Sunday 27 December 2015

Holiday Hair

In the last seven days, I have actually styled my hair more than once!


Last week's wash day resulted in a wash and go, which I happily wore for about 3 days. At night, I'd simply band it in 2 - 3 ponytails to stretch it a little bit...and then dampen it in the morning so it would shrink nicely.
 I would have worn it for a longer period of time but I wanted to have something a little bit..fancy for the holidays.

The whole 'holiday hair' thing.




Spot the renegade, over stretched section.

 So I cowashed on Wednesday, and put my plaits in. 


I twisted the plaits in a flat twist manner to make this quick updo while I went shopping.


 The next day, I took the completely dry plaits out. Egads....


Fluff! Separate a little but fluff until you can fluff no more!


Hallelujah, I had a style! A braid out, if you will, my good  wo)man.



 That night, high on styling success, I used a spray bottle of water, Shea Decadence Mango Lassi Leave in, a tinchy amount of shea butter and some aloe vera gel to set my hair into twists.

My goodness, my hair was not happy. You have to remember, I didn't use a leave in, so I had a bit (a lot) of small s-curl breakage from my furiously undernourished ends. I gave up using the spray bottle about halfway through as it seemed to be causing more shrinkage, and more tangling and more breakage, Bleurgh.

Note to self: Big twists and twist outs are not a protective style for you!

I had three twists on each side, with the roots flat twisted.
I twisted my ends on tiny perm rods and then pinned them up onto the back of my head.

 

 

In the morning, I was not feeling hopeful. Had I been hung by own own petard?!?

I took out the first perm rod and it stubbornly refused to come out, so I was sweating bricks before I'd even properly started.

When I did take it out, I got this:

Why is my hair at odds and right angles to itself??
 The second perm rod also refused to come out. I worked out the trick by the fourth one - unravel the way you put it on. Which would be great, except I'd seemingly used different methods for all of them.

Still not that excited at this point.


 Then I started taking out the twists. When I finished I was dead pleased and chuffed and more than feeling myself a little (please refer to aforementioned gif for estimated levels of mirror preening).



By the end of the day, my hair had started to frizz and lose definition, which confirmed something for me - my fine hair cannot really hold a curl other than its own for that long without frizz. Maintaining it would involve fair too much manipulation.

At night, I simply tied it up in two ponytails and went to bed. Eaaaasy.


Kudos to Hair Bloggers/Vloggers who do tutorials on the regular. You're all as resilient as anything. 
I couldn't do this in the long haul!

3 comments:

  1. Your hair is gorgeous! It seems thicker and longer since I last recall. My hair is going through something. I honestly think it just mirrors my own life. haha With full time grad school hrs this semester and full-time work, let's just say, I'm thankful to have a head full of thick hair. Gray, albeit, but thick nonetheless. I'm contemplating using hair color for the first time. (In the past, I've only used henna and indigo.) My hair that has become brown(ish) over time with grays throughout now just looks dusty. So, let me be vain for a minute. If it survives, I'll surely do a show and tell. :-)

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    Replies
    1. Aw thank you! I've been thinking about how resilient teachers are and especially about you these last few days (so I was kind of surprised to see your comment - are my thoughts that piercing or are you just reading my mind??) It's incredible how you manage to blog, go to school and keep up your job standard too, Libby! You need to give yourself more credit. That's not easy.
      I think it's less vanity, and more self-care - looking after yourself from the inside out. So I'm supporting you all the way, lovely!

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    2. Yay! and Wow! I officially have jet black hair now. Plaiting it up as I type....

      Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year!!!
      xoxo,
      Libby

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