Oooooo - a new journal!  I love it when someone starts a new journal - it is a sign of commitment to doing something good.  Use this to record what you try, what worked, (and what didn't) and your growth rates.  It is also a great place to post progress pictures so you can look back and see how far you have really come.

Don't worry about the length of your hair.  You have the advantage of starting to take proper care of your hair at this earlier stage.

Thanks, BB and CG!

"Don't worry about the length of your hair.  You have the advantage of starting to take proper care of your hair at this earlier stage."

That's what I keep telling myself.  What if I'd decided to grow my hair out when it was much longer but damaged by hair coloring or something?  Then it would REALLY hurt to cut off the bad stuff.

And now for what makes me pull my hair out:  my 15 year old son.  Adopted from foster care 2 1/2 years ago.  He's been a tough one, but he's really making strides lately - grades up, aggression down, acting more mature.  

Then what do I find in his room this morning?  A week's supply of his meds.  I've been trusting him to take them without supervision, and he's been hiding them instead of taking them.  What hurts the most is that I'd started to trust him a little bit.  Then he does THIS!    Grrrr!!!!!!

I was reading through some of the other posts on longlocks.  I found recommendations for olive oil treatments and vinegar rinses.  I decided to try both this weekend.  I ended up with some pretty greasy hair!  That's ok, though.  It was fun to experiment.  And my hair's none the worse for it. 

Still feeling impatient about how slow my hair seems to be growing.  Not any slower than it's grown in the past, of course, but now that I *want* it to grow it seems like it's stopped.  I keep thinking about the expression "as interesting as watching paint dry."  I need a hobby to distract me.   

I don't yet have enough length to pull my hair into a ponytail even.  Getting close though!

Now for my fears:  one is that I'll look stupid with long graying hair.  I've seen a couple of heads of lovely long gray and black hair on TV recently.  But I've seen more awful-looking heads in person!  Of course, the ones I've seen in person aren't long.  They're lopped off short.  I wonder if middle-aged women with gray hair figure it's not worth caring for their hair?

Hi Angel Spun:

I've heard of Emmylou Harris, but I'd never seen her until just now when I googled her.  She's beautiful.

I'm not taking vitamins for my hair.  Anything in particular you'd recommend?

Hmmm....  I'll have to try that.  Can't hurt and might help.  I have these multivitamins at home that my doctor recommended, but they're big old "horse" pills that I have a hard time swallowing without gagging.  So I stopped taking them.  I'll see if there'e any vitamin E in them.  How much do you take?

Well, I've started taking the vitamins my doctor recommended.  It includes vitamin E - 400 IU.  I also started the fish oil she recommended.  Looks like growing hair may be good for my overall health!

Now that summer's here, I've been driving with my window down.  I don't have enough hair to pull it back into a ponytail, so I'm getting some yucky tangles!  I don't want to use the air conditioning because gas is so expensive.  Also my old car overheats pretty easily; running the air conditioner just makes it worse.  I put on a ball cap once, and my son announced that he wouldn't be seen with me in public if I wore it.  

"If you are driving at 50 mph or greater, you will be better off to close your windows and run the air conditioner.  The open windows cause more air resistance and use more fuel than the air conditioner."

Thanks for the info!  I've been enjoying my car's a/c.  And I think of you every time I turn it on.  

My hair's long enough now that I don't wake up with bits of bangs and things sticking out in all directions.  So I'm skipping the shampoo every other morning.  I was washing it every day, because I had to wet it down to make it lie down.  Not a problem anymore.

Let's see...  What else?  Taking vitamins every morning - and fish oil.

Every morning on the way to work I pass a home with lots of kids waiting for the school bus.  I think it may be a foster home.  Anyway the lady who's out there with the kids has hair the color of mine - gray and black mixed.  I noticed this morning she had it pulled into a ponytail.  It's very thick and healthy looking.  I hope mine looks the same when it's longer.

I really worry about thinning hair.  I've noticed that as my hair gets more gray, my scalp seems to show more.  I used to worry that my hair was thinning.  But when I've dyed my hair back to its natural color, my scalp doesn't show as much.  So I think it's not thinning, it's just that the lighter color lets the skin show more.

I was at a conference a few weeks ago, and one of the ladies had male pattern baldness.  The hair on top of her head was really thin.  She'd done a good job of styling what was left, but it was still very obvious.  It's one of my biggest fears.  And if it does thin, I think it may look worse long.  I'm hoping for a long braid.  But the weight of long hair would just pull the hair down and expose the scalp even worse.

One of my coworkers is losing her hair from stress.  Her son was injured in Iraq.  He's home now, but he's dealing with being handicapped and with PTSD.

I was watching King of the Hill a few days ago, and one of the female characters was losing her hair due to stress.  She went out and bought a wig.

As you can tell, thinning hair is on my mind.  Well, my mom's going to be 77 next month, and her hair's as thick as it ever was.  Lord, let me have her genes!