Ponytails are not Protective

For me anyway.

Not that it stopped me wearing one for four days.

Including a night without my satin scarf. Yikes!

On Thursday, I found some itsy bits of breakage just from me touching my hair after the satin-less night. I decided to sort myself out with an emergency treatment. I broke out the cubes.

Anita Grant Rhassoul Deep Conditioning Cubes...

Well, kind of. 

I broke out one to thicken up some left over [and dried out] bentonite clay mixture I had. The mix didn't look great. Somewhere along the way I'd forgotten that, despite the similarly wonderful effects, rhassoul clay and bentonite clay are two different things. 

And I added too much water.

Despite the ominous film music playing in my head at the sight of the bentonite clay bits in the bottom and the far too liquidy mixture, I decided to pour it into an old shampoo bottle and pretend it was like the Terresentials Mud Wash.

 I applied it four sections and left it on for 5 minutes [which is longer than I usually let anything sit on my head - I don't like too spend too much time on my hair. That is precious time that could be used for cooking/eating. 

Mainly eating.]

I rinsed it out, realised that my hair felt good, then Tresemmé'd up. Did a dance for a minute while I left it in, then rinsed out and added some more as a leave in.

As well as some oil.

Then I decided some shea butter would be a good idea, since I was styling.

I'd decided a sock bun, with two cornrow braids framing it would be a good idea, based off this hot crossed bun idea from The Beauty Department.

However,  my hair doesn't stretch that far and I don't really like touching it when it's wet.

The following pictures are horrendous. I think I had a barbecue to go to that day so I was rushing and didn't release my braided fringe.

I think I added gel to the back section.

Aha! A picture of the back. From what I remember, it was a sock bun.

On Friday morning, I took down the sock bun, because my sock doughnut was sodden and the idea of having the mildew smell that comes from old dampness was making me gag. My hair was slightly stretched [and damp], so I simply did three chunky twists, and pulled at them slightly for volume, then pinned them erratically till they looked good.

If you look closely, you can even see all the bits of hardware sticking out...

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Idle Hands

source

True story.

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Hair Wilderness

I guess this week was a bit of a fail because I didn't know what to do with my hair. One of my aims was that the style shouldn't take more than half an hour. But I was also hoping that it would last me past swimming on Thursday too. Hey, wouldn't it be cool if I could throw in a braid/cornrow in there too? As well as looking fit as!

In short, expecting far too much of one hairstyle. I mean, I might as well have put 'do my laundry and hoover the house' to that list, it was so long. I can't do a decent looking cornrow style in aq day, never mind half an hour, so I ended up frutrated that day and basically putting my hand in a bun.

No picture though! I sat on my phone and that was the end of that (camera).

On Tuesday, I was inspired by a girl on bglh, from the post where they showed protective styles of members of the forum.
The bun with the pompadour, by Deidre Leigh? I liked it so much, I decided to hunt down a tutorial for the style.

The aforementioned style starts at around 8 minutes, but she also demonstrates how she uses hair extensions to do two other styles.

Since I don't really use hair extensions, I simply decided to recreate this style on my own hair. I had a bun in the back because the attempts at a viable chignon/french roll simply were not happening.

Then I pincurled my fringe in the front exactly as she does in the video: each of my three sections pincurled up and then bobby pinned down. I rolled the sections up to different lengths to give a slightly more interesting, layered fringe look.

Thursday, I had to prep my hair for swimming. I separated my hair into two sections, slathered with Tresemme Naturals and copious amounts of Felix Capillus. I then did two twists per section and pinned them to my head. It was like a very miniature version of a certain Princess Leia look.

I don't have a picture of the actual style, since I wore this over it.

Baker Boy hat - £4 from Peacocks.

Friday, I decided to make an actual effort I (since I was visiting the family and they have much to say about my appearance). So I separated my hair into two ponytails and pinned each section in separate directions, exactly like the style I copied off Shelli [hairscapades.com] as mentioned in this post.

By Sunday, it had graduated into one ponytail, separated into two sections with each section pin curled and pinned under.

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Hair Obsessed

Some of Wonder Thing's friends were up visiting. One of them is particularly hair obsessed and refuses to relinquish his obsession, despite constant mockery by the others.

On this particular occasion, he was commiserating the frizz that he could see on his hair.

Him: Agh, I should've used a hair dryer!
Me:...what?
Him: I washed my hair but I didn't use a dryer. Now look, it's all frizzy on the top. Look. Look.
Me: *points to her own head* I've got frizz too. I think [I'm not quite sure what frizz actually is, but John Frieda really doesn't seem to like it].
Him: Your hair is supposed to be frizzy. I can't take it. I'm definitely using my hair straighteners tomorrow.

Dude literally has 3 inches of hair and yet owns far more hair tools than I do.

Maybe we should get him a curling iron for his next birthday.....

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Back to Basics

For some reason, the hectic nature of the past couple of months life wise seem to have meant that I've completely forgotten everything I started researching when I decided to have my hair the way it is.

For some reason, the one week of summer we had back in May or sometime prompted me to leave behind my beloved Tresemmé Naturals conditioner in favour of Giovanni's Direct Leave In and a protein conditioner without much slip that smells like cherries [yes, I'm that easy to sway].

Last week Tuesday, having to cope with a more tangling than usual, I decided to de-tangle before rinsing my hair, since I was trying to minimise shrinking. To aid me in this task, I pulled out the old Tresemme Naturals and saturated my hair and welcomed the slip.

Y'know, slip, that element of conditioners that allows combs and fingers and shed hairs to easily pass past each other?

It's one of the first things newbies seem to be told by people on the boards when it comes to de-tangling as well as never to de-tangle hair with a comb/brush when dry.

It's something that's so basic that...I'd just forgotten about it completely in the past couple of months.

Slip, oh, how I've missed you.

My hair couldn't tangle if it had wanted to. My hands slipped through my hair like it used to, back in the day when I cared about this stuff. I could've cried with joy, except I had places to go and things to do, you know. I left it in for a while, before rinsing it out well, and sealing with a shea butter mix, another thing that I hadn't done in aaaaaaages.

My hair felt delicious.

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It takes Two. Sometimes Twice.

Prepare for wonderfully awkward pictures featuring my room as a background.

So after washing my hair on Saturday...

I put it in a puff. 

I know it was lazy and my hair shrunk up and probably got tangled but....I couldn't be bothered. And it was soooo very hot that day. I enjoyed the short breezes flowing through my hair.

I'm easily frustrated. And my [lack of] progress in  the realm of cornrows and flat twisting is something that frustrates me. I've been trying to learn how to do them on myself for years.

Literally. Years.

I keep on practising and they never look right. As someone who never makes an effort, I always feel that when I do make an effort, the results should look amazing. I know this is not how life works, but I can't help it thinking like this: I tried! REWARD ME!


I'd even changed my hasn't-changed-in-10-years-side-part to a centre part for it. The parting was pretty crisp if I say so myself. Well, after about 20 minutes trying to do this style, I got fed up and put it in my favourite style - two buns on either side of my head. I call it my Minnie Mouse bun, because it always reminds me of her ears.

This is the only picture I got of it and unfortunately, I look quite like a Heartless* Minnie Mouse.

It's actually the only style I can remember wearing before I got my first relaxer at around 7 years old - I remember asking my mum if I could wear it to school because I had some sort of red accessory I was going to wear with it to look like Minnie Mouse. Unfortunately, that weekend I got a relaxer and ended up with devil horn plaits instead *shudders*

 This actually lasted me a good while - that happened on Sunday, then I washed on Tuesday, re-embracing the slip and shea of my past.

 I did four plaits in order to stretch my hair and reduce the shrinking and left it to dry overnight.

I worked as well as my other usual methods.

The style I choose for the rest of the week came from Shelli on Hairscapades - her Double bun Banana Clip Updo Tutorial.

I didn't use a banana clip, since I no longer have one. Instead, I separated my hair into two using two hairbands/ponytail holders.

Then rolled it around and enthusiastically attacked it with various bobby pins until it held up.

I was so happy with this style that even after swimming on Thursday, even after bentonite claying, I simply put it in again and wore it until...well, today!

I used flaxseed gel on the front and tied it down with a scarf this time in order to try and minimise the fluff halo I usually get. I think it worked reasonably well.

* Eh, reference to the gameplay in Kingdom of Hearts. More info here.

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I am not a seamstress

Usually, I pick up a craft every summer and teach myself through books and stuff how to do it. So far, I've picked up knitting and crochet.

for this and last summer, I've been trying to take up sewing.

My first attempt at a real project [that dress doesn't count] was to create continuous bias tape. Basically, my end result should have been a long, flowing piece of material.

Instead...

I ended up with three loops. 

I don't....I don't even understand how that happened. And now that fabric has gone walkie, so I can't even rectify it.  It was last seen being mucked about with by my house mate's kids, so who knows where it may be now? My grand mistake, fluttering around a skirting board somewhere in the house.

Then I decided to try some appliqué. I bought some interfacing and stabilizer.

At least, I thought I did. Desperate searches showed no sign of the stabilizer, but the interfacing was still present. I was confused because I was so sure I bought some.

Giving up, I ordered some from an on-line seller...

Only to find my already-bought buried under a pile of books behind my door.

I am thwarting my own efforts with my scatter brained nature.
My efforts to learn how to sew better than a 4 year old continue.

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Summer 'Protective' Challenge - Pajamas, Pinwheels and Snails

After a week of having my hair out, I decided to do the decent thing and put it up in some sort of protective style.

Braids! They kept my hair stretched and mildly tangle free. Of course! why did I ever abandon them?

Oh, because my fine hair means that I lose all bulk and volume.

Eh. Me no likey. 

After doing those 3 that you see above, I got fed up and took them out. And I didn't feel like putting twists in either - the prospect of putting them in only to have to take them down in a month or so did not appeal to me.

Surely, I thought to myself, surely there has to some way to do this....maybe avoiding the twist and braids method I usually employ.

So I wrote down some guidelines for myself for the next two months, until the end of August.

1) I will wear a 'protective style' for 2-3 days at a pop. Braided styles have to last at least three days.
2) By protective, I mean I don't [or shouldn't] have to touch it for that time.
3) On the take down day I'll moisturise - by doing a herb rinse or conditioning or just using moisturiser.
4) Styling shouldn't take more than 1 hour every time.
5) My ends should not be rubbing up on my clothes or scarved.

Easy, peasy, lemon squeeezy right?

                                                     We'll see what I'm saying at the end of August.

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I started off with my usual, lazy, pajama hairstyle, did a quick conditioner rinse in the shower but left it in the style to dry through the day and then put it into what I always called a Pinwheel bun - basically, a ponytail where the pony is cinnabunned/pin curled and pinned under.

It's weird how brown my bleached/dyed hair is in this picture! That colour is barely visible when you see me in real life.

Dimples does something similar in this video.



Maintence?:
Er....

I wore this from Sunday till Tuesday, then conditioned my hair with some cherry blossom scented conditioner, moisturised on both sides with different conditioners [left, hollands & barratts brand and right giovanni's direct leave in] before sealing with some oil and banded overnight [I'd gone to the gym and had to meet up with friends, so did not have time to do anything. 5 minutes banding then done!].

  The next morning it was so not dry but we'll pretend it was.

Then I decided on a big plait that wound around the back of my head. They call it the snail braid on thebeautydepartment, though I have to say I was definitely inspired by The Grecian Goddess Braid by Laila of fusionofcultures.


I separated my hair into a top section and a bottom section and tied away the bottom section while I got to work on the top section.

It was kinda difficult for me to do because I can't see what I'm doing and my arms got tired and I forgot what one strand was doing in comparison to another. Taking pictures really helped me see what I was doing.  When I wasn't happy with my work, I removed it and started again.

When I forgot what strands I'd been holding, it showed in the plait, because it stopped being a plait and ended up as a chunk of hair and where my arms tired, the plait dropped.:

Eventually, I ended up with something I was happy with.

Pinned the plait back on itself with plans to keep it in till after swimming on Saturday!

Maintenance?:
Patting on some coconut oil on the....third day, and then spritzing with a herbal tisane.

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Pretty in Pink

Whilst bumming around all day, reading web comics [productivity does not seem to come naturally], I stumbled upon this gorgeous Work-In-Progress by kimpertinence on tumblr.

I love her style of drawing and colour use, and I especially like this picture. 

Makes me want a dress exactly like that I don't even like the colour pink! ^_^

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