Well I was going to start this journal when new year's came, but i figured why wait til then?  I should get started on my New Year's Resolutions to

1) Get 8 hours of sleep each night
2) Get my body in shape
3) Eat as healthy as possible
4) Beauty on the INside and outside the natural way ... I figure I wil start with my hair since it is the thing that bugs me the most about my appearance.  I used to think I could never have really nice hair and that you had to be born with good hair genes to have beautiful hair.  I thought my hair was too fine, thin and damanged to be long and pretty.  I thought I had to keep it in layers, as every hairstylist told me it was the only way for thin hair to look thicker.  I thought I had to either blow dry and straighten every day or scrunch it while wet with copious amounts of gel, mousse AND hairspray to make it wavy.  I also colored it constantly, bleaching and dying and stripping color to dye it again.  Needless to say, my hair fell out, split or broke off until it was incredibly thin.  I still can't tell if my hair is fine or normal...It SHOULD be normal since I"m of Hispanic descent but maybe it's just incredibly weak and damaged?  Well either way, I thought I was doomed to scraggly, thin hair.  Then  I was looking at some pics from about 5-6 years ago when I was a freshman and sophomore in high school and I couldnt' believe it how long, black, shiny and pretty my hair was from ages 5-17.  Before I ever blow dried, used a flat iron or put anything in my hair. Best of all, it doesn't look thin or scraggly in any pics.  And that was before I found this site and began evan healthier hair habits.  So I decided I wanted hair between BSL and waist-length, no more layers or "side bangs" I just wanted it all one length, long, shiny and healthy.  So before, like I said i used heat, drying products, chemical-laden shampoos and conditioners and permanent hair dyes and bleaches.  I washed and conditioned every single day.  My new routine is as follows:

-Shampoo only my roots with Burt's Bees Very Volumizing Pomegranate and Soy Shampoo every other day.  I'm trying to cut back on washing so much, but I exercise just about every day I can and I hate the thought of dirty, sweaty, oily hair esp since my scalp is pretty oily as it is.

-The days i don't shampoo I rinse my hair with warm water and massage my scalp to lift off oils and dirt and stimulate growth.

-Apply jojoba oil on my damp ends as a leave-in.  On the rare occasion I heat style my hair, I throw a tiny bit on my length before blow-drying.

-Twice a week, do an acv rinse to clarify after shampooing.  Just mix a dash with warm shower watter in empty water bottle, let it soak in for a few minutes, then rinse with cool fresh water.  

-Deep condition twice a week in the winter after acv rinse.  Right now I have a -cone conditioner, Jason's Organics Lavender Conditioner  but will probably buy Burt's Bees Deep Conditioner since they don't use -cones and i love my shampoo.

-Sometimes I wll add a tsp of warm honey to my conditioner or shampoo.

-Take biotin supplement every day

-To style my hair, I usually scrunch it with 100 % Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel and when it dries I get these waves that I happen to like very much

-I love using natural, chemical-free products on my hair and I want to extend this to my entire beauty routine (skin care and makeup etc) and to my eating habits as well.  I only straighten or curl my hair with a curling iron  special occasions (like my birthday last weekend  I can say that in the month or so, my hair is definitely better.  I also had my sis trim off my dead ends.  I want to keep trimming every 6 weeks or so until my layers and side bangs are all one length.  My hair feels so much healthier, and I very happily noticed that I have new little hairs growing all over my head  I'm also going to the doctor tomorrow and ask them to make sure all my hormones are normal to make sure that is not contributing to the thinness of my hair.  

Finally, I'm very interested in natural, homemade recipes with kitchen ingredients for my hair.  Any one have any good ones?  Also, I plan on making some all natural hairspray to tame all my new little tufts of hair, they are sticking out everywhere!! It makes my hair look frizzy and it's not really.  Well this is a super long post, the next one will be some pics of my hair and so forth!

ugh, it didn't work...i will play with it and fix it later, I'm off to oil my hair for the night since I will now start washing my hair in the mornings and I want it to dry before I leave out PLUS I plan on getting 8 hour sleep AND working out in the morning so I must go now!

Thanks, JL! I was going to make all these changes when New Year's came, but I figured why wait?   And yes, I love love love the way my hair looks when i scrunch it wet with aloe vera gel...it gets so wavy and doesn't look so thin! And before when i used regular gel, mouse and hairspray my hair did NOT get this wavy...i didn't think the aloe vera on its own would work but it works better than all 3 regular products combined!  Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you

So this is my hair after getting out of the shower, pretty thin esp since it's in layers...parts of my scalp even show when it's wet it didn't used to be this thin so hepefully when i go to the doc they can tell me what's wrong.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v616/Loresbsp/lorelicious009.jpgt=1197599568

And this is my hair right after I scrunch it wih aloe vera gel
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v616/Loresbsp/lorelicious007.jpgt=1197599719

and some more pics of the waves...i'll try to take better ones but i just got my new camer and i'm still messing with it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v616/Loresbsp/lorelicious011.jpgt=1197599930

as u can see, I really need to get all the chemical dye out of my hair, i like the pics where it looks all black but it's actually a mess of black/darkbrown/lightbrown/orangey/leftover bleached color.  I also can't wait til my hair is all one length!! My mom told me it looks like a need a new trim already and I just had my sis trim off more than an inch at thanksgiving! But I should...even though I want long healthy hair NOW it's better to just slowly get it all to one even, healthy length and then just grow from there!

I also REALLY REALLY want to get a shower filter.  We live in an unincorporated area and use well water, so our water is extremely hard and leaves buildup and deposits even on our dishes! It's gross.  My dad said we already have a filter but it really doesn't do a good job because my hair and skin is constantly dry! Maybe I will save and buy one but then again I'm moving into a new apt for school soon so I probably should wait...I guess I will just have to really really try to go as long as I can b/w washes and make sure I moisturize my hair frequently.  It's hard tho because my scalp is oily and Iwork out a lot. I don't want my hair to stink or look greasy!

Another issue I'm having is wearing my hair up.  At the moment I don't like to because 1) my hair is so thin on my scalp and I'm very self-conscious about having scalp showing.  I need to be really careful when putting my hair up to make sure my whole scalp is covered.  But hopefully my doctor will help me with this. 2) my length is so thin my little buns are pathetic! and embarassing. 3) I hate my sideburns so that's another very self-conscious issue.  I want to get laser treatments eventually when I can afford to but for now I just Nair  I feel so ugly with my hair up but I know I should, esp during the cold chicago winters, to keep my ends healthy.  

This is such a dilemma to me.  I like to wear my hair down scrunched w/aloe vera gel because it really hides what little hair I have and it hides my horrible sideburns (ok they're prob not as bad as i make it seem but ij'm super self-conscious about that) but I know that's not good for my hair every single day, esp my ends.  I also feel as though too much aloe vera gel may be drying out my hair.  It's been feeling somewhat dry lately and I REALLY hope it has nothing to do with my new best friend aloe vera gel  i'll serioiusly cry.  But it could be a lot of things: lack of exercise and nutriton! (need to work on that!), failure to remember to take my biotin supplements for a week, too frequent washing, my burt's bees may be too drying since it's a volumizing shampoo.  When I run out I'm going to try the more moisture rasperry and brazil nut one, and if i don't like it better than the one I have now i may need to look for a new brand.  I also really should deep conditon more in the winter.   My little mini bottle of Jason Organic Natural Lavnder twice a week isn't gonna cut it.  But tomorrow I'm going to make a batch of deep conditioner and some natural hairspray, i got some lemons for that! I need to stop typing so much but hey its my journal huh!?  

Well I think I'm starting to figure out what works best for my hair.  I just discovered that my hair absolutely LOVES when I mist it with a little concotion I made up.  In a small travel-sized spray bottle that was from a dove hairspray I filled it with bottled water and put in 3 drops of jojoba oil.  I had been complaining that my hair felt as if it was drying out.  Well I just kept spraying this onto my length and my hair just drank it all up.  It now feels so much softer and healthier AND it's not greasy (my scalp is a different story lol).  Since the bottle is so small I don't feel bad about using bottled water since I can just drink the rest lol and i can stick it in my purse and use it whenever it feels like it's drying out.  So maybe it was the shower water and not my shampoo that was drying out my hair. 

Also ANGEL SPUN: thanks so much for the tip about making buns more flat as opposed to knobs.  I actually wore my hair in a bun last night to go hang out with friends and it actually looked ok!

When I go out, I've been remembering to either throw my hair in a quick bun until I get to my destination or to make sure to put it on the inside of my coat to protect the ends.  I've also been doing the "search and destroy" method so that I do not have to trim so often.

Went to walgreen's today to pick up my prescription and a few hair things.  The doctor gave me a pill to induce my period, since I have not had once since July! My prolactin gland is really high which is why she said I have increased facial hair and irregular periods.  To treat this I can either
1) Go on birth control pills to regulate my periods which i DO not want to do.  I just do not like all the side effects that it produces.  I've gone on the patch twice now and I hated the weight gain and all that.
2) Take a pill to regulate my prolactin hormone.  The only thing is that it apparently makes you super fertile.  So I can either be infertile or extra fertile lol.  I definitely don't want to get pregnant right now but I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of going back on birth control.  My boyfriend will probably want me to tho lol.

Well anyways I bought a shower cap at walgreens for when I don't exercise and don't want to wet my hair and also for when I do homemade deep conditioner treatments.  I want to do one with egg yolks, honey and jojoba oil but i'm going to save it for xmas since i'm going to *gasp* flat iron my hair that day! I just want my hair to look sleek and straight for once lol

And I also bought the Burt's Bees shea and grapefruit hair repair deep conditioner but i'm not gonna try it today because i'm going to do my damp aloe vera gel scrunched waves for my cousin's birthday party today and it works best when i don't have a lot of stuff in my hair.  I'm just going to rinse it with warm water and massage my scalp.

WEll that's all for now. Toodles!

JL: I'm glad it worked out for you! It is one of my favorite styles because it hides how thin my hair is.

Well, today was a good day.  My sister, cousin and I spent the night at my aunt's house and in the morning she took us shopping since we all have birthdays this month.  We went to a clothing store, where I bought a really cute top and we also went to....ULTA!!  Which I was super excited about because I wante to get hair stuff.  Well, I got some Almay powder which broke  I hope I can return or exchange it because my aunt has the receipt.  

And I also got the Giovanni Direct Leave-in conditioner.  I hope I like it because it's a pretty big bottle.  Since my hair is so thin I don't like to use too much conditioner in my hair.  I figure I can use this on a more regular basis and still deep condition twice a week and that should keep my hair adequately moisturized for the winter.  I'm not washing my hair today, so I'm going to try the Burt's Bees deep conditioner tomorrow and then the leave-in another day.  I don't want to use them together the first time because I want to make sure I like them both on their own in order to keep buying them.