Okay... time to start my hair journal! If it's anything like other journals I have kept in the past, it will just be full of random thoughts and jumbled streams of consciousness (or should that be 'mingled' streams of consciousness? See, I'm digressing already!), so don't expect anything spectacularly interesting )

I guess I'll begin with a brief overview of my hair...at the moment it's about four inches shy of BSL (bra-strap length for the uninitiated!), it's of fine to medium texture, is usually straight but can sometimes have a slight wave, and it's natural colour is light brown that streaks blond in the summer (LOOOOVE those streaks!!) However, only about a quarter of it is natural, 'virgin' hair - the rest, though it looks pretty healthy, is colour-damaged from all my colour experimentations in the last few years (not including this last year). I guess I'm lucky that a), It's managed to stay close to my natural colour, and b) It hasn't broken off from all the colouring I put it through (and boy, there was a lot of that!)

So basically, I have two goals that are rather paradoxical I want long hair that is all natural. I know that to achieve both of these goals means years of patience and commitment, but I know I can do it!! I'll be meeting my length goal first (waist-length), having a few trims along the way, then maybe if I'm really sick of harbouring colour-damaged hair I'll have a major cut to get it all natural... I don't know, I suppose I'll just see how things pan out.

Thus concludes my first journal entry! I'll jot down some of my hair history, haircut disasters, etc. next time I'm here (which will prolly be pretty soon, I'm kinda obsessed about my hair right now!) But hey, aren't we all... wink

Ha, what did I tell you? Back already. Still, it's a pretty good way to ward off the boredom of a Sydney winter...

So, my haircut disasters. I've had a few, but none worse than my January 2001 cut. I was holidaying in London at the time (a pretty dreary place, no offence to the Londonites out there...), and had done some shopping (the shopping's very good; there, I've redeemed myself) and was heading back to my hotel when I was accosted by a girl, prolly 16 or 17 years old, asking if I wanted a free haircut. I said no, just as an instinctive reaction, and continued walking.

GOD, HOW I WISH I HAD KEPT WALKING!!! That's right, I WENT BACK. Can you believe it? My reasoning at the time was that, hey, I have some time to kill before dinner, the training salon this chick represented was a very well-known one, and it was free! So I went back, told her I was all for it, then followed her into the shopping centre where the training place was located.

It all looked pretty good, except for the nervous faces of the other 'models' (or should that be 'lab rats'?) that were there. Again I considered leaving when I was sitting in the chair, and again I went against my instincts and stayed. Here's a lesson for you girls that I had to learn the hard way ALWAYS TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS.

Anyway, my hair was pretty much the same length then as it is now; a few inches shy of BSL. I was going to just ask for a trim, but then came my second huge mistake I got impulsive and asked for a bob.
So the trainee starts chopping away, already shorter than I'd specified (I'd said shoulder length). Before too long her supervisor comes over, and starts yelling at her for cutting it the wrong way, saying something like, "See how you've cut it at the wrong angle? Now we'll have to cut that off and start again!!" She takes over for a moment, before handing the scissors back and marching away to shout at someone else.

Then, my butcher (it's a far more appropriate description than 'hairdresser') starts whinging to me about how that woman is such a bitch, and how she's not her usual supervisor, and so on, all the while chopping away at my precious hair.

Anyway, I left the place with a bob that was shorter than chin-length! cry Admittedly, it was well-cut (the supervisor spent a good ten minutes cleaning up the mess her student had made of my hair), but it was soooo dismally short. I spent the next two days crying in my hotel room, feeling utterly heartbroken, and ashamed of my perceived vanity to boot (this was before I'd discovered long hair sites, so I'd always hidden my obsession with my hair, thinking that I was vain, superficial, and more or less alone in my love of hair).

I still feel sad when I think about it, but I know that I will never, EVER go above my shoulders again - short hair is just so annoying, unmanageable, unsensual (is that a word?), and doesn't do anything for me at all. So, I guess it was a lesson that I had to learn the painful way.

I've been growing my hair ever since, but did have a few inches of badly colour-damaged hair taken off in November 2002, and a trim in April this year, but none since, and it's still going strong. The colour damage, well, that's a different story, also painful, also a lesson learnt, but I'll save that for another time. wink Take care guys!

I just realised something bizarre - I've been a member of the LHC for less than a week, and already it's become my favourite long hair site! I'm not usually so fickle (at least, I hope I'm not!), so this kinda says something about how great this site is! Either that, or how the vibes at another long hair site have taken a turn for the worse...

Ahem, moving right along... D I used the damp-bunning method for work today, with great results - my bun stayed (more or less!) in place, and my hair felt super-soft when I took it down two hours ago. I'm having some issues with my ends, though; while they don't often 'split' as such, they do go a bit bendy, sometimes even at a sharp right-angle. I've tried dusting them, but they keep reappearing, and I'm wondering if it might have something to do with the damp bunning (I've been doing this for years, not even aware how beneficial it was!) It's more likely that my ends are just super-fragile from my colour damage. deal So yeah, that emoticon was pointless, but it's cute anyway!

I finally figured out how to do that avatar thingy! :D That's pretty advanced web programming by my standards ;)

The final season of Dawson's Creek premiered in Australia tonight, so I got to take a look at what Katie Holmes' hair is looking like these days (or those days, I should say - the episode was filmed last year). I've mentioned before that I have some colour damage, from my teenaged haircolour experimentations (ahhh, that takes me back...), and I've sort of been using Katie's hair as a guide as to how I should be managing my damaged hair.

You may remember that she was the model for Garnier Lumia haircolour about two or three years ago, where they bleached her beautiful chocolate brown locks and dyed them a cinnamon red (it looked okay, but kinda fake, whereas Katie's style is more one of natural elegance... in other words, it just didn't suit her).

Ever since, she's been growing out her colour damage, whilst keeping her hair relatively long at the same time. You've probably also noticed that she hasn't bothered trying to hide the growth line either, meaning that there is a sharp contrast between her glossy, naturally brown new growth and her brassy red damaged hair.

I actually have a conspiracy theory in regards to this: I think that, when Garnier dropped her as their spokeswoman, she decided (or was advised) to become an unofficial spokeswoman for natural hair, simply by showing the world how Garnier hairdye ruined her hair, and how much worse it looks than the four or five inches of natural hair that she has since grown. Farfetched? Maybe, but I know it's what I would do if I was in her position (not that that's likely anytime soon) ;)

By the way guys, I'm not trying to rip off Katie Holmes here, I think she's stunning, and a much more talented actress than people give her credit for. I'm just using her hair as a comparison... but why am I explaining this? It's not like you can post a nasty reply to me...so ha!! I WILL TALK, AND YOU WILL LISTEN!!!!

Ahem, where was I? Ah, yes. So in tonight's episode, her hair was a few inches below her shoulders, much like mine is now. I've been contemplating a trim for a while now, to clean up my shaggy ends, but I just...can't...get myself to make an appointment. Maybe I will before my 21st birthday party in early October, then I can get it styled as well...hmmm...decisions, decisions!

I can't believe you've gotten this far! Well done, you are either an immensely tolerant person, or a sadomasochist, one of the two :D Enjoy your journey to longhairland, hopefully I'll see you there in a few years!

It really is incredible how tempting a cut can be. All day yesterday I was tossing up whether to keep my hair long, or get it cut to my shoulders, just because I saw a pretty shoulder-length cut in a magazine I was reading! The thing is that I've had my hair like that before, a couple of years ago when layered bobs were all the rage, and can remember how fickle it was: one day it would look amazing, and the next it would look awful...

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the human mind is not a static entity (oohh, scientific!!), and what we really, really want one day can be completely the opposite of what we want the next. It's like, I want to have long hair, and yet I don't - it just depends on what frame of mind I'm in at the time. But the thing is, I'm almost certain that I'm a longhair at heart, because I'm always wishing that I'd kept growing my hair whenever I do get it cut (after the 'honeymoon period' of the new cut is over, of course). :rolleyes:

But try telling yourself that when you're in a phase of shorthair dreaming, and it sounds pretty lame. It only regains its importance AFTER you've had your hair cut, and by then it's too late.

Maybe I'm just a nut, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who goes through this kind of self-doubt about my hair, on a regular basis! Throw in the fact that I will eventually have to have my colour damage taken off, and a cut sounds like the rational choice to make. But then, I want long hair NOW... it's just so frustrating! Not to mention worrying - it's at this point that I start beating myself up for being so shallow and obsessive :x

Anyway, I'm keeping my hair long for now, and I've decided that I will get a trim just before my 21st. And hey, the Aussie summer is just a few short months away (YAYYY!!)...hmmm, lots of rhyming there....which means that I can be expecting a growth spurt when the weather heats up. :D Not that I'll be staying in Australia for the whole summer, but I'll tell you about that next time! 8)

Note to self: when in a melancholic, introspective, and all-round crappy mood, STAY AWAY FROM THE ONLINE JOURNAL.

:D My god, I was in a bad hair mood yesterday!!! Thankfully I decided to go out instead of staying home having a personal pity party. I know that I definitely am a long hair, I just have these huge moments of doubt sometimes (I'm sure many can relate!)

My hair felt awesome last night - whenever I go clubbing I always leave it loose and wild, and let it fly around me when I'm dancing. I could feel it brushing the backs of my arms for the first time in a looong time; it was just fantastic. Of course, there was a bit of detangling to be done this morning, but I'm not one of those girls who would wear their hair in a bun (or a 'snood', :D can you imagine?!) to a club just to avoid some tangles. Long hair is to be enjoyed, people!

Anyway, I mentioned in my last entry that I'm not spending the whole summer in Oz, becaaauuse.... I've snagged a job as a ski instructor in South Lake Tahoe, California!! I'll be working there from December through April, then doing a bit of travelling afterwards, I'm SOOOOO looking forward to it!! I adore skiing, it's one of my favourite sports, but any Aussie will tell you that we're not renowned for our world-class slopes :D and so we have to do a bit of travelling to get some good powder action. Of course, there is good snow in New Zealand (which is just a puddle-jump away from Oz) but the facilities there aren't up to scratch just yet, though I'm sure they will be when some multi-billionaire entrepreneur discovers NZ's potential.

So my hair plan is thus: I get it trimmed in early October, then let it grow until I'm back in Australia, in April/May next year. By then it will probably be time for a major cut, in which the vast majority of my colour damage will go, but it's also possible that I'll want to keep it long regardless of the damage. We'll see what happens!
Until next time, guys and gals, Jules xx

I went for a surf on Monday for the first time in weeks, so not only do I feel relaxed and happy, I have the beginnings of my Summer blond streaks starting to appear! (Even though it's not even Spring yet, but hey, I'm an optimist, most of the time). ;) The best thing is that I haven't seen them for a couple of years, what with all my colour changes, so I'd forgotten how pretty they are. If I do say so myself, which I do, he he! I'm so fortunate to have something occur naturally that other women spend a fortune to have done at a salon, I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner. Ah well, better late than never...

So why haven't I been surfing lately? Because it's been freakin' cold here, that's why. Also there have been a lot of Great White shark sightings (the juvenile males come north during the Winter to mate), as well as the usual hammerheads, bronze whalers, and tigers... in other words, it's enough to keep me out of the water, even though no-one's been attacked at my usual surf spot for decades! But the air temperatures are SLOOOWLY getting warmer, though the water's still cold, and the sun was shining on Monday so it was actually pretty nice. What? A hair journal? Oh yes, so it is... :D

Perhaps, then, I should tell you about one of my long-hair inspirations... the late and great 'Queen of Makaha', Rell Sunn. She was a stunning Hawaiian lady with waist-length brown hair, and also happened to be one of the most graceful and talented longboarders in history. Sadly, she died of cancer a few years ago, when she was in her late forties.

I guess I was inspired by her because she had a very active and beach-based lifestyle, yet always had beautiful, natural, wavy hair. I've got some video footage of her at her home break in Makaha, Hawaii, and she's on this approximately 8-9 foot wave, riding it perfectly with her long hair flowing in the breeze behind her. It's just incredible, as I'm sure you can imagine. :D I hope that one day, my hair will be doing the same thing. Actually, it's already starting to feel great when I'm in the surf; it feels so much longer when it's wet! I was probably a mermaid in a past life ;)

On a different note, I bought a couple of long-hair-inspiring DVDs the other day... Tombraider and Braveheart. Kmart was having a sale, how could I resist?? It sounds silly but Lara Croft is one of my inspirations as well. :oops: How embarassing... I'm inspired by a fictional character... :D Still, Angelina Jolie's hair does look incredible in the movie, even though it's extensions, and like Rell Sunn she has a *very* active lifestyle yet always has gorgeous hair. And OH! I almost forgot! Yesterday I wore my hair in a french braid to work (inspired by Lara, he he!), and my boss told me how great my hair looked!! YESSSS! :rockerdude:

I haven't seen Braveheart in years, but can still remember how gorgeous William's wife's hair was, as well as the hair of the French princess at the end... hmmm, I might just have to set aside some couch-potato time this weekend :D Later y'all.

Ahhhhhh.....thank god it's Friday! Being that I only work three days a week (and, um, Friday isn't one of them!), I guess that might make me undeserving of a little Friday joy.... but hey, like I care. I've scheduled my couch-potato time (tonight after dinner - I'll be watching Braveheart whilst eating Tiramisu) and yes, I am going out tomorrow night so I'm not completely unsocial!! (or is that anti-social?)

Anyway, I digress.... Today I spotted a beautiful older lady with tailbone-length grey hair, loosely braided; it was absolutely stunning!! It was in great condition too, and suited her style perfectly (she looked like a real earth-mother type, with a long flowing dress and bare feet). I hope I keep my hair long when I'm older...

I watched Tombraider yesterday, it really is the perfect movie to watch when your hair starts to feel like a hassle (not that mine was, but I'm just trying to commit that fact to memory for when I have to deal with future short-hair longings). :) I'm really looking forward to seeing the sequel; I think it's coming to Australia in a few weeks.

Hmmmm, what else? It's funny, it always seems like I have nothing to talk about when I'm online, but heaps of things to talk about when I'm not... you know what I mean? It's like, you think of something, or remember some experience that you've had, and go, "Hey, I should write about that in my hair journal", and then of course you forget all about it when it comes time to write it down (or is that 'type' it down?) Ah well. :rolleyes:

I promise that next time I'm here, I will actually have something to talk about!! Still, I guess when it comes to growing your hair long, you'd rather it to be incident-free. See you later people!

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how Hollywood's leading ladies all seem to be growing their hair long? It occurred to me today when I picked up the October issue of Cosmopolitan, with the stunningly beautiful and incredibly talented Angelina Jolie on the cover. Her hair (I think it's natural, but don't quote me on that!) is just approaching her waist, and looks so much more beautiful on her than her short crop of a few years ago (she must have been inspired by Lara Croft's long locks too, he he) 8) Then there's Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron, Drew Barrymore, Demi Moore, and heaps of others that I can't think of right now, that are growing their hair long from the short cuts they had in the late 90's.

Hmmmm... I might just be onto something! How great would it be if long hair became as fashionable as it was in the 70's (not that I was alive then, and not that fashion should matter... ;) ) We'd all have a serious head start on the fashionistas who are currently wearing their hair in short, choppy cuts or shoulder length bobs :D

Anyhoo... there's also a beautiful pic of a young girl with classic-length, naturally wavy, sun-streaked hair that I'm definitely going to put in my long-hair scrapbook, if I ever get around to starting one! I think it's for an Avon ad or something - any Aussie gals reading this will know the one I mean (assuming they read Cosmo, of course!) Funny how pictures can be so inspiring, and how much they can affect you (read my August 22nd entry if you don't believe me!) I am sooooo glad I didn't give in to the temptation of a cut, because I would seriously be regretting it now if I had!! I guess I'll just have to keep coming back here and venting whenever I get like that. If nothing else, being in front of my computer means I'm not at a salon getting my hair cut, which surely counts for something!

Okay then, that'll be my project for the next few days... start a long-hair scrapbook filled with inspiring pics from magazines, as ammunition against my next period of shorthair dreaming. Take care guys!

My hair felt great today at work - even though I just had it in a ponytail (I like having it in a French braid when it's a couple of days after a shampoo), but I was running late for a change :rolleyes: Note the sarcasm. Anyway, I could feel it brushing between my shoulder blades as I walked, which I haven't felt for a long time... it was wonderful! :D I can hardly wait until it's brushing against my lower back.

I'm not really into the whole hair measuring thing, I prefer to keep tabs on how it looks and feels different as it grows longer... so I guess this shoulder blade brushing thing is sort of a milestone for me. :) I'm also noticing things like how my shadow looks different (and better!) as I'm walking along the beach, with my hair flowing in the wind behind me. Being that it's not yet BSL, there are many other people here who would have more 'beach shadow flow', but I'm still pretty stoked about it!

The weather is gradually starting to get warmer here in Sydney, though admittedly I'm rugged up at the moment (it's almost 10:30pm Sydney time). I'm starting to work on my fitness levels (just a few more months until I'll be skiing every day!) - I've started running on the beach again, playing netball, and surfing more often. Which means that for the last couple of weeks I've been washing my hair almost every day, making the ends dry and the roots quicker to oil. I've given it a break for the last two days, so I think I'll massage some coconut oil into it soon, leaving it on overnight then washing it out in the morning. Perhaps it's just psychological, but I'm pretty sure that this does help my hair a lot; it's so much shinier and healthier-looking after I oil.

I'm kinda blabbing on about nothing here... ah well. I'm pretty happy that the worst part of my growing phase (from shoulder length to BSL) will be over in a few months - I'll just have to make sure that I hang in there until April, as per my afore-mentioned hair plans. See you next time kiddies! :DD

Nope, it's not psychological - the overnight coconut oil treatment really makes my hair much, much shinier and healthier looking! :D It feels great at the moment; very silky and moisturised.

And when you have great hair you can take on the world!! (Cue shampoo commercial jingle). Seriously, though, I had an awesome day today: I bought the perfect pair of jeans (MARCS Babydoll, AU$160) which, granted, are the priciest jeans I've ever bought but are worth every penny. They're a straight-cut dark wash, that look really retro somehow, especially with my 60-cent op-shop T-shirt and my straight hair hanging down.

What else? I had my car passed for rego without any repairs needed. This is awesome because tracking down the right tyres for changing last year was a serious hassle (apparently the tyre shipment was delayed because the cargo was caught in a cyclone off the coast of Taiwan).

I saw the new Disney Pixar flick Finding Nemo, very cute but still not as good as Monsters Inc., IMHO. Better than being at work though... ;)

And, a text message from my new beau Rob, signed 'Wobby' (this is pretty romantic for a 23-year-old Aussie guy, LOL!)

There was perfect surf this arvo, but I went home and snoozed instead because the good swells are supposed to stay there all weekend! :rockerdude:

Finally, it was beautifully sunny and warm all day, and none of my family or friends died. Yes, that's morbid, but you've got to be grateful for those days it doesn't happen! I'm a strange chick, in case you hadn't already guessed. 8)

While I was shopping I picked up the new Seafolly swimwear catalogue: with one of the models being a stunningly beautiful dark blond with HIP-LENGTH HAIR!! She truly looked like a mermaid, with her hair wild and natural looking, and just so gorgeous; it's seriously inspiring! I'm considering putting the pictures up on my bedroom wall, but unsure whether my parents, friends, and boyfriend will think it's strange having a female bikini model on my wall! Meh... I'll just leave them wondering :D

I'm having an early one tonight, because I'm going to the Animal Welfare League in the morning, in hopes of finding my Grandma the perfect kitten (I'm the family's cat expert, major cat lover, and owner of three adorable moggies). A tough job, but someone's got to do it!

No luck on the kitten for Grams - they won't be in season for another month or two, but that's okay, I can wait. It's important to get the perfect moggy anyway!

Thought I'd just give an update on the supplements I've been taking, for future reference:

2-3 tablets daily of Nature's Own L-Lysine Amino Acid
2-3 tablets daily of Silicaplex 5000 Plus, which contains silica (from horsetail herb), Zinc, Manganese, and Vitamin B6.

I've found that Biotin works really well for my hair too, but it's been impossible to find since that PAN Pharmaceuticals disaster of a few months ago. :( Still, I discovered that Herron has recently developed a new Hair, Skin and Nails formula that contains Biotin (I can't remember the dosage though), so I'll prolly give that a go when I run out of the Silicaplex.

My hair is looking and feeling great right now! :D I'm so glad I finally decided to let my natural colour grow out. A lot of people will probably relate to this; I tried for about two years to match my natural colour with hair dyes (impossible to do, because they always fade or go off-colour, regardless of the strength!), then realised that, had I just let my natural colour grow through that time, it would all be virgin hair again by now! (D'oh!)

I guess it's just about biting the bullet (excuse the wearied metaphor) and committing yourself to your hair's future health, rather than how it looks right now. Of course, you know it will all be worth it in the end, but those first few months are pretty tough, I'm sure many will concur.

I just scanned through my previous entries and realised that I'd never mentioned how my hair became so colour damaged in the first place... well, no time like the present (I'm really pulling out the crappy metaphors today!)

It all started about five years ago, when I was in Year 11 at school, and had never dyed my hair before. I realise now how gorgeous it was then, but at the time it felt really mousey (it was light brown with only very subtle streaks of blond around the hairline). So, I had some blond streaks put through it, and it looked fantastic... for about a month. Then I noticed my regrowth line, and really didn't like the look of that too much, so I went in again after four weeks to have more streaks put in.

This time it was not so good. The stylist was just a couple of months out of her apprenticeship (I know this because she was in the grade above me at school when she dropped out in Year 10), and was pretty careless to boot: she used cling wrap instead of a proper streak cap, she was really rough when pulling the strands through, and I had to actually point out to her a section that she hadn't pulled through (she was about to apply the dye when she was only about 3/4 of the way through pulling out the strands - I guess she got bored or something! :rolleyes: )

The end result was that, rather than being a natural-looking beach blond, I had become a football-cheerleader blond!! Or so it felt, anyway, it just didn't suit my natural style. :?

Anyway, my friends loved my blond locks (especially my uber-blond friend Karen, personally I thought we looked like Romy and Michelle when we were together, not a good look!), though my parents didn't so much (where had their innocent baby girl gone? who was this Bardot-esque chick living in their house? and so on), but I stuck with it for another month or two before deciding that I wanted my natural colour back.

I had no idea how difficult this would be!!

I decided to go straight for the home hair dyes (first mistake; I should have just gone to a salon). I was pretty tentative at first, having never used a home hair colourant before, so I selected a temporary dye in natural brown. Worked perfectly, except for the fact that it lasted less than four shampoos. The exact details get a little blurry after that, but for the next year or so I continually tried new dyes (usually L'oreal ones) in different shades of brown, each working quite nicely but fading pretty quick.

Then came my dreaded January 2001 cut (shudder). The one good thing about that cut was that several inches of colour-damaged hair were taken off (at this point they were starting to feel very dry).

A couple of months later I started my Journalism course at Uni, with medium-brown coloured hair, and noticed that it was starting to shine green, yes, GREEN, in the sunlight! EEEKKK!!! I'm not sure if this was because of the heavily-chlorinated pool I was swimming in (my Uni was in the country, several hours from my coastal home), or just because I'd never used a red filler between the blond and the brown... anyway, it looked pretty hideous, believe me!

By then many people were going through their first-year-of-Uni-change-of-image phase, so I jumped on the bandwagon with several of my friends and dyed my hair pitch black (though the box called the shade 'very dark brown'). I loved that look at first, until Winter arrived (man, those inland Winters are cold): my skin became pale, I had a red nose and eyes most of the time from the cold, and my black hair just didn't suit my Winter complexion one bit.

By this stage I knew a lot about home hair colourants - I mean, who wouldn't after three years of using them? - and can now share one very important piece of advice that you probably won't hear anywhere else:

~When selecting a home hair colourant, place your hand over the model's face to see if the shade is actually the one you want. It may sound pathetically obvious, but dying your hair that colour won't give you the model's face (though you can tell lots of girls fall for this: they're the ones walking around with the mulberry-coloured hair). It's just about guaranteed that the prettier the model is, the uglier the shade will be: it's all about compensation.~

It's ironic, but after three years of stressing about my hair colour fading too fast, I was suddenly stuck with a colour that wouldn't budge, no matter what I did - I even tried using an anti-dandruff shampoo in an attempt to lighten the shade, but that did nothing at all (well, it made my hair even dryer, but that doesn't count).

Still with me? Wow. I'm impressed!

I was in dire straits at this point (stop with the frickin' platitudes Jules!! Yes, that's right, I'm insane), when I realised that the only thing I could do, other than being stuck with goth hair, was to bleach it out. So I bought a box of Loreal Superblonde Pre-Lightener, and did just that.

I can't tell you how hideously dry my hair was after this. I was lucky that it didn't all fall out, though I did lose much more hair than usual when I rinsed the conditioner out. It looked hellishly bad, as I had expected it would, so I bought a couple more boxes of dark-blond dye (Copenhagen, I think the shade was), but these didn't work at all. A hairdresser later told me that hair reaches a point where it just won't take any more dye, so I guess my hair had reached that point (and no wonder!!)

I finally conceded defeat with the home hair colourants. I don't want to even think about how much cash I must have spent buying them all! So, I went to the salon where my close friend Bec was doing her apprenticeship. She looked at me and said in an incredulous tone, "What the f*** have you done to your hair!!??" She put in a red filler and a gentle colourant, which immediately looked much better, and after that (with the exception of a few touch-ups now and then at salons ONLY) I've been going natural ever since.

Whew! Talk about a colossal entry! It's pretty painful just thinking back on that time, though admittedly nowhere near as painful as my January 2001 haircut disaster (at least I never shed tears over my colour catastophes!) About a year ago I discovered long hair sites, in an effort to find ways of growing my hair faster, and then that morphed into the realisation that I've always wanted my hair long.

And so, that's how I came upon my goal of having waist-length, all-natural hair. Thankfully my hair is incredibly resilient, so even the severely colour-damaged bits are looking quite nice (though nowhere near as nice as my 14 months worth of virgin hair!) Anyway, we learn from our mistakes - and I've learned enough from my mistakes to know that I'm NEVER going to dye my hair or cut it above my shoulders again. Happy growing people! :D

Hmmmm.... I'm really puzzled about something. I did a hot-oil treatment on my hair last night, using coconut oil and a warm towel, then left the oil on overnight and shampooed it out this morning. I wore a damp bun to work, and have just taken it down now - to find that my hair is dryer than it was before I oiled!! It was also quite tangled and dull. :? This doesn't make much sense, because I've been having great success with the coconut oil lately. Weird... maybe my hair is 'overconditioned' from the oil, or maybe the oil has actually done the reverse and sapped all the moisture from my hair...?? I'll put the coconut oil away for a week or two and see if I notice any changes, and I'll try misting with distilled water instead like Feye does (BEAUTIFUL sig pic by the way Feye!!)

The Tombraider sequel is being released in less than three weeks, on September 25th! Looking forward to that one. While I try not to harbour regrets (it ain't healthy, folks), I remember promising myself after first seeing the original Tombraider that I was going to grow my hair that long, but, of course, I didn't, and I feel kind of sad about that now! Had I known there was going to be a sequel then maybe it would have been easier (or maybe I'm just making excuses!) - because I find that if you have an actual future date in mind, your goals are easier to keep. It's like, rather than meeting your goal of length, which can seem pretty ethereal at the best of times, and impossible at the worst; you're meeting a goal of time: which, assuming armageddon doesn't arrive anytime soon, will almost certainly come.

In other words, had I grown my hair from the time of seeing the first Tombraider to the time of seeing the second, it would be just about classic length by now - which also happens to be just about Lara Croft's length! Meh...live and learn. 8) My time milestone that I've set is April next year, when I return from my stint as a ski instructor, and I guess when that time comes I'll decide what to do next.

Take care everyone!

I'm eating the most divine cookie imaginable right now: a white chocolate soft cookie made from a Betty Crocker packet mix. They just don't come any better than this! So much for working on my fitness levels... :rolleyes:

I was exceedingly impulsive today and had my hair trimmed - I called at 1:30pm and had it done at 3pm! I'm so glad I did though, my ends feel ten times better than they did yesterday. Also, I didn't know this until I arrived, but my stylist Fiona is growing her hair long too (maybe she knows something about upcoming hair trends??), so she knew to take off exactly what I needed: just over an inch of dry ends.

I also did some all-important hair shopping today: I bought some apple cider vinegar, some distilled water and a hair mister, some new elastics (the perfect size!), and a new brush (my old one was looking pretty worn). The elastics are perfect because they wrap around three times, holding the pony firmly but not too tightly, and the pony sits nicely with them in (i.e. it doesn't sag or stick out heaps). I'll have to buy more of those, they're quite a find!

I'm feeling bad for Karen Marie at the moment; it must be incredibly annoying to keep reassuring people all the time about something that shouldn't affect anyone but herself (check out her journal if you don't know what I'm on about). This is prolly a bit of an evil idea (but then, I am a bit of an evil girl! :twisted: ) but if I was Karen Marie, I'd take a picture of myself and Photoshop it, making it look as though I'd cut my hair short, and post it on TLHS messageboard. Everyone would be horrified, but then at least they'd find someone else's hair to stress about. ;) Just an idea KM!

I also bought those hair vitamins that I mentioned a couple of posts ago (the Herron Hair, Skin, and Nails formula) which I'll use in conjunction with the Silicaplex. It's funny, but even a trim of 1 1/2 inches has made my hair feel considerably shorter, so hopefully these vitamins will give it a growth boost... I really am impatient sometimes! I guess I'm just missing the growth I had when I was taking Biotin supplements daily; hopefully they'll be back on the shelves soon.

And that is all I can think of to write about! Take care guys! :D

Having re-read my last post, I'm craving those cookies again, but they've all been eaten! Now, I wonder who's responsible for that? ;)

Upon closer examination of my ends, I discovered that my trim wasn't as good as I first thought - there are some bits longer than others :suspect: Weird, Fiona is usually an excellent cutter... hmmm. I'll get my Mum to re-trim it tomorrow morning, and if she does a good job I may just have to hire her on a permanent basis ;)

I bought three bottles of Nature's Own Biotin tonight, from vitaminzone.com.au. I've been doing this emailcash thingy lately, and they're one of the rewards partners, so it's a bit of a bargain, and I guess I'm just too impatient to wait for the health food store to restock! :rolleyes: Going overboard on the emoticons too... :sleep: :shocked: :disbelief: :rockerdude: :deal:


I've misted my hair with distilled water a few times, still too early to see any definite results, but I think it may be making my hair softer and shinier... I'll update on that in a few days. For some reason my hair has been tangling more than usual lately; it could be ill effects from the coconut oil, or the styling products Fiona put in my hair (I'm sure they were a party house of cones), or maybe it's nothing more than a few bad hair days. Maybe I just feel like having a whinge. Maybe I'm just being obsessive. Maybe I should go to bed now.

This journal really is a great place to vent frustrations! As long as you all know that I'm not so cranky all the time... :D

Mum re-trimmed my ends for me yesterday, and she did an awesome job - so yes, she's been officially 'hired' as my new stylist (a real bargain, considering she does it for free!) Even though my hair feels much shorter, I definitely prefer it when the ends are neat and blunt, rather than a mess of split ends. I might get her to trim it again in early December, before I leave for California, depending on what condition my hair is in at that stage.

I've run out of L-Lysine, but I don't think I'll buy any more; I didn't notice any difference in my hair's growth rate or overall quality. So now, I'm just taking the Silicaplex supplement as well as the Herron Hair, Skin and Nails formula, and I'll take Biotin three times daily when it arrives. :D

Better not be late for work... :rolleyes: See you all later! Jules xx

I really am empathising (or should that be sypathising? Meh - you know what I mean!) with Joliebaby's hair dilemma at the moment. I too often wonder whether I am really 'a bobgirl at heart masquerading as a longhair' (beautifully phrased, Jollie!), but especially now that I've had a trim, I seem to be wanting to trim even further - back to my shoulders, specifically.

I know that I've been through this dilemma before, but back then it actually felt like a dilemma, whereas now it's feeling like a rational decision. So it's really made me wonder whether I care more about the condition of my hair rather than the length... I'd always thought that the length came first in my mind, but now that I've had some colour damage taken off, I want it all off...NOW!

Of course, I wouldn't be able to have it ALL cut off (unless I had it cropped - not a hope in hell, baby!), but I could quite comfortably have another 2 1/2 to 3 inches removed. I'll give it a few weeks of consideration. 8)

I'll be doing my very first apple cider vinegar rinse soon! Are you proud? :D I was stoked at how inexpensive the stuff was; for some reason I'd gotten the idea that it was exclusive, high-end delicatessan style vinegar, not three bucks for a large bottle at my local supermarket! I've posted a question on the mane board about it, so if you have any tips for me I'd appreciate them muchly! :D

Keep enjoying your hair, everyone! Jules xx

I'm seriously spending way too much time on the net! Still, it's all in the name of saving money for my trip - and my parents pay the phone bill, he he he! :twisted:

The classic movie The Wizard of Oz was on TV tonight - Judy Garland had such gorgeous hair! The funniest thing is how the length varies: in one scene it will be just below her shoulders, and in the next it will be mid-back! I guess only a longhair (or wannabe longhair) would notice something like that... :P

My brother also informed me that The Wizard of Oz is not just a random tale, but a commentary on the US economy at the time the film was made. Dorothy is representative of the average American; the scarecrow represents the agricultural sector; the tinman represents industrialism; and the cowardly lion represents bureaucracy (funny that...) :D The yellow brick road (analogy for gold) represents the path which each American must take towards wealth (the emerald city: green to connote the US greenback). And here I thought it was just a cute story... :rolleyes:

I've only been misting my hair with distilled water for a couple of days, but already I'm noticing a difference: it is definitely softer and shinier, and it becomes more wavy as well! This I'm definitely liking; I think wavy hair somehow suits my personality better (that sounds incredibly stupid, but it's true!). Also, my hair rarely lies dead straight; it has a kink to it which makes it kind of in-between straight and wavy, and I'd prefer it to be one or the other (preferably the other).

I've put WAAAAYY too much thought into this.

Man, I think I seriously need to work more. :? I'm just thinking out loud here... I guess I'm what you'd call 'underemployed', in other words I don't work as often as I'd like to. The thing is, I'll be going overseas in December for several months (I know I keep mentioning it, but I'm sooo looking forward to it!) so it would be unfair for me to apply for a second job now if I'll be bailing on people in a matter of weeks. I'll have to think about that one... :ponder:

Also, if I was working more, I wouldn't feel guilty about playing more, if you get me - I'm already limiting my expenditure a bit much now, by doing things like... oh, I don't know... pouring out my concerns in an online journal on a Saturday night when I should be out getting drunk like my friends probably are at this very moment? Ah well... I figure there'll be PLENTY of opportunity for merrymaking when I'm in Lake Tahoe! ;)

Talk later! Jules xx

Did you know that you can sell used hair products on ebay??? I didn't until today, but I'm so stoked about it - a couple of months ago I bought two TIGI Bed Head products on a whim, and they didn't work for me (no wonder, they're seriously packed with cones!), but they certainly left a dent in my savings! Well, not really, I'm just being melodramatic, but they did cost more than forty bucks together.

But, I've just listed them on ebay, and so I should get more than half my money back! Assuming they sell, of course, but you know how ebay people are when it comes to brands... :D I'll let you know how they go, not because you're actually interested, but because it's something for me to write about. :rolleyes:

What has worked for me, though, is the ACV rinse - I can't believe how shiny my hair is! This is definitely going to become a part of my routine. Being that it was the first time I'd ever done it, I did the rinse between the shampooing and conditioning, and that worked brilliantly; the conditioner glided on like silk! :tongue:

The smell is pretty vile, though - I liken it to super-cheap, rancid cask chardonnay. :puke: (Yay, I've been looking for an opportunity to use that emoticon! Here, I'll use it again :puke: :puke: :puke: ) How sad that I actually know what super-cheap, rancid cask chardonnay smells like...but then again, I am a Uni student (technically speaking!)

Later kids! Jules xx

I've got bids on my TIGI products already! YAAAYY!! I love selling stuff on ebay, because you're basically getting paid to get rid of your excess clutter - in other words, it doesn't feel like work at all, merely 'tidying'. :D And no, I'm not getting paid to promote ebay... really!

I was thinking last night about the irony of these hair journals: you're posting something on the Internet for the world to see, and yet for me it's far more private than it would be to have it written down in a notebook in my bedroom. For one, the only people who would be reading are fellow longhairs (or wannabe longhairs!) like myself, therefore they don't think it's odd to have several thousand words written solely on the topic of hair. And two... you never know who might be rifling through your stuff at home, so there you tend to censor your writings a bit on the off chance that someone else will be reading them.

And, the beauty of online journals is that you're typing, not writing - it's so much easier and less time-consuming. Thanks to the site developers, owners and operators for giving us such a great facility - you guys rock!

Now to get back on-topic. I've noticed yet another benefit of misting with distilled water: I can go longer between washings. I used to wash my hair at least every three days, but it's been 3 1/2 days since my last wash, and doesn't feel like it'll need another until Thursday (it's Tuesday afternoon right now). I'm pretty sure this is the result of the distilled water, though it could also be the ACV, or a combination of the two...either way, I'm happy.

I was reading through Pixna's once-a-week washing thread, and it makes a lot of sense. Unlike many of the others, though, I don't find washing a hassle (I actually really enjoy it; it's therapeutic!), but I'm always on the lookout for ways to improve the condition of my hair, so I think I'll give it a try. I'll start with washing twice a week (that's more or less where I am now), then gradually work my way down to 3 times a fortnight, then eventually get to once a week. I'll post my routine here, as for some strange reason I find it hard to keep track of how long ago it was when I last washed. :?

I'm being a bit long-winded here, but I feel like being garrulous today, so NERR! ('Nerr' being the expression used in my childhood to mean 'I don't care what you think, so there!') :P

I guess it makes sense at this stage for my hair to require less washing - I'll be 21 in a matter of weeks ( 8) ), so I'm well and truly out of my adolescent phase of excessive sebum production (yes, I read my women's mags :rolleyes: ). Not that I ever allowed myself to be a greaseball, but I did need to wash my hair almost every day. I had a bit of acne going for a while there too, *shudder*. Thank god that cleared up! (With the help of a special contraceptive pill, of course - I was never patient when it came to bad skin).

Plus, it's a handy time to start doing it, because I don't want to be constantly washing my hair in California when I could be skiing or partying - and THAT, my friends, is as good a reason as any. ;)

I had a serious workout yesterday: the surf was dead flat, so I decided to paddle my longboard out into open water (the first time I've ever done that) and I ended up paddling all the way around the headland to the next beach! My muscles were feeling totally pumped, the water was clear, the sun was shining; it was all just so intense and beautiful and natural! It was a little scary too - I think I've mentioned before how sharky the Sydney waters are in the cold months, and though I didn't see any fins, I saw several schools of flying fish - and fish will generally only leave the water when they've got a reason to. :o It was a great experience though, something I'll definitely be doing again.

My life has been pretty quiet lately; it's been a couple of weeks since I had a big night out. I find that after a while, I get into a pattern of laziness, and that if I leave it too long I actually have to force myself to go out in order to break through my lethargy! So, I'll allow myself to bum around for another two days, but on Thursday I'll be heading into the city for the night: a friend of mine is performing in a play at the Pilgrim Theatre (very exciting!), then I'll be meeting up with one of my future Tahoe housemates at her Uni (one of her fave bands is playing at the Hunter Bar of UNSW), then I'll head back to Rob's place at Tamarama Beach. Should be fun! ;)

And I think I have officially run out of things to talk about! (Write about...type about? Meh...) Till next time, folks. :D

And here I was whinging about my boring life... :rolleyes: I've just returned from a last-minute ski trip, and feel totally revitalised! And a little sore; I always manage to injure myself one way or another when I go skiing but it's sooo worth it!

Our ski season was even crappier than usual this year, so everyone was really shocked when several inches of fresh snow fell earlier this week. Very strange for mid-September; I'm blaming it on El Nino. Anyhoo, it was just fantastic - very soft and heavy-going (that's Spring skiing for you) but wonderful nonetheless; great cover, no crowds, sun shining, complete and utter BLISS! Less than three months to go until I have that every day...*happy sigh*

I've been working on my jumping (or 'freestyle aerial' if you want to get fancy about it) techniques lately, which is a fun but painful business - awesome when you land properly, not so awesome when you don't (and I've got the bruises to prove it!) But as the Black Diamond T-shirts say, 'No pain, no gain'. Then there are the ones that say 'No falls, no balls' which I take as a personal insult - you sure as hell don't need balls to have courage, baby! But don't get me started on that one... :rolleyes:

Stangely enough, right after my last post on minimising hair washings, I hopped in the shower and washed my hair. I just really felt like it for some reason, it was prolly all the talking about it being therapeutic and what not. So, that was Tuesday evening, and right now it's Friday night, still looking clean but feeling super-duper-manageable, if you get what I mean - it's not oily yet, but it's not soft and silky either. I'll probably put it in a French braid tonight, if my poor worn-out arms can manage it, then wash it tomorrow evening, whether I go out or not (haven't decided yet).

I'm still pondering whether to have my hair cut back to my shoulders before my 21st or not... :ponder: On the one hand, it really doesn't need another trim, but on the other, I want to look good for all the photos, and I wonder if that's possible with 'nothing-length' hair (which I'm rather aware of having at the mo). Actually, I know it's not - I also had nothing-length hair for my 18th, and though it looks shiny and healthy in the photos, it doesn't look like it's in a proper style, so to speak.

BTW, by 'nothing-length' I'm talking slightly shorter than halfway between shoulder and BSL - not long enough to be called long (in my humble opinion) but not short enough to be called an actual style, for example a bob. Sure, it's a convenient length as far as ponytails, braids and updos go, and a length that you have to put up with if you ever want to be a longhair, but definitely not a favourite of mine. I'll let you know what I decide. 8)

Nope, I haven't decided on a cut yet!

Just an update on hair washing: I washed today at about midday, using my Hairdresser's Formula, and it feels a bit fluffier than it usually does after washing...hmmm. I'll give it a long brush before I go to work tonight; hopefully that will smooth things out a bit.

Forgot to mention, I've got a casual job as a delivery driver for a Chinese restaurant, starting tonight. Not exactly glamorous, but it will get a bit of extra cash coming through (and stop me whinging about being underemployed!) I'll let you know how it goes...once again, not because you're actually interested, but because it's something for me to write about. :D Plus, being that it's such an easy job to fill, I won't feel guilty about leaving them in a few weeks when I head to California.

I have several different bottles of shampoo and conditioner in my bathroom that feel like they've been there forever, at least compared to my shower gels which usually need replacing on a weekly basis. :rolleyes: I like to alternate my shampoos, always have...I guess I just like the variety, and apparently it's good to alternate shampoos to prevent build-up (don't know how true this is, but it's a 'scientific' excuse that I like to use!) So in my shower at the moment, I have:

~ Hairdresser's Formula shampoo and conditioner
~ Pantene Smooth and Sleek shampoo and conditioner
~ Alchemy Lavender shampoo
~ Alchemy Ylang Ylang shampoo
~ Alchemy Avocado and Calendula conditioner
~ Alchemy Macadamia and Wheat conditioner

The Alchemy products are organic and sulfate free, and smell fantastic; the Pantene I use only occasionally (I'm scared of all the cones, but can't bring myself to chuck them out!); and the Hairdresser's Formula is sort of an in-betweener: it's light, but works very well (usually - I'm a bit baffled by this fluffiness I've got at the mo... :confused: ) I've also just recently purchased some Avon Herbal Care samples on ebay (don't look at me like that! They were a bargain, okay?!) and they're due to arrive next week. I guess I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to haircare...but then again, I bet most of us are! ;)

GRRRRR..... :evil: I somehow just managed to delete an entire journal entry - I got an 'invalid session' message, then tried to go back, but my text had disappeared! *pout* Not happy!

I've been suffering some serious withdrawal symptoms from having the LHC board down too. :(

Okay, not really, but I am glad it's back! Just as long as it doesn't 'invalid session' me again [shakes fist threateningly]. :twisted: Actually, I'll post this now, to see if it works...

Okay, we're in business. I'll try to remember what I wrote about before...

Since I had that trim a couple of weeks ago, I've been considering having it cut even shorter, back to shoulder-length. I guess I've been a bit disillusioned with my length for a while now; it just feels like it's not growing at all, and that I'll never reach my goal of waist length. *Sigh*

So yesterday, I did the most traitorous thing imaginable: I bought Short Hair magazine from the newsagent! :shock: :shock: :shock: I guess I just wanted to be sure that I was definite about what I wanted to do.

The thing is, rather than helping me decide, it's actually made me more confused than ever! There were some gorgeous shoulder-length styles, yes, but there were also some absolutely hideous ones. And then there were the pictures of cropped 'dos... I almost laughed at some of them, they looked so bad (check out this mag if you have some time to kill, it's pretty funny in a black-humour kinda way).

And so, after flicking through said short-hair mag, my hair felt (you guessed it) incredibly long, and incredibly beautiful, which of course just made me feel incredibly befuddled. He he, befuddled...what a cute word.

So basically, I have absolutely no idea what to do - and while I would normally just wait until I made a decision, I have to consider my 21st - I want to look my best, hair included (and who wouldn't?)

Thus concludes my rant for today; hopefully I'll be in a better mood later on!

I really am hogging the journal board today! :D

I completely forgot to mention in my last post about my 'ebay adventures' - specifically, my ebay wig-buying adventures!

:shock:

Okay, so that was a deceptive comment, I didn't actually buy a wig, but I was really thinking about it for a while there. It seems really funny now, sort of like remembering a funny incident from my childhood, except that this happened, um, yesterday.... :oops:

I'm putting it down to temporary insanity as a result of the LHC board being down (kidding, kidding! I'm likely to get booted from the boards at this rate :D ). I was checking the sale of those TIGI products that I listed last week (they both did really well; $14.50 for the Ego Boost and $15.50 for the After Party, both sold to the same bidder), then decided to type in 'hair' to see what it came up with.

Lots of wigs, is what it came up with! Some were really gorgeous, too - there was one made from human hair that was really close to my colour, and another was long, honey-blond and curly (though a little fake-looking, being synthetic). I then discovered that my Mum used to have a wig in the 70's, similar to the first one I mentioned (I'd asked her for her opinion on this grave matter). She said that though they looked pretty real, especially the human-hair ones, they were really hot (i.e. didn't allow the head to breathe), and made you feel very self-conscious to boot, because you got paranoid that everyone was suspiciously examining your hair, even when they weren't.

To be honest, I was aware of this already, as one of my friends has had to wear a wig for years (she has alopecia; it's just awful). Thinking about that really put my own hair issues into perspective, and made me realise that a wig isn't the way to go, not for me, anyway... and I realised that if I started wearing one just for fun, it could really hurt, embarass or anger my friend, which is the last thing in the world I want to do.

Actually, the last thing in the world I want to do is commit a mass-homicide, but you know what I mean.

My Biotin should be arriving soon, which I'm looking forward to - my growth could really use a boost (man, I have some serious impatience issues!) See you next time kids! :P Jules xx

Omigod Omigod OMIGOD!!!! <Dances around excitedly>


I'VE FOUND IT!

:D :D :D :D :D

Found what, you say? Found IT....a dress....THE DRESS. The most incredible, sexy, beautiful, magnificent, stunning dress in the ENTIRE WORLD! And I'll be wearing it to my 21st birthday in just over a week from today!!!

Description? Well, if you've seen the movie Blue Crush, you'll know what dress I'm talking about. If you haven't, go and rent it right now.















You back yet? Okay. You know the scene where Anne Marie goes to the party in that gorgeous black dress with the plunging neckline? Well, the dress I've got is almost exactly like that, but better - instead of a plunging neckline, it has a halter neck with a long keyhole down the front (very sexy without being skanky - you're just showing a hint of skin), and a plunging back......man, it is sooo beautiful!! The 'skirt' section almost floats around my knees, the whole thing is just so flattering; like something Sarah Michelle Gellar would wear to a premiere; AND I already have the perfect shoes to wear with it! (My high, strappy black Pierre Fontaines).

<swoon> I never could have believed that I would fall in love with a dress, but seriously guys, I am absolutely smitten.

PLUS, this solves my hair issues - it is so obviously an 'updo' dress that it would be an insult if I wore my hair down! I'm really happy about this, because I know in my heart that I didn't want to get my hair cut, so this solves all my problems.

:D :D :D YYEEEESSSSS!!!!! :D :D :D

Well, not ALL my problems... I did crash my brother's car into the back of my car today, but that's another story (see the 'Whoops' thread in the Friendship board if you don't know what I mean).

Other than that, it's been a fantastic day today - a very lazy and indulgent day, to be more specific. I spent a couple hours this morning swimming and lying by the pool (it reached 30 degrees Celcius today in Sydney - can you believe I was skiing a week ago??). I then gave myself a full spa treatment, in other words, spent forty minutes in the shower doing an Apricot and Sea Kelp facial scrub, a Plum and Pumice foot scrub, some serious removing of hair (body hair, that is!), and the honey-deep-conditioning treatment that Bunniee suggested recently.

That works brilliantly, BTW - thanks Bun! My hair smells fabulous, is soft and shiney, and really manageable to boot. (Isn't 'to boot' a weird expression? I guess that's why I use it so often... 8)) I'll be doing that every couple of weeks from now on.

My Biotin arrived yesterday, which is great; as of last night I'm taking 300mcg daily (one tablet both morning and night), as well as the Hair, Skin and Nails formula, which contains Biotin as well. Hopefully this and the warmer weather will combine to give me a growth spurt...fingers crossed!

I know I've said this before, but I really am spending WAAAAY too much time on the net, and at this site in particular... My name is Julia, and I'm an LHC addict! It's so funny; I'll be browsing the boards, posting here and there, then I'll go back to the forum index, get excited about the new orange post symbols, and realise that they're orange from my posts! :oops:

But hey, at least I'm not a crack whore. :shock:

The Tombraider sequel was released in cinemas today, so I'll prolly see it this weekend. Or maybe tomorrow, we'll see what happens...

I guess I'm just in money-saving mode, i.e. not going out as much as a girl my age should be. I've got a string of 21st birthdays coming up (mine, Bec's, Jade's, and Sara's, so far) so I'll be a social butterfly soon enough, but you know how sometimes you just feel stuck in the moment? :| And my friends are so busy with work and Uni right now that I only get to see a few of them each week if I'm lucky.

Getting more personal here (hope you don't mind!), it's been months and months since I broke up with my long-term boyfriend Derek, and I haven't been genuinely interested in a guy (or a girl, for that matter!) since. Is that normal, do you think? I was going out with this guy Rob ('Wobby', remember? LOL!) for a little while, but it was pretty halfhearted on both sides (he'd just broken up with his long-term girlfriend too). I don't even know if he's back in Sydney yet (he flew to Perth last weekend to visit his family), and to be perfectly honest, I don't care. He did have an awesome apartment overlooking Tamarama Beach, but still... :rolleyes:

It's not that I'm still in love with Derek - I was for a few months afterward, but I'm over him now - it's just, I don't know, not happening at the moment. Well, except with that dress, of course, but that doesn't count. :P

Sooo...yeah. The journal it is. :)

I've just had a photo taken of my hair (Dad begrudgingly agreed to do it, he's 'not real sure' about these internet messageboards ;) ) but it'll prolly be a couple of days before I upload it; I have to get it transferred to CD, then somehow figure out how to get the pics online.

Also, though I'm not really into the idea of measuring my hair, it is the most accurate way of tracking my hair's growth, so I'll start doing that on a monthly basis. At the moment it's measuring in at 15 inches (or 38cm using the metric system), after having a couple inches taken off earlier this month. I've decided that yes, I am glad I had that trim, coz my ends look and feel heaps healthier than before, and my urge to cut more off has since died away (whew!)

AND, I did something bad today (hairwise, that is) - I shampooed it, having shampooed it less than 24 hours previously. *gasp* I guess I just wanted to try out those Avon hair samples I bought on ebay (that's my excuse, anyhoo). They're okay, but nothing special, and the colour of the conditioner freaked me out a bit; it was *bright blue*! We're talking mouthwash blue here, people. Very strange.

How awesome is this avatar! Well, assuming that the avatar you're looking at is one of a tiger stalking the 'camera'... so far I've had a black kitten, a teddybear jumping out of a box, Sonic the Hedgehog (remember him from your video game days? He's gotten a raw deal actually, he only lasted a couple of days as my avatar before he got outclassed), and now my gorgeous tiger. :D

Had a family dinner party tonight, as one of my fave rellies from Queensland, Judith, has come to stay in Sydney for a work conference. My grandma was there too, and reminded me of a conversation we had a while back about long hair. She absolutely despises long hair (on herself, anyway), which I find quite unfathomable - she's had hair no longer than three inches from the age of about 12, to now (she's coming up 83 or 84, can't remember which, in a couple of weeks). So that's more than seven decades of having a pixie cut. Apparently she had long ringlets as a little girl, which her mother was constantly fussing over, but had to have her hair cut short when she got Scarlet Fever...and she calls this day "One of the best in her life". And yet, she would have to be the person who compliments my hair, and notices its growth, more than anyone else in my family or group of friends. Go figure!

She's a wonderful lady though, so I guess she just knows how much my hair means to me, even if she doesn't understand it...

I am soooo proud of myself right now: with a little help from Sapphire (okay, make that a LOT of help, thanks sweetie!) I've managed to upload a sig pic! It's not nearly as impressive as some of the others here, but hey, it's a start. 8)

I saw the Tombraider sequel today: it really is a terrible movie, but Angelina's hair (or Lara's hair, I should say) is just so incredibly gorgeous; I was fixated on it the entire movie. I know my hair will never be that amazing, as it's nowhere near as thick, but a girl can dream, can't she? :D Her sidekick and love interest was the worst; in fact he was so repelling that it almost destroyed the movie for me... and here I thought the love interest could get no worse than the one in the original! :rolleyes: But yeah, it was worth seeing for the long hair inspiration, if nothing else.

For some reason, I always seem to have trouble throwing out hair products - not because it feels like I'm wasting money, but because I get attached to them somehow. Very strange.

Like today. I knew that my Pantene had to go...not only was it the 'Smooth and Sleek' variety (which just makes my hair go dead flat; I have no idea what possessed me to buy that), but the shampoo's ingredients made me shudder - we're talking serious Ammonium Sulfates, as most of you will know anyway. And also, I was reminded of a time a few months ago when I somehow managed to swallow a bit of shampoo - my glands came up, my throat swelled, and my sinuses burned for hours, as though I'd contracted a mild form of bronchitis. Pretty toxic stuff, to say the least.

And yet, I just couldn't bring myself to throw it in the bin. Instead, I used the conditioner as a CO wash (the conditioner doesn't seem as scary as the shampoo), and then shoved both bottles into my Dad's shower caddy. He's not fussy with products (he uses PERT, for chrissakes!) so they should be used up soon enough... and I may use the conditioner every now and then, just as a treatment (though it's made my hair superflat already).

So, yeah... give it a couple of months, and my hair routine will be completely cone-free.

I've increased my Biotin dosage just slightly - I'm now taking three 150mcg tablets a day, as well as the Hair, Skin, and Nails twice a day, bringing my daily dosage to 650mcg. I'll keep increasing the dosage gradually, until I feel it's at it's optimum level. Don't ask me how I'm going to work this out! :rolleyes: It's good to know that some folks here are taking 5000mcg a day, so I don't feel as though I'm being excessive with the hair vitamins. 8)

I've just bought another pair of jeans on ebay (I think it's becoming an obsession! The jeans and the ebay) but tell me this isn't a true bargain: MARCS Baby Doll jeans for AU$61. :shock: I think they're a similar design to the ones that I bought new a few weeks ago, but these ones are more worn in. 8)

While waiting for said auction to finish, I watched Teaching Mrs. Tingle (a Katie Holmes black humour flick from 1999) and had an unexpected long hair inspiration. Though her hair isn't even BSL in this movie, there's this scene when her hair is damp and gorgeously wavy, and it just looks so pretty on her. I guess more than anything it's a natural haired inspiration rather than a long haired one (this movie was filmed before she had her Garnier Lumia 'bleach the crap out of my hair' contract, so her hair is dark brown) - just gorgeous. I'm not really going anywhere with this, am I? :D Just a personal reminder that that movie is there if I ever get the urge to colour, though I doubt I will, the memories of my past colouring disasters are still too vivid.

My hair is feeling pretty long at the moment. :D The CO wash worked really well using the Pantene conditioner - I guess the conditioner itself is so potent that it has cleansing properties too (or that's my hypothesis, anyway!) I had actually tried CO washing before, and it really didn't work for me, but I think now that it's because of the type of conditioner I was using (sulfate-free Alchemy, I think it was then - I guess just not strong enough for CO purposes). So, my hair is feeling super-silky, though very flat...that's prolly why it feels so long (to me) at the mo. Hey, I'll enjoy it while it lasts. :)

As for the Biotin, I'm more or less just taking a 150mcg tablet whenever I think of it, rather than following a super-structured routine. Soooo looking forward to some added growth, but I know I'll have to be patient. :rolleyes:

Later kids! Jules xx

Wow! Four days without a journal entry, that's gotta be some kind of record... ;)

Reason? I've been at my family's farm in Wollombi for the last few days, and we don't have Internet access there (hell, we don't have electricity there!), but I love being out there so much that I prolly wouldn't use it anyway. I think I'm a bit of a country bumpkin at heart... if only the East Australian countryside wasn't so far from the beach I think I'd live there full time.

Just some background info: Wollombi is a gorgeous little town about two hours north-west of Sydney, in the Hunter Valley which is famous for its vineyards. Our farm is on 100 acres of mostly bushland, but with some pastures as well on which we keep our two horses, Pally and Warrior. These guys are ex-harness racers, trained by my grandfather then given to us when they retired from the racing scene almost ten years ago. My Dad and I saddle-trained them (I hate using the word saddle-broken, it sounds really cruel!) when I was just thirteen and still essentially a beginner rider, which was interesting to say the least, but worth all the pain - they are now the most wonderful horses to ride, and I just adore them.

So anyway, my Dad, my brother and a few of our friends came up as well, and we did just about everything there is to do on an Aussie farm: went horseriding, motorbike riding, four-wheel driving, bushwalking etc. etc. They were all a bit "fish out of water" at first (most of them lead fairly pampered city lives) but were old pros by the end of it; Dad even made them weed the bottom paddock (NOT an easy job!) as their 'rent', which they did without complaining (much). :D My aunt and uncle own a farm in Wollombi too, and they had six newborn calves at their place - soooo adorable! And my brother managed to shatter a window on my friend Jodi's car with his BB gun. :shock: Yes, guns of any kind are illegal in Oz, but he managed to smuggle one from California in his luggage last year (bypassing LA airport security, mind you) - so in a way it's a symbol of his rebellion against authority. :rolleyes:

So all in all we had a great time. To top it all off, it started raining as we left (which is wonderful, it hadn't rained there in months) AND it's pouring with rain in Sydney right now! The drought is pretty serious, even in coastal regions, and we're all under water restrictions right now, so any rain we get is a godsend.

I've booked my flight to California - I'll be stopping over for a day in Osaka, Japan, then flying on to LA. This should work really well, as it splits the journey in half (Sydney to Osaka is nine and a half hours, and Osaka to LA is ten) plus I've never been to Japan before, so that should be lotsa fun too.

And tomorrow is my 21st birthday! Then the next night it's my party; we've got just over 100 RSVPs and god only knows how many blow-ins, so it should be an insane night.

In other words, life is pretty damn good right now. 8)

Hair-wise, it's going well too - I've been taking anything up to 1000mcg of Biotin a day, and I SWEAR I can feel a difference already; my hair is feeling really long and strong. Or maybe that's the Hair, Skin and Nails kicking in, I don't know, but I'm not complaining! I washed my hair with Hairdresser's Formula last night, having not washed it since my CO wash four days ago, and it's feeling great. I've also bought a VO5 deep conditioning treatment and a VO5 leave-in conditioner, both pretty low on cones, so I think I'll do an ACV rinse then a deep condition before the party on Saturday night.

:D :D :D

My flight itinerary just reminded me of some song lyrics I heard a while back:

Can't drink the water in Sydney
Can't eat the food in Japan
Can't breathe the air in Los Angeles
But a billion people think they can.

So, yay, I'm going to the toxicity capitals of the world! And I'll be loving every minute... ;)

I guess I've got songs on the brain at the mo; my brother and I have just spent the last hour downloading songs for our party. 8) I'm really, really looking forward to it now! Only two more sleeps...

I don't think I'll be able to wear THE DRESS though, because it's been really chilly here the last few days, especially at night, and though I want to look fab I don't want to become hypothermic in the name of fashion. My friend Bec is having her 21st at a nightclub in a couple weeks, so it'll be perfect for that, and in the meantime this gives me an excuse to look for an awesome cold-weather party outfit. I'll prolly go with my MARCS jeans and boots, and just find an eye-catching top with a funky belt or something.

As for my hair, it's feeling so great at the moment that I can't believe I was so stressed about it only two weeks ago! Whether I curl it, quiff it or updo it will depend on my outfit and how I'm feeling on the afternoon of the party; either way I'll be posting pics here next week.

Night y'all! Jules xx

I had my eyebrows waxed and tinted this morning (not exactly fun, but definitely worth the pain!), and my eyelashes tinted as well, so I'm feeling very Cleopatra-ish right now. ;) I had a good birthday today, just doing last-minute party prep, and shopping for the perfect top (I don't think I've found it yet, but I'll be continuing the hunt tomorrow morning) to wear tomorrow night. It's going to be 21 degrees Celcius - not exactly balmy! - but I know I'll have an awesome time regardless. 8)

I've gotta head to work now (yes, life goes on, even for us party queens :rolleyes: :D ) but I'll check in tomorrow if I have time. Bye now!

Jules xx

Hmmm... turns out I've got heaps of time! I was expecting to be completely exhausted after work this evening, but I'm not, and I didn't make any plans for tonight coz of my huge night tomorrow. So yeah, the journal it is, yet again! :rolleyes:

It's funny; whenever I was completely stressed out with my University studies, I used to think about how awesome it would be to just do nothing, day in, day out. To just spend time with friends, travelling, surfing, shopping, sleeping ten hours a night or more, watching movies and generally bumming around.

But I've pretty much been doing that for the last few months, with the exception of some waitressing and delivering of Chinese food, not that that really counts. And though it is fun and relaxing and everything, I find that I'm bored a lot of the time. I think that even if I was disgustingly wealthy, I'd still have to have a day job of some description, if only so I could appreciate my leisure time more than I otherwise would.

I guess that's what it is; after a while you just start to take your lifestyle for granted. My Dad uses a surfing analogy to demonstrate this point: the surfers enjoying themselves the most are generally the ones who don't get to surf as often as they'd like, whereas the aggro ones are usually those who surf virtually all day, every day (I mean, there's some territorialism involved there too, but that's not the main reason). Regardless of how much you love something, you will eventually take it for granted unless you step away from it every now and then. Very philosophical Jules.

Anyway, I start working in Lake Tahoe in mid-December, through until about mid-April, then I'll be travelling around the States until my Visa expires. I'm really, really looking forward to it, but I'm pretty sure that by the end of this time, I'll be well and truly ready to throw myself back into my studies, finish my degree, and get a real job. Not that ski instructing isn't a real job, but, you know... you can't live in career fantasyland forever.

Okay, I'm starting to get a bit melancholic now! I better finish here before I depress myself any further. Oh, and I know that I've been a bit off-topic lately (lately??? Pffft!) but there's only so much I can say about my hair. ;) Later folks! Jules xx

Just checking in to let you all know that I'm alive and well ('cept for the hangover, of course!) Last night was fantastic, I had such an awesome time, and the whole thing went off without a hitch. It didn't even rain! It was pretty chilly, but hey, that's October for you. :rolleyes:

I'll be back later to fill you in on the details, and I'll (hopefully!) be posting pics here later in the week.

Ta ta for now, Jules xx

*Sigh* I just managed to lose another huge journal entry, so I'm not exactly in the best mood right now - you'll have to bear with me. Also, my cat is in the vet at the moment with two fractured hips, and will undergo a major operation in the morning, so that may have something to do with my stress levels as well. :(

Other than that, though, things have been going well lately. My party on Saturday night was just magical; I still can't believe how lucky we were that nothing went wrong! Everyone got along brilliantly, we didn't have too many gatecrashers, no-one got injured or sick, and the weather was beautifully clear, despite it having rained for two whole days before the party and most of the day after. I've gotten some photos developed already; as soon as I figure out how to use the scanner I'll post them here. :)

It feels so weird to have it over, though - it's been a huge focus for the last couple of weeks, and now it's just a memory... but a very good one at that. :D

My hair is still feeling great, despite the fact that I *gasp* blow-dried it straight on Saturday night! It felt so wonderful, too, but I know that it wouldn't feel wonderful for long if I started doing it every week. The V05 deep conditioner that I bought worked wonders, which was a very pleasant surprise: I might just have to try out the rest of their new range.

I washed today with my Alchemy shampoo and conditioner, so I won't be washing it again until Thursday night before my friend Jade's 21st. I don't think I'll be able to get to washing it only once a week; it just starts feeling icky after three days without one. It still seems to be growing well too; sometimes at night it seems as though I can actually feel it growing! Sounds silly, but it usually happens after I do a scalp massage, so I might just be onto something there... ;)

Better post this before I lose IT as well! Night guys! Jules xx

Okay! Got a pic from my 21st:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/406636/RQGJD-21stFamily.jpg

From left to right: Mum, Dad, my twin brother Tom, and me, all looking a bit drunk (hey, it was a 21st, people!) and me looking a bit knife-happy. The quality's not the best, coz it was scanned from a regular photo, but I'll be getting more sent to me soon from my buddies with the digi cams. 8)

I saw the most beautiful hair today, on a little girl who would have been about eight; it was baby blonde, wavy, and a couple inches shy of classic length. I wish that I'd had long hair as a child; in fact it's strange I didn't because it's so easy to grow long when classic length on a kid is the same as BSL on an adult. I know, however, that I've been impatient for as long as I can remember, so that might have had something to do with it... :rolleyes:

Still, my hair is feeling great; I'm actually really surprised that I haven't been fretting about it at all in the last few weeks. Very odd, I usually get the urge to cut at, erm, this time of the month, but I haven't yet. YET. I'll be coming straight here if I do!

Things have been going well for me lately, which is a nice change from last week! My cat Caesar (Julia's Caesar, get it? ;)) came home from the vet yesterday morning; the surgery on his hips was successful, so now he's just having some serious R and R. Thankfully my Dad offered to pay for it (the whole thing cost more than AU$1200) - not that I wouldn't have, but it would have meant spending most of my birthday money.

Everyone has been having their 21sts lately too: Thursday night was Jade's (she had a 'Heroes and Villains' theme - she went as Lara Croft, and looked absolutely stunning!), and last night was Tim's; then there's Bec's and Sara's coming up the next two weekends. *Sigh* My life is just so tough!!! :rolleyes:

I've got a new boyfriend at the moment too; actually he's been a friend for as long as I can remember and we finally got it together on the night of Jade's party. I looove the start of new relationships, and Jon's a truly wonderful guy. :D

On the hair front, all's well, though admittedly I am getting a tad bored of it being this length. I guess that's to be expected, but I'll make sure I keep a handle on it before I start yearning for a short cut. I used that V05 deep conditioner again on Saturday night, just to check that its brilliance the first time around wasn't a fluke: and no, it wasn't! For some reason it just works wonders with my hair, and it smells pretty darn good too.

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday night, it was just AWESOME!! Johnny Depp is such a brilliant actor, and was so comical as Captain Jack Sparrow. Orlando Bloom's not bad to look at (understatement of the century!) and Keira Knightley's hair is seriously inspiring. It's a very similar colour and texture to mine (the natural part, that is), though mine doesn't naturally curl, and I think that that's the length I'm wanting to go for as well - mid-back, just shy of waist-length. I'm pretty sure that those were extensions she was wearing - she filmed Bend It Like Beckham first with chin-length hair, which was almost shoulder-length at the premiere a year ago - but it looks completely natural, and beautiful nonetheless.

Take care guys! Jules xx

Had a funny conversation with my Grandma's best friend today about Pirates of the Caribbean: I was telling her how much I loved it, and was just about to mention how I thought Johnny Depp totally stole the show, when she said how much she despised it! She then said, in her posh British accent, how "that Johnny Depp spent most of his time prancing about like a homosexual!!" Old people are so cute. :D

Nonetheless, I've managed to convince my Grams that the flick is a must-see (whether she agrees or not, time will tell!) so I'll see it again sometime this week, and I'll be seeing the Tombraider sequel again with Jon tomorrow (movies are always so much better the second time around).

I'm off to play netball now, and to get the blood pumping to those hair follicles! :oops: (Emoticon indicating not embarassment, but a rush of blood to the head). ;) Jules xx

Well, Tombraider 2 wasn't better the second time around, actually it sucked even more if that's possible, but *sigh* Lara's hair is just to die for! I wonder how she keeps it looking so good with all the stress she puts it through... and I wonder how she has time to detangle it each day when she's off saving the world... :rolleyes: Magic of the movies I s'pose!

Jon managed to get me a huge Lara Croft poster (he, erm, borrowed it from a bus shelter...) which I'll put up for long-hair inspiration as soon as I can find a place to put it. :D The Return of the King trailer played before the movie also; how spooky does Gollum (sp?) look when he grins evilly at Sam?? Liv's hair is still just as gorgeous as ever too.

Hmmm, what else? We lost grandly at netball on Monday night (34-20) but it was fun anyway, and good exercise as well (compensating? ME? Nahhh... :D ). Had an awesome surf this morning - the wind and the swells finally conspired to send up some big but smooth waves - and a reasonable one yesterday, so I'm feeling pretty amped at the moment. It's going to be tough leaving the Aussie surf to work in the Californian skifields (MY GOD JULES, YOU ARE SUCH A BRAT!! :D ) but really, I can never decide which sport I love more, they're both so different yet so exhilarating that you really can't pick between them. I mean, yeah, you CAN surf in California (*shudder* sooooo polluted! :puke:) and you CAN ski in Australia (*pfffftt* if you don't mind skiing in 3cm of so-called snow :suspect:) but you know what I'm saying.

I keep forgetting that these journals are supposed to be for recording our hair growth adventures, so my apologies for the extensive off-topic-ness of mine. :oops: I have actually checked out other journal sites on the web, and the ones that you *gasp* don't have to pay for are totally seedy-looking, if you get my drift. So HA! You're stuck with me FOREVER!! :twisted: He he, I'm really having fun with the emoticons today! :bluegrin: :DD :mrgreen:

My hair's feeling pretty good still, though a bit dry on the ends, but I'm trying to hold off on another trim until December when I head to the US. I've been taking heaps of Biotin, and I think it might be working, but I've promised myself that I won't measure it until the end of the month.

And that's all I have to say about that! Jules xx

You know you're a LHC addict when the board goes down and you start experiencing withdrawal symptoms! Okay, that's a tad OTT, but I absolutely loooovve this site (don't we all? ;))

I was brushing my hair last night, with my strong overhead light shining behind me, and I discovered quite a few strands of hair that were only half as long as the others: they stopped just above the colour-damaged part of my hair! I'm wondering if these hairs are new (i.e. they only started growing when I stopped torturing my scalp with chemicals), or if they are old hairs, with the damaged part broken off. :? It could actually be a combination of the two; most of them are prolly broken hairs (hey, I'm surprised they've lasted THIS long!) with some being new growth.

Oddly enough, it doesn't really bother me too much. I've realised that I've started to disassociate myself from my damaged hair, if that makes any sense... it's like I don't really consider it to be a part of my hair anymore, it's just there, waiting to be cut off. I could quite happily cut it off right now, except that my hair would be annoyingly short; so I'll be keeping it for a while, getting it trimmed in increments until my natural hair reaches my shoulders and the damaged hair can be removed entirely.

That sounds really callous, huh? The thing is, that after all the hellish bleaching, colouring, brushing while wet, etc, that I've put that hair through, I know that it can never be restored to its former glory, so I just have to accept that it's to be cut off and that's that. In the meantime, though, it does serve as a poignant reminder for me to be gentle with my natural hair and to have myself locked away if I even THINK about colouring it again. :silly:

Embrace your natural beauty folks! Jules xx

Had a meeting in the city today with everyone doing the Work Experience USA Program; so many cool people! I interview tomorrow at the US Consulate in Sydney for my visa, so fingers crossed that I'm successful.

On the bus on the way home I saw the most beautiful hair I've ever seen in real life: light brown with natural blond streaks, thick, wavy, and classic length. :shock: She was probably about 28 - 30 years old, and had a nice figure and very pretty face too... a real head-turner, even for straight gals like me! :D Very inspiring, as it was so long, so healthy and (as far as I could tell) completely natural.

My hair is slowly starting to feel longer too (though not that long, obviously!) My ponytail has moved into a different length phase, and has started to stay in front of my shoulder when it falls there, which is a really lovely feeling... very milestone-ish. :D

We had some great surf last week too, and my hair just feels fantastic when I'm out there - I feel like a mermaid, though I surf like a shark. :twisted: :D That just reminded me of Muhammed Ali's famous words, "I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee." Seriously though, the waves are so crowded in the good Aussie surf spots that you HAVE to surf aggressively, or else you'll never get a wave to yourself. Anyhoo, yeah, I love my 'mermaid hair'; it just keeps looking and feeling better as it gets longer. One day it might even look as good out in the surf as Rell Sunn's hip-length tresses...*sigh*

Wish me luck for my interview tomorrow! Jules xx

I got my US visa!! :rockerdude: :rockerdude: :rockerdude: Sooooo stoked... :D

The interview process was pretty crazy - we had to go through about a million stages of security, with metal detectors everywhere, and those electronic 'sniffer' things, and so on... they even made the girl in front of me drink from her water bottle, to make sure it didn't contain any dangerous substances! I always find security checks to be a bit insulting, but I guess it's understandable when you consider what the US has been through over the last couple of years.

I'll be booking my flight and paying my travel insurance tomorrow, and then I'll be all set! I know I did already book a flight before (the one with the stopover in Osaka) but I'll be able to get a cheaper one direct to LA, so Japan will have to wait a couple of years before being graced with my presence. :rolleyes: :D

My hair seems to be growing well (thankyou, Biotin!) but feels pretty dry at the moment, and I have a few splits which I'll have to get trimmed soonish. I did an ACV rinse last night, but it prolly wasn't as diluted as it should have been, so that could be the reason for the dryness... to counteract it, I've bought a sample sachet of Steiner Haircare's 'Prolene Treatment' for extra-dry hair, which I'll use tonight before bed. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Forgot to mention in my last post - I finally got to wear *THE DRESS*. You know, the gorgeous black one I was raving about a few weeks ago... no? Well anyway, my close friend and sometimes-hairdresser Bec had her 21st last Saturday night, and had a semi-formal theme, so I finally got to show it off. Everyone looked fantastic, and the party was a total blast, plus I've discovered a new favourite drink: the Vodka Mudshake in Caramel. Mmmmm... :D

Only one more 21st to go (for now): Sara's is this Saturday night, at her house, which should be lotsa fun. I'm off to give my hair a Prolene Treatment now. Night guys! Jules xx

That Prolene Treatment is INCREDIBLE!! My hair feels so silky, even the really damaged bits feel like virgin hair. :D That's definitely a keeper... :love:

It couldn't have come at a better time, either, coz I was starting to formulate ideas of (NOOOO!!!) having my hair cut. Y'know, to get rid of the damage. But, if I keep using this treatment whenever my hair starts to feel so-dry-it's-gotta-go, I should be able to reach my original goal of BSL before too long.

I've just got to tough out this difficult length stage, and once I have I'll (hopefully!) never have to tough it out again. Later y'all! Jules xx

Yep, I'm hogging the journal board once again...sorry guys! ;) I've been having one of those crazy, spaced-out evenings, where I spend ages surfing the net looking for cute graphics. Yes, it's weird, and yes, it's a waste of time, but sometimes I just feel like I'm addicted to my computer.

But hey, I got these gorgeous gifs at least! A butterfly and a princess...hmmm...seems I'm embracing my inner child. Anyhoo, now that I'm no longer using my hair shot as a sig pic, I thought I'd post it here for safe keeping:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/406636/EXAED-hairpicweb.jpg

Just for the record, this is from September 2003, when my hair measured 15 inches.

And suddenly I'm feeling worn out! Still, it's definitely better than feeling feverish and on a sugar high (well, when you've got nothing better to do than surf the net, that is!) Night y'all. :sleep:

Okay, so I know it's not specifically hair-related (not that that's ever shut me up before, he he!) but my sleeping patterns have been seriously weirding me out lately. I've more or less been moving abruptly between two extremes: either I'll be a virtual insomniac, doing weird things like walking my dogs at 4am and feverishly searching the net for nothing in particular (hello, LHC avatars and sig pics!); or I'll be a total zombie for days at a time, sleeping more in the daytime than I do at night, and having freaky, deja-vu-style dreams to boot.

I don't really know what's causing this, though I do have my suspicions... I guess I'm just hoping that it'll sort itself out before I head to the States; I don't want to go overseas and spend my entire time in a state of hypermania or exhaustion. So, I'm attempting to regulate my body clock, by sleeping only at night (well, after tonight that is, it's Sara's 21st! ;)), and drinking coffee during the day to help me stay awake. I know that caffeine isn't the healthiest option in the world, but hey, it works. Plus, daylight saving ends tomorrow, meaning that we all put our clocks forward an hour, and stop getting woken at 5am by early sunrise and whingey, "the-sun's-up-now-so-get-me-my-breakfast-goddammit" cats. You know I love 'em.

So, yeah, that's my battle plan... just thought I'd jot it down here to keep a record of it. Also, just a reminder with regards to the Prolene Treatment: apply it to the ends of your hair only, unless you want to be wearing a baseball cap for the next two days to disguise your oily roots. I have real issues keeping deep-conditioning treatments on my ends only; it's like I'm being 'unfair' to the hair near my scalp if I don't let them have some too. :rolleyes:

Alrighty, the caffeine's kicked in - see y'all later! Jules xx

It's inspirational-picture-posting time! You may remember that one of my major long hair inspirations, AND one of my major surfing inspirations, was the beautiful 'Queen of Makaha', Rell Sunn. Here's a pic of her receiving one of her many awards for charity work:

http://www.surfart.com/legends/rell_sunn/rell_im.gif

Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of her on a wave; I've seen video footage of her surfing a huge wave in Makaha, Hawaii, sooooo smoothly and gracefully, with her waist-length hair flowing in the wind behind her. :ohmy:

Another long hair inspiration for me is the model in the Australian Seafolly catalogue for 2003 - I tried going to the website, but with my crappy dialup connection it was taking forever to load, so I'm just going to post the link here and assume they've got their catalogue online:

http://www.seafolly.com.au/

The model was only fourteen years old when she did this shoot - what a natural! Her hair is of similar colour and texture to my natural hair, though mine is prolly a bit finer, and, hehe, just a tad shorter. What I love about her look is that it is so, so natural; her hair doesn't look fussed over at all and yet it looks fantastic.

As far as natural-hair role models go, there is none better than the gorgeous Katie Holmes.

http://jemmy.www.50megs.com/katiefront.jpghttp://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Katie%20Holmes.jpg

Admittedly, her roots look a tad oily in these pics, but they're two of my faves coz they show off her length. A lot of the time, her hair is at a length where it's just not quite long enough, if you get what I mean... I reckon she'd look sensational with waist-length hair, but as far as I know it's never been far beyond BSL. Some more pics, courtesy of www.starletsgalleries.com:

http://www.starletsgalleries.com/images/khpage.jpg

...and with a shorter cut, that I often have to stop myself from copying. I just keep reminding myself that her hairdresser prolly spent two hours prepping her hair for this shoot... :rolleyes: Flattering as it is, though, I think she looks far better with longer hair.

http://home.online.no/~sskivene/joey2_year3.jpg

Sorry if these have taken up too much space!!! I promise I won't do it again... ;)

He he, or not... I'm on a roll with the picture-posting thing. :D Here are some pics of Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movies:

http://www.voistars.com/dossier/img/lara2.jpghttp://a744.g.akamai.net/6/744/582/000/images.hollywood.com/images/large/l_1722913.jpg

And a recent photo of her attending the premiere of her newest film, Beyond Borders.

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/25/jolie.ap/story.vert.jolie.2.ap.jpg

She is such an incredibly talented actress, and her hair is just magnificent - truly inspirational. My hair, on the other hand... :rolleyes:

It's feeling so dry at the moment, and the ends are starting to break already (I only had it trimmed a few weeks ago). I'm thinking a bigger trim might be on the cards, but I'm definitely going to wait until I'm sure... until then, I'm just going to deep-condition it regularly, and focus instead on the new growth that's coming through.

Woo-HOO! I've got dreadlocks! :rockerdude: :rockerdude: :rockerdude:

I've been so annoyed with my hair lately - the dryness, the crunchiness, the neverending will-I-or-won't-I get a trim - that I finally decided just to work with the damage, rather than against it. I guess I just had to face facts that, regardless of how much I spend on hair products, I'm never going to be able to 'fix' that colour-damaged part... it's just been put through too much.

The awesome thing is that the difference in colour (lighter on the ends) just makes the dreads look that much better, the dryness holds the twist better than it would if it was healthy, and I don't feel guilty that I'm mangling healthy hair (coz I'm not).

I don't know how long they'll last, or how long I'll want to keep them in, but I'll keep you posted nonetheless. I'm going out clubbing now - and hey, I won't have to stress about tangles in the morning! ;) Have a good one! Jules xx

Okay, so the dreadlocks were rather short-lived: they stayed in less than 24 hours! :x After my night out, I went for an early-morning surf, expecting the saltwater to properly 'establish' the dreads... instead, it did the opposite and made them come out. I found out today that they're more technical and high-maintenance than they seem (Peanut posted a link to the dreadlocks HQ in my 'They're gone!' thread, if you're interested), and that they're a style that requires commitment (read: using beeswax in the hair). Definitely not for me!!!

http://www.cinemaclock.com/images/people-136-elizadushku.jpg

But hey, I can always do temporary dreads every now and then, a la Eliza Dushku (sp?) in Bring it On (see pic above, hopefully it's working), when I'm feeling bored with my hair. That's something good to come out of this; that I no longer feel as bored with my hair as I did a few days ago. 8) I just have to remind myself to come back here for inspiration whenever I'm feeling the urge to cut, and thankfully that urge has once again been quelled for now.

Even though it wrecked my dreads, I'm still stoked that I went for a surf that morning, coz there was a humpback whale breaching and playing about 500 metres out from where the lineup was! Soooo magnificent, plus there were a heap of dolphins flanking it too :D and just in case it couldn't get any better, the surf just happened to be a good four-feet, good shape, uncrowded with an offshore breeze. Yeah! :rockerdude:

And my friend Mark had his 21st last night, at his family's 'house' (i.e. Palm Beach mansion with panoramic ocean views!) which was heaps of fun too; really casual and relaxed. So yeah, life's pretty good right now!

I'm going to have to measure my hair again soon, being that it's been about a month since I got my 15-inch measurement, but for some reason I just haven't been bothered. Maybe I'll wait til next month... ;)

While surfing the net tonight, I found a pic that epitomises my first goal of BSL:

http://www.cuthut.co.uk/pics/long4.jpg

Yes, I know it's nothing special in terms of long-hairedness, but it's the length that I will finally consider to be 'long' when I get there myself in a year or so. Plus, it's really healthy-looking and my natural colour and texture, so it gives me something realistic to focus on.

I also found this wallpapery-type-thing of Anna Kournikova:

http://www.starletsgalleries.com/images/akpage2.jpg

Some of these pics are kinda provocative (sorry about that!) but her hair is just so incredibly beautiful that I had to post them anyway. I've heard rumours that she's recently had her hair cut, I'm seriously hoping they're unfounded!

And just something silly that I forgot to put in my last post: at Mark's party last night, I found one of those Japanese-style hats that imitate how the male Japanese warriors used to wear their hair (with a long braid down the back)... this hat had a long, thick braid of wool attached to it, and I was walking around with it on, looking as though I was just goofing around but secretly pretending that the wool braid was my own braid. :oops: It felt so awesome having this braid brushing against my lower back! That will be my own hair in just a couple of years. *sigh* I wish I wasn't such a friggin' impatient gal!!! I'm gonna go take more Biotin now... ;)

Jules xx

Oh dear. Would you believe that I'm considering getting a wig once again? As in considering one again, not getting one again, I've never had a wig before, but you know what I mean. :rolleyes:

And it's all Mop's fault; SHE STARTED IT!!! Posting that thread about a wig being her dream hair, sheesh, what is that all about, it's not like I've ever considered a wig from Wigs Australia to be MY dream hair or anything... not. :oops: I'm actually pretty impressed that an Australian ebayer has international status as an online wig seller, but then, we DO have some of the best drag queens in the world (think Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) so it kinda makes sense.

So, I haven't actually bid on the wig just yet, but I have got it on my 'Items I'm Watching' page... I think it ends in five days, so chances are I'll change my mind, but.... we'll see. I'll post the pic regardless of whether I buy it or not, but not until it's over, for obvious reasons. ;)

I now have a huuuuuggee long-hair reminder on my wall - the movie poster from Tomb Raider 2! :D Looks like this:

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/152/TOMRAIDER2.jpg

My darling boyfriend 'borrowed' it from a bus shelter, so it's huge: the dimensions are just over 1x2 metres, and I actually had to clear most of the stuff off one wall in order for it to fit in, so it's pretty much the main wall feature of my room now. :tongue:

My hair's been feeling good in the last few days, even the ends, which has me wondering if perhaps the Prolene Treatment wasn't so good for my hair after all. I've bought a sample sachet of Fudge 'Dynamite' Deep Conditioning Treatment, so I'll try that soon, and I'll continue to CWC for most washes (I've found that this improves the manageability of my hair, and distributes both the shampoo and the final conditioner more evenly).

On a vitamin note: I found a bottle of (don't laugh) 'Cramplex' tablets that my doctor had prescribed for my period pain, which I never got around to using coz my pains were eased somewhat when I went on the Pill. I figured I may as well use them up, even if they don't do anything, because there's a chance that they might stimulate my hair growth (I'm a bit of an optimist, if you hadn't already noticed ;) ). The Cramplex ingredients are:

:Star: Corydalis ambigua 600mg
:Star: Zingiber officinale 400mg
:Star: Rubus idaeus 400mg
:Star: Dioscorea villosa 400mg
:Star: Vibumum opulus 400mg

Some of those ingredients sound a bit ambiguous, official, ideal, villainous, and opulent, don't they? :rolleyes: Me and my semantics... but I figure that it can't hurt to take them, and if I grow six inches of hair in a week I'll be sure to post on the Mane Board about it (I don't think that'll happen, somehow, but you never know!)

Shopping last week, I checked out some of the 'salon-only' brands in Price Attack, and was quite amazed that the main ingredient in many was Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. *gasp* The most evil sulfate of them all! The TOOTHPASTE SULFATE!! And this was on $26 bottles of shampoo!! Crikey.

I've kept this journal for about ten weeks now, so when I have some time to kill I'll read through it and see what jumps out at me. Bye guys!

Jules xx

:shock: :o :) :D :D Does that look like a gradual change from shocked to totally stoked? Well, that would be the appropriate response, becaaauuuusse... I BOUGHT THE WIG!!! :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:

Okay, so that's enough emoticons for today. I'm going to post a photo of the wig, as soon as I can figure out how to retrieve the URL without having it logged into my ebay account (I actually did post the auction's URL on the Mane Board - inside my ebay account - but luckily I realised straightaway and edited it). Not that anyone here would have abused it, but you never know...

But for now, a description: it's 35 inches long (about tailbone length, methinks), light brown in colour, slightly wavy, without a fringe (i.e. no bangs), and tapers slightly at the ends into a gentle U-shape. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and was AU$160 on the Buy It Now option. I don't usually go for Buy It Now, but I was feeling impulsive (can you tell? ;)). I reckon $160 is pretty cheap for a wig that long; they were selling the short-cropped ones for about $80, so this seems like quite the bargain.

I've already promised myself that I'll take super good care of it, coz if I do it should last just about forever. Plus, I know it'll get plenty of wear at fancy-dress parties and so on. 8)

I'm feeling so amped right now! But of course I am, it IS 3am after all, and I am quite the insomniac these days... must be my crazy lifestyle catching up with me. :D

I went ice-skating today, among other things; I'd forgotten how much I love it! The last time I went ice-skating was in Central Park in New York, a week or so after getting that infamous January 2001 haircut. *ugh* Would you believe that I STILL cringe every time I think about that? The haircut, that is, not the ice-skating in Central Park, that was magical...

Indoor ice rinks are never as nice, but at least this time my hair was. I'd left it loose after deep conditioning it this morning, so it looked unusually good, plus with the sun streaming onto the ice from the windows I was able to see my hair flowing out behind me in my shadow. :D Such a gorgeous feeling! I plan to go a couple more times before I head to the States, as it's also a form of exercise that works similar muscles to those that are used in skiing. That's my excuse, anyway. ;)

I also bought some Avalon Organics 'Awapuhi Mango' Moisturising shampoo and conditioner; a bit of a splurge considering that they were (gulp!) AU$17.95 each, but I've become used to splurging lately :tongue: so I don't feel overly guilty. I haven't used it yet, but it smells delectable.

Wig should be arriving next week, I can't wait! :D Jules xx

I am now the proud owner of a beautiful long-haired wig! :D Soooo stoked :rockerdude: and relieved as well, coz I wasn't totally sure how good it'd be. It's even better in real life than in the picture; it's comfy and realistic; really high quality; and the colour is only slightly darker than my own, so I can wear my real hair down underneath it, without it looking odd.

And best of all... it's so LONG!!! Tailbone length, to be exact. I know many of the gals on this board would already know this, but there's nothing quite as exquisite as having long hair brushing against your arms. *sigh* I'm utterly convinced now that I'm a longhair at heart! I plan to take the wig to the States with me too, so I can occasionally go incognito (well, that'll be my excuse!)

Gotta go, I'll continue my wig ravings later. ;) Jules xx

So yeah, the wig... you might be wondering why I haven't mentioned it on the Mane Board yet, and it's coz I want to get some pics taken first so I can post them with my message.

Buuut, in order to get some pics I need to get the digital camera from Dad's work, and this requires my, he he, telling Dad that I got a wig. :oops: Yup, that's right, I haven't told my pezzas yet, because lately they've really been on my case about my "living beyond my means", i.e. spending money on things I like but don't necessarily need. And yes, the wig fits into that category perfectly.

I guess it's understandable, coz I have had to borrow quite a lot of dosh from them lately, but it's not like I'm never going to pay them back... I have an investment property in the country that has almost doubled in value since I bought it two years ago (everyone seems to be moving to the country these days, it's weird, but good for investors like moi!) so the moment I sell I'll have a ton of spare cash with which to pay them back. *sigh* They're prolly more concerned that I'm developing bad spending habits, but they needn't worry, I am more financially aware than they seem to think. *pouts*

Don't mind me, I'm just having a little rant here! :DD I feel much better now, thanks for listening!

So yeah, that's the reason for no pics at the mo. I did show my twin brother though, and swore him to secrecy: he really liked the wig, though he was a tad shocked at first. :shock: I've told him he's welcome to use it if he ever needs to go in drag, to which he replied, "Uuuuhhhh... thanks." :D Plus, I know he won't tell the parentals about it, coz he purchased this gorgeous glassblown pipe for smoking pot not too long ago, and needless to say he doesn't want the pezzas to know about that. Blackmail, bribery, corruption... it's all in the family. :D

My hair? Yeah, it's good, thanks for asking! :tongue: Jules xx

How embarrassing... the start of Page 4 of this journal just happened to be a 'bitch and moan' session! Ah well... :D

I'm so amped for my trip to California! A friend of mine who's also going sent me some pics of the Sierra slopes; it looks like it must be an early season this year coz there's a good amount of snow already! :rockerdude: Not that I have high standards when it comes to snowfall; being an Aussie just about ANY snowfall is good, but yeah... I'm so looking forward to it! :D :D :D

As for my hair, the plan is to just let it grow the whole time I'm over there (end of November to mid-April, or thereabouts) so it'll be just about BSL by the time I get back to Oz. If it gets unbearably dry while I'm over there, I might get a couple inches trimmed off, but I don't think I'll go for the big chop, at least not until I come back. I might get half an inch or so trimmed off before I leave (27th November), depending on how it feels at the time... just thinking out loud here...

And I realised that I'm really going to miss the LHC while I'm gone! I may be able to drop in once or twice, but probably not, because apparently Internet Cafes are a virtual ('scuse the pun!) nonentity in Lake Tahoe, and any Internet access I stumble upon will be used first and foremost for emailing my friends and family. I guess I'll just have a lot of reading to to when I get back in April!

I'm still taking random amounts of Biotin each day, and I'm about halfway through the bottle of Cramplex... no results as yet, but it's not like I was really expecting any. I've been washing my hair almost every day now, mostly with the Avalon Botanicals I bought: it's good, but not spectacular. I just don't think I can go much longer than three days of not washing without feeling like a greaseball, even if it's barely noticeable to others I still feel self-conscious about it. I really am rambling here, huh? :rolleyes: Plus I just love the feeling and fragrance of freshly-washed hair... but then, who doesn't? That's just stating the friggin' obvious, Jules!!!

Okay, I'm going now :argue: before I start beating myself up. TTFN! Jules xx

I'm kinda upset at the moment. Often when the four of us (Mum, Dad, Tom and me) have a family dinner, we end up discussing politics, society and ideologies; which is great coz in a family atmosphere like that, you don't have to clog up your arguments with unnecessary political correctness or lengthy explanations of what it is you're trying to say. What's not so great is that when Tom gets sick of the topic at hand (which tonight was feminism, which I am *rather* passionate about), he just starts dissing what I have to say by rejecting it straight off: e.g. "Nup, you don't know what you're talking about" or "so what you're trying to say is... [insert incredibly stupid and off-base comment here]."

It just angers me so much that I feel like punching him sometimes. Here he is, male, middle-class and white, with seemingly nothing in society to oppress him; and he feels he can make dismissive statements like "You're such a Feminazi" when I'm discussing my views on something that is so, so important to me. Women are still so far behind men in the grand scheme of things, in all arenas of life: and that's just in first-world, developed countries (don't even get me started on the state of women's rights in undeveloped nations, what happens daily to women in places like Lebanon, Afghanistan, and even Japan is just horrifying).

What makes the whole thing even worse is that I can feel the apathy of women my age when it comes to women's rights. So many feel that the women's movement has been entirely successful, when in truth it still has a very long way to go. Teenagers and twenty-somethings are quick to defend themselves when it comes to feminism; "Oh God no, I'm not a feminist!"; as though it were a dirty word. The connotations of it being a movement of "hairy-legged lesbians" have come directly from the feminist backlash of the 1980's, and girls are just accepting things like sexual harassment, workplace discrimination, and rape, as though it's just something unfortunate that they have to put up with, that there's nothing they can do about it.

Ultimately they're knocking what our feminist foremothers have done for us; they're taking it entirely for granted; and they're slowly but surely allowing patriarchal society to get a hold of them and oppress them without their being aware of it, just like it has for the last several hundred years. The feminist movement has not only plateaued, it's starting to sink back into a ditch. The women of today need to keep pushing the movement forward if we're ever going to achieve equal rights in what has always been a male-dominated society.

I could go on, but I won't right now. It's just so hard trying to have an adult discussion when someone is acting like they're twelve years old, and it's just so incredibly frustrating that I had to vent somewhere. Thanks for listening! Jules xx

Okay! Feeling better now, and ready to talk about something that's *gasp* actually hair-related!

I did a proper scalp massage last night, using rosemary and warm coconut oils for the first time in ages. It felt really nice, and the smell of the rosemary really took me back to when I was living with Derek... I used to use it all the time then, and he was constantly complaining about "That s*** you keep putting in your hair". Awww, young love. :rolleyes: I read over at TLHS that rosemary oil is actually a good hair-growth booster, and is quite safe to use on the scalp if you dilute it in a 'carrier' oil like jojoba or coconut. I was having a quiet day today, just reading and swimming 'n stuff, so I was able to leave it on most of the day (and all of last night, obviously), then did a CO wash with my Avalon Botanicals conditioner tonight. Looks like I'm going on yet another shampoo avoidance spree... :rolleyes:

AND, I finally got the guts to tell Mum and Dad about the wig, aaannnddd... they loved it!!! They didn't even harass me about being spendthrifty, and Mum even tried it on, though I must say it does look better on me than it does on her :twisted: :D I've also discovered that it looks way more natural when I wear it with a beanie or knitted cap, coz then you can't see the hairline, so that's how I'll be wearing it when I'm overseas. Fortunately it'll be Winter over there, so everyone'll be wearing headgear anyway, plus it will keep my head even warmer than just a beanie on its own would. :D I wonder if my friends and housemates will think it's odd... meh, who cares? :tongue: They'll probably all want to borrow it anyway!

Looks like I'm going on yet another shampoo avoidance spree...

And the shampoo avoidance spree continues! I haven't washed with shampoo for ages now (though it's prolly been only four or five days, but that's ages for me!) It's weird, but every now and then I get a kick out of seeing how long I can go without 'properly' washing my hair (i.e with shampoo). I'm swimming every day now (the weather has FINALLY caught up with the calendar!) so that keeps my scalp from getting too oily; instead it just makes my hair feel super-duper-manageable, and I love that I can put it into the perfect messy bun first time, every time.

Dad's bringing the digicam home from work soon, so I'll have a little wig photo shoot tonight. :D I might even wear THE DRESS that I was raving about a couple pages back, just for posterity (and the fact that the wig will look awesome with that dress). Stay tuned for pic posting...

It's less than two weeks til I fly out to California! I think I've got everything I need, including a beautiful Indian beaded journal that I bought at the Avalon Markets today, so I'll prolly start packing within the next few days. I already feel guilty and sad that I won't be seeing my cats, dogs and horses for the next few months (especially the cats, they're like my babies) but I guess you have to sacrifice some things in order to achieve others. I know I'll miss them terribly though. :( I wonder if there are any stray cats in Lake Tahoe I can adopt for a few months?

Thought I'd post this awesome life-philosophy piece here, before the thread it was originally posted in becomes an effort to find. Thanks to Dulci for bringing it to the LHC board!

Smart Women

Ever noticed how the really difficult woman in the carpool always has the guy who knows how to cook a souffle, who sends flowers, who is frequently heard to say, "You're so right, darling"? What's wrong with this picture? She's not even nice. Exactly. She's smart. Smart women get the nice guys because they don't lower their standards for men - or anyone else for that matter. Smart women take the attitude that if this is the best you can do, they'll just go to the dance without an escort, the movie without a date, and the rest of their lives without the true companion constantly celebrated on FM radio.

A smart woman has figured out that her biological clock is not really ticking that loud, that her grandmother was still fertile well into her fifties, and, anyway, if she had wanted a baby, she would have had one by now. Smart women have also worked out that all the media hype about not finding a husband when you're growing older is bull perpetuated by male-owned media machines to make women desperate and compliant. To make sure that men will always have their pick of scared women to choose from and that they won't have to work any harder at being decent.

Smart women have learned that the important question is not - Will I ever get married? - but - Do I want to get married? Smart women know that you can ALWAYS settle for less than what you really want. You can always get serious with a guy you're not really in love with or one who doesn't treat you exactly right. So there's no point in making any compromises today or tomorrow either for that matter. There's always going to be time to do the wrong thing. Smart women aren't lonely enough. They've noticed you get a lot done when you're on your own.

Smart women have often drawn the conclusion that sugar daddies aren't worth it. If you allow someone to buy you, he's going to think he owns you. (Imagine that.) Smart women know it's a heck of a lot easier to figure out what you're good at and make your own money than it is to entertain some tyrant. This frees you up to see a nice guy, whether he has money or not. Smart women have also freed themselves from the psychological need to be dominated by their men. Smart women like to feel powerful themselves, and appreciate men who can handle that.

Smart women have adopted a firm line with men that can best be summarized: "Treat me right or take a picture of me." I have an architect friend who has an even better line. Whether it's a design not worth building or a relationship not worth any more investment,she growls, "NEXT!"

Smart women are over men who fear commitment, who can't control their hormonal urges, who grunt instead of making conversation, who aren't reasonably punctual, who won't spring for an occasional evening out on the town, who don't listen, who don't know how to be supportive of their smart women's dreams. Smart women know that being a jerk doesn't make a guy exciting. Smart women are excited by men who call everyday without being pushy, who do what they say, who know how to say "I love you" and, more importantly, how to act out that love in 100 ways that prove it. In other words, smart women are no longer attracted to the bad boys. They've been out with all the bad boys. Yawn. Been there, etc. Now they cultivate the bad boy in the nice boys they go out with, which is something COMPLETELY different.


What a brilliant philosophy! For the most part, it was mine to begin with, but I'd never actually put it into words... so in a way, this article solidifies it. As the talented and gorgeous Madonna says, "Second-best is never enough, you'd do much better baby on your own!" So true. ;)

Okay, here are those wig pics I promised:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/406636/QPWVJ-wigback2.jpg

And some wig pics with my fave beanie:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/406636/DEBDJ-dark1better.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/406636/MICIM-dark2better.jpg

I've posted these in three places now, so hopefully they're not taking up too much of Steph's bandwidth.

And, would you believe that I've bought another wig? :D Well, you'd better believe it, baby! This one is straight, almost BSL, and honey-blond with bangs... really gorgeous as far as I can tell from the ebay pic. It's arriving sometime next week, but I don't think I'll be be able to have Dad take pictures of this one... I'm shocked enough that he was cool with the first one, but I think knowing that his spend-happy daughter has bought two wigs in two weeks would definitely be pushing it. So you'll just have to use your imagination!

And while I'm in pic-posting mode, I've got these two of my hair in what has virtually become my signature style: the messy bun.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/406636/LQMXG-bunbackgood.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/406636/SIQRK-bunside.jpg

I've been wearing my hair like this a lot lately, for several reasons: it's flattering, it shows off my sunstreaks whilst hiding my colour-damage (which is almost all in the bun! It'll be grown out before I know it :D), it's cool in Summer, it's easily done, it hides the fact that my hair's unwashed, and looks good whilst still damp (which is most of the time in Summer, I looovve swimming and surfing!)

Gotta go, my brother has to use the net. :rolleyes: Jules xx

Edited to remove an uncooperative photo, and again to remove another. I was a little spooked with how much of my photo account bandwidth disappeared in one day, so I've now got URL protection.;)

I've really been monopolising the boards lately! I guess I'm making up for the five months I'll be away from them. Assuming, of course, that I don't find an affordable Internet Cafe in Lake Tahoe... but that's not terribly likely, as 'affordable' and 'Internet Cafe' aren't exactly synonymous.

My sleeping patterns are out of whack again, not that they were ever really 'in whack', but this is just nuts. I've stayed up until at least 2am every night for the last week or more, not by choice, mind you... it's freezing in this house at night, even in the middle of November, and the shops are never open for when I'm craving a snack.

That's the other thing I have to work on: my diet. I'm lucky that I've inherited thin genes from my Mum, so fortunately my body's appearance isn't an issue, but after eating $20 worth of junk food in 12 hours I feel pretty frickin' sick. I just get these insane cravings for chocolate, candy, ice-cream, greasy takeaway, soft drinks, nacho chips... the list goes on and on. Tonight I was in candy mode, and somehow managed to consume a whole pack of Starburst chews, a whole pack of strawberry bubble gum, half a pack of green apple Mentos, and several boiled sweets. Yesterday it was chocolate and cola cravings, so tomorrow I must be due for some ice cream cravings. :rolleyes:

And THEN, I'll go a week or more without wanting any kind of junk food, and will be in the process of congratulating myself on my health-consciousness when I start to get another desperate craving for crappy food. AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: I just can't figure it out!

I measured my hair yesterday too - it's only grown half an inch in the last two months! Hmmff. Funny though, I was looking at some photos of my Grandpa's 80th birthday party in early October, and I SWEAR my hair looked a good inch shorter then compared to now. Maybe I measured it wrong. :?:

Almost 3am... time to make another attempt at some Z's. :sleep: Night y'all!

I did the most incredibly impulsive thing today: I was at the mall doing some shopping for my trip, saw an offer for a $19 haircut at JustCuts, and had about three inches taken off my hair!

:shock: :shock: :shock:

I KNOW!!! :D But the craziest thing is, I'm stoked about it! I think I was a bit lucky, as JustCuts has a reputation for, well... only just cutting it, if you get what I mean. But my hair looks and feels fantastic! I've had some face-framing layers put in (the shortest ones don't quite reach my usual height of ponytail, but I can deal with that), and the style reaches about an inch past my shoulders. It looks waaayy thicker too. But, the best part by far is that I've only got about two inches of colour damage left! *happy dance* :D

The chick who did it really knew what she was doing; she was about my age and had a really great haircut herself (always a good sign). In fact, my only complaint is that she was a teensy bit rough at times, but my colour-damage was so dry that it was virtually impossible to comb through without yanking it. Besides, I've noticed that most hairdressers are a bit rough, by my standards anyway, so that's no biggie.

My blond wig hasn't arrived yet, but should be here in the next couple of days. I finished the bottle of Cramplex tonight (I still find that name amusing!) and have only a few tablets of Biotin left, which I'll definitely use up before I fly out next Thursday. I'm just taking a women's multivitamin with me to the States; it actually contains most of the vitamins and minerals that were in my hair vitamins I was taking a few weeks back, but is much cheaper, and doesn't require any explaining to my housemates (think along the lines of, "Ummm... why would you take tablets for your hair?") :rolleyes:

Jules xx

Still loving my cut, though it occurred to me today that I'll have to go through that awful no-man's-land phase again in the future. You know, the below-the-shoulders-but-still-way-off-BSL phase. Meh... I won't think about that right now. :P I'll be keeping it at shoulder length until ALL of my colour damage is gone; I know now that I am a 'quality over quantity' kinda gal, and that harbouring all that colour damage just wasn't worth the frustration.

I had my eyebrows shaped and tinted this morning, and my eyelashes tinted too. I get this done every few months, but this time the beautician did both really heavily - giving me a very dramatic look that I wasn't quite prepared for!!! :D Lucky brows fade fast. Anyhoo, to complement my now-dark eyes, I put a colour-conditioning mousse through my hair to darken it slightly, and my face looks much more in colour proportion now. Both my hair and my brows should fade at the same time, and will both be back to normal in a week or so. Plus, it was nice getting some gentle colour in my hair; it's very easy to get sick of my natural colour when I haven't had a change in a while. But don't worry, I've sworn off permanent colour and highlights forever; there is NO WAY I'm gonna screw up my hair again!

I've discovered afro combs! What a cool invention - just a few whisks through my hair and I've got instant fullness and shine. I loooovvve having this new thickness in my hair, it was really starting to look limp and stringy (to my eyes anyway) before I had it trimmed. *sigh* if only my hair was this thick when it was long... :rolleyes: I guess when it comes to hair (or a lot of things, really) we all want what we don't have. My fine hair is a blessing much of the time, in the same way that my small breasts are ( :shock: )... but sometimes, you just feel like being voluptuous, y'know?

I think I'll finish this here before I get too personal! :oops: Night guys!

Jules xx

My last journal entry for more than FIVE MONTHS!!! I'm really going to miss this site and all its wonderful people. :( It's amazing how time flies, though; I'll be back in Oz before I know it, but still...

On that 'time flies' subject, it's also amazing to me how my trip to the USA is suddenly *here*. It seems like just last week I was planning my 21st birthday party, and all of a sudden it's two months later and I'm leaving in a matter of days. I'm running around doing all my last-minute stuff; like packing, buying random things I'll need, having coffee with people I won't see for ages, doing all those little administrative things that have to be done... I spent last night and today at my farm, and went for a fantastic horseride. I was almost expecting Pally (my beautiful bay) to throw me - as Murphy's Law would have it, I'd get hurt right before I had to leave - but he didn't, he was just brilliant the whole time. Being an ex-harness racer, he can be a little unpredictable at times, but today we just felt like we were a centaur, we were so at one in our galloping. My Mum says she's going to ride him every now and then while I'm away, so he won't go wild in the meantime.

I'm really going to miss him, and my Dad's horse Warrior too, but especially Pally because he's my special horse; the first I've ever had, and I got him when I was thirteen. I'm going to miss my cats and dogs too, very much. And my friends and family, of course... :( But it's funny how, for some reason, it's the company of your animals that you ache for when you're feeling homesick, above that of family and friends. Very strange. Or maybe it's just me. :D

My blond wig arrived today; it's just gorgeous - straight and BSL with bangs - though not quite as natural looking as my brown one, but still pretty good. The bangs are quite long, so I'll have to trim them when I get a spare minute (or a spare ten minutes... you don't want to cut them wrong, coz they're not gonna grow back!) and I'll prolly take it with me to the US as well.

And, yeah... I think that's all I have to say! I know I'm going to have an incredible time while I'm away, and not just with the skiing and partying. ;) Not to sound too cliched or anything, but it's going to be the trip of a lifetime. :rockerdude: Who knows... I might just decide to stay in Lake Tahoe forever. Well, until I'm deported, anyhoo. :D

See you all next May! :love: Jules xx

Well, it's a little earlier than May, but I just couldn't resist the urge to check in. :D I'm having the most incredible time over here; I've met so many wonderful new people, the skiing is awesome, the nightlife is fantastic, the scenery is just breathtaking... and I think I'm falling in love! *happy sigh* I'm at my new boyfriend's house at the moment, and couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd catch up with all my internetting. 8)

My hair's growing out nicely - I had a friend trim it a couple of weeks ago, so I've only got about three inches of colour damage left. Must resist the urge to colour it again though; I've lost all my natural blond streaks from before I left Australia so it's looking pretty mousey right now (to my eyes anyway). Ah well...

Gotta go now, but I'll hopefully be able to check back in later on. Loving all the changes to the site too! :D

Jules xx

Whew! Only just managed to save my journal from slipping onto page 3; needless to say it's been a while since I've been here!

You wouldn't believe it, but about three weeks ago I decided that I had to, simply HAD to, get blonde highlights... and I LOVE them!!! In fact, I've since put more blonde highlights in my hair, and it seems that the blonder I go, the more "me" I feel. Is that weird, or what?!? To think that just a few months ago I was swearing tooth and nail never to touch hair dye again, and now I'm loving my lightened locks, is kinda scary; it makes me wonder if I really am a fickle person or if I've just grown into a different state of mind (remember that I'm just 21 years old here folks; essentially still a child).

I've also gotten my ears re-pierced after swearing never to be pierced again (I originally had them pierced at age 10, then let them grow over at age 16 when everyone else was getting EVERYTHING pierced and I felt the need to be an individual again), and I'm loving those too! What's up with that??? The only thing I can think of is that since being overseas for three months, my personality has somehow evolved, and that these physical changes are representative of that evolution. Or something. I do feel like I've grown up a bit since living here in Tahoe, away from Australia and the beach and my family and pets and everything I used to associate with being me, plus I've fallen in love (who'da thunk it? :D ) so I suppose all these things must have had an impact...

... But why analyse it when you can just enjoy it? ;)

As for my hair's length, it's still just past my shoulders as I've been getting a friend to cut it every few weeks. As a result, MY ORIGINAL COLOUR DAMAGE IS COMPLETELY GONE!!!! :rockerdude: :rockerdude: :rockerdude: As far as I can tell, anyway. I'm so stoked that it finally happened!!! And my new blonde highlights still look and feel totally healthy, so I wouldn't refer to THEM as colour damage (though technically that's what they are, it just doesn't feel damaged to me yet).

Okay, so I'm rambling a bit, but the ultimate message is that I'm LOVING my hair right now. I'll be loving it even more when it's longer... :love: ... and I'm loving all the new LHC emoticons too!

:hollie: :hollie: :hollie: :hollie: :hollie:

Jules xx

That's right kiddies, I'm back in the merry old land of Oz! Well, not so merry just yet - I'm still kinda jetlagged and missing my boyfriend terribly - but hopefully that'll pass and I can settle back into reality (whatever that may be). :rolleyes:

I'm still loving my newly-blonded locks; somehow I just feel more confident than I did before. The blonde certainly flatters my complexion more (I have fair skin and blue eyes) so I look much healthier too. My one gripe would be that it does feel quite dry sometimes, especially in Sydney water (I'd forgotten how hard our water is!) but right now it's totally worth it. As for length, well, I'm working on that! Ciao dahlinks!

My hair looks and feels great today (to my eyes at least!), which is a nice change from the dryness I've been experiencing over the last few days. It's definitely a result of the hard water we have here, which has just been getting continually harder and more chlorinated as the Aussie drought worsens. I've got to buy some more distilled water to rinse my hair with after I shower; I can remember it making a world of difference when I was misting with the stuff last year.

It turns out that my hair was in serious need of some deep conditioning too. I couldn't sleep last night so I took a shower and slathered my hair with some leftover after-colour conditioner from one of my blondings, which, as many of you would know, is possibly the best deep conditioner there is. If only you could buy that stuff seperate from the dye; it seems a tad excessive to spend ten bucks on a box of dye just to deep condition! But anyway, I popped on a shower cap then slept the rest of the night with the conditioner in my hair before rinsing it out this morning, then applying my John Freida Blonde Ambition Mousse (which just so happens to be the greatest product for fine straight blondies ever created). The difference was just incredible, and it gave my spirits a much-needed boost as well. Yep, I'm still on a downer now that my American adventure has officially ended, and I'm missing my American boy more than ever. :sad: Time to break out the Ferrero Rochers, methinks!

Oh Gawd. I've just realised that my hair is, yet again, smack in the middle of no-man's land. WHY do I keep getting it cut back to my shoulders??? Actually, I know exactly why: after being in no-man's land (i.e. below the shoulders but nowhere near BSL) for several months, I get sick of it and just want it to be an 'actual' length once again. Hence the cutting back to the shoulders. I love my cut for, oh, maybe a week or two, before I get that nagging feeling of regret and start dreading the prospect of being stuck in this awful growth stage yet again. :wail: It's like a neverending cycle (not to get overly dramatic or anything!)

To be honest, it does look cute at my shoulders, but only when it's behaving the way I want it to (which isn't often) or if I've had it styled (even less often). The rest of the time it just flops, or goes into a flyaway mess where some strands are dead straight and some are undefined waves. And then, about three months after the cut, I find myself with a decision to make: get it cut again, or see if I can tough out the growing process for the next year or so, until it's long enough to be considered by me as long (i.e. BSL, or until my Mum, Grandma, or girlfriends say, "Your hair's getting long!" That always makes my day).

This time I'm going to make it through if it kills me. Okay, probably not if it kills me, but you get the idea... no giving in to boredom, no lusting after cute cuts in magazines (not only have these chicks' cuts been styled by top hairdressers for hours, but isn't it time I went for 'sexy' rather than 'cute'?), no trying to convince myself that it's a fun, free, and easy style (you know for a fact that it's none of these), and no complaining that "I need a change!" - because ultimately, hair longer than BSL would be the ultimate change (it's never been much longer than BSL, and that was seven or eight years ago). And NO GETTING IMPULSIVE AT THE SALON!!! Actually, it's probably just best if I avoid the salon altogether and get Mum to trim my hair... though I'd need to go in every now and then to adjust my layers. I'm definitely keeping the layers in because they frame my face the way I like, but I'll keep the shortest ones fairly long anyway.

I ordered three bottles of Biotin today to help me with my quest, and I'll start doing scalp massages more often to assist the growth. I did a rosemary one last night; it felt great and has that divine, soothing fragrance. I'm also thinking of wearing my hair up more often, i.e. in my loose, messy bun, until it grows out of this in-between stage. Which it will... I just have to be patient for once in my life!

Remember that blond wig I bought about six months ago? No? Well, neither did I, until I had an epiphany this afternoon: I could use it for hair extensions! Hehe, my epiphanies are usually pretty silly :silly:

It just so happens that the wig is the exact same ash-blond as my hair is right now, so I was thinking I could chop it up (the wig, that is!!) and braid the strands into my real hair, cornrow style. So I did a bit of research and found out that this process is ridiculously expensive (d'oh!) and time-consuming, so I scratched that idea, felt bummed for a while, then had another (more achievable) flash of genius: braid the strands into just two long plaits in front of my ears, Legolas-style. And.... it worked beautifully!

So, I don't know if I'll be up for going out in public looking like Legolas (he's the sexy elf from the Lord of the Rings movies, for those who haven't seen them yet), but I'm having fun with my braid extensions at the moment, and they look really cute tied back in my messy bun as well. Plus, they sort of go with my surfer-girl look (now that I'm no longer a ski instructor), as a lot of Aussie surfers have dreadlocks or braids (or both!) More than anything, though, it's just nice to have a non-permanent change, and feel that little bit of extra length.

Plus, I've got tons of hair still left on the wig, so I'll be able to play with other extensions ideas in the future (weave them into Heidi braids, for example, or create an 'I Dream of Jeannie' ponytail). Hey, anything to ease the boredom of just-below-the-shoulders hair!

I got over the hair extensions thing pretty quickly (I think they lasted about two hours after my previous post before I decided to take them out!) but I'm sure I'll want to play with them again at some point, so I've kept them in the drawer with my other wig - no way is that one getting cut up!

I've also finally found something I can focus on while my hair grows out, that will help me stay committed to my goal of mid-back to waist-length hair. Stay tuned... :grin:

Mmmkay, hope I haven't hyped this up too much... :rolleyes:

I find that when it comes to setting goals, specifically hair-related goals, it's best to go with an actual EVENT, rather than a time or date, to focus on as the goal length of time to be growing your hair. For instance, the longest my hair has ever been (close to waistlength, but not quite there) was when I was a pubescent teenager with braces. I'd told myself that, to combat how ugly I was feeling with all that metal in my mouth, I wouldn't get my hair cut until I'd had my braces taken off (with the exception of a few trims here and there).

And it worked! For some reason, having that actual event as my goal worked better than saying "not until next April".... which as you know I tried to do just recently, and failed miserably; I didn't even make it to December without having my hair cut back to my shoulders.

And so, silly as this may sound, I've promised myself not to get my hair cut until I finish the cross-stitch that I've just started working on. :lol: And it will take me a while, believe me: it's a slightly modified version (duh!) of David Wyland's 'Lamplight Brooke', very intricate and beautiful. And if I do find myself desperate to cut, well, at least it'll be a motivation to get this cross-stitch done sooner! The last one I did took me six years, mostly because I'd sometimes go weeks without working on it, and I guess also because I didn't have a specific goal to work towards.

Actually, I'm kinda proud of that one... it was a red MGB that I started doing when I was staying with a friend back in highschool, because she'd had a red MGB that she absolutely adored but had to sell for financial reasons. I'd intended to finish that one by the end of the summer, but obviously I didn't, until just recently. Just over a week ago she had surgery for breast cancer :sad: and has been feeling really down, understandably, so I finally got the MGB cross-stitch finished, framed and sent to her. Not sure if it's arrived yet (our postal service is slow at the best of times) but with any luck it'll brighten her life a tiny bit. :flower:

So, yeah... that's the plan, and I'm determined once again to make it work. Long hair truly is a committment, but it's one that I'm finally prepared to make wholeheartedly.

Ooops, in my last post I wrote that David Wyland was the artist of 'Lamplight Brooke', when the real artist is Thomas Kinkade. :rolleyes: Not that this is an essay or anything, but you know... I always get those two confused, probably because they're both contemporary Californian artists (though I can't guarantee that one either!)

So, my hair. Yep, it's still there! Still doing quite well; it's gotten a little longer since I got back from the States and is far more flattering to my face at this length. I don't know what I was thinking, having above-chin-length layers when I have a roundish face, but meh, at least I've finally figured out that short hair, especially when it's dark, only makes me look fat. My face looks more heart-shaped than round now that my front layers reach below my chin, and they stay in my ponytail most of the time too which is a blessing and a half.

I was out surfing this morning with my Dad, when he says (out of the blue): "You look much more like a surfer girl with your hair like that" (i.e. blonde). Stoked! He hardly ever notices changes in my hair, and even more rarely does he compliment them. That's sort of what I was going for too, the surfer-girl look... which when you think about it, it seems only natural when I AM an Australian, light-skinned, blue-eyed surfer, to have long blonde hair as well. Not to promote stereotypes or anything, but still... that's definitely what my stylist/agent would have me do if I was to become a pro surfer, that is, go Kate Bosworth-blonde. Not that I am going to go pro (I'm not good enough, and I hate the idea of competitive surfing, it's totally counter-intuitive) but you know what I mean about the hair at least.

And, yeah... I've been taking Biotin daily for the last week, probably more than I should, but whatever. My Jeffy is coming to Sydney in just over a month now, and my ebay business is doing way better than I expected, so I've finally stopped moping about and have started looking to the future. Which includes long, surfer-girl hair, of course. :grin:

I did another Rosemary/Cocoa Butter scalp massage last night, I really like doing those but I'm not sure how much effect (if any!) it has on the growth of my hair. Hmmm... time will tell. Going to take some Biotin now!

It really is incredible how well that Biotin works! I haven't been measuring or anything, but I swear my growth rate has doubled in the last month or so. The one good thing about having hair just below shoulder-length is that you can really see your hair's progress, as it enters a new growth phase (you know, has a different 'look') on about a monthly basis. If you study it as closely as I do, that is. :lol:

It'll be interesting to see whether Jeff sees any difference in the length of my hair.... it's been almost five weeks since I got back from the States, and he doesn't get to Oz for another three weeks. I still miss him terribly, but it's amazing how we teach ourselves to cope. Anyway, he's told me how much he loves long hair, and so, even though he tells me to 'just do whatever YOU want', it's awesome to get that encouragement from my guy. :inlove: Lovers of long female hair, take note!