Congratulations on your journal and on achieving yellow belt!

I have never added honey to my ACV.  Sounds interesting, I might try it next time-I just did one on Saturday.

Sakina wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2009 at 5:14pm:

Sakina, be sure if you don't want the honey to lighten your hair to heat it up first! I melt the honey into the vinegar with hot water, and it kills the peroxide. 

Quote:

Thanks, Angel!

I'm using just a dollop of honey, kinda about the amount I'd use to sweeten tea. When I add the hot water, I shake vigorously to make sure every bit of honey is dissolved. I haven't noticed any stickiness.
Haven't tried any conditioning treatments, yet. Been too busy. 
Otherwise, I agree. Especially in cookies and tea... or a spoon... 

There's peroxide in honey?  I didn't know that.

Congrats on your yellow belt!

What's a Kirsten braid?

Congrats on receiving your yellow belt!  It's a great acomplishment,I know you're proud!!!!
Glad you started a hair journal,you'll like it!
I'm using Organix Coconut Milk shampoo and conditioner right now and I am not wowed either.  It smells great,leaves my hair soft,but nothing spectacular for the price.  Eh,live and learn.

Thanks, everybody, about the belt! I am quite happy with my new rank, and I am getting to attend the "grown up" class tonight. 

Isabelle: I tried Kung Fu and Shotokan karate. They were too hands-on violent for me. I love my Kali class, because our instructor is death on unnecessary violence and injury. We wear shoes in class, and we never actually hit each other. I used to leave Shotokan covered in bruises and blisters. I quit after the instructors accused me of being a lying, lazy person who didn't have large enough male-anatomy equipment.

MichelleR wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 12:23am:

Raw honey, when mixed with water, reacts by making peroxide. It's much weaker than your standard bottle peroxide, so if you're using it for rinses, it's not too bad. But some people use it for longer lengths of time, or larger amounts, like for hair masks. Sometimes, this is deliberate, I've read some people using honey masks to bleach out henna, but occasionally, people accidentally lighten their hair, and are unhappy afterwards. If you cook the honey first, it doesn't make peroxide with water anymore, and isn't antimicrobial anymore, but it still stays a decent moisturizer.

Kirsten Larson is one of the historical American Girls from the Pleasant Company line of books and dolls, etc. She wore two English braids tied into loops around her ears with ribbons.

CurlGirl64: I experienced the same thing with the Shea butter Organix shampoo & conditioner. Soft, but that's about it. Didn't even really care for the scent. Fortunately, my local RiteAid has a TON  of SLS and ALS free shampoos, at least when compared to the local grocery store. Unfortunately, I can't use anything with mango, cashew, pistachio, or almond oils/butter/extracts, so a lot of the "organic" stuff aren't safe for me to use.

Hair: Detangled with horn comb, and brushed out with BBB. Didn't oil today, since I had a bit of an oil disaster last night. Tried to put my hair up in Kirsten braids again, this time with the aid of hair ties. It went much more smoothly, enough to show DH, who thought they were adorable. But sadly, the braids were a bit too fuzzy towards the end, so I took them out. I will have to wait until either I have fewer layers or the layers grow out a bit more to pull this style off convincingly. Or, I'd have to be more willing to use product on my fuzzy braids.

Health: Still haven't caught the plague that's spreading through our office. Coworker next door has been sounding like death all morning, and we've had at least two cases of confirmed H1N1 in the office. Good thing I'm naturally resistant to the flu! Leftover Halloween candy, on the other hand, are a completely different story. 

Thanks for reminding me that honey can lighten hair.  I plan on using cassia to lighten for the renaissance festival since that was common for the period.  Perhaps I'll use the honey, too. 

Sakina wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 11:55pm:

Nifty! Have you ever tried lightening your hair with chamomile tea? After my year see-sawing lightening/darkening dyeing habit in college and mostly hating every minute of it, I'm scared to death of altering my natural color. Both my sister and I get nasty burnt-orange colors in our hair when we try any kind of lightening or bleaching.

Great pics!!  Your hair is beautiful!  I myself just got one of the Chimes sticks and can't wait to try it.

I have used chamomile and callendula as a rinse that lightened my hair, but they made my scalp itch so I quit doing it.  I guess I could add it to my cassia, or as the water in a honey rinse.  I was probably making it too strong.

I wish my hair was long enough for the nautilus-yours looks great!!!

I was reading Sakina's journal about how she is going to do her hair for her festival, and Googled Italian hair taping to see what it looks like and how it's done.  I saw this website and from the girl's description of why/how she does it, thought of you and your struggles to secure your hair for your martial arts classes. 
http://community.livejournal.com/longhair/2412414.html

Wasn't that game good?!  When I was little and started watching football, the Steelers and Terry Bradshaw were my team.  I've been a NY Giants fan since 84.  That game yesterday was a heart breaker!!  Did you see it?
Now I'm waiting for Thurs. for a NY Ranger game to come on.  My poor husband!!!  Not a sportsfan,but will sit with me ask questions and want to learn when a game is on!

I agree,his hair is gorgeous!

I sure hope you get your sticks soon!  How frustrating and disappointing!!

Life: Attended martial arts last night and got a freebie private lesson because nobody else showed up. So, we got to run through all the material for my next stripe test in one evening. Awesome. 

Finished playing through The Pitt add-on for Fallout 3. I felt kinda like the plot line was a bit short, but I really should go back and play it again, since I missed out on quite a bit of the scenery.

Hair: Slept last night with my hair loose, partially as an experiment to see if I could get away with that with my new silk pillowcases, and partially because I spent too much time on the internet last night and was too tired to braid up, etc, when it was time to go to sleep. Conclusion this morning, not good. Hair was -very- knotted and unruly. Oh well, I will try variations of braiding tonight.

Tomorrow is wash day, so today I decided to have some fun with my hair! Detangled carefully, brushed out my crown, oiled the lower, detangled after oiling and brushed the oil through. First I tried putting my hair up in Mickey Mouse ears, but my hair is just too slippy. So, I did my hair up in odango, instead. It involved four hair ties, and it took two tries to get them looking right, but thankfully no bobby pins. I'm not used to using any kind of hair product, so I tried to keep some of the shorter hairs from sticking out with mousse, which didn't work. So I ended up using some hairspray to keep the fuzzies from poking out of the odango. All of my hair products are ancient, from that last time I got all my hair chopped off some half dozen years ago. I'm surprised they still work! Anyway, I am really liking this style, and it wasn't -too- hard to put up. Posting pictures here, let me know what you think! 

Life: Life's been pretty stressful. Work's been piling up at work. Got a whole bunch of projects I'm trying to finish up before the hundred other projects hit me after Thanksgiving. I'll be traveling to visit family down in TX, too, for Turkey Day.
Got to the gym this morning and did intervals on the treadmill and followed it up with stationary bike. I've never used the stationary bike before and I have got to say that it was not fun. Calves are very unhappy with me now. Not sure if this is a sign that I should use the darn bike more, or less. 

Hair: Washed this morning with just shampoo. No conditioner or ACV today, as an experiment. Towel blotted, sprayed with detangler, and then oiled with camellia. It was definitely a bit more challenging to comb out, but not too bad. I'll def. be adding the ACV+Honey back in. It just so happens that we were out of ACV this morning, and just using honey didn't seem right.

Hair has been feeling thinner lately, so I did a new thickness check and I'm down into the normal thickness range.   
Not sure why this could be. I think I've been shedding more lately, and I have been stressed. I'm hoping that the new thickness is in part because my hair is less frizzy now because I'm taking better care of it, seasonal shedding, and because maybe I measured it wrong when I did the first measurement. How do you ladies measure thickness? Braid circumference? Tie a string around? Measure just below a tight ponytail?

Michelle, I'll be visiting the outskirts of Austin. I have some family in the area, and maybe I'll catch up with an old friend or two, if they haven't all made plans already or moved away.

Life: Same old, same old. Will be working partially over the weekend trying to get ahead of the grind. Had my second "private" lesson last night when, once again, nobody showed up to Martial Arts except me. Been worried that my hamstring tendonitis has been flaring up again. It's coinciding with my attempt to return to doing productive things at the gym, so I hope exercise isn't exacerbating it.

Hair: My experiment in not using in-shower conditioner and not rinsing with ACV was a failure. I went back to my old routine this morning with new conditioner and ACV + Honey and got my old results. I'll try to pinpoint what my hair is really wanting, but I'm getting the sneaking suspicion it's the silicone. I think it might be silicone-withdrawal symptoms I'm facing, instead of silicone-dependency, since I know through previous years of not using any conditioner that it's not strictly necessary for my hair. Does that even make sense, silicone-withdrawal?

Hairtoys have finally begun to arrive, and boy am I excited! DH surprised me with a lovely hair stick I'd been eyeing on Etsy, and a hair stick pair that had been lost in-transit finally made their way to my door. I also finally got around to ordering some deep conditioner, so I might give that a try this weekend, time allowing. Perhaps I'll even write up a review. 

Still no word yet on the Amish hair pins. I'd contact them, except it did say 4-8 weeks to ship most things on the order form ( it technically only has been about 7-ish weeks ) and it says on their website that it takes 2 weeks for them to reply to email, and they don't list a phone number. I suppose I should get around to poking them anyway, since in 2 weeks the 8 weeks will definitely be over, but I think I will try waiting just a bit more.

la diosa: Thanks! It's silly, but sometimes I don't know what excites me more, what's inside the shiny boxes the postman brings, or receiving boxes in the mail!

Life: DH invited over a friend over last Sunday. I told him I didn't mind cooking dinner that night, but no way was I going to clean the house, too! Weekends are a precious thing, and it takes roughly a day to clean the house. I'm not going to waste my entire weekend for him to have a guest over! 
So he agreed to clean the house, and it took him a day and a half. I think he now has a new-found appreciation for the frantic house-cleaning I tend to do when the looming threat of visitors pops up! 

Thanksgiving is drawing ever closer, and this will be my first time going home since getting married earlier this year. Excitement! Nervousness! Parents have apparently redone my old room in anticipation of our arrival. They've also redone the kitchen. I'm scared of going home and feeling like I've gone to a stranger's house. 


Hair: I did a deep treatment last night with an over-night leave-in conditioner. I've just rinsed it out, so we'll see how I like it when it dries! This is only the second time I've ever done a deep treatment, so I don't really know what to expect. 

Now I need to figure out how to pack for my new hair regime. In the past, my hair toys consisted of ouchless hair tie, a claw clip, and a paddle brush. Clip and possibly brush were optional. Boy have things changed! 

I purchased one of those little travel accessory kits that come in a clear vinyl bag. It's got a little oil dropper, two taller bottles, a spray bottle, two small screw-top cosmetic jars, and a two-compartment flip-top thingie, and a sheet of labels. I've pretty much decided that contents will be, in order, camellia oil, shampoo and conditioner (or maybe full-strength ACV to dilute later... not sure), detangler, and I guess facial cleanser and maybe sunscreen in the little screw top cosmetics jars. I have no idea what I'd put in the flip top thingie. Not even sure what it's for... cotton balls? I guess I'm leaving it out at any rate.

I haven't made decisions about combs and brushes, but I'm guessing I'll bring the whole lot of them. At least I'm not bringing make up or hair-drying appliances.  I also don't know if I'm going to bother with bringing any satiny pillowcases. I think my mom might be offended if I do? That, or I'll get merciless teasing. 

Curlgirl64 wrote on Nov 24^th, 2009 at 5:39pm:

Ok ok! You've convinced me. 

Now all I have to do is remember to take it BACK with me. 
Maybe I should invest in a nice silky sleeping scarf. 
Oh Cuuurlgiiirl! Care to take commissions? 

Curlgirl, everybody needs some pampering once in a while, and why not while you sleep? 

Life: Absolutely miserable day at work today. I got dumped with a ton of work at around 3pm today, the kind that looks like it'd be a minor job, but then snow balls into a bigger and bigger nightmare. I got most of it done, so at least the people not in the US can limp along without me, but I'm still peeved that it happened and and didn't get finished. 

However, we went out for sushi after my lame evening, and the lady there, I think she's the manager of the restaurant, complimented me on my hair. Helped perk my spirits up! 

I'm about to start packing for my trip home. About to, eventually, maybe tomorrow morning! Procrastinate? Me? Never. 

I do want to take some hair goodies with me, but I'm scared that my hair sticks would be viewed as weapons at the airport security. Does anybody else travel with sticks regularly? I'm only taking wood ones in a toothbrush case. I'm going to put them in my laptop bag with the pens and pencils and pray that they get overlooked. 


Hair: Thought I would report how my first attempt at deep conditioning went. So, I picked up a small jar of Thriven to try out. Washed my hair Monday evening and combed through the conditioner while damp. It was actually less odious that I was expecting. Relatively little fragrance, and it went in easily. I then wrapped my head in a plastic wrap turban (which really amused hubby) and baked my head under a heating pad while we watched left over football. Rinsed it out in the morning and was... disappointed. Hair felt pretty well... weird. Like I'd spent the day at the beach, which I guess some people might view as a plus. It all sorted itself out, however, when I oiled it that night. I'll have to remember that this stuff needs oil to finish whatever it is it does. 

Off to pack. Tootles.

I don't know about international flights,but domestic flights here in the USA on JetBlue I can help you with.  Last February when I went to see my mother in S.C. I wore Ketylo sticks in my hair on the plane.  I wasn't stopped or questioned about the sticks,I was stopped and put through the security pat down because I was in a wheelchair and I think security wanted to show everyone that no one was excluded from the security system protocol,even the disabled.

Michelle, Curlgirl, thanks for your reponses and I'm glad to report that YES! My hairsticks flew from PA to TX and back with no problem whatsoever. Such a relief. I transported them in a toothbrush holder that was tucked into the same bag that held my BBB and combs. Will need to get more toothbrush holders! 

Curlgirl: Thanks for letting me know! I know I saw some other posts about the post limit, and I'm glad that it was reduced. 

Life: Whew, thank goodness Thanksgiving is over. DH and I flew to TX to visit my family, and after all of the fuss with traveling and visiting, I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation! Alas, there was no respite for me at home. I'm pretty much the black sheep of the family, and I am never perfect enough for them. At least the long hair took some of the focus away from my other more glaring faults. I have an easier time defending my decision to grow my hair long and to wear hair-protective styles than some of the other things my parents disapprove of.
The final icing of the adventure was how obviously allergic I am to everything in Austin. I ended up having nasal allergies most of the time I was there, so now I'm nursing the sinus infection that developed from all that congestion at home. Blech.

Ah well. And my parents wonder why I'm settling down here in PA, instead of moving back "home". 

Hair: I definitely had a harder time taking care of my hair these last few days. Remind me never to fly with a spray bottle again. It ended up exploding in my little ziplock bag. 

Did my hair in twin french braids for the flight to and from. I picked up a silky scarf to wrap my hair in. I found out on the first flight that my hair is too slippy to really do any interesting wraps (or maybe I was using the wrong kind of scarf), so on the return flight I just used it to protect my canopy, and drew the braids over my shoulders so they wouldn't rub between my back and the airplane seat.

Had some major build up from my last deep conditioning, so I ended up washing my hair two days in a row this vacation. The second time I scrubbed twice with clarifying shampoo before doing my usual C+S routine. I was really worried that my scalp would flare up from all the soap, but it seemed to be okay after my hair dried. At least it got all the grundgies off! 

Wash day is scheduled for later this week. I'll have to remember to take a measurement after that. Until then, I'll be trying to do a little extra babying of my hair to make up for how badly I treated it over Thanksgiving. 

KNS,thanks for saying that stuff about the exploding spray bottle!  I'm leaving tomorrow for a trip back down south with my mother and I'm wondering if my eyeglass cleaner will explode,too!   I also packed a little plastic bottle of jojoba oil,wonder if that'll be ok.  I'm thinking it will be since it's not a spray,but who knows!   Got things in ziplock bags so I should be fine.
Glad you're back and I'm sure that being back will be like a vacation from your vacation!

Life:
It's been super cold where I'm at, and it feels perpetually dark. I think I must be stressed about something, because my eye keeps twitching in the most unsettling manner. In the past, that'd only happen when I had project due soon in school. 
I've been asked to help out a fellow Martial Arts student with his yellow belt test on Saturday. I feel sorta obligated to help him out, but I'm soooo not looking forwards to doing that test again. 
On Sunday, DH and I will be looking at what I've dubbed "The Super Asian House". It's just a split level (one of the rare ones in the area), but I swear that every single Asian family I knew when growing up lived in EXACTLY the same kind of house. 
The holiday season is rapidly approaching, so to spruce up the house, I've restocked my fish tanks. I set up a nice little betta sorority, and a new male halfmoon got the empty 2.5 gallon tank. Both tanks got a complete make over with new gravel and a ton of aquatic plants. The new male is a black and yellow mustard gas that DH and I have decided to name Ben.  No names yet for the new girls.


Hair:
I did my first crown braid last night! It was really comfortable, too, so I'm going to have to give crown braids more attention from now on. It's also really good for layered hair, so I'm really excited about that.

I've been really disappointed with the amount of shedding I've been having lately. I think it's a combination double whammy of the season and because I've gotten off the pill. Anyway, I've decided to give Biotin a try. We'll see how it agrees with my hair. Rest of my regime is as per normal.

Out of curiosity, when doing a deep conditioning, what exactly should I expect out of it? Softer hair? More shine? Mostly, all I notice is some sort of build up on my hair. Maybe I'm not rinsing thoroughly enough. I dunno. I think I'm going to cut down on the deep conditioning to once a month instead of once every two weeks. That, or try something radically new, like cassia. 

Sakina: Nope, no silicone in the deep conditioner, I made double sure of that before purchasing it. It does have a saturated vegetable oil in it though, avocado I believe.

I put it on in the evening after I wash my hair, and then I pop on a plastic cap. I will use some heat with it for maybe about half an hour. Then I go to sleep and rinse it out in the morning. This last time I tried doubling the rinsing time, and it helped somewhat, but I still didn't feel as soft and shiny as I do after just a normal wash.

My hair doesn't get crunchy. I suppose it is sort of soft and pliable afterwards, but not slippery or shiny. It doesn't go back to feeling like hair until I've shampoo'd out the residue. Or is that the general intent with deep conditioning is that it does something intrinsic to the hair that should last past shampooing or clarifying?

Thanks for the responses guys! I guess I'll stop trying to overestimate the magickal properties of teh Deep Treatment!

Hair: Cranky as usual. It just doesn't seem to be growing. I really really hope this is just a resting phase, or something. I'm taking vitamins, and I've started hair supplements. I am literally 2 cm from tailbone, and it's driving me batty! Hair is such a tease. 

My amish hairpins finally arrived! I finally had to poke them with an email, but they've arrived, and I must say, I'm glad I got a pack of every size. The two shortest ones will be good for more intricate 'do's, but for buns, the second longest one is what I have to use. I also got myself some "Magic Invisible Hair Scroos". They are currently my favorite hair toy. They literally are Magical. Invisible. Hair. Scroos. 'nuff said.

Hair routine staying the same. I'm considering stopping using my BBB for oil distribution and focus on using it for between-wash cleanings. I think it's too adept at pulling out the hairs that are in the "resting" phase, and it's making me cranky. Coconut oil was put on this morning after the wash, we'll see how it looks tomorrow morning!

Life: is driving me bananas. Work, rather, is driving me bananas. They are giving me too much work for what I'm being paid. If I do not get a raise this year, well, things may become dire.

I had a ton of bloodwork done yesterday. It was extremely unpleasant, since I had been avoiding bloodwork for several other doctors and decided with the most recent one that I'd kill 3 birds with one stone and do 'em all at the same time! Note to self: kill 3 birds with one stone is bad analogy. Correct analogy is kill me with 3 blood-thirsty doctors! Either way, not doing that again any time soon.

Well, that's most of what there is to report. Now, I must go finish going berserk on the house. The parents are coming over for Christmas this year, and the house still looks like a disaster. Oh noes!

Have a happy holiday season, everybody!

Yikes about the allergic reaction!!!!!  I hope you didn't put cortisone cream on the spot!

I'm glad your holiday celebration was a success!

Oh, let me sing the praises of neem oil on an itchy scalp!  I currently like Max Green Alchemy scalp therapy shampoo and conditioner.  I also like Theraneem shampoo and conditioner as well as applying neem directly to the scalp.  Smells like bawang goreng-deep fried shallots.

The hair reaction might be to too much protein.  You may need to trade on and off with a regular "deep conditioner" and the shea/coconut butter concoction.

Good luck!!!  Happy New Year!!

According to my naturopath, putting cortisone cream on an itchy patch of skin will drive the allergy deeper into your body.  It could land in an organ like your lungs and cause asthma.  It also prohibits the body's natural healing powers from functioning normally.

Bawang goreng smells like fried onions.  If the neem oil smell lingers on your hair, you could try diluting it with a carrier oil like camellia, sesame or coconut and adding some essential oil to cover the smell.  The Theraneem shampoo has a grapefruit scent (the grapefruit oil doesn't really cover the distinct smell of the neem) but doesn't leave my hair smelling like straight neem.  What brand of shampoo did you get?

Be sure to read how much protein is in the deep treatment conditioner and try to get one that has as little or no protein in it.  I hope it works out for you!!!

I have not had any luck with shampoo bars.  I hope it works for you.  Having an itchy scalp drives me crazy!  I don't have a lot of allergies, but I do have sensitivities.  What a PITA it is!

I don't know the protein content of avocado oil.  If it has been working for you, it should be OK to alternate.  Do you use ACV rinses when you do a deep treatment?  I think they help it penetrate better.

Thanks Sakina and la diosa!

Sakina: I didn't know if you meant ACV before or after, so I tried both! 
My hair's drying now, so I'm looking forwards to seeing how the ACV plays with the deep conditioner.

la diosa: I'll keep an eye out for good shea butter recipes. I'm actually using a pre-mixed oil from an Etsy shop. Here is a link to the sample size she has.

Life: Itchy spot finally went away on my arm. Hooray!
Hubby and I also chewed through our entire co-op delivery of kale last night in the form of Zuppa Toscana. It's a re-creation of the Olive Garden recipe, but I changed things around a bit by using more kale and substituting turnips for some of the potatoes. Hubby and I really liked the result. It was still very Toscana-y, but more... hearty? The turnips and kale gave the soup a very rustic flavor that both of us really liked. At any rate, kale and turnips are officially on our "veggies that are tasty" list, now.

Steelers won today. Hooray! But most of the other teams that would have had to lose for the Steelers to get into the playoffs didn't oblige, so boo. On the bright side, now I'll get the TV back on Sundays again. 

Hair: I tried out the neem and tea tree oil shampoo bar on my hair. Debated for a bit if I shouldn't deep condition or not, as I wanted to see how the shampoo did on its own, but decided to go ahead and deep condition anyway. Deep conditioned overnight and rinsed out this morning with another ACV rinse. We'll see how that goes!

Scalp is still itchy. Hopefully, continued use of the neem and tea tree oil will help remedy this. I think all the extra product and rinsing and just being wet for longer may have irritated my scalp a bit.

Through TLC and nice combs, I have encouraged hubby to let me comb his hair more often. He's got lovely goldeny-brown curls and I think this is giving me great practice for future (I hope!) curly-haired children I might happen to have. Unfortunately, his ends are terribly split, since it's at scrub-against-office-chair length and he does not wear protective styles. I do a mini S&D every time I comb out his length, but it's rather daunting, and I wonder, perhaps, hopeless. If he won't wear protective styles, what good does trimming off split ends do? I can't help but think that all it's doing is reducing his overall length and giving the evil office chair new fresh ends to munch and chew on. 

Any tips?

Angel wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2010 at 8:15pm:

 

Seeing as how the office chair comes up to above his shoulder blades, a non-munchy length would have to be collar-bone length.
I'd probably be traumatized and go into hysterics.
Then again, I have real issues with change. Especially ones that involve the local men messing with the amount and length of their hair.

I think I'd personally rather he have longer damaged hair than shorter hair (which most likely would still be fairly damaged, to be honest).

Well, I did do the ACV after shampooing, and I doubt the one after rinsing out the conditioner hurt any. 

The deep conditioner I use, actually, is mostly oil based. It's based on avocado oil, and I guess I don't really follow the instructions properly. It's more of an overnight leave-in deep conditioner. I'm supposed to let it dry completely (instructions say to blow dry), sleep with it dry in my hair, and then rinse out the next morning. I usually give it about 20 minutes under a heat cap, though, because, well, I like to over-engineer stuff, I suppose. 

It ends up being wetter longer because I hate using the blowdryer.

As for hubby, I do put a little bit of camellia oil on his hair some nights. I'm trying to coax him slowly into some of the more arcane hair rituals, nothing too "girly" or involved, so I don't scare him away. 

He does condition his hair after washing. When we first met, he didn't, but my look of horrified shock and incredulity made him see the error of his ways! That, and the fact the conditioner made it so much easier to brush out might've convinced him, too... maybe.   

That's a good idea about a cover on the back of his chair. I betcha if I pad it correctly, he might even be enthusiastic about the cover.
...
Maybe I should make one for me for using at work. Hmm...

Do you use fresh kale? I tried stir frying fresh kale with soy sauce and ginger, once, but it was too tough! The only success I have with kale involves blanching it to half to death, first.

Life: Whew! My legs were very unhappy at me last week. Fortunately, they forgave me just in time for hubby and I to go around looking at houses again. Good thing, too! Pittsburgh houses are notorious for all the stairs. Most houses are at least two if not three or four stories tall around here, not including the basement. And since they tend to be on hills, there's almost always an additional flight of stairs just to get to the house! 

There is one house that we saw, though, that we really liked. We're thinking about putting an offer on the house. Our first house! Eeek! Talk about serious first-time-house-buyers jitters! 

I got a package today from my father that was a pack of sponges. Call me silly, but there's a certain type of sponge that my parents buy down in Texas that the stores around here do NOT sell at all! I'll have to show my gratitude by sending back a couple packs of Playtex gloves that my Dad admitted not being able to find down in Texas. Since Dad and I are silly, we're probably going to keep using the same box over and over and take bets on how long it takes for it to disintegrate during shipping. 

Hair: Been feeling kind of blue about my hair.  I've been having to shampoo a day or two sooner on the shampoo bars than when I was using liquid shampoo, but I'm hoping that it's just a transitional period. I'm also trying to transition to a more natural-ingredient regime. I'm not at all sure if it's any more effective, but it is a little gratifying knowing that the products I've been using could be made at home if I wanted to.

I found some old photos of me from the Christmas before last, and can't help but feel that my hair might've looked better back then. It looked very sleek and shiny, and it makes me wonder if my hair still looks as good now that it's longer.   

Good luck with the house hunting!
I used to be a Residentail Mortgage Underwriter.  Don't get overwhelmed by all the things to gather for buying your first home.  Just be organized and calm.  That's half your battle!!

Hair: Still very happy with my poo bar routine. Still sudsing twice and using a leave-in ACV rinse. I've slowly started adding more variables back in, like trying out coconut oil sparingly once maybe every week or two. The experiments continue!

I also picked up some horn combs from ebay. Not too bad a haul, but I think I might have to pick up some fine-grit sandpaper to smooth some of them down a bit. I'm using one of the nicer ones to do some scalp scritching before bed, now.

I just finally hit tailbone. It makes me happy, except now my hair is doing that thing that I haven't seen since shoulder length. It's doing a weird swoopy out thing! I hope that I can get a few more inches of growth in so that it stops deciding to mimic the curve of my derriere. 

Life: Life has been a surprising mixture of stressful and well, kinda nice. The last two weeks have been a flurry of work, house inspections, visiting mortgage agents, going back and forth with real estate agents for signing and paperwork, etc. For a largely introverted and sedentary person, like myself, this driving around and talking to strange people has been an exhausting marathon test of my interpersonal skills, which I will freely admit generally suck.

On the upside, there are plenty of things I am happy about. I am very happy with my relationship with hubby, that I hit one of my goals for my hair, the the seller agreed to our post-inspection requests, and that with high hopes there will be nothing but smooth sailing until April. So, all in all, a weird blend of happy-tinged panic. Does that even make sense?   

Yay!!!  Congrats, KNS!

I think that sounds like a wonderful idea!

Yay!  Glad there's no snow damage and you know you'll be moving for certain and when.

Hello all!

Long time no see.

Just popping in to say hello to everybody and post a brief update.

We've moved. House is lovely, and of course we STILL haven't finished unpacking entirely. My current project that's taking up all my time is making a little human being, and she's about 75% complete.

We adopted a kitten two months ago. He's fuzzy and adorable, and his name is Kupo. We love him to bits.

Hair is still growing. I've reached 38.5 inches by hubby's last measurement a couple of days ago. I'm about 3 inches from classic.

Hair routine has been pretty well pounded out; poo bar shampooing once a week. I've given up on ACV, since the new house has a water softener, so the ACV is a bit redundant. No conditioner, either, except for monthly deep treatments. Summer has made it so oiling is a no go, so no oiling either. Simplicity at its simple-est!

Well, that's all for now. Bye!

Congratulations, KNS!

Its nice to see you on the board, Kitten. 

The yoga posture Downward Facing Dog will turn the baby to optimal birthing position.  Good luck!!!

I hope you'll post some of your hair challenge pics!

Good to hear from you KNS!  It sounds like all is well with you,hubby,kitty and the little bean!
If Downward Facing Dog on the mat is trouble for your CTS, I'd recommend doing a modified version using a sturdy chair.  Send me a pm and I'll give details and specifics.