Or should that read "My Manly Journal for Manly Men"; no, that's too long and can be too easily miscontrued. Skip it. The subject is what it is.

I suppose to start, I should acknowledge, in this public forum, that, yes, "I have become a hair addict. I have been growing my hair for 4 years; however, I notice that in the last weeks (since joining this board, actually), I have become a hair junkie." <<removes himself as gracefully as he can from the podium>>

I admit that I have tried many of the tips on this board. Everyone reading says, "So WHAT?!" I would agree; however, I feel the time of my wandering experimentation must come to an end and I need a more scientific approach (if you will) of my hair lengthening adventures.

Quite simply, I lose track of time of when I did whatever and how it turned out. When I first tried an ACV rinse, the result was horrible; the second time better. Why was that? I only know that I used less the second time around, but when did I do that first ACV? Mmmmm, getting old and the brain cells have gone to the great beyond. I've no clue. So I have decided to "fess up", say I'm a hair addict and journal my trials and tribulations when and if I see fit.

Why do it publicly? Why not just keep a Word journal all to myself, away from prying eyes? Well, two reasons actually. First, let's get the hard one out of the way, I find this forum to be a welcoming, caring environment. People here listens to what you have to say and never passes judgement. They offer good advice. They have probably gone through many of the hair-lengthening exploits I'm to encounter. Why not choose a public forum where people are supportive. Besides, and here's the more idsidious reason: I'm curious to see if anyone will bother to read it...or...comment!

S. Freud: Aha! So vee 'ave the true reason, do vee not?

Patient: Well, yes and no.

S. Freud: Vhat is dis, 'yes and no'? Dis ees either a yes or a no!

Patient: Umm, well, I admit it has a place, but it is not my entire reason.

S. Freud: AHA! I knew eet! Der ees more!

Patient: Only what I stated as my first reason.

S. Freud: Jou are a sick puppy. Time ees up. See you next week.

**Ahem, sorry for the short little diatribe. So, as SFreud has pointed out, the attention is welcome, too. And that is my second reason.

So what's up with this journal? Where to begin? Well, let's get the gory details out of the way first. (And it's July First, at least in this neck of the woods.)

My hair is, as of today, approximately 25" long. This measurement is taken from where the hairs begin at the top of my forehead, around my noggin, and down the back. I will not, refuse to, measure very often at all. Too, too depressing.
I have wavy/curly, fine hair.  Usually wear it in a single, 3-stranded braid. I'm so glad I learned to do that!
Normally, everyday, I unravel the braid and comb and BBB it. Then I re-braid.

For the past week, I've avoided BBBing my hair (just to see what I thought of the results); I think the jury might be in. I broke down and BBB'd it today. It felt so wonderful. I'm not sure if my hair appreciated as much as I did, but then whose in charge here? <G>

Tonight, as I have started this journalling journey, I am doing a coconut milk conditioning. This is an item I've read on another board. I know my hair loves coconut oil, so why not coconut milk.

I've taken a half of can of Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk and placed that in a bowl. Microwaved for a brief time to make the solids melt. Afterwards, I dipped my hair into the bowl to cover completely. My original intention was to just do my length; however, as I was dunking, I dunked too far. You might say, "I've dunked where no man has dunked before." Okay, maybe not.

Anywho...the idea then is to place your hair under a showercap or somesuch, then wrap in hot towels for 30 minutes to hour. As SFreud said, my time is up.

The theory, at least as reported by others, is that it conditions the hair extremely well, making it slip and slide. Well, with my waves & curls, that will make life much easier.

We'll let you know how it went in the next installment.

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh! Much gnashing of teeth, feet stomping, and cursing that would make a sailor blush. Ahhh, third time is the charm...so they say. Who is *they* anyway? Most of the time those people are dead wrong. This is my third attempt, today, to make an entry in my journal. First, I was just about complete when I acquired the little-known affliction known as "Stupid Mouse Clicks Syndrome". The only known cases of this disease are found in the population that uses computers. Closely related to the "Fat Finger Syndrome", the afflicted individual clicks on the wrong button even after double-checking which is the correct button to click. In my case, I clicked "Reset" instead of "Preview"; I lost all the text I typed for the entry.

Needless to say, there was much wailing, hair pulling (figuratively, not actually), and cursing accompanying this incident. Okay, I am smarter than the average bear, I'll quote into my code editor, save and then paste into my journal entry. Oh I'm so very clever as I begin my second attempt to write into my journal. I am patting myself on the back and basking in my cleverness when.... <<triumphant music swells>> the power goes out. Arrgh again!

Okay, calm, "Om mani padme Om". Thus, we begin installment 2.75!

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Hi Sakina. Thanks for the tip about JessiCurl. I believe I've visited her site and even bookmarked it to return again. I will have to give her products a try.

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Bing-bing! You are correct! I am an only. Tell her what she's won, Bob. "Thanks, Rogue, it's a new.....HAIR TOY!!!

Our next letter comes from Greek_Lady who siezes the day and also the night! Knew those years of Latin would come in handy someday. She writes:
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Thank-you! I like to think I do have a sense of humor; I figure everyone has one, some are just too small to ever see. Similar  to the Grinch's heart, two sizes too small.

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LOL! Perhaps it is! I'll ask SFreud next time we have a chat.

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Oh thanks, Gabi! You're supposed to be helping, not encouraging my habit! You are most correct, that there are worse habits to have. If I feel the need to rationalize, I tell myself that I am stimulating the economy! Now, I can also add, "It's all gabi's fault." I don't think SFreud will appreciate the latter one. He's a bit stuck-up, and here you tell me he's really Dr. Happy?!

Let's close up the viewer mail, Paul. <<cue music>>

What a weird week it has been! While I enjoy short work weeks, I seem to be off a day until about Thursday when suddenly a leap ahead a day. On the plus side, my hair has behaved itself all week long by staying nice and soft. Since Tuesday, we’ve been cloudy and/or rainy, so not being out in the sunshine has contributed, I’m sure. Thursday (or was that Friday! ) I had to put just a dab of shea butter on my braid ends; the hair was feeling thirsty.

Finally, yesterday, the sun came out in all its glory. Sometimes, I think I’m a plant or at least my body chemistry thinks it’s a plant. If I don’t see the sun for more than two days, I feel wilted and unloved. As soon as the sun comes out, I feel invigorated and happy.

Since we did have some sun, I decided to get some too, but first the preparation for the hair. Thus, begins the Shea Butter Adventure! Awhile back I bought some shea butter which I’ve been using on and off; this was delivered in a zip-loc type bag that I had cleverly placed into a re-sealable container. The intent was to eventually move the shea from the plastic bag to the container. Of course, shea is some pretty sticky stuff in solid form and I have been too lazy to attempt the move. Besides, I wanted a different container than the one I originally selected. As I was going to treat my hair to some shea, I says to myself, “Self! Now is a good time to move this to the selected container.” Little did I realize that I was a first level rogue tackling a shea monster with a challenge rating of 15! Och, I’m smarter than the average bear, Boo-Boo and the ranger won’t even know. Cleverly (note to self: whenever you begin a project thinking you are clever, you are looking at the scale of cleverness through rose-colored, dyslexic glasses!), I will heat the shea slightly in the micro-wave because it will be easier to get out of the bag AND the butter left on the sides of the bag will come away.

What a great plan, as laid by mice and men. Ok George we begin. First, I did not get the butter soft enough; second, I had not realized I now had two gaping holes in the bag! Within short order, I had shea butter all over my hands, all over the counter, parts of it in the designated target area (the container) and tons left in the plastic bag. Ya know, I think shea butter could be used patch dry-wall. That stuff sticks like crazy at the proper temperature. So, I’m struggling with getting it off my hands and into the container. I figure I’ll scrape like frosting, except when I try to place a dollop into the container, it doesn’t come off my hand and some from the container appears to leap out onto my hands!  AAaaaargggggh! After several minutes of wrestling with the she beastie, I manage to tame it somewhat, but I’m sure my hit-points dropped to near zero. It was a harrowing experience.

On the bright side, I did use the excess on my hands in my hair. Wasn’t that the original idea, silly wabbit? Okay, okay, so trix are for kids and all that. I did manage to get some sun yesterday. I also used up the remaining coconut milk from last week’s episode. As I was outside puttering anyway, I took the coconut milk out of the fridge, went outside, and dunked my braid into the can several times. As the milk was very viscous from being cold, it stayed on my hair without making a big mess. This worked out fairly well. I did a quick CO wash prior to operation coconut. Didn’t want to have to try to get both shea and coconut out of the hair together.

I have to say the “milk” treatment does wonderful things for my hair. After allowing my braid to soak for about 30 minutes while I cleaned up the patio and then rinsing thoroughly, my hair was really super-soft once again. I learned my lesson from last week and while my hair was still damp, I put a little bit (only a very little bit) of shea on the ends and re-braided. This morning, it’s still very, very soft and equally important, it’s not the Lock-Mess monster of last week.

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LOL! Having fought the zip-loc, I cringe at the thought of playing with saran wrap too. 

I have thought of putting shea on my moustache and beard, but that puts the smell too close to my nose. I think that would be a little too intense. The eyebrow avenue is one I haven't thought about. If I had a Cro-Magnon eyebrow or even eyebrows that appeared like fuzzy caterpillars, I would be tempted. Thank goodness I don't have that problem.

Hi!  It looks like everyone else has jumped in to let you know you are not alone in you hair growing adventures.  Thriving on attention is a common trait amoungst long hairs - so you are not alone!  I've enjoyed reading your posts and look forward to many more.

Just out of curiousity....... you seem to have a lot of time to worship the sun, what kind of work (if any) do you do?  (insert green with envy smilie)

Keep up the experiments and reporting of your results!

I choose to entitle this particular entry, “Style Musings”. As I did Saturday, during the day, this morning, I simply undid my braid, combed out my hair, and did a pony-tail with multiple bands (hair safe, of course!  ) This evening as I contemplated re-combing and re-braiding my hair, I realized that it has been over a month since I wore a pony-tail. I also realized that my “tail” was tickling parts of my back that were unattainable 2 months ago. See, ever since my hair has been long enough, I’ve simply pony-tailed it. Then, at the end of May, beginning of June, I managed to braid my hair. Ahhhh, I still revel in the excitement of having a *real* braid. Since that time, I haven’t worn my hair any other way. There are two reasons for this: 1) I was so excited about being able to braid my own hair that I didn’t wish to risk forgetting how! 2) Getting the braid to look decent (no turning or twisting or stray bits) was paramount. This weekend, actually, I got lazy, just as I did this morning. Besides it felt really good to have my hair looser (is that a word?) than I was wearing it.

Why is any of this important? Well, I record the experience here so that I do not forget there are other ways to wear my hair than a braid or a pony tail. Sounds pretty basic and I’m sure most long hairs would say, “Duhhh?!?!”. This revelation, if I dare be as grandiose as that, was quite remarkable for me. Typically, at least as the last month and a half dictated, I’d braid my hair to go to bed. Tonight, I’m going to be daring…<<<ominous music>>> and leave my hair in it’s pony tail with multiple hair bands. I may even go for broke and run around the house with scissors! LOL! <<evil laughter — Buhhahahaha!>>

Note to self: it’s the simple things that make life a glorious experience.

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LOL
I realised that! I was just making fun of myself that I never formally did Latin  I think there's a couple of gals in here who know quite a bit of Latin, let them get wind of your knowledge and you might get to practice some! 
Aren't message boards such fun? You never know what you might come upon! Even CroMagnon males with caterpillar eyebrows!