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!

Thanks for the reassurances, roomtogrow.  I'm a worrier.  When I have nothing legitimate to worry about, I make something up.

BTW, I love your handle!  I have room to grow too.   

I bought the Klutz book Hair : a book of braiding and styles this weekend.  My hair isn't anywhere near long enough to do any of the braids or styles yet.  But I'm looking at the pics and fantasizing.

http://www.amazon.com/Hair-Braiding-Styles-Scrunchies-Klutz/dp/1570540187/ref=pd...

I did try some of the styles - starting a French braid and the quiff (which I'd never heard of before).  I'll be practicing as much as I can.  I really like this book.  I think I'll actually be able to do most of these styles.  

I was sitting at the reference desk this morning - I'm a librarian - and a patron sitting behind me told me she liked my hair!  I was surprised to hear it since I'm in an awkward growing out stage.  Maybe taking better care of it is paying off already?  [Then she went on tell me that she's part white and part Indian, although she was clearly black.  She told me that white people came from beyond Jupiter and they brought us all the good things we have in life.  I'm thinking she's a few bricks shy of a load.  But I'll take the compliment at face value anyway!   ]

I googled 'quiff.'  The first hit is for the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiff

It looks like it's a man's style.

Here's a woman's page about her quiff - with lots of photos:  http://www.geocities.com/shenryuk/hairf.html

Hmmm....

Here's a page of quiff images:  http://images.google.com/images?q=quiff&hl=en&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

I'm not sure it's me.  Maybe I won't try too hard to succeed with this style.  

Thanks for the confidence boost, silvermayne.  I've been trying to notice more beautiful gray hair.  I saw a lady today with all of her white on top - like me.  She had it pulled up and the dark hair showed in the back under the white hair.  It looked nice.

I've gone to washing every other day.  I've also started an exercise routine and am concerned about how often I should wash it given that I'm sweating more.  I've never been one to use a hair drier; I almost always let my hair air dry.  And since I've decided to grow it out, I haven't touched my hair drier.

About rinsing with cool/cold water:  I saw that recommended elsewhere on this site.  I wash my hair in the shower.  I cringe every time I think of trying to rinse my hair with cold water.  I'd end up freezing!

What's the Body Shop?

CWC?  Does this mean you apply conditioner, rinse, wash, then condition and rinse again?

No new hair news to add here.  Still taking extra care of my hair.  The vitamins seem to be helping my skin too!  

I've started working out as a way of coping with stress and depression.  Walking and jogging, weightlifting, and yoga.  I started on May 19.  On June 4 I ran a whole mile straight.  Pretty darn good for an out-of-shape, fat, fortyish lady.  And I did it again today!

I had another photo taken today - 3 months since the first one.  I'm not happy with it.  I feel it's too gray, and I look OLD.  It also appears to have some yellow in it.

I ran into a woman outside the Y the other day and was asking her how she likes it.  (The Y, not my hair!)  I'm not a member; I was dropping my son off at their summer day camp.  She kept telling me to enroll in some program at the hospital - 55 something or other.  I assume that means you have to be at least 55 to sign up.  Well, I'm only 45.  It's a bit discouraging to have people mistake you for being at least 10 years older than you are.

Maybe if I lose weight it would help.  I'm exercising so much.  And I just started taking Alli yesterday.  I'm beginning to think, though, that I'm doomed to be a fat woman.  Maybe being a fat woman with long gray hair isn't a good idea?

I want my gray hair to look dramatic - not sad.  

Awww, costello, I'm sorry you're down today.  I can see how it would be depressing to have someone recommend a class you can't yet sign up for.  It was her mistake, for sure!!

I think your new picture is gorgeous.  Now, I'm not saying that to cheer you up (if it does, all the better  ) it is my honest opinion.  It looks so thick and I like the color.  There are several ladies on the boards who are pining for silver hair!

Consistency is the key to loosing weight.  Not what we want to hear, its the truth.  Set yourself a time line-take measurements of where you are now and in 12 weeks do it again.  Be sure you're giving yourself time to recover between workouts-you will go backwards and wind up getting sick if your body can't recover from strenous exercise.  Have you watched the youtube fat rant?  That will lift your spirits for sure!!!

Well, I'm down to washing my hair twice a week - Mondays and Thursdays - with a once a week deep conditioning on Sundays.  I'm not sure how happy I am with the deep conditioning product, but I'm finding that twice a week is enough for washing.

I've been thinking about getting a trim/cut to get rid of the layers at the bottom.  Still can't bring myself to do it.  Maybe I'll give it a few more months.

Well, I'm still hanging in here.  Not much new to report.

I've gone from the twice a week washings to every other day.  It just wasn't feeling clean enough to me.

Also now that my hair has gotten longer, I've been picking and biting at the ends - a nervous habit I have which I'm going to have to break!  Maybe I should start biting my nails as a substitute?  Wearing it up would probably help.  The front hairs still aren't long enough to stay put in a pony tail, though.  I'm not sure if the front just grows slower or if the hair trimming fairies are sneaking into my house and cutting just the front parts while I sleep.

I've had a new pic taken:  http://flickr.com/photos/costellosfriend/1448565388/in/set-72157600558679259/

This is the last photo before I get that "trim."  I'm going for one length, so it can grow out better.  I feel a little sick about it, because they're going to have to take A LOT off to make it one length.  But eventually I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do it!   

Thanks, Trish.     Of course, my hair has been growing my whole life.  But I've never made a goal of growing it long.  I'm suddenly acutely aware of how sloooooowly it grows!  (Actually when you're keeping it cut short it seems to grow really fast.)  Now when I see a woman with long hair I realize how many years it's taken to get that long.

"I hope my hair looks that nice when the majority of it has turned color."

Thanks, juri.  I did get lucky in that I have very few of the crinkly or brittle gray hairs.  Most of my gray hairs have a texture similar to my "ungray" hairs.  

I got that trim today.  The lady at the shop - it was one of those walk-in places, not a stylist I see regularly - seemed to understand that I was anxious about losing too much length.  So she trimmed the bottom layers a bit more and the top layers a bit less.  So I still have layers at the bottom, but the ends are freshly trimmed and neatened up.  I got her name and said I'd ask for her again next time I need a trim.  Maybe we can gradually get rid of the layers with a minimum of trauma to me.

I'm glad the cut "feels right" for you.  Sometimes it is best to trim - it will make it easier to keep on growing it.  Good luck!