Well, a hair journal seems like a fun idea, so I’ll give it a go.  I tend to get distracted by other things though (kids, theatre, travel, etc.), so I can’t promise to make regular entries!

Came across this site a week ago, the day before my appointment to get my hair cut.  It had gotten so frizzy and full of splits, that I was just fed up with it.     It just wouldn’t seem to grow past the small of my back, and I know that’s not its terminal length, because I had it hip-length in high school.  Add to that my growing-out bangs hanging in my face like limp dishrags all the time, and cutting seemed a good choice. 

Poked around on this site, and decided to try CO washing, and braiding at night.  Wow, what a difference that made, even as soon as the next day!  Still had ratty ends, but the rest of my hair felt slippery and bouncy.  Fortunately, the stylist I had the appointment with proved to be very long-hair friendly, and even talked me out of cutting my bangs short again.  He was great about listening to what I wanted, making good suggestions, and then sticking to our agreement as to how much would be cut.  The length is now just about mid-back (longer than BSL) so I really didn’t lose too much, and the ends are much nicer now!

A week later, I am still CO washing every morning.  I know, that’s really often, but I had been shampooing every day, so I figure it’s progress.  Once my hair has adjusted to CO washing, I’ll try to reduce the frequency.  It starts to go greasy if I wait until the afternoon to CO.  I’m also going to keep shampooing with a clarifying shampoo once a week.  After a week of this, my hair is really, really happy with me, and vice versa.   

A friend of mine is a distributor for Usana products (an M.L.M. sort of like Amway) and gave me some testers of their Sense’ hair products to try.  The ingredients list is great, with no –cones or other nasties, and they smell terrific, so I’m going to give them a go.  It’s pretty spendy though, so I may switch later on.

Ordered some henna through the Internet on Saturday, can’t wait for it to arrive!  I’ve been so busy I just realized I haven’t hennaed in over six months.  Fortunately, the henna I use is pretty close to my natural hair color, so there’s no sharp line of demarcation.  – Maybe if there were, I might remember to do it more often!

How odd.  Just noticed my previous post says my hair will be exposed to "salthingyer." But when I edit it, the edit box shows the correct "saltwater."  Wonder what the board is trying to tell me?  I do wish it would stop speaking in tongues - LOL!

Anyhoo, I did the henna treatment last night.  My back is killing me from all the rinsing I had to do.  I somehow ended up with half again as much as I needed, but didn't want it to go to waste, so I piled it all on.  Took simply FOREVER to rinse it all out.  But I am so happy with the color and how soft it is.  I just love henna!

Oh, and before I forget: CURSE YOU LONGLOCKS!    I haven't even received my first order of hairstix yet, and I had to place a second.  Those new topaz Swingstixs were just too yummy to resist!  Is there a 12-step Longlocks program?  Maybe I should start one for us addicts.

Going to shampoo tonight, even though with all the rinsing last night it doesn't really feel like it needs it.  If I didn't shampoo, I'd end up all greasy by Tuesday.

And I have gotten used to the scent of the rosewater I'm using.  It does fade pretty quickly, and is SO much better at taming my flyaways than any commercial product I've tried before.  Thanks to all on this board for posting their tips - you've really helped my hair!

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hee, hee.  I had to really think about what the "censor" program was consoring.  As you've noticed, certain words (or strings of letters) will be replaced with the word "thingy".  A space in the word would allow it to remain unedited:  salt water.

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MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!  *blushes*  Oooo, it took me like, 10 minutes to figure that out!

I hope LongLocks has not corrupted any of your innocent minds nor added any bawdy terminology to your English vocabulary.      

Thanks for the welcome greek_lady!  I'm such an addict that I placed another order before I left on vacation, and it was waiting for me when I got back.  Lovely topaz splendor swing stix - totally faboo and my new favorites - until my next pair!

The conditioning regimen seems to have done the trick in protecting my hair from all the salt_water (tee hee!) exposure.  Just a few splits, which I trimmed off when I got back.

And, as I posted on the products board, I adore my new Sense products.  Can't say enough good about them really: organic, cruelty-free, smell good, and work great!  Not cheap, but then, to quote a commercial: "I'm worth it!"

I do think I'll give my hair another month on the CO routine before I try to space out the washings.  I went without washing for three days last week due to being sicker than a dog (love those long plane flights for picking up bugs!) and ended up a serious greaseball.

Well.  So, okay, this is a very OCCASIONAL journal.  Something about 25 open cases - two of them criminal, directing a musical which opens in three weeks, planning
a national training - at which I am also teaching three sessions, and having a five year old who takes ballet and a two year old who asks me every FIVE SECONDS "What are you doing Mommy?" (My stock answer has become: "Going crazy, wanna come?"  He usually says "Yeah!"  What a sweetie!)

So anyway, about the hair.  My hair was humming along quite happily on CO with once a week clarifying for a few months, when it suddenly decided it had had enough conditioning.  At least, I think that's what it was saying, I'm still not fluent in Hairese.  It suddenly got lank and greasy looking, even the day of CO.  It was like I couldn't wash out the conditioner, no matter how much I tried.  And believe me, I tried.  The final straw was one day when I CO'ed, rinsed for literally ten minutes, then went to work with wet hair.  When it dried, it was really greasy looking and I could feel the residue on it.  So I went home at lunch and rinsed for another five minutes.  Back to work with wet hair.  It dried again, and was STILL greasy looking.  I had to go out that evening, so I broke down and shampooed after work.

Thanks to some great advice from all of you on the boards, I think I've got this issue licked, at least for now.  I switched to Anais Satin's C-COW-C method, although I decided to skip the initial conditioning, since my problem seemed to be over-conditioning.  This method is working really well so far.  At least, until the next time my hair decides it wants a change.  ::sigh::  such is the life of a rapunzel.  I think we're the real hair minions - to our own hair!   

Also, it was way past time to re-do my henna, so I did that on Sunday.  When I've hennaed in the past, I always ended up with soft, shiny hair.  This time, it came
out really dry, with extra crispy ends.  Yikes!    Fortunately, I have some jojoba oil with EO, so I put some of that in before braiding at night.  It seems to have done the job, except for the ends, which are still a bit crunchy.  I'll keep up the oiling for a while.  I've also found that since my hair "transition" I need to start using the Rosewater again, which I hadn't used for quite a while.

I was having such good results with COW-C, that I decided to see how long I could go between washings.  Washed on Tuesday, Wednesday was great, Thursday morning was fine, but Thursday afternoon was the limit.  I'll give plain rinsing between COWs a try next time.

And thanks for the tip novusfemina - usually olive oil is far too heavy for my very fine hair, but it might just work for diving.  I'll have to give it a try, if I ever have time to dive again!

New hair toys since last post: Swirling Sea FoilStix (gorgeous!) and Capri Sun single hair pin (also gorgeous!)

Well Sakina, it seems only fair, since you got the Celtic Mist! 

Today, with the help of the boards, I think I averted a hair disaster.  My daughter had come up with the idea that she wanted to cut her waist-length hair.  She'd been nagging me for weeks, and I finally relented and gave her a trim a couple of weeks ago, but she was still nagging me, so I posted my dilemma on the boards.  Got loads of good advice - thanks!

So I talked to my daughter today.  She couldn't really tell me *why* she wanted her hair cut.  So I asked her how short she wanted it.  She showed me about an inch off the ends.  I told her that's how much I cut two weeks ago when I trimmed.  Then she wanted to make sure I had trimmed *all* the hairs.  She cracks me up.

She also asked me to get some beads to put in her hair, so I stopped by Sally's at lunch today.  Hopefully putting the beads in will make her happy (she's such a girly-girl), and it gave me a great excuse to get some new hair toys for myself, too!

I do always let her choose her hairstyle for the day, and she's got more hair toys than I do!  Usually she just wants a ponytail, but sometimes a braid.  Today she insisted on wearing it down, even though it gets in her eyes.  I think she's a true longhair at heart, just a bit confused by the idea that she's *supposed* to cut her hair.  I think/hope we've nipped that in the bud!

So, for myself I got a boar's bristle brush.  Juri says in her journal that using one helped her go an extra day without washing, and I'd really like to only wash every third day.  I'll give it a try. 

I also got a new pair of hair scissors, since the pair I bought a couple months ago have gone missing.     Spent some time doing S&D today - geez, my hair sometimes splits waaaay up the shaft.  ::sigh:: Hopefully I'll be able to get them all snipped soon, so then I'll only have to do maintenance trimming.

Off to rehearsal, we open in two and a half weeks - EEEK!