Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is almost over for us. The kids were with us and we had a lovely, quiet family evening with a nice dinner, some singing and a lot of fun.

Today, I did touch up my roots, and afterwards I washed it with coconut oil shampoo. I am really happy with both the colour and the condition of my hair.

I had a big surprise this evening when I discovered that my mum has actually tried the coconut oil shampoo herself, and she is extremely happy with it. She purchased the coconut oil earlier in the week, but didn't use it on her hair until today. Her hair turned out extremely full of body and quite lustrous.

She's not certain on what her ratio was though. I do know that she used much less oil than shampoo.

A really great bonus is that in the meantime between buying the coconut oil and using it on her hair, she used it on  a small patch of psoriasis that she's had for a while and it cleared it up in just a couple of days, after having tried many creams from the doctor that had proven ineffective. Coconut oil really has some amazing properties that make it a wonderful multi-purpose oil.

It's the coolest thing to turn my mum onto a new haircare routine!

Anyway, that's it for tonight. I'll be heading to bed and waiting for Santa to come shortly.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, another religious holiday or merely get to enjoy some extra days off work, I wish everyone the happiest of happy holidays.

'Til tomorrow, my friends. Much love to all.

xo

Final Holiday Preparations

Well, tonight we did the last bit of Christmas shopping, so all the gifts are taken care of and so are all of the groceries.

It's so nice to be sitting here right now with both of my kids on the sofa beside me and my husband sitting just across the room on his computer.

It's really finally starting to feel like Christmas now.

We still have a few things to do tomorrow around the house, but it will be taken care of. Both kids will be home and many hands make light work.

Also tomorrow, I'm going to touch up my roots, so I'll be prepping my hair with coconut oil.

I am so looking forward to a beautiful family Christmas Eve tomorrow night.

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

My Current Routine In Summary.

I've been asked by a reader to summarize my current hair routine and treatment program in one post. So of course, I'm going to do that. Now, I know how drastically different every head of hair is, even people with hair of my own hair type, but I'll do the summary of my regimen for the record. I'll be making a page with this summary for ease of access.

Washing: Every 2 or 3 days (I try to stretch it to 3): I wash my hair using the CO method. I am currently using cone-free conditioner, usually the inexpensive Suave Naturals.

I then rinse with a mild apple cider vinegar rinse. I use about 5 or 6 tablespoons of vinegar to 2 litres, or approximately 8 cups of water. I use that as a final rinse right before getting out of the shower.

I leave the towel on my hair for no more than 10 minutes and then I add a pea-sized amount of conditioner to my length as a leave-in. I'm currently using Burt's Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit and Sugar Beet conditioner.

I do not comb or brush my hair when it is wet or damp, with the exception of my bangs, which are short. I let my hair air dry and then I begin to finger comb it as it dries. Only after my hair is dry will I comb it with a horn comb.

Nightly: I put my hair in a bun on the top of my head after a short session with a boar bristle brush. I secure it with a scrunchie or a clip.

Oiling: I use a total of 6 drops of jojoba oil to my hair from the ears down when my hair is almost dry. I put 2 drops in my hands, rub them together and smooth the hair from one side of the head between my hands. I repeat with the other side and then repeat with the back.

I use the same amount of oil again right before bed, and lightly brush it through with a boar bristle brush. I do that each night until the next wash.

Deep Oiling: I like to do a deep oil treatment once every 2 weeks or so. I soak my hair in either extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil for at least an hour, sometime for several hours. About an hour before I wash, I put conditioner on my dry, oiled hair, bun it up, and leave it until I wash. This ensures that the excess oil comes out. Because oil and water don't mix, it's best to add the conditioner first, rather than wetting the hair and trying to shampoo it out.

Protein Treatment: About once a month I do a protein treatment. I like Joico K-Pak. I like to leave it on my hair for an hour before COing.

Deep moisture treatment: I also do this every two weeks or so. I use one part honey (I microwave it for about 30 seconds so that it doesn't lighten my hair) to 2, 3 or 4 parts of conditioner, depending on how I make it that day. I put that in my dry hair (sometimes I dampen it lightly with spray bottle of distilled water), and completely saturate my hair with it from root to tip. I cover it with a plastic grocery bag and then cover that with a towel. I leave it in for at least an hour. When I get into the shower, I add some water to my scalp, work it in well, and treat the mixture as a CO. I rinse it out as I would a usual CO.

Occasional treatments: When my ends feel crunchy or velcro-like, or if my hair is getting very dull, I will clarify my hair. The shampoo I use for that is Herbal Essences Drama Clean. I always moisturize my hair very well after clarifying.

Sometimes I do a coconut milk soak. I soak my hair in full fat coconut milk, cover it with a plastic bag, and cover that with a towel. I use CO to remove it.

Once in a while, I do a mayonnaise treatment. This would be in the place of a deep oiling, and has the added benefit of protein as well as being a very good pH for the hair and scalp. I use full fat mayonnaise and I wash it out with conditioner only.

Colouring my hair: My hair is dyed, and I touch up my roots only every 4 to 6 weeks. I always coat my hair in coconut oil overnight or for at least two hours before the touch-up, in order to help prevent peroxide damage.

I think that's pretty much it. It sounds like a lot when all written out, but really, it's not a lot in terms of actual time spent or dollars spent.


Well, we had quite a storm last night, and it brought on a major migraine. It will be early to bed for me, as I try to banish this latest bout, which is a real blaster.

I am happy to say that despite this migraine, my spirits are much better in general today than they had been for a couple of weeks.

'Til tomorrow, my friends. Much love to all.
xo

Sunday Blues

I was up too late last night. I don't know why. I had no intention of staying up late, and I wasn't doing anything special or exciting, but nonetheless, it was close to 3 by the time I fell asleep. I was up at 7:30 a.m.,  and while that's a great deal later than I ordinarily sleep in the morning, it certainly wasn't enough sleep to keep me going for the day.

So I had a tired yet sometimes enjoyable morning, but I wasted the beautiful afternoon sleeping, only to wake up feeling completely out of sorts. I honestly don't know what's going on with me sometimes. I feel as though I have some grumpy, snarky entity taking over my body and saying and doing things that feel beyond my control. Is this something to do with pre-menopause? If so, I want to figure out how to fix it. Even if it's hormonal, it's no excuse. There has to be some way to get a grip on this moodiness. I've done a lot of research on the Internet, but I've found nothing terribly helpful.

Well, as I said yesterday, I changed the colour that I use to touch up my roots. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, but it was pointless to try to take a photo today, it was already too dark to take an outdoor photo, and as we all know my hair looks different in every indoor photo anyway. I don't even know if the colour change will show up in photos. In any case I'm pleased with it. It's just a touch brighter than it has been. I think after so long of using the same colour for touching up my roots, the length of my colour was just grabbing it more and more to the point that it was lacking in any life.

We shall see how this pans out in future.

I am feeling frustrated again by remaining in that hair length no-man's land where I'm still limited to what hairstyles I can do. I go over to my hairstyle website, and I look longingly at some of the styles I had done before, but even though I was able to do many of them at this length, due to my new increased thickness, I just can't do them again yet.

It's a bit discouraging. I know that my hair has grown a lot this year; I know that I am closing in on my next milestone, but I am getting bored of wearing my hair virtually the same way every day. I just have to keep on keeping on, I guess. It's just disappointing when I want to put a new style photo in the blog, only to find that it's not working for me

Maybe I'm just having a bad day, and things will look different in the morning. Right now, I'm just not feeling very good about myself at all.

Hoping to be more cheerful tomorrow, my friends. Much love to all.

xo

Saturday Night Touch-Up

Wow, we were blessed with a most perfect autumn day today! I could live with days like this all year around. The sun was shining and it was mild and beautiful out. If only the sun didn't set so early these days.

Melissa, you were right. It's gorgeous here, and I'll bet that it is for Lulu too, also in the Golden Horseshoe as I am.

Thanks for your tips about the photographs too, Melissa. It always seems that the weather does not cooperate when I want to take an outdoor photo. Usually when I want to take a hair photo, it's windy, foggy, rainy or all of the above, while being sunny and calm every other day. I try to take my photos in the same place in the house all the time, but clearly it's not working for me. I'll have to find a new location, perhaps.

At the old LHC (properly known as the Archived LHC), when we had photo journals, one of my friends, Xandergrammy, used to give my hair colour a "name of the day", like Honey Caramel, Sunlit Toffee, or something equally yummy sounding. Even then my hair showed as a different colour every day. That was almost 4 years ago now.

By the way, I have actually started to actually reply to comments in the comments section, like a normal person, so if you leave a comment, you may find that for once I've addressed it.

Anyway, after the sun set this evening, I decided to touch up my roots. I changed it up a little by trying a different colour, so I applied it after marinating for a lengthy time in coconut oil. I still haven't rinsed it, but I will be momentarily. I doubt that anyone will notice a change in colour, but I will. I think that it was time to try something new. Eventually, the rest of my hair will gradually change as it grabs the new colour.

I wrote about  the movie "The Brothers Bloom" in my film blog today. It's a movie that just came out on DVD this year, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Well, it's late, and I need to go and rinse my hair and then I'm going to relax, have an apple and read.

I hope everyone is enjoying as lovely a weekend as I have been.

'Til tomorrow, my friends. Much love to all, and extra hugs to anyone who is feeling confused today.
xo

Spa Night For Mumma

Yep, tonight the boys are heading out and I'm going to have a spa night of sorts. Right now I'm sitting here with a head full of coconut oil in preparation to touch up my roots. I even massage the coconut oil into my scalp, as I find it makes the hair colour feel more comfortable for the time that it's on my head.

This will be the first time in over two years that I use non-cone conditioner after colouring. I plan to use a mixture of colour-safe non-cone conditioner and honey. Of course I will be microwaving the honey first, because as I've mentioned before, honey can and will lighten fresh hair dye unless it's microwaved. Microwaving the honey destroys the enzymes that allow it to lighten both dyed and natural hair.

I'll then be rinsing with a pitcher of a mild apple cider vinegar rinse. I can't wait to see how my hair feels.

I've made it clear that I have nothing against using cones, in fact they saved me during this time of growing out damage, but I really do like to feel my hair's natural texture, and it's not the same when using cones.

I hope it works okay. If there are too many tangles I'll just have to do a final conditioning with cones. I'm pretty sure that it will no longer be a problem.

I'm also going to do a few other girly things like pumice my feet and some other spa-like things that I haven't done in a while.

After that, some meditation and a movie is on the docket. Sometimes it's nice to devote an evening to oneself, physically, spiritually and mentally, and I'm looking forward to it.

AutumnLeaves, if you are considering colouring your hair, I don't know about this "staining" idea. I've yet to try any kind of hair colour other than permanent dye that covers stubborn grey.  Perhaps at a salon they have such products, but who can afford to go to a salon for every touch-up?

Since you did ask for ideas, I might suggest that if the time comes that you are going to use dye, consider splitting the difference between your salt and your pepper and use a shade of colour one or two shades lighter than your original natural colour. A cosmetician at a good pharmacy could help you with that if you feel you need it.

A lot of women find that a shade or two lighter is more flattering at our age than a darker colour--our skin's tone changes. Also the roots won't show as starkly as if you were to use a darker colour. It would be essential to stay in the same shade family, such as warm or cool. Of course, you may hate this idea, but it is a strategy that might work if you do decide to take the plunge. I still think you look lovely with your natural colour, but I would be a hypocrite if I didn't say how much I still love having a colour I love around my face.

Well, I am feeling a bit better yet than I did yesterday, so I think I'll finally be saying buh-bye to this latest bout of migraine/cluster headache.  Won't be sorry to see it go.

It's another beast of a day outside. The heat index/humidex as I type this is 40C/104F. I am so glad that I don't live down in the city. I'm sure the air is not too lung-friendly down there. Well, I do live in the city, but in this particular city, we call where I live "on the mountain" and the  area below the escarpment is called "in the city".

I'm off now to continue marinating in coconut oil for about a half hour and then the boys will head out and I will start with touching up my roots. Woo-hoo!

'Til tomorrow, my friends. Much love to all, and extra hugs to anyone hurting from a loss today.

Peroxide In Permanent Boxed Hair Dye

Well, okay, AutumnLeaves, I guess I'll accept "lots of hair" as something good about your hair. You also asked me a really good question about when and how the damage that I talk about my hair having, actually occurred. Did it occur when I dyed it brown, or when I dyed it back to blonde a year later? Well, the answer is both.

When I started my long hair journey, my hair was about 2 inches or so shorter than it is right now. I had just stopped using heat products on my hair, but my hair was already somewhat damaged from using them. If I knew then what I know now, I would have concentrated on a growing/trimming plan that would have had me gaining length, while getting rid of damage.

However, back then, I just wanted length, and I didn't even want a trim.  I wanted every bit of growth I had to show.  After a year, I was at about waist length, and my ends were pathetically thin from breakage, but not as bad as some hair I've seen.  Nevertheless, I wouldn't allow my hair to get into that state with the knowledge that I have today.

I really did have to learn my lesson about quality over quantity.

I got a very quick lesson when I got a bee in my bonnet about dyeing my hair medium brown. I don't to this day know why I just had to do it, but I really wanted to see what it felt like to have brown hair. For some reason,  put aside my age and the resulting changing skin tone, and the fact that my roots were almost snow white. If I had really thought about all of that I wouldn't have dyed it, but sometimes a gal just has to try something new, and an army can't stop her (me).

The medium brown hair dye did damage my hair. Worse was the fact that I had to dye it a second time, because the colour didn't take evenly throughout my hair. So I dyed with medium brown over all of my hair not once but twice. Remembering that the last several inches of my hair had already been dyed blonde to cover my grey, and had been regularly heat-styled, you will realize that my hair was already fragile, and in no condition to use a full head dye even once, never mind twice.

I know that when we think about peroxide in permanent box dye that we purchase in the drugstore or grocery store, we often think of the peroxide being only in blonde colours.  We know that ammonia is in all permanent drugstore dyes, however, often we forget that peroxide is in all such dye whether light blonde or jet black.

Don't forget that regular permanent box dye only will lighten hair by about 2 shades.  If your hair is naturally black, you will be able to go to medium brown with box dye, if dark blonde naturally, you could go to light blonde from dark blonde. In my case I'm adding colour to hair that predominantly has none.  To do that, peroxide and ammonia are also necessary.

Peroxide does lighten hair, but it also opens the cuticle of the hair shaft so that the dye can be deposited.  Hence, the permanence of the dye.

So yes, even black permanent dye does contain peroxide.  That's why people who have greys will not get any sort of lasting coverage from products that do not contain peroxide and/or ammonia.

There I was, almost at waist length, a year into my long hair journey. After dyeing twice with the medium brown, my hair felt like straw, almost as though it had been bleached.  It wouldn't have been so bad if my hair was already in tip-top condition, but as I said before, it had already been previously dyed and heat treated.

I cut 6 inches off my hair at that time. I definitely cut out the worst of the damage, and that's when I started my plan of growing but cutting off 1/2 inch quarterly.

It didn't take me long though, to realize that I was fooling myself by thinking that the brown hair looked anything like natural on me, and I had to touch up my roots so often that it wasn't even funny.

However, I knew that if I lightened it back to blonde, I would inflict severe damage on my hair. That kept me dying it brown for close to another year. My hair was looking good though with my new trimming plan and the new hair care that I had discovered.

There I was though, two years into my long hair journey, closer to waist than to BSL, and I knew that I absolutely had to get rid of the brown.  It was not flattering to my face, it required constant touch-ups, and most importantly, it just wasn't me.

I did the best I could do with honey lightening, over the course of a couple of months, but there was only so much I could do to lighten my hair. When it was finally light enough that I was comfortable with trying to dye it blonde again, I could not achieve the blonde I wanted right away. There was too much orange in my hair, causing a brassiness. I can't believe I did it and still had any hair left, but I had to lighten my hair two more times in order to get my old blonde shade back.

Needless to say, my hair was damaged yet again, only much worse than before.  Now I had breakage as well.  I had to cut off another six inches, and then again 3 years into my long hair journey; a year ago, I cut off yet another six inches. With all of the trims I've had in between, I've just about cut off as much hair as I've grown in the past four years.

All of that major dyeing took place before I learned that coconut oil could help to lessen peroxide damage.  For almost two years, I have been using coconut oil on the length of my hair before touching up my roots, and I am convinced that it does help reduce damage. However, I must say that just because it seems to work for me does not mean it will work for anyone else who reads this, but I will add that if you're going to colour your hair anyway, a pre-oiling with coconut oil certainly can't hurt, unless you're allergic to coconut oil.

As I've said before, there will be no more six inch chops in my future. I'm only trimming off about a quarter of my growth every three months, which still gives me six inches of growth per year.

So that's the full story on my damage, and a reminder that all permanent box dyes have peroxide.

Well, my hair did indeed enjoy the deep treatment yesterday, and I hope to be back tomorrow with my progress report for August.

Love to all.

To Dye Or Not To Dye?

It's pretty much agreed upon by everyone that colouring hair is damaging, and that to attain extreme hair lengths, it's best to stick with one's natural colour.


However many of us, for whatever reason, choose to dye our hair.  For many in their teens and twenties, it's to experiment with colour.  For those of us who are older it may be to cover the silvers.  That is the case for me.  I use L'Oreal's Preference hair colour in Medium Blonde.  It's not to ashy and not too golden--just right for me.

While I know many beautiful women with salt and pepper or silver hair, it's just not a look that I'm comfortable with.  I feel as though I'd disappear if my hair was its natural colour, which is now predominantly white.


I may or may not be correct in that assessment, but I am not prepared to give up my blonde locks.  Whether or not that may change in the future, I don't know.


I do know that by the very fact that I'm colouring my hair, I am limiting its ultimate length. While my real final goal is tailbone length hair, I may have to accept that I won't be able to grow healthy looking hair beyond waist length. I guess I won't know until I get there.


There are some things that I've learned that have helped keep my coloured hair in better shape than it's been in the past.


There has been research done that shows that the application of anti-oxidants before colouring may help to reduce peroxide damage. Ktani, a member of the Long Hair Community, found that coconut oil has these properties. I was one of her first guinea pigs, and I've been coconut oiling my hair before colouring for over a year and a half now. While the evidence thus far is merely anecdotal, I've been very pleased with the results.


I apply coconut oil all over the length of my hair, right up to the roots before a touch-up.  I leave it on for a minimum of 15 minutes and sometimes as long as several hours before I apply the dye to my roots.





I make sure that I rinse very, very thoroughly, and I use a lot of colour safe conditioner afterwards.


Additionally, I try to go as long as possible between touch-ups; I go about 6 weeks.


With regular deep moisture treatments in between colourings, and my regular small trims, I'm managing to keep my hair looking and feeling relatively healthy, and I'm happy to say, split-end free thus far.


So while I would never recommend that anyone dye their hair, I know that many will anyway, so I thought I'd share some of the tips that I've learned.  While they may work for me, they may not work for everyone.  And remember; dying your hair is a commitment.  It does require upkeep, and should you decide to go natural, depending on the colour you use, there will be demarcation during grow-out.  Not everyone is comfortable with this idea.


However, for me, it's a small commitment of time and energy, and it keeps me feeling happy.  Feeling happy with my hair is all that I really want from my hair anyway.