The Dash Between

I really just need to stop doubting myself, and TRY things, before I assume that they will be too hard/too much work/my hair isn't long/thick enough, or that I just don't have the talent needed.

Yes, I've created a new hairstyle! I put pictures of it up in the photo journal, but...I wanted to ramble on about it a bit more.

I've been realizing over the last few days that I REALLY needed to figure out a new hairstyle - not because I didn't like the one I had, but because I was starting to get worried about repeatedly parting my hair in the EXACT same spot straight down the middle of my head. I would put a satin cover over the headrest of my car, but I could still feel little hairs rubbing against the satin. Now, I'm split pretty evenly on whether those wee hairs are new growth (I've seen several tapers!) or broken off hair (and I'm still losing red hair and a rapid rate) but - still! Thinning hair or not - if it hadn't happened YET, it was sure TO happen.

So, I rummaged around the web, and starting thinking about yarn braids again (I already have the yarn and EVERYTHING), and then figured- heck! I'm redoing my hair tonight ANYWAY - might as well try something different, natch? First, I had to figure out HOW I wanted to do my hair - I'm not all that imaginative when it comes to hair, and I'm really 'trapped' in thinking that my hair needs to be longer to do ANYTHING with it (which I am pulling myself out of), and finally I just settled on doing what I've been doing - flat twists, but doing them ACROSS my head, instead of from front to back.

I ended up with four flat twists, joined on the left side, with a 'twist minibun' (two strand twists, twisted together and secured with a bobby pin into a tiny, tiny, button bun) - and - well, it's LOVELY. Also - I'm thinking that this might last longer, since each flat twist is smaller, so even though it takes about twice as long to do, I shouldn't NEED to redo it quite so often. So, this might be my new hairdo for the rest of the most of the winter. And I doubt that I will runover the EXACT same line when I redo them - they'll be a little bigger or a little smaller each time....

I'm amazed AGAIN by how thick my roots are, and how THIN the bleached hair is - I mean even when I look at a strand of hair - I can SEE the difference in size. And if I stress test a shed strand, 80% of the time, it will break RIGHT at, or a little below the demarcation line between dyed and undyed. I realllllllllllllyyy can't wait til all of this damaged hair is gone - and I don't think it's going to be all that long - I figure by the summer, I'll be all virgin haired. Doing the twists for the back showed me JUST how much hair needs to be trimmed - man, going for this long without trimming has REALLY shown up in my hair - the ends were downright STRAGGLY - not even all curly and smooth like in the twists picture that I took. Now, part of it might be because my hair was dry when I twisted it, and I twisted it without gel, so there was no moisture to encourage my hair to 'curl' up around itself - but YIPES. I would - based on those - cut off about 1/2 to 3/4 of the red I have left.

One more week, and I get to TRIM!!! Whoohooo!