The Long Hair Community

Shorty89 · March 28th, 2007, 03:56 PM

Well, there we go, an original title

It took me quite a long time to come up with it.

My current hair goal is hip length by the end of May. For my graduation I want my hair long and beautiful. After a disaster at New Years, I've been trying to take good care of my hair.

What happened you ask? Well, I will tell you. My church sponsers a New Years eve dance each year for the youth. This year I decided to use rag curls in my hair. I had done them before and it looked pretty good, especially since when curled my hair just brushed my shoulders in some places. I loved the shocked look and "you cut/permed your hair" comments. I did everything the same as usual with the rags, but for whatever reason they didn't turn out as well. I made the mistake of letting my friend use gel to tame it and make it look pretty good. It held well and look alright. For whatever reason, I decided to keep the curls, gel and all for another day. That was a big mistake. Two days after New Years I spent hours in the bathroom trying to untangle and uncurl my hair. The gel stuck like no tommorrw and I ended up shedding nearly 1/3 of my hair!

Now my hair is looking better than before New Years, although thinner. I have begun a hair care plan to try and maximize it's healthiness. I hope to have my hair hip length by grad and I may keep on going to see where my terminal length is. So, without further ado, the "washing" plan and pictures!

day 1: shampoo and conditioner. Put in bun to give ends some nice stuff.
day 2: CO my hair
day 3: brush with soft bristle brush and try scalp massages to distribute natural oil. No wash this day

day 4: repeat cycle

Pictures!

New Years hairstyle of doom

updo: lobsided bun

hair down: low light

Shorty89 · April 1st, 2007, 02:59 PM

It's been about a week. I've changed the routine a little. Instead of COing right after I wash it, I wait a day and then CO. It works pretty well. The inbetween washing day makes my hair a bit greasy but it's getting better.

The CO makes my hair nice and silky. Eventually I might CO two days but I'll give my hair a bit more time to adjust. I was hoping to get out in the sun to naturally lighten my hair but it's snowing again so that's put off for a little while.

So far it's looking good!

Shorty89 · April 3rd, 2007, 10:04 AM

I shampooed and conditioned my hair today and that was a mistake. My hair now feels dry, thin and my scalp flaky. It's not too horrible but I definatly notice a difference! Tomorrow I will CO and do so for a couple days. Hopefully my hair will balance out with its natural oils. I do need to shampoo but I’m thinking that I can and should go longer between my shampoos using CO most wash days so I don’t strip my hair.

On an unrelated note, it snowed today so I’ll have to put up my poor dry hair and go out to shovel the driveway!

Shorty89 · April 10th, 2007, 12:32 PM

It has been about two weeks since I’ve started shampooing my hair less often and COing the other days. I went three days on CO and then shampooed my hair. The three days in-between works really well. I do notice that by the third day my scalp gets a bit greasy. But, that's usually the day I have martial arts and for whatever reason the sweat from it makes my hair soft and gets rid of the greasy look. Maybe it's the salt? Who knows, but it really does wonders for my hair

I’ve almost reached my goal of hair to my hips. I might eventually go for terminal length but I don’t know yet. As long as it’s hip length for grad I’m happy. I might keep it this length and not cut it up to waist length. I do like the feel of it near my hips and I can almost do a bun and then twist the rest of my hair up so it coils and holds the bun (not sure of the name of the style but I know there are instructions on LHC). I would love to be able to do that style! I can tell it would hold my hair very well! Just a few more cm! Here is a picture of it for anyone who wants to see. The waves are from a loose braid I had the night before.

Shorty89 · April 19th, 2007, 06:58 AM

I don't seem to be very good at writing consistently in this hair journal.

I shall try to do better

I have continued with CO and washing every three or four days with shampoo. It is working rather well. However (sorry if any guys read this) my period has messed it up! My hair is shedding 5 times as much

I'm not sure why, but I don't like the rats in the sink! The only good thing is that the shedding should slow down in a few days. It's nice to see that my hair is looking and feeling great with few split ends! Today is my last day for CO and I should be washing tomorrow but depending on how my hair is after martial arts tonight I may CO for another day. I'm hesitant to do so because I'm having a birthday party tomorrow (turned 18 today

) and on a fourth day of CO my hair tends to look limp. We shall see though. I can hope that the sweat from karate will make my hair look nice

Edited to fix spelling

Shorty89 · April 22nd, 2007, 01:49 PM

I did a deep conditioning last night which my hair loved! It is extremely silky and soft today. I added some lemon juice so my hair is getting some nice blond streaks in it

The only problem was that I could not get my hair into a bun or french braid. I ended up leaving it down. That's the only problem with any sort of deep conditioning, my hair is so soft after it won't stay up. Is there such a thing as too soft?

My boyfriend got me hairsticks for my birthday!! I wish I could try them out in my hair and just fiddle but as I said my hair's too soft. Oh well, they are very pretty and wooden so they should work well. My dbf has good taste in hairsticks

Shorty89 · April 23rd, 2007, 01:12 PM

My hair is still silky soft from my deep conditioning. However it seems really thin, like i instead of ii. I know that I went from ii/iii to ii after pulling out a lot of hair new years but it seems so fine and thin right now! It's driving me crazy. My shed has inscreased a bit but not substancially. I wish the halo hairs would hurry up and grow so that I can have my thicker hair back again.

Shorty89 · May 2nd, 2007, 01:23 PM

Oops, it's been a few days since I've posted again. I've been in the sun a bit so my hair has gotten lighter. I should post a daily summary of what I do to my hair. I'm sure it would help me keep track of which day is my shampoo day - I always forget.

Sunday: My wash day. I used Fructis long and strong shampoo. I forgot how much I like that stuff! It doesn't seem to strip my hair but leaves it nice and clean. I think it distributes oils more than strips them

I don't care as much for their condish, it makes my hair dry and tangly for some reason. I have a cheep one that I got from who knows where but it works well.

Monday: mini deep condishioner soak. I took a ten minute bath and put condishioner in my hair for that time. I used the condish with lemon juice. I am determined to have my summer hair colour for grad! I as of yet haven't found lemon juice drying like some people say. Perhaps by using it in condish it takes away that problem?

Tuesday: I CO'd though my hair barely needed anything to soften it. It was pretty slick and wouldn't stay up at all! I eventually put it in a simple braid to keep it out of my way. That's the one drawback to deep condishioning, it makes my hair unmanagable!

Wednesday: I tried WO today. I won't use it on a regular basis but my hair was so soft today that I thought it would work well. It did. I wasn't home all day and it stayed up nice and looked just fine. I find WO makes it thicker but a bit "sticky". I know those on WO said this clears up but I still don't want to give up my condish - it's too dry here to ever give it up!

I can tell I have had hair growth, at least on some parts of my hair

The hair that really wants to grow are the ones that form natural bangs, the little group in the centre of my forehead. They've grown very quickly. Maybe now they won't stick straight up if I try to put them back a bit

. Still loving how my hair's been feeling. Thanks LHC

Shorty89 · May 4th, 2007, 06:47 AM

Yesterday I did a CO but my hair felt a bit lank by supper. The sweat from martial arts helped that but it was still time for a shampoo. I shampooed and conditioned today. My hair is nice today but the frizzies are sticking up. I think it's the rain.

In another thread three very nice people told me they wanted to see more of my hair.

So, here are a few more pictures. I finally got some which show the blond in my hair

This one looks really red

Shorty89 · May 9th, 2007, 06:39 AM

I tried a honey-lemon juice mix in my hair after work last night. I only left it in for 1/2 an hour but it seemed to work well. If nothing else my hair is shiny and silky! I should have taken a before picture but I didn't think of it until I was in the tub

I should have though because I don't know how much of the lightening was from the honey/lemon condition mix and how much was from spending hours in the sun. Anyways, I can see lighter blond/golden hairs in my hair. I think it looks really nice! I had to wet it down again this morning to get it up in anything though. That's the only downside about deep conditioning or trying to lighten my hair. It's so dang slippery after. But it feels like silk

Shorty89 · May 18th, 2007, 08:27 AM

I am really inconsistant!

For my boyfriend's grad I just left my hair down because it actually fell nice. I'm practicing braiding with ribbons for my grad so we'll see what happens. I will post pictures when I get some. Though, I didn't ask my bf's brother to take any pictures of my hair I'm sure it will be in some of the shots!

My hair was pretty waxy and greasy yesterday. It took me a while to figure out why but since my hair's been so soft, I've been doing more WO or conditioner on just the ends. So, there was a bit of unpleasantness. It went away with the next wash so I'm hoping it doesn't come back.

I had a long hair siting yesterday! I was outside waiting for my ride to pick me up from martial arts and an older lady, about 40's or maybe 50's walked past with thigh length brown hair in a french braid. It was very pretty! I think I've seen her around too. It's good to see someone else with long hair that looks nice. I have a friend who has hair a bit past BSL but she straightens it and brushes from the top of her head and all sorts of bad things. Her hair looks nice but is full of splits and not that soft.

I'll get her to the darkside of longhairs eventually

Shorty89 · May 23rd, 2007, 06:24 PM

Not much to report. Today was my shampoo day. My hair is nice and soft but a bit frizzy. I'm also wondering if my shed rates up or if it's my paranoia getting to me. I'm hoping that fructis isn't increasing my shed rate. As much as I dislike pantene maybe I'll try it my next shampoo and see if I shed less. I've noticed my "bald spot" more often with the way my hair has been naturally parting. I hope it can heal eventually. It came from having a nice scap there and then - bad me - picking at it. Now the skin around there is bumpy and yucky. I'm hoping that with good care it will heal!