Friday 27 June 2014

Just for fun..

.. I put all my EmergentGlassworks sticks in my hair. I did it for a thread on LHC, and man that was heavy! Certainly not something I'd want to wear for a long time.

Monday 23 June 2014

My hair washing routine

I don't write much about the products I put on my hair. I recently updated the Haircare section a bit, but I think that's all. The main reason for not writing about haircare, is that my routine is terribly unexciting. I don't experiment with new products and oils, never do deep treatments, never do anything special. I've found shampoos and conditioners that work for me, and I'm sticking with them. I was more adventurous when I first joined LHC and started learning about haircare. I tried conditioner-only washing (disaster!), and shampoo bars, which I used for a year or so. I stopped in January (or maybe it was February) this year, for a bunch of reason that I may write about on some other occasion. I successfully transitioned back to SLS/SLES shampoos, and I'm very happy about it.

Shampoo:
I have two shampoos that I really like, both are called Change. The purple one is for normal and fine hair, and the other is for dry and damaged hair. My hair fits in the latter category, but both shampoos work really well. They don't dry my scalp out like many other shampoos do, so I don't get flakies after using them.

Conditioner:
I use the cheapest conditioners I find, and they actually work really well for me. I condition my hair twice when I wash, first with a cone-free one, and then with a mix of cone-free and coney conditioner. For cone-free, I use SoftStyle (find them at Rema1000) and Xtra (find them in the Coop stores). For coney, I use FirstPrice. I also use this one as my leave-in conditioner.
How I wash:
I start by making my shampoo mixture in a small pump bottle. I use a bit of shampoo, 3 drops of Nightblooming's Triple Moon Hair Anointing Oil, and enough water to make it fairly runny. I never fill the entire bottle, that would be way too much.
I always detangle my hair before I get in the shower, because wet detangling doesn't work for me. I also oil my scalp with either Triple Moon Anointing Oil or Khadi Amla Oil before washing. I leave it on for at least 30 minutes, sometimes overnight.
First I wash my scalp with the shampoo dilution. I put a few pumps all over my head, lather a bit, and then rinse out. Then I apply cone-free conditioner to the length of my hair, and put the remaining shampoo mix on my head. Lather and rinse. I then apply cone-free conditioner on my length again, and let it sit for a minute or so before applying coney conditioner on top of it. Let it sit for a few minutes, and then rinse thoroughly.

And that's it. I put leave-in on afterwards, but I'll write about that in a different post.

Thursday 19 June 2014

Vacation

Yep, today is the first day of my summer vacation! I have two weeks off from work, and I intend to enjoy them thoroughly. My boyfriend and I are going to his parents' cabin/cottage/whatever, and that means swimming (unfortunately I don't like swimming), kayaking, eating, and relaxing. It also means that I won't have time to post anything due to crappy internet connection and laziness, so I have prepared a few posts that will be up sometime during next week and the week after. I sure hope that posting thingy works.

In other news, I did a hair fail today. Yesterday I wore a fabulous cinnamon bun held with my floral clips, and it lasted all day. I wanted to re-create it today, and it really felt like I was making the most fantastic cinnamon bun ever. Then I looked in the mirror, and I was appalled! This must be one of the ugliest things I've ever made. I forgot how much of a difference it makes to twist clockwise vs. counter-clockwise. Oh well, at least it's comfortable.

Yesterday:

Today:


Friday 13 June 2014

No jewels

I've finally decided to pass on the Ficcare Jewels. I got an email from Maidenlike, notifying me that she had all 3 colours I wanted in stock, and I really can't justify spending all that money on hair clips. Especially not when I currently find it most comfortable to put my hair up with cheap plastic/acrylic/whatever clips from Ebay. 

I've been a bit torn about it, because the Jewels are so pretty, and who knows how long they will be available. Ficcare may suddenly disappear again. However, I honestly haven't worn any of my Ficcares for quite a while. I occasionally shove an Innovation or two in my hair, but the Maxes are currently collecting dust. I tried them in double buns earlier this week, but they were too heavy. I don't want to buy things I'm not going to use a lot. I either wear double buns with Flexi-8s, or regular buns held with claw clips.

If I were to buy 3 Jewels, it would cost me a small fortune. With shipping, and customs and handling fees, the total amount would be approximately €178. That's a lot of money for a few hair clips! I could buy 48 packets of floral claw clips for that. Each packet contains 6 clips, so that would be 288 clips. Crazy! Alternatively, I could buy 10 size L Flexi-8s (shipping included). I'll stick to the cheap stuff for now. ^-^

Thursday 12 June 2014

Orchid bun

My orchid bun turned out super shiny and sleek today, and I just had to share a picture. Have I mentioned that I love the leopard clippies?? Yes, several times, silly! I think they're so fabulous, and a good match for my red hair. I also love that I only need 4 medium clips to hold a bun. I thought my crazy hair need a ton of clips or huge clips, but no, 4 mediums are enough. These only work for twisted buns though, they won't hold a nautilus bun or a lazy wrap. Or they'll hold it and it will be quite comfy, but the bun will slowly fall apart and become very, very ugly. Trust me, it happened to me today. It looked nice when I put it up at my boyfriend's place, but by the time I had gotten home (took about 1 hour), the bun had become an unrecognizable mess. It was hideous!

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Leopards and flowers

I'm obsessed with claw clips now. My medium floral and leopard clips arrived before the weekend, and they're awesome! Very cheap, and to some extent you get what you pay for. Each clip had a few sharp, pointy bits on the sides, but luckily those could be quickly and easily removed with a nail file. I'm currently wearing the floral clips in an orchid bun, and I wore the leopard clips yesterday, and I don't think they're particularly damaging. They're certainly not more snaggy than a Flexi-8 or a Ficcare can be. I also got a super cute large bow clip in black, and this one had no sharp bits. I'm contemplating getting it in a few different colours, but I already have several other large claw clips on the way. I might wait a bit. 

Aren't the leopard ones pretty?? I'm particularly crazy about those!

Friday 6 June 2014

Fairies

These arrived a lot sooner than expected, so today's buns are very matchy matchy. AB and pink fairies! So pretty! I also decided to change things up a bit, and did braided lazy wrap buns. I should do this more often, it only took a few minutes to do two english braids. The buns are actually the same size, it's just the angle that makes the right one look bigger.
But back to the adorable flexi-8s! I took a lot of pictures, so sit back and enjoy!
http://meninasuitcase.deviantart.com/art/RainbowBummiesParade-167261241

Thursday 5 June 2014

Lazy Wraps

Here's more double buns for you. Today it's lazy wrap buns, one of my favourites when I do doubles. I wanted to do another mismatched flexi-8 'do, using Emerald Dream and Autumn's Ruby Bouquet, but I couldn't find Ruby. I decided to use Roman Stone instead, which makes this pretty matchy in my opinion. If I manage to locate the Ruby flexi, I'll use it tomorrow instead. Seriously, it must be here somewhere! Nevermind, I found it!

It's also pretty obvious that I'm way overdue for some flaming red dye. I missed a few spots in the back when I dyed last time, and those are becoming painfully obvious. The Manic Panic has also faded quite a bit, and my hair looks almost normal again. I've bought 3 tubs of Directions Vermillion Red for my top layer, and two tubs of Directions Pillarbox Red for my bottom layer. I have two days off next week, which would give me plenty of time to dye my hair (it takes many, many hours to do it). I'm a bit concerned about how bright it will turn out and how it'll look on me. I work in a nursing home, and it wouldn't be good if I showed up with crazy hair. I might frighten someone. When I used the Manic Panic, I had an entire week off from work, so the colour had time to fade quite a bit. Maybe I'll have to strand test, and see how it looks. That will be a first, as I'm usually more of a 'slap it on all of my hair and hope for the best' kind of person.

Tuesday 3 June 2014

Double Flexi-8 buns

Ah, double buns.. How on earth did I survive without them? I wore them with size L flexi-8s yesterday and today, which I hadn't done before. I tried it once a while ago, and failed miserably, and thus concluded that double buns with flexis just didn't work for me. Clearly I was very wrong. These buns are so awesomely comfortable, that I did something very silly. I ordered two Fairy flexis, Aurora Borealis and Pink, both size L. I never really liked the Fairy design until I saw it in action LHC, simply because it seemed too childish and cutesy. I guess it is sort of childish and cute, but not too much. I think it will look really cute in double buns. I don't always make much sense.In fact, I rarely make sense. You should never ask me for directions.

http://meninasuitcase.deviantart.com/art/FeelingFree-155386515
Picture time! Yesterday I wore Black Nickle Sapphire and Roman Stone, and today I decided to go crazy and wear mismatched flexis. Behold, Cat's Meow and Daisy!

(I'm not balding, it's just my very light roots)