I realized my new hair vitamin supplements were working when I was getting ready for bed and noticed my toenails--HAD GROWN---way faster than normal.  I looked like I had claws.  Werewolf feet!  It'll be a pain come sandal season, having to keep up with the pedicures, but that's what comes to mind when I think about my new hair routine; my feet.  

I started a journal in Feb, handwritten in a nice little notebook, but it's nearly impossible to relax and write with the cats sitting on it every time I bring it out.  I can't decide whether to just transcribe it or just hit the highlights.   I'll see how things go.

It's Thursday and that means hairwash night!  I wash my hair on Sun, Tues, and Thurs; I'll wash Sat if I'm going to be in public for any length of time.  Stupid oily scalp.  I've been C-COW-C and it seems to be working.  I tried CO and my hair was terribly over-conditioned.  It seems to be sensitive to conditioning.  I only use V05 clarifying contioners since the heavy ones leave it so limp.  Oiling works well, though.  Last weekend I put some of my liquid cold cream recipe on my hair Sat and Sun and, OK, icky greasy but was it nice and soft on Monday.  The new herbal rinse is working well.  My hair smells so nice and it is softer.  The greys are blending in a bit, but it's not affecting my temple streaks which is good cuz I LOVE my grey temple streaks.  

I ordered some shampoo bars from www.chagrinvalleysoapand craft.com  I can't wait for them to get here.  They're supposed to clean and condition--maybe I could skip the first C.  That Herbal Essence shampoo seems to strip my hair even after I dilute it a good 10:1 with H2O and spike it with conditioner.  My final conditioning is V05 mixed with aloe and honey which works wonders.

Enough for today.  I do want to post my fav. recipes of the moment in case my 2 cats, aka "pure evil wrapped in fur" decide to destroy my hard copies.  Rumpole already tried to shred my W-2 form but I caught him.  Ha!


Herbal Hair Rinse

1 tsp each dried catnip, rosemary, and sage
1-1.5 cup boiling H2O

Steep around an hour.  I use as the final, final rinse, after the cold water rinse I squeeze the excess water out of my hair, dip the length in the rinse a couple of times and pour the rest on the scalp.  Leave in.  The boiling water seems to deactivate the catnip cuz I've not had any problems with the boys attacking my hair after using.  A splash of ACV can be added as well.


Fox's Leave in Shea Conditioning Cream

1 part conditioner
1 part shea butter
1/2 part oil (I use jojoba or macadamia)
eo of choice (optional)

Melt shea, cool to room temp.  Blend all together.  Won't blend completely till cool.  Just stir occasionally.  You can't let the shea cool completely or it'll solidify again  To fill a 2 oz jar, 6 tsp conditioner, 6 tsp shea, and 3 tsp jojoba.  Use on damp hair.

Super Conditioner
conditioner
aloe
honey

I use a 1:1 cond. and aloe with a squirt of honey.  Can use as a final conditioner or can leave in for an hour or so before rinsing


Liquid Cold Cream

I tsp shea butter
oil of choice--I've used macadamia and sweet almond so far
1 ml lavender eo
0.5-1 ml rosemary eo
1 drop tea tree eo

Melt shea in a couple TBSP oil, put in 2 oz bottle and top with remaining oil.  Add eo.  Originally made 4 oz but the eo faded.  Used the remainder for deep conditioner with fab results.  Gotta love the shea.
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List of my LL sticks:


Artistix
Smoldering Fire

Decostix
Rose Frappe (SE)

Duetstix
Marigold Garden (SE)
Strawberry Mint

Fantasystix
Alchemy Fantasy (SE)
Meadow Roses (SE)

Geishastix
Dragon
Scarlet Heart II
Winter Sunset

Gemstix
Inner Glow Labradorite
Rock Candy Candy Jade
Sparkling Heart

Glimmerstix
Autumn's Colors
Autumn Twist (SE)
Jonquil Fire
Smoked Spice
Smoldering Embers

Glitterstix
Gilded Sophistication
Sparkling Fire (SE)
Vixen

Holostix
Firestorm

Individualistix
Crimson Bloom
Gilded Fire
Puppy Love (LE)
Raven Feather
The Scream II (SE)
Warm Glow

Majestix
Crimson Rose
Peach Chic
Silvered Cinnabar

Myststix
Snowy Night (SE)
Forest Fire

Original LL Hairstix
Butterfly Sky

Pearlistix
Pearl Plumeria (SE)
Violet Vining (SE)

Rapunzelstix
Bahama Breeze
Dangerous Love
Evergreen Dreams
Gilded Vitrail
Good Tidings
Spiced Rosaline

Shadowstix
Montana Sparkle
Miss Scarlet

Spiralstix
Jewels

Sterlingstix
Cherry Tea (SE)
Moroccan Twilight (SE)

Sugarstix
Holiday Lily VI (SE)

Swingstix
Vampira

Hi.  Thanks for sharing your recipes-I love natural skin care.
What's asa?

Good luck with your cat.

Namaste,
Sakina

Oh, yeah.  The salicilic (sp?) acid is what helps the blackheads.
Thanks!

Blast from the past, 2/13/05 to be exact, when I tried the Hair Rinse for Brunettes:

1 tsp dried Rosemary
1/2 c boiling H2O
1 cup strong lukewarm coffee
1/4 cup ACV
vitamin E capsule

Steep rosemary in H2O bout 30 min until has cooled to lukewarm.  Combine all ingredients in spray bottle and shake well (cut open vit e capsule and add the inside;discard the capsule part).  Spray on hair, cover and let sit 30 min.  Wash as usual.

They didn't mention that the spraying part is really messy and you should be naked in the tub with the shower curtain closed unless you really love washing the walls, floor, bathmat, cats.....  It's really smelly, too.  Vinegar coffee, ick.  The vinegar smell fades, but my hair stunk like old coffee for a week, though the next wash took care of a lot of the odor.  I put peppermint eo in my hair to cut the smell--I'd forgotten that.    Didn't work, though.  Didn't seem to affect the grey at all.  My hair was really soft, but that's the vinegar.  I did try it the next week using black tea instead of coffee.  It didn't smell as bad, but still didn't seem to do anything special for my hair, at least nothing special enough to justify the mess.

I want my Chagrin Valley soaps!  Galadriel already has hers (pout  ).  Her review was so positive, I just can't wait!

My soaps arrived yesterday!  They look pretty and feel nice and soapy; unfortunately I can't smell anything worth a ---- lately.  Stupid allergies.  Between the worst allergy season I've seen in 35 years, the start of daylight savings time and my onset of menses this week I feel so crappy I could have the plague and not even know it.

Anyway, I got:

soaps:  chocolate orange twist
            citrus woods green tea
            cucumber lime yogurt
            dead sea spa
            orange coconut cream
            rosemary lemon  & aloe (free since she only had
                          a couple of slivers of the orange
                          chocolate soap left)
            shea rose clay

shampoos:  herb garden
                   rosemary lavender aloe
                   rosemary mint (free sample)

Most of the soaps were sample sized and the orange cream goes to Mom.  I was going to give my SIL the orange chocolate soap, but I guess I"ll keep the slivers for myself, oh darn!  Tonight is hairwash night so tomorrow I"ll post my review in the thread in the product reviews section.

I bought a 10-pack of Magic Grip Hair Pins at Kmart last Saturday. (click here http://www.ulta.com/showcase/hairaccessory.html to see what they look like if you don't know.  They're the 6th one down.  They're 2.99 at ulta.aom and 8.95 at Vermont Country Store.  I suppose VCS depends on business from the google-impaired)  I used them yesterday and today to hold my ersatz french twist.  I must admit I didn't think plastic hairpins were any match for my hair but they hold wonderfully well.  I only needed 4 to hold up my hair today and I probably could get by with fewer.  Very impressive.  The Good Hair Days website said if the plastic tines spread while wearing, wrap them with a rubber band at night and they should be ok in the am.  I'll try that; one did spread a bit.

I started a new recipe:

Herbal Vinegar Rinse

2 cups ACV
2 oz lavender buds
1 TBSP glycerin
10 gtt rose geranium eo

Heat ACV to just below boiling and add lavender.  Remove from heat and let steep x 1 week.  Strain and add other ingredients.  Store in the refrigerator.  To use, mix 4 oz vinegar mix to 4 cups warm water.

I did the ACV/lavender mix last night.  They aren't really clear on the final proportions--I wonder if they mean 4 floz or 1/2 cup?  Time will tell.  I also wonder how necessary is it to keep it in the fridge.  With all this vinegar I would imagine it would keep well in a cool dark place where I keep all sorts of other things, like onions and my basic good nature.  I also won't be using rose geranium eo cuz I don't have any, and I don't need more little amber glass bottles cluttering up my sink.  I'll probably use lavender eo or maybe rosemary.  I could throw caution to the winds and use both!  I am a wild woman.

My hair is already getting oily!  The front is all shiny and not in that "where are the cameras for your commercial you sexy thing you" way, but in the "soap and water are inexpensive and readily available, why don't you try some?" way.  I may have to try scalp washing on my alternate days this summer. 

Used my new Chagrin Valley shampoo bar last night.  For full details, see the Product Review page.  Thank heavens Galadriel mentioned using an ACV rinse afterward or I might have panicked when my hair did its wig impression.

Got my beads from Silver Crow Creations--two yellow and pink lampwork monkey heads and a gorgeous large skull carved out of coral.  If I'm alive at all I need to make hairsticks this weekend.  I"'m sure I have a big chunk of turquoise somewhere to partner my skull.  That'll make 2 skeleton-themed hairsticks I"ve made, not to mention the devil duckie ones.  I need to wear my duckies again.   8) I also got some lampwork cat beads from ebay.  They did promise they'd be in pairs, but really, yellow cats and mauve cats?  Ick.  The black are nice and the blue ok, but yellow and mauve.      Maybe someone at work will want them.

I'm becoming hair obsessed.  Everything I see I wonder if I can put it in my hair.  "Pizza?  Sure!  The grease is conditioning and the pepperoni decorative!  Bring it on!"  Mom bought a new skirt this weekend and I took the ribbon belt for my hair; I tried to talk her into the green skirt since I like green better than peach.  She suggested I trot myself to JoAnn's and buy whatever color ribbon I darn well please.    I love my Mom 

The ACV with the lavender buds is a funky purple blue color with an equally funky smell.  I put it in a vintage aluminum thermos thing with a glass liner.  I'll strain it next week and use it when I use the shampoo bar.

The bats in the roof were fighting last night.  They've been fighting alot lately and it keeps me up.  What do bats have to fight about anyway?  If it's about lack of space they shouldn't have moved into my gable in the first place--it's cramped up there.  They'd better decimate the mosquito population this summer if they're going to screech all night.

I found an interesting looking recipe for an aloe body butter.  I'll make it when and IF I get my BPAL imps.

I was browsing the Majestic Mountain Sage website.  They've got so many oils--emu (supposed to encourage hair growth), cranberry seed (lots of omegas), red raspberry seed (supposed to have some sunblocking properties--wonder how it would do in hair?), rose hip oil (so pretty--mainly for mature and damaged skin and between my natural oiliness and vampiric tendencies, my skin isn't going to mature any time soon, but it's so pretty!),  aloe butter--aloe vera infused into coconut oil!  I do NOT need any oil at the moment, I don't I don't I don't I really don't.  It'll take years to use up the jojoba I have now, not to mention the macadamia and sweet almond....I bet cranberry oil would make great cold cream.....stop it!  No more oil!  At least until the rose hip is back in stock 

Stopped using my BBB two weeks ago and I have noticably fewer splits.  I miss my brush, it worked so well to distribute the oil through my length.  I've been using a cheap wooden comb from tenderheaded.com, and it does help a bit but it isn't the same.    I was supposed to get a comb from Ric Carpenter for my birthday, but he's in Hawaii now and not taking orders.

Just a note:  using only hairsticks to hold my twist fell out in about 7 hours, whereas if I use the good time hairpins and just decorate with the sticks it stays up till I take it down.  I used the 6" sticks; I wonder if the 8" sticks would hold better?  The sticks also slid a lot, I may need to put the little hair safe rubber bands on them to keep them from slipping out.