So I'm starting it. An actual hair journal.

Got myself some jojoba oil and have committed to putting my hair up as frequently as possible or braiding it, or otherwise protecting it daily.

And all on a quest to get the stuff ot my tailbone. I'm breaking off one-to-two-inch long bits from the ends routinely, so I'm fairly certain I'm still growing it, and that I haven't reached terminal length yet, but it's still a transition for me to imagine that my hair can be longer than it is. I'm going to go with this, but I'm not expecting miracles.

Wish me luck.

Hwyl fawr ...

I can't fix that damned soft mutation in the thread title, and it's going to haunt me until Doomsday, damn it. *sigh*

I figured I'd put down my complete routine as thoroughly as possible both for my own benefit and for the curiosity of anyone else with similar hair as mine -- dark, wavy, and insanely thick.

I wash my hair once a week, more or less (more often less than more). I've never washed it every day because, since I don't blow-dry it or use heat on it in any way, I would walk around with wet hair for my entire life if I did that. Washing is as follows:

Hop into the shower and shampoo the roots. Let the lather work through the ends on its own, but I don't do more than just squeeze it through the ends negligently immediately before rinsing it.

I rinse the shampoo completely, then take a lemon-sized glop of conditioner (this is why I only buy stuff that comes in huge bottles) and work it through the ends. I twist my goopy hair into a loose bun on the top of my head and the finish the rest of my shower.

Then, I pull the bun out and rinse the conditioner away. I'm not too terribly doctrinaire about getting out every scrap of the stuff, but I do try to get out the vast majority of it.

I then brush it through slowly and carefully until it's entirely tangle-free and twist it into a firm bun at the back of my neck. Two hairsticks later, it's what I've called my "rock" of hair. Dense and heavy and very large.

I leave it up like this all day. I take it down to go to bed that night but do not brush it out or untwist the resulting rope of hair down my back. I just pull out the hairsticks and undo the bun, and leave the "rope" alone.

When I wake up the next day, the "rope" is still for the most part entirely twisted. Again, I don't brush it out. I tighten up the "rope" and put it back the way it was the previously day, into a "cinnamon" bun and again leave it at the back of my neck.

I take it down that night to sleep the same way (without brushing it out), then wake up the next morning and brush it out thoroughly. That seems to do the trick for at least a few days, during which my hair is very manageable, relatively soft, and shiny.

As I move towards the next "wash day," the roots get oilier and the ends get crispier. :-( Then, it's a week later, and the same process starts.

My hair always feels best immediately after I brush it out that third morning after washing it. If I ever am going to some affair that involves dressing well, I always make sure to wash my hair two mornings before that day.

In between the damp-bun drying and the next wash, I've always just worn my hair down. On occasion towards the end of the cycle, when it needs to be washed, I might wear it in a long braid down my back. However, my default style is "down."

While the wash process I use seems to be quite good, I'm trying not to wear it down anymore. The denizens of this board who have expressed an opinion seem to think that I have not reached terminal length -- which brings up the next source of my Hair Angst.

It's not long enough. This may be due to the fact that I used to wear it hideously short (and I mean HIDEOUS) when I was a teenager, and ... well, you know how most of our self-images crystallize when we're about 17? That's me. I still see myself somehow as having short hair. Ugly, shapeless short hair that looked like a uniform undistinguished dark brown blob on my head. My mom liked it -- there's a few juicy posts about mother-daughter hair battles in there, I'm sure.

I hated it. I usually chopped it off because, as it was thick, dark, and wavy, I had no idea how to handle it. My mother didn't seem to want me to learn, because as long as it looked like shit when long, it meant I'd keep getting it chopped off in frustration. *sigh* She was always a little anxious to agree, "Yes, it looks like brown hay and it always will, just cut it."

So to me, it's always too short. I want it as long as I can get it. Classic would be lovely, but if it doesn't want to stop there, I'm happy to follow it down to the floor.

So, thus begin my attempts to grow my hair. Jojoba oil on the ends, and buns or braids during the day -- most often buns, I'd imagine. This means I'll have to see if I can't chase down more bun styles, although wearing them high up on the back of my head seems to involve neckaches. :-P

And that's the story!

Pob hwyl!

HAIRSTICKS.

If I don't find new hairsticks, I'm going to die. I've found lots of great links here, but ... well, this is the problem with unemployment, you see. NO FARKIN MONEY. And if I'm gonna have my hair up every single day, I want something decent to put in it.

I think I'm going to use low buns for the most part, despite the fact that the high buns look better. I have to brush my hair out to thoroughly when I've put it in a high bun that it's not worth it. Low buns don't look as nice, but they are also easier in terms of maintenance; when I take them out, I barely need to brush my hair at all.

Have been wearing it up every. Single. Day.

Aside from the back of my neck being cold, I haven't noticed any bad side-effects. I wear the bun low, so it doesn't hurt my scalp or my neck.

One thing I've noticed is that my hair is in far better shape when it's kept up all the time. It's softer, and I barely have to brush it at all to smooth it out before I go to bed. (I do sleep with it down; putting it up to sleep or braiding it is out of the question.)

Hope to report some nice growth soon!

Pob hwyl ...

Just a quickie update -- I've been keeping it up ever day, and not only have I gotten used to it, but the condition of my hair has improved vastly. It's softer, smoother, doesn't tangle, and I barely have to do more than finger-comb the waves now. I'd always worried that it would get oilier faster, but it hasn't so far (although for some reason it does when I wear the bun high up, which I generally don't).

At any rate, the condition has improved significantly. I'm seeing far fewer to no broken inch-long bits on my bathroom counter when I brush it out, at least. If this doesn't help it grow past that damned stopping point at my beltline, nothing will. Cross your fingers.

Also, I've been listening to Radio Cymru every day, and my Welsh lessons are going very well! My tutor seems impressed with my progress, and I need to do more vocabulary work today -- hwyl fawr, wir! Mae'r iaith yn hyfryd, ac dw i'n hoffi dysgu Cymraeg.

Shwmae!

Had a lovely night last night at my Welsh tutor's house; I hadn't realized how much like Italians the Welsh were. Dark, fond of beer and wine, tons of food and conversation, and when the beer reaches critical mass: SINGING! Her husband has the most wonderful deep baritone. They were singing hymns when my tutor vetoed the idea and put on Tom Jones and Catatonia. :-)

And some hair news as well -- I think my hair is actually growing.

WHEE!

I'm nervous to say it, actually. I've been wanting it to grow past my waist for so long now, and it's been stalled there for quite literally years. Then, I came here and started reading up and listening to the advice of others with much longer hair, and I began to bun it every day.

And ... I think it's growing. It seemed longer when I got into the shower today, when I took it down before getting in.

This is a big thing for me -- my hair might actually be growing! I might actually reach classic at some point, and even go beyond that!

*happy dance*

That plus I think I've actually found a good conditioner for me. Bad news: I don't have any more of it. I was using Tres Semme's Vitamin E and Aloe for color treated hair (I don't color treat my hair, but I don't really care what the labels tell me on those things, I just grab whatever's closest).

When I ran out, I grabbed some Vitame E Moisturising conditioner instead. It never occurred to me that there would be a difference. I mean, that stuff's all the same, right?

The main evidence to the contrary is that my hair has been drier and rougher than it was before. The ONLY thing that changed was that conditioner. And when I turned the bottles over, the list of ingredients was at least substantially different, so contrary to popular belief, they aren't "all the same." This is a bit of a shock to me, as I'm fairly cynical about these sorts of products.

So I've got to get through that bottle of stuff I've got now, and then it's back to the Vitamin E/Aloe stuff, and I know my hair will know the difference. It's really surprising what a huge difference it makes.

So -- lovely night at my tutor's house with a bunch of her friends, lots of Welsh speakers there so I got to practice. And now it looks like my hair is growing! And I may have found an actual shampoo/conditioner combination that really seems to make a difference.

I've come to a conclusion. I'm not sure why I'm doing it, and it sounds sort of dumb when I try to explain it to myself.

I'm going to bleach out a small streak of my hair and dye it bright purple.

I'm not sure why I feel the need to do this now, and I'me TERRIFIED because I've never touched my hair chemically. I use almost no product on it at all unless it's shampoo and conditioner. I don't blow-dry it, I don't heat-treat it. I've never hennaed, I've never hot-oiled, I've never done ANYTHING. This is one of the reasons why my hair is as long as it is and relatively healthy. I don't ***** with it.

And for some reason, I just got a wild hair (literally, I suppose) and have decided that I must make a streak of it behind my right ear purple. Not the whole thing -- GOD IN HEAVEN, not the whole thing. A lot of us have had hair-cutting nightmares. I've had hair-bleaching nightmares as well. Somehow, I seem to fear that I'm going to end up getting the bleach on more of my hair than I want to and ruin it. This is my hair for gawdz sake. A huge part of me. I'd be crushed if I were to damage it.

But ... for some reason ... it needs to be purple just behind my right ear. Bright, vivid, deep purple. And then I plan on wearing it exactly as I've been wearing it, up in a bun 90% of the time.

I bought a blonding kit (even typing the word "blond" in relation to my hair is scary) and will be bleaching out a section of it. I'll probably have to do it a few times because my hair is so dark. Once when I was in high school, I tried streaking it with peroxide (I was a nitwit). I left the peroxide on it forever, and I literally saw no difference whatsoever in my hair. I don't know why -- my hair's not even black, just extremely dark brown. But I suppose that if one must be a nitwit, best there be absolutely no consequences whatsoever, right?

So I'm going to walk down to Hot Topic and buy some purple crap for my hair. I went there with my roommate when she bought some funky clothing last Saturday, and one of the kids behind the counter had very dark, curly hair with a pink streak in it that looked quite healthy, so I hope she's there today so I can ask her about how she managed to get her natural color out enough to make it such a bright pink without ruining it.

I imagine I can just use the purple crap to put a dark purple wash on the roots as they grow out, because I'm not doing this twice. That's probably the worst thing about screwing with your hair -- you have to keep doing it, and not only do I HATE using product on my hair with a passion, but I don't want to make it high-maintenance. I like just washing it, bunning it, and forgetting about it. That's one of the smug things about having very long hair is telling short-haired people with trendy styles that you never bother with it when they ask you, "How did you get your hair so long?" and then look expectantly at you waiting for you to tell them about this doubtless complex, arcane process. They always look disappointed when I tell them I shampoo the roots, condition the ends, and otherwise ignore it.

So I did it. And experienced everything from full-on "OH-SH*T" mode to relief to being slightly annoyed because the difference wasn't that profound.

I had a bleaching kit that a friend of mine bought for me when she'd heard I was interested in a purple streak, and I got a bottle of purple goop at Hot Topic (which is a charming little store; the kids that work there are really sweet).

This was a HUGE thing for me. I tend not to care for messing with my hair. The same friend that bought me the bleaching kit is the one that changes her hair color when she changes her socks. She adores playing with it -- it's ash brown normally, so it's flexible depending on what she wants to do with it. I personally think that a fair, Titian red looks best on her, almost a darkish strawberry blond, but she's gone black, black-and-orange, blonde, blonde with blue tips, Irish Setter red, and just about everything in between. She's starting law school soon and will do green. (I'm pulling for purple, but ... )

I'm not into that. I don't mess with my hair, partly out of a disinterest in high-maintenance junk like makeup and hair styles, and partly because I've -- as most of you can sympathize with -- invested nearly ten years of growth in my hair and do not want to screw it up. I also tend to get compliments on it because it is unusually thick and dark and pretty healthy. I don't like to mess with it both out of disinterest and disinclination. So this was a huge thing for me.

So I got the highlighting cap and chopped an ENORMOUS hole out of the left side so I could bun the other 95% of my hair and keep it safely out of the way of Teh Evol Bleach?. (Bleach frightens me.) I did this, and then chopped a less huge hole just behind my right ear so I could fit the braided tress that I'd isolated out of it. The braid was so cute. It was teeny -- like, index-finger thickness. :-)

Then, I mixed the powder and peroxide, and then took a deep breath and started smearing it on my hair. Taped the developing cap over it and went back to sit in front of my computer for a bit. Started a timer for forty minutes.

Went to look at it after twenty minutes had gone by and promptly panicked because THERE WAS THIS HORRIFIC HONEY COLORED GARBAGE HANGING OFF MY HEAD OH MY GAWD WHAT THE H*LL IS THAT SH*T THAT'S NOT MY HAIR AAAHHHHHH!

So I washed the bleach off and figured that twenty-five minutes was good enough for anybody. :-) Shucked the kit and crouched under the bathtub faucet to wash out that one tress as thoroughly as I could, and tried not to snivel like a sissy at my poor, now-blonde hair.

It did turn out extremely fair considering that my hair behind my ears is pretty much black. If I'd left it on for longer instead of getting jumpy, I probably could have gotten it all the way to colorless.

I let it dry afterwards, just air-dry while I left the rest of my hair in its bun. And tried not to notice that I had Evol Hair? that was a wrong, bad, and inappropriate color. Blonde may be nice if that's what you are, but I have nightmares not only about cutting my hair, but about waking up to find out that I'd mistakenly bleached it. I've seen lovely blonde hair, but just not on my head.

So I let it dry, combed it out when it was -- and felt awful about how dried-out and stiff it was. :-( Gonna have to condition the hell out of it. My poor hair! I'm sorry, baby! Mommy still loves you!

Then, I got the purple cr*p and smeared a bunch of it on the now-evil blonde tress. It was so dark it looked black, but at least it was DARK again. Then, I sat there with it up in one hand for fifteen minutes -- and swore at myself for forgetting to put a towel down on my bathroom counter, so I now have purple streaks on the counter. I even have frigging purple towels, so I could have stained them without even caring! *shakes head*

Then, it was time to wash out the purple junk and condition with the leftover Tres Semme that I love so much but ran out of a while back (gotta get more).

Now, it's back in its bun, looking pretty much exactly how it looked before since the purple looks black when it's wet. I'd toyed idly with the idea of making a tress fire-colored with gold and bright red, but opted for the purple instead. I hadn't realized that my hair would bleach to fire-gold, so if I ever decide to do this in the future, I could just use a bigger tress, bleach it out, and then do half of it red. *shrug* Unlikely, though. I like my hair as it is. :-)

So I'll try to take a picture when it's dry. For the moment, it's back up in its wet-bun and will be dry again in two days.

Hwyl fawr!

Dw i wedi prynu fy nghondisiwnor hoff yr wythnos yma, efallai ddydd Llun. A dw i wedi cyfarfod fy nhiwtor i, Paula, yn Long Beach heddiw am fy ngwers Gymraeg. Mae hi'n moyn fy mod yn cystadlu yn yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol nesa'. Mae'r cystadlaethau am ddysgwyr, a dw i wedi dysgu llwyth! (Dw i wedi dysgu Cymraeg gyda Paula ers mis Mai.) Mae hi'n credu fy mod yn gallu ennill.

Okay, that was a bit obscure, but I'm practicing. I've bought that conditioner that I like so much, the Tresemme stuff, on Monday. I was thrilled to find it. It wasn't in the Ralph's, but I was able to find it in the nearby Pavilions. If you have hair similar to mine, you may want to give it a shot: Vitamin E and Aloe Revitalizing Conditioner. It's good enough for me to notice it, which means it's pretty good since I generally just buy whatever's in the biggest bottle, and I'm a sincere skeptic about hair products.

And I had a really nice day today! I drove to Long Beach to meet my Welsh tutor and practice talking and asking her some grammatical questions, and she wants me to put my name in for the Welsh learner's prize at the next national Eisteddfod in Wales. :-) She thinks I can win, and I have learned a great deal, so I'm delighted at the opportunity.

CAVEAT LECTOR as far as the Welsh is concerned -- if I've made any mistakes, mea culpa.

Achos mae rhaid i fi ymarfer ...

Roeddwn i'n mynd i'r Coedwig Sequoia Genedlaethol!!!

Roedd hi'n anhredadwy. Roedd y coedydd yn enfawr -- y bodau y mwyaf yn y byd, dw i'n credu. A goch, fel pe roedden nhw wedi rhydu.

Roedden ni'n gadael ddydd Llun, dim yn gynnar -- naw o'r gloch, sydd yn hyfryd. (Dw i'n casáu i ddeffro'n gynnar.) Roedd fy ffrind a fi, gyda'i thad, yn mynd ar hyd y 5G, i'r 99G a'r 198G i mewn i'r Coedwig Sequoia Genedlaethol.

Mae'i thad yn cerdded at Mount Whitney nawr. (Bacpacwr ydy e.)

Roedden ni'n trefnu'r pebyll, ac wedyn yn coginio swper -- stiw bîff gyda'r cwcer cludadwy bach a seidr afal.

Roedd hi'n hawdd i cysgu -- roedd hi'n tawelwch ac yn tywyll.

Roedden ni'n deffro y bore nesa' i naw o'r gloch, dw i'n credu. (Dw i ddim yn siwr.) Wedyn, roedd ei thad yn gadael ar hyd ei ffordd at Mouth Whitney! Fe fydd e'n cyrraedd ddydd Iau nesa'. Fe fyddwn ni'n ei godi e at Whitney Portal, ar gyfyl Lone Pine.

Wedyn roedd e'n gadael, roedden ni'n cerdded tipyn bach -- roeddwn i'n dringo carreg mawr, gwneud o ffeldspar. Mae hi'n hawdd i dringo felly -- fel felco. :-) Fe fasai hi wedi anodd i lithro neu syrthio.

A wedyn, roedden ni'n mynd i'r Lost Grove (Llwyn Ar Goll). Llwyth o ffotograffau, ac dw i'n mynd i anfon un i fy mam.

Roedden ni'n gyrru adre' yn y noswaith ddoe, ac yn cyrraedd ... Hm. Efallai, wyth o'r gloch? Dw i ddim yn cofio.

Roedd hi'n ryfeddol. :-)

(Any errors are entirely my fault.)

Translation follows ...

I went to the Sequoia National Forest!!!

It was incredible. The trees were immense -- The largest living beings in the world, I think. And red, like they'd rusted.

We left on Monday, not early -- nine o'clock, which was great. (I hate getting up early.) My friend and I along with her dad, took the 5N to the 99N to the 198N into the Sequoia National Forest.

(Her dad's walking to Mount Whitney currently -- he's a backpacker.)

We set up the tents and then cooked dinner -- beef stew on the portable camp stove and apple cider.

It was easy to sleep -- it was so quiet and dark.

We woke up the next morning at nine o'clock, I think. (I'm not that sure.) Afterwards, her dad left on his way to Mount Whitney! He's going to arrive there next Thursday, and we'll pick him up at the Whitney Portal near Lone Pine.

After he left, we walked around a bit, and I climbed a huge rock made of feldspar. It was easy to climb, like velcro. It would have been hard to slip or fall.

Afterwards, we went to the Lost Grove. Lots of photos, and I'm going to send one to my mom.

We drove home yesterday evening and arrived ... maybe eight o'clock. I don't really remember.

It was wonderful. :-)

Okay, so after poring over the ingredient list in two conditioners, Good and Bad (AKA Tres Semme VitE/Aloe and VO5), I think I MIGHTMIGHTMIGHT have arrived at the problem.

I need humectants (glycerin) and silicones. The oils that everyone loves are death for my hair.

So -- time to try out a silicone serum or some such thing as that, with glycerins as well or another humectant.

Fe brynais i "silicone serum" ychydig o ddyddiau yn ôl. Jheri Redding -- dw i'n gobeithio y bydd e'n dda. Roedd e'n costio chwech dolarau a hanner -- dim gormod. Mae e'n ymddangos ocei.

Roedd fy ngwyliau Nadolig yn ... bleargh. Roedd fy mam yn syrthio ac cafodd ei choes hi'n torri. :-( Ei ffimwr, uwch ben ei phenglin. Nawr, mae hi'n defnyddio "walker," (cerddwr?) a mae hi'n orffwyll i fod yn well -- mae hi'n casáu'r "walker." Dw i'n gallu ei ddeall ... Fe faswn i'n bod yr un.

Dw i'n credu bod fy ngwallt yn tyfu tipyn bach hefyd -- dw i'n gallu gweld tipyn bach mwy o wallt yn y drych. O dan fy ngwast. *croes bysedd* Efallai, dw i'n gallu cael gwallt "classic."

Wel, fe ddiflannais i ym mis ... ble? Rhagfyr, efallai? (Na, y flwyddyn yma.) Nawr, dw i'n teimlo'n well oherwydd dw i wedi darganfod gwaith! Mae GWAITH `da fi! O'r diwedd!

Yn wir, mae dewisiad `da fi, efallai. Gobeithio. Dw i wedi clywed o'r temp agency ar Wilshire Blvd, a roedd cyfweliad â chwmni ym Mhasadena hefyd. Dw i ddim wedi clywed o'r cwmni, ond roedd y fenyw sydd wedi fy nghyfweld i'n fy hoffi i, dw i'n credu. Mae'n obeithiol ...

Mae newyddion arall sy'n ymwneud â fy ymweliad i Gymru, hefyd, ond mae'n dipyn bach cymhleth. Efallai, mae'n ymwneud â theledu :-). Mwy o newyddion yn y dyfodol!

Wel, mae fy ngwallt wedi tyfu tipyn bach -- 38.5 modfedd nawr. A dw i'n gwneud "bun cover" gan "crochet." (Crosiei?) Fe ffurfiais i genhinen bedr o edau felyn, a fe ffurfiais i "bun cover" sy'n ffitio `da hi, fel pentagon oherwydd mae gan cenhinen bedr pump petal.

Nawr dw i eisiau gwneud "bun cover" gyda rhosod (y blodyn, nid y lliw), a gyda "pansy," hefyd. Wedyn, dw i'n gallu cynllunio mwy o "bun covers." Efallai, hyd yn oed bydda i'n gallu eu gwerthu nhw yma. O leia, bydda i'n gallu gwerthu'r patrymau. Fe fasen nhw'n hyfryd fel "crochet" Gwyddelig, gyda llawer o les, neu lawer o lain.

Efallai, dw i'n gallu eu gwerthu ar eBay. :-) Dw i'n gwerthu llawer o bethau nawr, felly dw i wedi trefnu fy musnes fach-fach.

Pan dw i'n gorffen, mae rhaid i mi gael ffotos.

Mwy o borffor heddiw ... Mae fy rhes o wallt porffor wedi colli lliw tipyn bach yn ddiweddar. Felly, heddiw fe ddefnyddiais i y "Raw" a brynais i o Hot Topic i wthio'r lliw.

A ... dw i ddim yn credu fy mod yn dweud hwn ... dw i eisiau diliwio mwy o fy ngwallt -- nid llawer, dim ond tipyn bach ger fy ngwddf -- i ei wneud coch, melyn, a phorffor.

Dw i'n orffwyll. ORFFWYLL.

Dw i'n gallu defnyddio "Raw" coch o Hot Topic eto, a mae `da fi y porffor nawr. (Am y melyn, does dim rhaid i mi ddefnyddio lliw.)

Dw i ddim yn sicr, er hynny. Dw i'n hoffi bod fy ngwallt yn dywyll. Mae'r porffor yn dywyll ... Dw i'n gallu defnyddio coch tywyll, ond y melyn? Bydd llinell yn amlwg rhwng y gwallt du a'r gwallt melyn. A `da fi, dw i ddim yn hoffi gwallt melyn o gwbwl. Efallai, os mae`da ti gwallt melyn, mae'n neis, ond dw i ddim yn ei hoffi i mi. Yr holl o fy oes, dw i wedi eisiau gwallt du. Roedd gyda fy mam gwallt du pan oedd hi'n ifanc. (Mae'n lwyd nawr.) Du a syth, fel Cher. (Ond dim hir.)

O wel. Fe fydda i'n penderfynu. Dw i'n hoffi coch, melyn, a phorffor i gyd, ond ... efallai. Dw i ddim yn gwybod.