooing and conditioning hair (completely rinse out conditioner) pour the honey-vinegar rinse over hair. DO NOT RINSE OUT. Squeeze excess from hair, towel dry, and style as usual. Hair will be so soft it'll be hard to keep your hands off of it!

Tip: If you have longer hair, you may consider "dunking" the ends into the rinse first, then pouring it over the scalp, to make sure ALL of your hair gets treated.

Washed my hair last night with the one-step routine followed with the honey vinegar rinse again. This is quickly becoming a new wash routine for me, I think. It's working out really well, and my hair doesn't seem so limp as it did when I was trying to do an all CO wash. Plus too, I'm not getting that scalp buildup stuff... I guess my hair just likes the shampoo... that's fine, as long as I can keep the shampooing to a minimum.

Someone on the longlocks board... and now I can't remember who... (I'm sorry!) mentioned buying natural shampoo bars from Chagrin Valley:

http://chagrinvalleysoapandcraft.com/shambar.htm

They said they really enjoyed it. I might buy the carrot, milk and honey bar, but then.. I'm not sure yet.. all of her shampoo and regular soap bars all look so wonderful... I might just have to buy some samples to see what I like. And the price is right.. most of her generous soap bars are around 5 dollars, and she can ship up to 5 in a mail envelope for something like... $3.89? Not bad, I think...

Though they do say your hair will be sticky a few times until the leftover glycerin residue from your old shampoos finally wash out. Hair trial, I guess... but the bars are supposed to be very mild that you don't even need a conditioner afterwards! Hmm, this sounds a little too good to be true... but I want to find out anyway.


And Moonchild, the rinse is AWESOME!  I'll swear by it now.. 

It's been a tough, tough day. 

My city has been riddled with tons of evacuees from the hurricane.. the highways are clogged with people trying to get to already full shelters and huge clean-up crew vans and disaster teams whizz past.  There's not enough of anything around here... food, water, money, clothes, school supplies (600 new K-12 New Orleans children just enrolled in the public schools here yesterday)

I feel really frustrated and really helpless.  The more reports that come in from New Orleans, the more I realize that these poor people are likely going to be homeless and misplaced for months... even years.  People are being forced to go as far as Little Rock and Dallas to find refuge and I just...

It's like BikerBraid said.  It feels like I just can't do enough for these people.   

Sorry, dears.. I can't talk about hair today.  My heart's just a little too heavy.

Indeed.  Blessings on those who have been affected by this terrible disaster, and also on those who are witnessing it first hand.  <<<<HUG>>>>

*hugs*  Over here on the west coast, we are all thinking of you and wishing for a speedy recovery.  My city has been fundraising around the clock, and Red Cross volunteers have been trained and are on their way with supplies.  Search and rescue dogs from our area are also on their way - same dogs that went to the NY and La Conchita disasters. 

I know it all seems so slow, and it is painful to watch the news.  I can only imagine how hard it must be for you on the forefront.  Hang in there - even just by spreading awareness you are helping.

Cynde