These journals are made different.. the first entry is always at the beginning and it goes down, unlike live journals.

I forgot to use carrot oil today before I washed my hair. That sucks. Over the next month+, I'm going to be conducting some ACV (apple cider vinegar) experiments on my hair every Saturday. For my first experiment this Saturday I used a mixture of ACV + Cinnamon + Coffee + Distilled Water + An egg on my hair and it worked beautifully! The only thing is that my hair didn't stay clean very long.. I had to wash it today. Also the coffee and Cinnamon are meant to darken the hair and my mom and her bf are saying my hair looks blonde on the bottom.. I really don't think my hair looks blonde, and I sincerely hope it doesn't. My mom was saying maybe the dye got stripped out (I dyed my hair about 4 times 2 years ago) but my hair was never this light to begin with. I consider my hair a light maple to begin with. But other than that.. my experiment on Saturday went very well.

Today was also an experiment, only it didn't involve ACV. All I did was dilute the conditioner. I poured some in a 32 oz cup (it's from KFC and it has an ugly ass nascar guy) then filled the cup with water from the shower head. I got a new showerhead in my bathroom. I hate it actually. There's wayyyy too much water pressure.. it kinda hurts. But anyway, after I poured the conditioner over my hair it felt soooo smooth. I put it in a shower cap and waited a little while. There was still some conditioner left in the cup so after I rinsed out the first conditioner I repeated the procedure. Then there was still some more left so I repeated it once more. My hair felt pretty smooth when it was wet. And now for the next few hours it'll dry so I just have to wait and see. I'm thinking I'll wash my hair next on Wednesday because I don't think I'd be able to go from now until next Saturday. But we'll see if I need to on Wednesday. One thing about me: I don't wash my hair often. The month of August I had 12 showers. But like I said my hair didn't stay that clean from my Saturday experiment, which is interesting, because Saturday was the 4th, and before that the last time I washed my hair was August 30th. And on that day I added honey to my conditioner, so maybe when I use that I can go longer without washing? There's another experiment I should think about.

So the experiments I'm going to be conducting on Saturdays are as follows:
-ACV after shampoo, then conditioning with the ACV still in and rinsing them both together
-ACV the same method as above, only while using deep conditioner
-ACV after conditioning
-ACV after conditioning without rinsing it
-ACV mixed with baking soda before I condition
-ACV before diluted conditioner

Experiments between ACV Saturdays:
-Adding conditioner to shampoo
-Diluted Shampoo (haven't decided if I'll use diluted conditioner with this or if I'll just do the "regular" conditioning method.)
-CO with diluted conditioner (I'm wondering if I should even do the CO, because then I'd have to use a different conditioner as you're not supposed to use a brand with silicones for this procedure)

I'll be using the same shampoo and conditioner throughout this experimentation. Garnier fructis. Just so that I have one constant variable. Of course the variable is the method of which I do things, and also the ratio of ACV to water that I use, but I'm gonna try to keep that fairly constant as well. I'm also gonna be using the garnier fructis deep conditioner. I think I'm gonna pay close attention to which methods my hair likes best, which ones it responds to the most. And maybe after all my experiments are done I'll use Avalon Organic Lavender shampoo and conditioner with either Aussie or V05 deep conditioner. Speaking of Aussie, I was in a department store yesterday staring at all the different brands in the hair care department, as I usually do, wondering what I'm going to buy some time, and I saw this girl with fairly long hair. I won't say it was in the best condition but it was about waist-length. It was dyed though. I watched her for a while trying not to look too weird, because I really wanted to see what she'd buy. She apparantly was doing the same thing I was doing: scanning over all the different products, occasionally reading the back of one of them. She ended up buying one of the the deep conditioners I have at home: Aussie 3 minute miracle. She got the "deeeeep" kind, I just have the original though. I probably would have gotten the deep kind though at the time but they didn't have that kind then. So that made me happy that someone with waist-length hair uses the same product as me, well unless she was just trying it out for the first time. Anyway, I usually don't use the same shampoo every time I wash. In fact, I usually change every time. But I really can't do that for these experiments, because then my results would be off.

As far as other aspects of hair care, last month I did a microtrim on the 30th, because it was the Morrocco Method (http://www.morroccomethod.com/lunar.html) ultimate day that month for lengthening your hair. I don't know if I'm going to microtrim this month, though. The ultimate day for Root work is on the 22nd, but I think I need to measure my hair on the 25th this month, and I need it to grow as much as it can. The last time I measured my hair was 25.5". Oh god I can't wait til it's in the 30's. Since school started I'm wearing my hair in a bun every day so no one can see how long it is, until September 23rd because I have to wear my hair down for picture day. Well I could wear it up that day and just take it down for the 20 seconds of picture taking, but then it would have a bump in it and it might appear shorter, and I really need to compare the length to how it looks in my picture from last year.

Also, another aspect of hair care, I'm thinking of increasing my intake of horsetail supplements. You're supposed to take 2 of them 3 times a day, but I only take one at lunch. I might gradually make it up to 6 pills per day but yeah, gradually. So if I add another horsetail either this month or next month I'd have it be with my dinner time meal, because I already take 3 pills illegally at school. Right now I take 11-13 different pills a day, because I only take Selenium every 3 days, and MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) 3 times a month.

I really could keep typing here and never shut up, but I have to do my Biology and Sociology homework.

Today I did my ACV before conditioner experiment. (non-diluted conditioner) I was really excited to try this one, I don't know why. I guess that's why it ended up being one of my first experiments.

So experiments my hair loved:
Mix of ACV, cinnamon, egg, and coffee
Diluted Conditioner

Things my hair didn't like:
Diluted Shampoo

I think with the diluted shampoo it was just too much shampoo and it kinda dried out my hair. But I also made another observation. See every time I wash I carrot oil before. But when I did the mix of all that stuff and the diluted conditioner, I forgot/wasn't able to use the carrot oil. But when I did the diluted shampoo experiment I did. My hair felt so nice today rinsing it out, except the top may have felt slightly dry today, which makes me really excited to try the diluted CO, maybe that will be monday or tuesday. And anyway I didn't use carrot oil today just to test my little theory I have going. I guess the answer would be to do the same exact thing to my hair only one time using carrot oil and one time going without. Maybe carrot oil could just be used as a subsitute for hairspray when I put my hair up or something, not that I use hairspray.

I also added some new experiments to the never ending list. Keep in mind I will be using the same shampoo and conditioner even though I usually rotate quite frequently. I added ACV MIXED with diluted conditioner. And maybe also mixed with baking soda. That will depend on how my hair responds when I use baking soda. Another experiment is using the egg as a protein treatment and then using a moisturizing treatment after it. I heard on the forums that most long hair girls use a moisturizing treatment after a protein treatment. I've never tried that yet though, because I haven't done a protein treatment in a while. The one I usually do is Hask's Henna 'n Placenta, which, by the way is a fabulous product. I also use a Hask Henna leave in liquid treatment, though I of course wouldn't be able to do a moisturizing treatment afterwards. I just thought of using the egg because it was one of the ingredients in the mixture my hair loved oh so much.

I got Pantene Pro-V Intensive Moisturizing Conditioner Created For Women of Color in the mail. Gods know I'm not of color, I'm mostly scandanavian actually, but I read a thread about some long hair girls that use it. I used to use pantene a lot, for a few years actually, but it kind of stopped working after a while and then I drastically changed my hair care and my life. Also I always read about what a horrid, horrid product Pantene is. I have to wait until after all my garnier/ACV experiments to use it though of course. I think when I try this product I'll use it with Avalon Organic shampoo, because pantene has a lot of silicones, and Avalon is a really natural product and it doesn't have any. These are the ingredients in the Pantene Conditioner: Water, Stearyl Alcohol, Cydopenasiloxane, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Glutamic Acid, Dimethicone, Benzyl Alcohol, Fragrance, Panthenyl Ethyl Ether, EDTA, Panthenol, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, and Methylisothiazolinone.
Lots of silicones as you can see. But the Jojoba and Coconut oils are very intriguing to me. Maybe I'll have to do some clarifying when I use this product because of all the not-so good ingredients in it. Another thing: the package feels neat. The product seems liquidy.

I decided next month I'm going to increase horsetail intake to maybe two additional supplements of it. I'm going to trim while my hair is wet on the 18th. It's the morrocco day for beautifying. I'm trimming while wet, because I'm thinking it will work better than when I tried with dry hair on August 30th for lengthening. My hair does look longer actually. Anyway, I decided I do need to trim this month because for some reason I am noticing quite a few splits :( Well most hairs aren't split but they're the white dot that indicates cortex damage.

I Learned How To Use Hairsticks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could anything be more brilliant?

My dance teacher told me I'm not allowed to cut my hair before December 18th. I said okay, but I was thinking HAHA that won't be a problem :grin: . Although it makes me kind of feel like I can't move. Or something like that. Like if for some reason I went crazy and was dying to cut my hair.. I'd feel like a jerk doing so. Anyway, she wants my hair to be long so I can put it in a ponytail on the top of my head since I am the Arabian Queen in the nutcracker.