The Style I Tried Today

Today I tried a new hairstyle. It's a Lazy Wrap Bun. It needs a bit of work and some polish, but I'll show you how it turned out today anyway.

It's a very quick and easy style, it's protective and requires almost no manipulation, such as twisting.

Once I get this down pat, I'll make a video how-to of this style. I think I like it. It's simple, but it could look very elegant, if smoothed down neatly. I am only using the one Mei Fa Raspberry hair stick to hold it, but it's very secure.

I finally trimmed my bangs today. I was considering yet again growing out part of my bangs, but I ended up cutting them in full again today.

It's beautiful and sunny as I write this, and not too hot. Actually, it was downright chilly this morning. I think it might get hotter again tomorrow, but not too hot.

I'm feeling a bit better yet again today, although I woke up at 4:30 a.m. this morning, so I'm looking forward to a better night's sleep tomorrow.

'Til tomorrow, my friends. Much love to all and extra hugs to anyone feeling anxious today.

No Trim This Month

Thanks to everyone for your get well wishes, as I am feeling somewhat better today. Much to my surprise, I had a full night's sleep last night, despite all of the napping yesterday, and it made a lot of difference. The fever is not gone, but it's down significantly, and I am a little more aware of my surroundings again today.

I finally managed to wash my hair, and I'm glad that I knew that after having it bunned for a few days, with very little combing in the mean time, there would be a lot of shed hairs ready to be removed, or I may have panicked when I saw all of the hair that came out in my comb. However, it was just 3 days worth of shed hair that was unleashed, so it was entirely normal.

My hair is not quite dry, but it was just about dry enough to take a photo of the ends. My assessment is that I can go one more month without a trim. My ends are thinner than the rest of my hair, especially on the right side, but we know that already, as I am still growing out and trimming out the damage. Nevertheless, I don't see enough new unevenness or thinness to make it mandatory to trim this month.

I'll have my half inch trim in October, after checking with both the Morrocco Method Lunar Calendar and The Almanac's Best Days. I like to choose a day that they both recommend. Usually there is at least a day each month when their best cutting days overlap.

I am indeed enjoying the cooler air that has come today, and I'm sure we'll have a few more blasters of heat before the summer is officially through, but this has been a very nice respite today.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend. For those of you who celebrate Labour Day as we do, I hope you enjoy your long weekend.

'Til tomorrow, my friends. Love to all, and extra hugs to anyone with an ailing loved one.

Just The Facts

I'm really not well today. I was up after only three hours of sleep last night with the chills/high fever, and it took me two hours of shivering to finally get myself up and out of bed to take some Tylenol to reduce the fever, and then use the bathroom. I couldn't even think of getting back to sleep at that time, but I've had two long naps today; one in the morning  and one in the late afternoon/evening.

Today has been merely a blur of feeling ill and in a fever-induced altered state and then falling asleep for a few hours here and there and having fever-induced vivid crazy dreams.

Needless to say, I didn't get to giving my hair a deep treatment today, nor checking out whether or not I need a trim this month. In fact it didn't even cross my mind until I thought about my blog. To be completely honest, I don't think I've touched my hair since I put it up before bed last night in its bedtime bun where it remains as I write this, some 22 hours later.

That's going to be a lot of shed hairs when I take this bun down and give my hair a good combing  and then a brushing to remove those sheds before getting into a shower.

I've tried to stay out of trouble today, being so zombie-like, but just before writing this blog entry, I went and knocked over a glass of lemonade from the end table right onto the carpet. I don't even recall touching it, but I must have; there was no one else who could have knocked it over.

All I can say is that it's wonderful to have a husband and a son who told me not to move; they'd take care of it, and they did. Such kind and good-natured guys.

Don't get me wrong; I've cleaned up more than my share of spills in the last 20-odd years, but this was one time when it was really, really nice to have the guys realize that it would probably be best for me and likely all concerned, for them to take care of it for me. They have really been wonderfully understanding on those days when I've not been well.

So that's all I've got for today. I'm just looking forward to bedtime.

Later, my friends. Love to all.

Sometimes It Really IS Hard To Trim

Thank you for the nice comments to yesterday's blog entry. I really am happy with my colour, my hair is shiny and I have no split ends. I don't know why I felt the need to apologize for the photo just because the ends looked uneven due to bun dents, but that's how it is sometimes in the world of Crazy Longhairs; we are our own worst critics.

Lulu made a very interesting point in her comment yesterday. She said that having a small trim seems like such a big decision all of a sudden. I don't think that there is any committed longhair who can't relate to how you feel.

Now, in my first year of growing, I had considerable damage from the days before I knew how to care for my hair. My hair had previously been blow-dried, hot-ironed and over-lightened. It's not surprising that after 9 months of growing without any trims, my hair was covered with splits and was extremely thin at the ends. I was just a whisper away from waist length, but the bottom 6 inches were see-through.

My decision to dye my hair medium brown, which required two full-head dyes did not help matters. My hair looked pitiful and felt like straw. It was the easiest decision of my life to cut off those six inches and have a fresh start.

A year later when it took repeated dyeing to get back to my blonde shade (before I knew about the wonders of coconut oil protecting from peroxide damage), again, it was easy to chop off six inches of visible damage once again. I even cut off a further two or three inches. For the next year and a half, I merely maintained my above APL length, so I was trimming frequently.

Once my hair felt healthy enough to start growing again, this past January, suddenly trimming has become very difficult. Logically, I know that for me, trims are essential. My hair is so fine and so straight that any true unevenness shows up like crazy and thin ends simply are not for me. Yet doing that mandatory trim is getting harder and harder to want to do.

My head and mind know very well from experience that where my hair is concerned, the old saw, "A stitch in time saves nine.", surely applies. My emotions and my heart on the other hand, are getting excited about reaching that next goal.

And so with that disconnect between head and heart, the decision to trim when necessary suddenly becomes huge.

The bottom line is that I have to be strict with myself, assess my needs honestly and be disciplined enough to trim when it's time to trim.

In my case, I trim when my hair begins to look uneven. Other times, it may be that I can simply feel with my own hands that it's time to trim.

If my ends feel like velcro and I've tried the usual first aid of clarifying and then doing a deep moisturizing treatment and that hasn't worked, then chances are that it's time to trim.

Having learned the skill of trimming and cutting my own hair and bangs has proved to be invaluable. As I've mentioned before, I use Feye's Self-Trim Method, with excellent results. It still amazes me that I, who can't draw a straight line to save my life, or cut a straight line freehand on a piece of paper, can cut my hair successfully.

To this day, I've never unintentionally cut more hair off than I wanted.

In any case, this month was slated to be my trim month, but since my growth rate has been slower than normal this summer, I may hold off until October. I've given my hair an extra day of rest since I touched up my roots on Monday, so I won't be washing until tomorrow morning. I'm going to do a deep moisture treatment, comb my hair straight down and really look at my ends. If they're uneven, then I trim this month. If they're still okay, no trim until October.

I think I'll have a photo taken of my ends combed down so that I can really see it clearly before I make my decision. Whichever decision needs to be made, I'm going to make sure that I post about it and stick to it, without regret.

I have realized that I really do have to let my brain do the talking when it comes to my hair and not my emotions.

I think it's hysterical that I've written so much on the topic of trimming just a half of an inch, but that's the way it can be with Crazy Longhairs. In any case, I'll let you know tomorrow what the verdict is.

'Til then, my friends. Love to all, and extra hugs to anyone in pain.

September 2010 Update

Well, it's September already, but it certainly still feels like the heat of the summer. It's hot, hazy and humid again today.

While many people claim to have a summer growth spurt, it certainly hasn't happened to me. I had a decent month of growth in August, but just a modest 1/2 inch, which is a bit less than my personal average. I'm now just slightly over the 25 inch/ 63.8cm mark. I'm still happy with it though, as I know that my hair is still slowly creeping toward my next goal of BSL, which is not far away at all.

I took a photo of my hair today, although it's not too pretty. When I do my quarterly updates in February, May, August and November, I always try to make sure that my hair looks its best, but for the off months, I don't worry about it too much. My hair looks more uneven than it actually is in this photo, as it's day 2 hair and it has dents in it from being bunned. I really wanted to take an outdoor photo too, but it's quite windy out. So this photo will just have to do.

After my next wash, I'm going to try to reassess whether or not I can wait another month before my next trim. It's difficult for me to assess it today, because of the bun dents making my hair looking so uneven. It's always easiest to assess right after a wash, after combing.

I had a very successful root touch-up on Monday, and I was indeed able to stick with the non-cone conditioner after the dye was rinsed out. This is quite a breakthrough after two years of having to use silicone-based conditioners. 

All in all, I'm pleased with my progress, and while I'm getting a wee bit impatient to reach the bottom of BSL, I know that I'll get there by the end of the year, whether I decide to trim this month or next. Now that my hair is longer, it gets easier to trim neatly, which is a bonus.

So that's it for today.

Til tomorrow, my friends. Love to all.