Me? Bored? Nahhhhh....

You were born on 13 January 1977.
Your date of conception was on or about 22 April 1976 which was a Thursday.

You were born on a Thursday under the astrological sign Capricorn.
Your Life path number is 11.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 3 & 6.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path number 9.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2443156.5.
The golden number for 1977 is 2.
The epact number for 1977 is 10.
The year 1977 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/31/1976 and ending 2/17/1977.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Dragon.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Goose; your plant is Bramble.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Famenoth, the third month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 23 Tevet 5737.

The moon's phase on the day you were born was waning crescent.

As of 8/31/2006 4:53:05 PM EDT
You are 29 years old.
You are 355 months old.
You are 1,546 weeks old.
You are 10,822 days old.
You are 259,744 hours old.
You are 15,584,693 minutes old.
You are 935,081,585 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Orlando Bloom (1977)
Stephen Hendry (1969)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (1961)
Richard Moll (1943)
Charles Nelson Reilly (1931)
Gwen Verdon (1925)
Robert Stack (1919)
Sophie Tucker (1884)
Horatio Alger (1832)

Top songs of 1977
You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone
Best of My Love by Emotions
I Just Want to Be Your Everything by Andy Gibb
How Deep Is Your Love by Bee Gees
Evergreen (from 'A Star Is Born') by Barbra Streisand
Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder
Torn Between Two Lovers by Mary MacGregor
Rich Girl by Daryl Hall & John Oates
Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band by Meco
Got to Give It Up by Marvin Gaye

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 4.23561643835616 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

There are 135 days till your next birthday on which your cake will have 30 candles.

Those 30 candles produce 30 BTUs, or 7,560 calories of heat (that's only 7.5600 food Calories!) . You can boil 3.43 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1977 there were approximately 3.1 million births in the US.
In 1977 the US population was approximately 203,302,031 people, 57.4 persons per square mile.
In 1977 in the US there were approximately 2,152,662 marriages (10.1%) and 1,036,000 divorces (4.9%)
In 1977 in the US there were approximately 1,921,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

Your birthstone is Garnet

Garnet is used as a power stone
Some lists also consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources): Emerald, Rose Quartz

Your birth tree is: Elm Tree, the noble-mindedness
Pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends not forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, tends to a know-all-attitude and making decisions for others, noble-minded, generous, good sense of humour, practical.

Songs in the key of C

Leave me a note. I give you a letter of the alphabet. You think of ten songs that start with that letter that you like/own/are on your harddrive. Then you go!

[Thunder Road] gave me the letter C.

Call Me - Me'shell Ndegechello: I can't remember which of her songs I heard first, but this is from her first album 'Plantation Lullabies', and it features her sexy gruff voice, and that fabulous bass guitar, as well as just being a sexyyyy song in and of itself.

Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue: Potentially the most deadly earworm song EVER - but then - I love Europop. It also reminds me of the funner part of my last days at Lilly - this was the theme song for the Scottish contigent. I had locs still back then, and I whipped hair with the best of them.

Canned Heat - Jamiroqui: Not really EuroPop, but it's a slamming dance song, one of the ones that gets me grooving at my desk. I heard them perform this song live, and you can't help but sing (and dance) along.

Circle of One - Oleta Adams: I fell in LOVE with Oleta after hearing (and performing a choreographed dance routine) to Everything Must Change in highschool. This song blends so wonderfully with that one - the fact that when it really comes down to it, you can choose to be lonely, or to share yourself with others - and either way - change is vital.

Cleaning Out My Closet - Eminem: a classic (can you really call it that?) of his. If any song reflects his style and his voice and his subject matter - this is it. This song IS Eminem.

Clear and Present Danger - Mattafix: A new favorite of mine - stumbled across it while looking for new music on music.mp3.ru. I sat and listened to the entire album in rapture - it's soft, and laidback, but energetic. And the voices! It's almost a lullabye...with a hot drum line.

Closer to Fine - Indigo Girls: What was the name of the all female rock tour that Sarah MacLachan chick was running? (Thanks ya'll - The Lillith Fair!!) The year I saw them in Atlanta, the Indigo Girls were featured, I was neckdeep in my first lesbian relationship, living in my own place for the first time, and I screamed this song along with the Indigo Girls - this song will always take me back to that year.

Control - Janet Jackson: "When I was 17, I did what people told me...." CLASSIC Janet. And of course, the mantra for a generation of young women - hell, it's still partially my mantra - I'm such a controlfreak.

Crazy in Love - Beyonce: When I hear this - I can't help but to start quivering and shaking the girls. I'm not a big fan of Ms. Knowles - but I lost about 15 pounds to this song while in Geneva - as well as got hit in more times than a little bit. Then, that might have been more the pole dancing than anything else. *does the boob jiggle*

Crede-Ma - O-Zone: Despite the fact that I have no CLUE what they are saying (this is the same group that sings the infamous Numa-Numa song), I love this song. It's a combo of r&b and rap, with a very smooth, roadtrippin kinda feel.

An unexpected (though logical) side effect of my hair vitamins regime has been - well, my hair has been growing - EVERYWHERE.

I'm a mildly hairy woman - arms, legs, line below the belly button, and one stubborn hair on my chin (besides the other areas that us adults usually have hair). Lately though, I've been noticed hair growing in other places, as well as my normal hair being longer. For instance!
A few weeks ago, I was in some meeting, playing with my wedding set, and noticed hair growing out of my FINGERS. Very fine, very soft, pitchblack hair. EEEP!
A week or so after that, I was rubbing my chin deep in thought, and found that my usual chin hair had somehow managed to grow in two inches and THICK before I found it and plucked it as I have been doing for years.
Today, I was at a lunch banquet for work, in a FREEZING room, and noticed that the hair on my arms was EXCEPTIONALLY long. Now, usually, sometimes I'll shave my arms - but my arm hair has NEVER been this long. Once again, it was pretty thin, but LONG. Seeing that prompted me to check my chin - and lo & behold! The hair had grown back - about a 1/4 inch long - AND a second one has joined it.
*checks underarms* Yup - I shaved Sunday, and I've already got a nice bit of stubble there - where as usually, I could go for at least a week before FEELING any hair, much less SEEING it.

It's really cool seeing these signs that my regime is working - the hair on my HEAD is so wild and wooly, that most of the time, I can't tell WHAT's going on in my scalp. Though - I have noticed 'tingling' up there in the mornings after I take my MSM. I don't know if it's a mind trip (which, it could be) or if I'm really feeling my scalp - do stuff. I plan on adding biotin - I'm going to order it tomorrow after I get paid, so I'll most likely start using it next week, and from what I've heard - it REALLY gives you the tingles. I've been keeping an eye on my hairline - I've been focusing the SS oil there mainly, because that is the thinnest area of my hair. I know that part of it is because I have 'baby' hair there - super fine, barely wavy, and did I mention super fine? - but I know that should grow in too with time.

I was feeling rather down on myself earlier, because I KNOW that I have not been taking proper care of myself - we aren't even going to TALK about my diet - but seeing these sort of things tells me that my body is functioning rather well - otherwisde it wouldn't be wasting energy on something as pointless as HAIR.

Okay - let's catch up here.

I rinsed the henna out Sunday morning, as usual, and put the koHumectress in. I LIKED the smell, and it was really, really, thick, which is something that I've missed in the cheapie ones. I let it sit for about two hours, and then rinsed & tried to comb out.
Well. I'm not sure if the koHumctress is one of those kinds of conditioners that if you let stay on too long, it starts pulling moisture out of your hair or what, but - it was NOT pleasant. I rinsed it all out, mixed some V05 & honey together, and put that in my head.

Then, hubby called from work and said that he wanted to go out to eat - so I had to figure out what to do with my hair. I had been thinking about combing gel through my hair so see if I could hold onto the curls without them shrinking away to nothingness, and I figured - what better time? So, I mixed up some ORS L&T gel, a touch of olive oil and some HH, and slapped it into my hair, and combed it out. I have to say - I used a little bit too much, and I was worried about my hair drying in time to go out!! When I went to Sally's, I also got four large hair clips - two black and two white. I pulled out the black ones, and worked on making a semi-cute style sith my hair pullled back on either side, then a lil funky bang-type thing in the front.
I can't WAIT for my hair to get longer - it ALMOST worked, but my hair is still to 'choppy' lengthwise for it to look really nice. So, I just slapped it into a pufro, plucked out the edges, and let it dry. It looked really cute - all my curls were happily in tight lil spirals - nanoslinkyhead, as hubby called me.

I slept on it, and the next morning - YOUCH!! The gel had dried nice and crunchy, and my hair was SOOOO not feeling being combed out - so I just got it soaking wet, pulled it out as much as I could, and rocked another pufro. I knew that I wanted to twist on Monday night, so I wasn't too worried about it. I tossed a scarf over my head for my drive in to work, as I drive with the windows down, and didn't want the wind to force my wet hair to dry into a half high fro.
Interestingly enough, my hair was WET almost all day long - it didn't fully dry out until the ride HOME at the end of the day.

I knew that I was going to have to use some conditioner - to wash the gel out of my hair, as well as to give me enough slip to comb through it, so I figured I would give the koHumctress another chance. This time - it worked WONDERFULLY. I just got my hair really wet, tried to rinse out as much of the gel as I could, then squished the koHumectress into my hair. It was almost instantly soft, and the tangles loosened enough that I was able to comb through with almost no problems. My hair is still too short (on my poor, roughed up left side) to get a good grasp on to comb out the ends without tugging the roots, but the koHumectress did a pretty good job - gave me plenty of slip, and definitely cleaned all the gel out of my hair.

I rinsed it out, combed out my hair once more, then sat down to do some twists. I'm thinking it took about two and a half hours - comb/part/WP/Gel/twist. They are - medium size, I suppose, rather than my usual TINY ones. I'm working to be sure that I get used to making larger twists, so that I cna keep the twisting time to around two hours - anything longer starts to irk me - and I don't know WHAT I was tripping on with the 5-6 hour long twisting. I really think that combing my hair out WELL before I start twisting helps a lot - it makes the parting process ever so much easier.

I'm going out of town this weekend, so I think that I'm going to have to *weeps* skip a henna session....but wait! I'm taking the Labor Day holiday and a couple of days after that off - so I'll just henna late! Yesaah!!
Speaking of henna - my roots still laugh in the face of henna, so I better enjoy these red tips I have, cuz once they are gone, I'm back to my natural hair color. Ah well, I've got a year (or more) to get used to it, so I'll be fine. I simply REFUSE to bleach my hair again, so I'm going to have to work with the color that comes out o my head.


I've really gotten to like using stuff on my head that is edible. It makes SOO much sense to me - why would I want to use stuff on the OUTSIDE of me that would be POSIONOUS to the inside? I mean really, that can't POSSIBILY be healthy.
I've been thinking about trying to make a homemade conditioner - honey, powdered milk, olive oil and maybe some aloe vera..... Isn't that almost SMT? Hmm, I might need to look at that thread again.

Stuff & Bother

The lawn is - stunning. Stellar. Amazing - and hubby managed to pull a last minute save and found some poor man to do the WHOLE thing for 200.00 bucks. *jaw drops* We ended up paying him 260, and I still feel like we robbed him. I need to take a picture of the HUGE pile o brush that is sitting on the road - somehow, I seriously doubt that the trash guys are going to take it - I need to call MLGW and see who can come and get it, and how much they are going to rip us off.

Came home yesterday and the fertilfocus was in the mail, which of course, I had to promptly try out. It's COOL. I've got nothing but dots and lines, but I suspect that I'm going to start bleeding next week or so (the severe sleepies and general evilness being a sign), so that's not suprising. Went and visited some friends Friday, and got to cuddle the absolutely cutest, baby boy EVER. It's odd, because he didn't LOOK like a baby - facially. You know how babies are usually just - well, they don't look all the way done? This baby - there is no doubt as to 'who he's going to look like' because you can see it in his face already - precious kid. Hungry too! Mom had been trying for 7 years to have a bambino, so he's a much, much loved little baby boy. She passed along one of her natural fertility books - Jambalaya to me.

Went to the library before I went there, and roughly had a bookgasm. I got the following:

 Satan's Lambs,  Flashpoint,  Eyeshot and No Good Deed by Lynn Hightower
 Fledgling by Octavia Butler 
 Echoes of Egyptian Voices :an anthology of ancient Egyptian poetry by John L. Foster.
 Brown Girl in the Ring  and Midnight Robber by Nal Hopkinson
 Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan (for the hubby)
 Dragonfly in Amber and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
 The Gilda stories by Jewlle Gomez
 The Literature of Ancient Egypt; an anthology of stories, instructions, and poetry., Simpson, William Kelly.
 Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

So far, I've read Banewreaker and Eyeshot, and started on Satan's Lambs I think I'm going to take Echos and The Gilda stories on the trip with me...gotta always have at least ONE book along on any trip - never know.

The weekend was lovely, sat around with goop in my hair, messed around with the wallpaper (paint remover DOES do a pretty nice job in most spots - some, I think we are just going to have to sand down), and primed a couple of inches of another room.  The lawn guys were busy at work all weekend (ALLL weekend - we sooo got a steal!) and C had to work this weekend - his last working weekend before the boss comes ack from vacation, so he was there pretty late making sure his p&q's were all lined up in a row. We managed to go out - got some YUMMMYLICIOUS sushi (god, how I adore sushi) and sake loveliness.

I think I'm going to go clothes shopping today after work - I want to pick up some nice going out clothes - it's SO depressing to realize that all my clothes are throughly utilitarian work clothes, and nothing spicy at all. Besides, I've got a coupon, and I'm almost paid off on my LB card, which is just WRONG. Besides - I'm going to Hotlanta this weekend - I already KNOW my hair is going to be fire - I want my clothes to be blazing too!

Ooohhh - we finally purchased our computer desk and chair - I had to buy it this weekend, as I had talked myself out of buying a 400 dollar digital camera, so I figured I would get something fun that we're SUPPOSED to be buying instead.

 

 

 

Purty, ain't they? Our computer is chrome, white and black, and the room is going to be red & black. Soooo lovely.

I'm taking time off after the holiday to work on the house - so hopefully, by the time I get back to work, the office will be primed and have at least one coat of paint on it, and the living room will be primed and painted, AND the library will be cleaned up and some books will be unpacked. I've got big plans, doggone it! The housewarming is getting closer and closer - I need to put together the invite list - I was thinking this morning, and I realized that we might actually have a pretty big bunch of people there. I'll get C to start working on the menu.

Really, that was mostly stuff, and hardly any bother.

I had to go to Sally's today to get another applicator, as I forgot to get it Friday, and while there, of course, I had to drift through the aisles and see if anything looked interesting.

I considered buying some Humectress, considering all the RAVE reviews I have been hearing, but decided to NOT drop 18 bucks on 20 oz of conditioner that I KNOW I'm going to fly through. On another hair board I'm on, someone was asking whether the knock off stuff worked as well as the real thing. I'm waiting (patiently, patiently!) for my free sample of Humectress to show up in the mail, but figured while I was waiting - why not scoop up a 5 buck bottle of the knockoff stuff, and see how it worked? I also figured that it would be easier to tell a difference if I used the real thing AFTER I used the fake stuff. I would expect to see an OBVIOUS difference once I use the real stuff if they are really different. If I don't see much of a difference - or it's worse for my hair, then I know that the real deal isn't worth the money.

I plan on using it tomorrow once the henna comes off as a DT, bu t my debate is whether or not to add honey to it. I'm thinking that since it's supposed to be SUCH high class stuff, I won't. In fact, I definitely think I won't - I want to see how well it works (at 5 bucks for 16 oz) compared to the cheapo stuff (0.89 for 18 oz) plus honey. Once again, if I don't see an impressive difference - I know it's not worth it.

*nods* sounds like a plan.

So - Henna #5 is currently working it magic on my head.

I clarified before doing it - a mix of honey and baking soda and some water that I put in my hair, and let sit while I was taking a shower, then rinsed it out. I think I've figured out my personal 'siganl' that a clarification is needed. Firstly, my scalp starts to itch (though, I'm STILL wondering if that was the pectin) and secondly (and really, most importantly) my hair takes a while to actually get 'wet'. I mean, it'll be wet, but not really WET, and I have to work my hair under the water for a while before it acts right and feels really - moist. So - I left that in, and rinsed it out before doing the henna, and when I got out the shower, I noticed that my hair looks REDDER wet. I've kinda noticed it before, but it was really distinctive this time.


This henna contains
1 henna bag
The rest of the paprika
Honey
White Rain Conditioner.

Pretty basic, in other words - *LOL* except for the paprika, it's basically the mixture that I started with.
Anyhow, applied the henna firstly with lines against my scalp, then glooped the rest onto it. The usual, ya know? It's earlier (but not really by much, as I usually henna when I get home, and it was 5pm when I did it) in the day than I usually do it - but I was out with friends last night and REALLY didn't feel like dealing with it.

It amazes me just how STEAMY my head gets with the saran wrap and henna and all - I left the edge of the shower cap, and can feel the warm, moist, henna-scented air drifting out.

So, largely because I'm impatient as all get out, but also because I wanted to see if it would come out as good after I slept on it, I un-twisted my hair tonight in a twist-out.
I definitely need longer hair to pull this off right - right now, my hair looks like a mushroom - not soft enough to be limp, but not long enough to hang nicely.
Though - the twistouts I had during camp looked REALLY good - I think it was because they had shrunk up more. I figure, if it looks a hot mess in the morning, I'll just get it good and wet, and tie a PHHB around it, and be done with it.

After I took my twists out, I massed some SS oil in, and then firmly told myself to keep my fingers out of my hair, as the twist out is the easiest hair style to mess up - play in it too much, and you loose all the twist definition you had originally.

Which, is one of the reasons I'm writing this, as keeping my hands busy is the only way to keep them out of my head.

Henna tommorow! *yay*

I love henna'ing - it's messy, and it's goopy, but dang, it's FUN. And I get many lovely results - I need to take a picture outside in the sun so that I can try to get an accurate picture of the color - it's GLORIOUS. I'm not sure if it's more red, or more brown - it's - interesting, really. It's SUCH a natural color that it changes depending on what I'm wearing, the lighting, and the amount of makeup I have on. And the way it changes from FIRST rinsing the henna out to the day afterwards - it's - impressive really.

I know that some people worry about it going to 'dark' but.... *sigh* considering how DARK my natural hair color is, I figure that the darker it gets, the less obvious the demarcation will be.

8/24/06

Sometimes, I realize I'm just an odd bird. Well, it's not that I'm unAWARE of the fact that I'm an odd bird, it jsut sometimes I'll do something exceptionally odd enough that I have to stop, and laugh at myself for being SUCH a odd bird.

We've finally bit the bullet and scheduled someone to come and tame the wilderness that is our yard.  I'm not even going to discuss the price, because it hurts my feelings, but really, if we had someone come out every month, it would end up being about the same amount. Damn, I must be sure to tell him to leave the remains in a nice big pile (compost, how I love thee!)

I've been in a distinctly odd mood lately - I haven't been READING. I haven't picked up a book in about two weeks now - which is - virtually unheard of. I think it's more because *weeps/hangs head in shame* our books STILL aren't freaking unpacked, so I don't have my usual selection - but at the same time, I'm kinda bored with the books I have.
I'm going to the library tomorrow in hopes of redeeming myself with some lovely fluff - any book recommendations? I'm actually willing to try anything - fiction, non-fiction, whatevah!

Me & The Boy are going to visit My Mommy over Thanksgiving - we plan on driving, as with the way things are going, you would have to PAY be to fly. Anal, angry, narrowminded, shortsighted, dumbasses. Besides, at this point, I might be on a no-fly list - name change or not, and that would REALLY piss me off. We wanted to extend the vaca and finally use one of the packages we got suckered into and go to Vegas, but he has to accrue vacation, so we're lucky to get that *still crossing fingers that he DOES get the time off*

Speaking of time off, I'm taking part of the week after Labor Day off - I plan on really buckling down, and getting the house set up. I know, I know, we've been there for damn near five months, and we're still half-assing it. Hoepfully, HomeDespot will have a good fan sale going on over Labor Day weekend, as that's our scheduled house thing. And by all that is HOLY - I WILL finish taking down that wallpaper and prime that bleeitybleepingbleep of a room. AND unpack my damn books.

European popdance is such fun music - my toes won't stop wiggling, and the only reason I'm not headbanging and generally making a plum fool of myself is because, well, I'm at work.

Speaking of work  - *gags self*. 
Though, to be honest, it's been mildly busy this week, and the more I HAVE to do, the more productive I am - interesting, eh? So, I've only been bored 60% of the time, rather than my usual 90%.  Hey, I'll take it when/where I can get it.

Hubby said I look like I'm losing weight. He's so sweet.....not saying he's a fibber or just trying to butter me up for some extra booty, but - umph. He's got a better eye than I do, or than the scale does.  I HAVE been eating (damn demanding body, wanting food every 3 hours or so - the NERVE!), and taking vitamins, and I FINALLY got my bleeeping keycard to get into the fitness center, so I'll be starting to go there and walk (at the VERY least) next week.  I'll most likely be sucked onto the weights too.

Really odd - last weekend, both me & C had some sort of stomach 'thing' (didn't feel sick, and the only thing we both ate were some fries) that caused - foul, liquid emissions from the orifice that normally produces solids. Then, earlier this week, G got 'something' that generated some of the RANKEST shit ever. Like - holy mother of god, what DIED and shat itself out rank.  I found it odd that EVERYONE in the house had stomach problems - human and non.  And unless the furry bastard is dumpster diving, we certainly didn't share the same food.

*debates whether it's too early to sneak out of work*

Hmm... I think I'll wrap this up, wander about the wide world of the 'net for a while, then escape. 

Home, sweet Jungle.... must take a picture of the madness so I can share our slothy homeowners shame with all ya'lll.

*smooches* babes!

Last day of twists, as tomorrow is a twistout!!
So - this week. My twists have been VERY fuzzy. I don't know if it's because I didn't use enough gel - and I even regelled them Tuesday night! - or if it's because I didn't use as much WP this time - but it's fuzzy as all GET out. I've got quite a few sections of hair where full length strands of hair has escaped the twist - and I wasn't even rubbing my head all that much. My scalp has also been suprisingly itchy too this week - I'm thinking it might be time for a bit of a clarifier on my scalp. I wonder if it might be a side effect of the pectin?
I plan on doing a twist-out tomorrow, and then henna'ing - though, I'm supposed to be running some errands and going over a friends house tomorrow, so - I might not get home in enough time to really do henna.........okay, yeah, who am I fooling? I'lll most likely do it tomorrow night! *LOL*
I'm pretty convinced that the vitamins are working - I cut my nails last weekend, and they are already starting to extend over my fingertips again. I have this one STUBBORN chin hair that usally is very thin and only grows to be about 3/4 of an inch, and I was looking in the mirror a few days ago, and the damn thing was SUPER thick and about 2 inches long!!!!!!!! Plus - and this is really creepy - the hair on my fingers in coming back - super fine, black hair. I used to have this before, when I was in college, but I haven't seen it for YEARS - now, they are showing back up. Yes, yes, me thinks my body is getting all it needs to grow, grow, grow!
I still seem to be shedding a healthy bit - I'm actually *gasp* considering getting a BRUSH to insure that I get all the shed hairs out. I know, I know - I think that it's insane to even TRY to use a brush on nappy hair, but then, not too long ago, I also didn't know that cones were the debbil on my hair. Maybe.
I'm debating on stopping cutting my hair for a few months - maybe from now until late October (which is when our housewarming is) just to see how much length I gain. I think I've most likely cut off at LEAST 3 inches by now, but my hair still looks the same length - which would make sense, as I figure that I grow about 3/4 of an inch a month normally - so an inch a month (because of the vitamins/nutrition) would make sense. Also - the really short patch I had in the back of my head - I'm thinking that maybe I DIDN'T break it off, but that I cut it off when I cut out a loc to to a dye test on. It's close enough to my back hairline for that to have been possible - and that piece of hair has gotten almost twice as long now - it's in a twist mostly by itself, and I can feel the thicker bottom section before the twist goes really thin - so that's a VGT!
I need to pick up a new applicator bottle tomorrow, and another set of measuring spoons (I cut the end off of one before checking that it would fit in the bottle, and it's a pain in the patootie digging it out of the bottle now) and some more paprika. Other than that - I don't think that I'll be getting any hair stuff - I've got plenty of conditioner and baking soda.
Length note: middle of the forehead twist goes to the middle of the bride of my nose - about even with my eyes.

Fear. Worry. Insanity.

So.

At some point last week, as we were drifting off to sleep, C said - "I don't want to be 60 when my kids graduate from college." I muttured something reassuring (as my brain had already been taken offline). He then continued with, "I don't wanna be 50 when they graduate from high school" - and my slightly more on-line brain did the calculations, and my mouth muttered "Too late".

Two days later, we really sat down, and talked, and - holy shit, we are going to start trying to have a baby in the next few months.  I told him that I REALLLY don't wanna be super swole in the middle of summer, so - we need to try to time this right.  

I'm TERRIFIED.  I'm afraid that we won't be able to get pregnant, that I won't carry to term, that I'll have to have a c-section, that the baby will ahve a birth defect, that I'm going to hate staying home with a squalling brat, that we won't be able to survive on one income and I'll have to go back to work, that we'll get pregnant too SOON and not be able to save as much as we wanted, that I'll gain anotuher 100 pounds and will be the biggest momma in existence, that, that, that..........terror.

I never expected THIS reaction.  I know that I don't react all that well to change - this, I know. And I know, that having a sprite is about the biggest life change EVER, this I know.  But - I didn't expect to go through stomach-clenching, sweaty palm, moodswinging, insanity BEFORE I even get knocked up. I mean, REALLY.

Suddenly - life feels like it's moving waaaaaaayyyyyyyy too freaking fast. 

Um. For those who planned their bambinos, is this - normal? Or, is another aspect of my oddly obsessive personality coming out?

So. Anyhow. We are 'praticing' *wiggles eyebrows* for now - if I catch, I catch. According to our 'plan', I really SHOULD work about about another 20 months to have us financially cozier than a bug in a rug - but, if that timeline gets trimmed to 11 months, we'll still be fine - a little less cozy, but fine.

I'm going to smoke myself SICK over labor day weekend, and then, that'll be my last pack/puffs.

I'm already taking a daily multivitmin, (which I checked for folic acid) so, that base is covered.

I'm still trying to lose weight, but - meh.

Um. So, Yeah.

I'm not going to say that we are OFFICIALLY TTC until next year, because the less time I have to fret, the better.

I am ordering a OPK ferny thingy though - just to be sure that I AM ovulating.

*gulp*

Utterly. Insane.

Ahhh...

I had so much FUN playing with my hair. After I DT'd it, I broke it into about 8 fat twists, and put WP on each one. Then, I let them dry out completely. Then, I untwisted, combed out, put MORE WP on them, and retwisted. Then, I untwisted, massaged with SS oil, and retwisted. Then, I untwisted, and retwisted with L&T gel into itsy bitsy twists - and it only took me two and a half hours!!
Well, I did do another snipsnip - when I did the fat twists, I had a little 'end' bit that was TINY - maybe a 1/4 size of the rest of the twists. I snipped off those 'thin' ends, (which did feel rough as well), and twisted the rest.

During the whole twist/retwist/blow out process - I took a picture of my hair, 'blown' out.


Ummm - if I ever doubted the fact that I have thick hair, I just need to look at that picture, and return to sanity. Yes, I have a SHITELOAD of hair.

So yes, I definitely have thick hair. Sheesh. And I have a LOT of it too.


Umm. In other odd news - I've been saving my hair. I have a little bottle that used to ahve boullion in it, that I use to tuck in the strands of hair that I find when I do massages or when I comb my hair out. Hubby asked me WHY I'm saving my hair, and honestly, I don't know.... it just feels right.

So - after I rinsed out the henna, and decided that I would definitely have to DT, I figured - now seems like a good time to do the asprin mask.
I ground up 11 asprin, and mixed them with hot water - WAAAYYY too much hot water, I might add. I then dumped in some honey and mixed it - the whole thing turned into a messy slurry.
But, I sat down, and started dabbing it all over my face, then started rubbing gently. The asprin was ground up pretty fine, so it was a really nice bit of exfoliation. I felt a little stinging as I rubbed some areas (like my chin) and then a full face tingling. It's drying now (stickyly, of course), but I'm about to dab some more on and rub it in.

I figure I'll rinse it off the same point that I rinse the DT out of my hair. So! This should be interesting. I checked a couple of spots before hand to confirm that I still had the flaky patches, so It'll be interesting seeing what it looks like after I rinse.


Update:
Eh. I didn't see that much of a difference - my face feels good and smooth, and not as tight as usual, but - meh. It DID feel good, I will admit to that, and I'm sure that if I do it regularly, my skin will look better, but - didn't see the MAJOR difference that a lot of people have been seeing. But then, that might be because I'm already doing OCM, so - there isn't much further than my skin can go.

Oddly enough, I HAVE broken out - three or four pimples on the right side of my face that showed up this morning - not sure if that is from my pillowcase maybe, or what - but, I've got toothpaste on them to calm them down, and - I don't know. It's odd.

Will I do it again? Honestly, I doubt it.

So!

I'm plotting out the plan for Henna #4. I'm using NO conditioner, pre-made henna paste (currently defrosting in the fridge), honey, and pectin......and I'm DEBATING using a tea bag. Wait! Wait! See - in order for pectin to gel, the water has to be a LITTLE acidic. Soooooo - I was thinking that tea would make the water just a little acidic, right? Or.... I guess I could put a little henna in the water - like proofing a sourdough. *sigh* Fine, Fine, I'll do that (in the spirit of only changing one thing at a time and all - I AM trying to figure out a way to go WO - which mean NO stripping of the hair with excess acid!)
*laughs* And in the same breath - I plan on adding some Paprika to it. See - my thought process is that changing the ACIDITY of the mixture, would only have a results of the Ph of my hair, but not the color. Where as adding some PARIKA to my hair, will only change the color, not the Ph. *nods* Yeah.... That's what I'm saying is.

So!

I went and checked out the mixes page, to see if I could figure out how much pectin and additional liquid I need. Much to my suprise, the only 'recipes' she had on there, were ones where you were starting from powder. Um, I'm starting from premixed.
She says use about 100g of henna, about 17oz of water, and about 25g of pectin.
Each of my henna bags is roughly 50g of henna - so, a total of roughly 8 oz of water and 13g of pectin. Now - she puts half the water in the henna, and half in the pectin - so, that's 4oz of water (half a cup) and 13g of pection. Each of my boxes of pectin is 49 grams - so roughly a 1/4 box of pectin.

Sheesh. And yes, I was thinking that out as I typed it. Very convienent note pad, this is. Besides, otherwise, I would NEVER remember what made me come up with the following recipe.

I suspect that this first batch will still end up a little runny, as I still want to add in at least a 1/4 cup of honey, plus the same amount of parika - hoepfully, that will bind up [i]some[/i] of the water.

So - final recipe is!

1 baggie henna (50g)
1/4 box of pectin (13g/ ?? cup)
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of honey
1/4 cup of parika


Mix together henna, honey, and parika. Let sit in fridge while preparing pectin.
Bring liquid to a boil and whisk the powdered pectin and a dab of henna into the liquid when it's boiling. Let boil for one full minute. Wait a few seconds to let it cool off some. Mix into the henna stuff, stir, let sit for a couple of minutes in the freezer (to delay the demise, and help the pectin gel faster). Pour into my brand new applicator bottle, and apply!

Now, if this works the way I want it to, I will end up with a henna mix that
1) Goes in easily
2) is not drippy
3) rinses out easily
4) has glorious shine
5) is intensely red
AND
6) doesn't require me to deep condition my hair afterwards.

This - would be the holy grail of hennas.


Heh. This is going to be FUN.
*went to stir and mix stuff at 6:10pm**returns at 6:19*

Shucks, the henna isn't fully defrosted. I jsut came up with smart henna trick #1245 though - dump the henna into the mixing container FROZEN - that way, it moves as a single mass. Also - I just put some water inside the bag the henna was frozen in, and swished it around - that's going to be my pectin water.I brought the henna out with me in it's container, and I'm currently shaking it into a slush. I measured out the pectin, and 1/4 box is about a tablespoon and a 1/4 teaspoon.

Henna's turned into a muddy slushy - I'm off to mix!

*leaves at 6:26*
*returns at 6:39*

Okay - this is going to be GORGEOUS!
Firstly, I mixed the parika with the henna - it turned this lucious brownish red color, and was a thick mud - like a face mask (ooh - that reminds me!). THen I added 2 tablespoons of honey (which, if I remember right, is 1/8 a cup) because 14/ cup of honey just LOOKED like way to much. We shall see. The mixture turned a glossy, glowing, slightly golden reddish brown color - just GORGEOUS! It didn't even LOOK like henna anymore - it looked like - chocolate cake batter - the really GOOD kind - BEFORE you add the last of the flour.
I stuck that back in the fridge (I want all the dye, ALLL of it!), and boiled 1/2 cup of the henna water, plus a wee bit more to boil off, into a pot. Once it boiled, I adding a tablespoon and a smidge of pectin, and beat it til it boiled like syrup. Took it off the heat, poured into a palstic cotainer, and stuck it in the freezer to cool. I cleaned up, rinsed out all my stuff, and put away the honey and stuff, and then pulled the green goo out of the freezer. IT hadn't gelled that much, but it WAS still steaming. I mixed it into the henna, and then stuck the whole thing in the freezer.
The interesting bit, is that it doesn't LOOK like a lot. But, at the same time, I know that when I dyed my hair with 'commercial' dye, I barely used 8oz - and this is at LEAST 12oz - so, I know it's enough PRODUCT - I'm just worried. I found a 16 oz applicator bottle at Sally's today, so that's going to be the recipient of the final product.
I want to leave it in the freezer for about 20 minutes, it's been ten mintues now, so let me go check.








Hmmm - it's definitely thickenin up, looks a little 'gooey' around the edges, but still pretty liquid in the middle. Definitely needs another ten minutes.
While that is finishing steeping, I'm going to get my hair damp, and take some color pictures!

*leaves at 6:50**returns at 7:30*

Well - all done. I SERIOUSLY underestimated the amount - I ended up with MAYBE 6 oz of henna mix. It's enough for my hair, but just barely - I forgot about ANOTHER benefit of using conditioner - it stretches the henna. I'm not sure what my hair thinks of yogurt - I've never really been on for protien treatments - but I suppose I would try that. Or, I could switch to a cheaper henna dealer, and just stick with the henna and not worry about stretching it. Or, I could use more water to mkae a bigger quantity, and add more pectin, and make the whole thing thicker - I wonder if pectin freezes well?

*sigh* decisions, decisions.

Anyhow - the texture was LOVELY. A little runnier than regular hair color, but still thick enough (in my ultra kiny hair) to stick - I got a few drips (while it was sitting on top of my hair) but not a single drippie once I worked it into my hair.
The color is gorgeous too - still that rich, brownish red. It dyed my gloves a VIBRANT golden orangey red - much brighter than usual. Not sure if that is from the parika, or if it's from the dye release process having gotten a 'boost' from the hot water.

I'm midly worried about my hair drying out this time - which would REALL suck - but I'm hoping that the pectin will keep it 'gooey' enough to be manageable. I figure, if you can wash off jam, you can wash off this stuff, right? *wriggles hair worriedly*

If worst comes to worst, I'll just have to use conditioner to get it all out, and I'll have to try again next week - with two bags of henna instead of one.

G'night.

*********************************************************

G'morning (just barely, as it's 11:45)

Did some cleaning, some loafing around, then got up to wash out my hair. The henna washed out well, the parika - well, I still have gritty bits, but all in all, not too bad.
Conditioning wise? Well - let's just say I'm sitting here now with my usual honey/conditioner in my hair. As I rinsed it out, I could tell that it was - softer, but - there was NO slip, and the ends of my hairs felt like straw. *sigh* I don't know (once AGAIN) how much of that is the henna, and how much of it is the damaged ends, but - either way, I think that I'm not going to be able to go WO - a sista NEEDS her conditioner. Ah well, at least it's settled.

I can't tell about the color - it looks - browner, more so than redder, which I found interesting. I also saw a little orange come out as I rinsed, which was a first - so I'm thinking that the pectin may have slowed the dye release. Was it worth it? Eh.
Don't know - at this point, it definitely helped me rinse it out easier - but no better than conditioner. The texture wasn't that much of a biggie either - if I use the applicator bottle (which, I'm going to have to buy another, because I did cut too much off the tip), even the texture of henna with conditioner would be fine. The condition of my hair is about what I would expect since I didn't use conditioner.

I took some pictures before I did the henna, and updated my fotki....it's amazing how HARD it is to capture the right color. So, we shall see.

Nope, not eaten by bears.....

Go on and swipe it, you know you want to.

A - is for age: 29
B - is for beer of choice: Michelob Amber Ultra (low-carb)
C - is for career: Ass-sitter
D - is for your dog's name: No doggies!
E - is for essential item you use everyday: Computer
F - is for favorite song at the moment: Um - Put Cha Sexy on by.......some fellow with an odd name - Lyfe Jennings!
G - is for favorite games to watch: whatever C happens to be playing
H - is for Hometown: Chester, Pa
I - is for instruments you play: None - though, I've been thinking about getting a drumdrumdrum
J - is for favorite juice?: Orange
K - is for last kiss?: C
L - is for last hug?: C
M - is for marriage: only once, only once
N - is for name of your best friends: Oh man....L, A, C & N
O - is for overnight hospital stays: 0
P - is for phobias: I honestly don’t think I have anything I’m phobic about.
Q - is for quote: It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society
R - biggest regret: Getting credit cards
S - is for status: Mawwied
T - is for time you wake up: 6:45AM
U - is for underwear: Cacquie string bikinis
V - is for vegetable you love: Broccoli!!
W - is for worst habit: Procrastination
Y - is for yummy food you make: Umm - everything?
Z - is for zodiac sign: Capricorn

---

It's 2:30 on a friday, I have a meeting at 3pm (hmm, I wonder if they ever gave a call-in number?) and I fully intend of leaving the INSTANT it's over. Life has been - rather sickeningly boring. Work, Home, Shop (sometimes), Sleep, Sex, playing with hair, cat, hubby, farting around with wallpaper and primer.

Okay, okay - I did go out camping and stuff - but - that was one of those experiences that rocked, yet are almost impossible to write about without violating several people's privacy as they were - unique.

Though, I have to admit, sitting in the dark staring at a fire listening to two shadowy forms talk about pulling out their vampire fangs and seducing 'donors' was rather - odd. I could never see who they were, and didn't know folx well enough to identify them by voice, but everytime someone spoke and was missing teeth, I worried.

I'm supposed to be going on a road trip Labor Day weekend - which means I'm going to miss out on the Labor Day Memphis Mafia OD Meetup *sighs* but - I haven't had a proper roadtrip with a buncha brilliant women in YEARS - I'll ahve to catch the OD'ers next year - maybe we could have it at our house!

*sticks out tongue at JHawk* ;)

Have a good weekend ya'll.

It's funny - I actually ran across TLHC YEARS ago - at least two by now. A friend of mine on another site was talking about using the oil cleansing method, and she gave me a link to read about what it was. I looked at it, and at first dismissed it (what were all these white women with oddly long hair TALKING about??) but the more I read, the more interested I became.
I suffered (and still do) from oily dry skin. Yup, you heard me - oily AND dry. My skin becomes very oily, but I have these odd dry/flaky 'patches' all over the place. And the pimples! Ohh - the pimples! And - it was winter time in Indianapolis, and that wind and cold insured that my skin was ALWAYS dying for moisture of some sort - but the more lotion I used, the more I broke out.

After reading about OCM, I figured - heck! Why not! I already had some vitamin E oil, and we ALWAYS have EVOO in the house - another 2 bucks spent on castor oil would be cheaper than another 'moisturizing and cleansing' face wash. I made the first batch - and I LOVED it.
My skin LOVED it - the pimples vanished almost IMMEADIATELY, and the oil kepy my skin moisturized and soft enough that the dry patches didn't show. That happened - sheesh, when was that? November of 2004? Since then, I have used something OTHER than oil on my face - maybe 5 times? Usually, it was because I was someplace where my skin just felt - tacky dirty, and I just wanted a little soap.
BUT! The dry, tight, flaky patches? Still there - and if I DARED let my face dry completely without oiling it - my skin would be tight, and the little patches would show up grey and flaky. I tried to 'scratch' or exolifiate them off, and that did nothing but break the skin, and give me ultra fine scabs - which then, of course, turned back into the flaky patches that I THOUGHT I was getting rid off. Most of the commercial products for 'smooth' skin have BHA in them - and THAT was too harsh for my skin - once again, I would be left with more dry patches than ever.
So, I just stuck with the OCM, knowing that as long as my face was oiled, the patches wouldn't show.

Then - I got interested in my hair again, and I came back to TLHC (these white women with the oddly long hair are actually some ROCKING chicks!!) and I've found out about something ELSE that sounds right up my alley - an ASPRIN mask. I mean, once again - it makes sense - a weaker version of BHA, and, it's lightly exfoliating!

I promptly went out and got a bottle of ultra cheap asprin, and plan on trying out a honey asprin mask the same time I do my henna. If it works even HALF as well as the other stuff I've learned about on here has (henna, CO, OCM, honey!, SS oil) - I'm going to be in love! I might actually have - smooth, even, FLAKE-free skin again.


Okay - so the nails lead in was a BIT of a put on, the only thing I've considered doing to my nails was MAYBE henna'ing them, and noticing that the vitamins, oddly enough, DO seem to be showing results in my nails. They are growing faster, and they are DEFINITELY stronger. Great hair AND nails!??!?! *fans self* This rocks!

It's a nice little routine I have, when I get home from work and get mostly settled in.

I leave the bottle of SS oil in the living room next to 'my' chair, so once I sit down and get comfy, I open it, and first dab the really thinning areas - my hairline right in front of my ears, and my 'recceding' bit. Neither are REALLY in any trouble (I don't think) but - that is where my 'baby' hair grows and I would love for it to be thicker.
Then, I take the dropper, and get it about half full, and just dabdabdabdab it all over the upper half of my head. Massage that in. Ahhhhhh. Another half dripper, and the crown, and the back of my head get dabbed and massaged. AAHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!! By the time I'm done, my hairline has started to tingle, and slowly - everything just warms up, and my head feels like it's HUMMING. I'm usually reading or watching tv by now (or surfing TLHC) and I'll occasionally pause and massage my scalp a bit more.

Am I noticing anything? I'm not sure - I still see a bit of shedding, and yeah - I do think it's less, and I suspect that's more the oil than the vitamins, as I'm not really expecting to get any results from the vitamans for at LEAST a month - possibly two. I HAVE noticed that most of the hairs coming out seem to be very very very fine. Like - lint fine, almost - and it's DEFINITELY hair, not lint. Whereas, on the rare occasion that I pull one out (usually in the process of detangling) the hair looks - thick. I hope that means my scalp is keeping the healthiest hair, and letting the weaker ones shed.

I love how I'm using things that give me results in different time frames. I get INSTANT results from henna. I get slightly slower results from the oil. The vitamins show up the latest.....but at least I have little suprises for myself along the way.

Speaking of henna (you knew I was going to talk about henna EVENTUALLY, right?) I went to the grocery store and picked up some pectin today - this weekend is the official 'How will my hair do with NO conditioner' try-outs.
I was worried for a bit that the water I used for the pectin would thin out the henna - but then I figured that whatever water I use in the pectin, it won't make the henna any thinner, because it'll all gel up. I was considering using some red zinger tea as the water - but opted not to. I want to change just ONE thing at a time (substituting pectin for conditioner) to see how my hair reacts - that's the easiest way to experiment.
I have no CLUE how much water/pectin is needed. I bought two of the little, Jello sized boxes - I hope to only use a wee bit out of one though....I think my mix is going to be - enough pectin to make it REALLY thick, and then enough honey to thin it down again. I need to make it thinner because - well, I still don't think my roots are getting red, but then, I don't know how much henna is ACTUALLY getting to my roots - no matter how thin it is. I really need to get an applicator - this glop-it-on-top-and-hope-it-sinks-in stuff is just NOT going to work for my hair.

*pauses to rub head again* *checks out hairs* *realllly thin ones*

*sigh*

My twists have this IRKSOME habit of leaving one or three of the 'central' hairs in the twist 'stretched' out, so that they hang longer than the rest of the happily curled about itself twist. *glares at hair* I hoped that getting them wet would cause all of the hairs to 'shrink' up equally, but nope. So, in order to give them a chance to 'squish in' (and so that I can see what a twist-out of the fat twists look like) I'm gonna untwist it tomorrow - assuming I get up early enough, of course. But - they are getting a wee bit fuzzy too, so that needs to be done anyhow. And of COURSE - tomorrow night is HENNA NIGHT!!

I'm getting better at taking my vitamins. Daily Vitamin before I leave the house, MSM and O369 with breakfast, another O369 at (or right after) lunch, and another dose of MSM and O369 at night. I'm going to pick up a measuring spoon that I can jsut leave in each bottle of MSM, so that I can get a more accurate dose. Yes, I plan on doubling up (ie, taking the full dosage both times), but since MSM is water soluble, I figure, no harm. Hmmm... I know that you body excretes the excess MSM after 12 hours - Breakfast is usually around 9, and bedtime is usually around 11 - maybe I should start taking it at LUNCH instead, to insure I evenly cover the full 24 hours. Hmmm - yes, and it'll be a lot easier to stuck that stuff down in the AFTERNOON, rather than in the morning with my yogurt. I mix the MSM in with a little pink lemonade crystal light type stuff, and I think that is the PERFECT flavor - the tartness of the lemon perfectly conceals the bitterness of the MSM - it's rather nice, actually. But, it'll be nicer NOT follwed up with a fruity, creamy, slightly tart yogurt.

I think that's about it, hair wise. *grins* Hanging around here (*laughs* I initially wrote 'hair'!) has me planning on doing stuff to OTHER parts of me though..... so see the next entry for my first Skin & Nails BlahBlahBlah........

Lately, I've been checking out black womens hair on TV.

I've noticed that a LOT of them seem to have 'natural' looking hair - as in relatively tight curls, rather than straight hair. I just saw one commercial, where the woman had lovely full curls, but when they went close-up, you could see that her roots were almost bone straight.
And then, there was a commercial for some Madea movie, where Madea had to adopt the little bad ass girl, and I noticed how tore up her hair was. It was like they purposely made her hair look as 'nappy' as possible, to accentuate her poverty/despair/abandonment. I immeadiately thought how nice her hair (which was very long) would look in double twists.
And then, there was the liutenent in Law And Order - who had thick boxbraids, which at first, I looked at and was like - What the HELL is that on her head? But then, after a few seconds, I liked it. Her hair was pretty thick, relatively long - and it looked good.



In other news......

I twisted my hair Monday night, but did it in thick twists to see a) how they looked and b) how long it would take me. They look - okay. I think that my hair needs to be longer in order to look really GOOD in a thick twist. It took me about - 2 hours to do it. I debated, and debated whether to wear them, but figured - hey - why not!
Now, after seeing the above mentioned woman in box braids, I'm like - hell yeah! It's - interesting, expanding my personal comfort limits when it comes to what looks 'right' in my hair and on me. I think they are going to make some GORGEOUS twist outs though! Considering how nice the tiny ones looked, I suspect these are going to look AMAZING.
I used a lot of whipped pudding, and a lot of gel on them this time, and since I was working from a semi-dry (used some of the spray stuff) smushed fro, I didn't comb it out as well as I should have. Hmmm - that's going to make this weekend's henna rather interesting. I used so much of both, because I wanted to make my hair as soft as possible. I'm considering combing the whipped pudding and gel through my hair, and drying it loose - just to see what it looks like - I suspect it'll be a loose fuzzy fro - I doubt that I'll end up with curls, but it'll be cool to see what is DOES end up looking like. I don't like that it starts out sticky, but it feels SO nice after a day or two, it's wonderful.

So - went camping this weekend, and rocked a twistout the whole weekend - and can I say it looked FABULOUS!!! I was - kinda shocked by how - appropriate it looked on me - even on the second day after dousing my hair to get rid of any bits of pieces of STUFF that might have been in my head. And my hair felt GOOD all weekend - I think that the combination of the WP I did the twists with, as well as the SS oil I had used - 3 or 4 days last week - really made a difference.

I got HORIBBLY lost coming home (I seriously thought at one point I was going to have to pull over and have a good, frustration releasing cry), so I got home MUCH later (2 hours!) and MUCH hotter than I planned on, and I said - screw the twists.

However! Because I'm addicted, I did NOT say - Screw the henna. I was in the house for MAYBE 10 minutes, and one of my henna packs was already out and sitting in a cup of water to defrost. I took a quick shower (to clean grime off, yes, but more to get my hair wet) and mixed the henna with a wee bit of honey and a BOATLOAD of conditioner. It seemed REALLY thick, so I added a bit of water, then a bit more.

As I began to put it on my head, I swiftly realized that it was so thick because there were still slightly frozen bits, and as soon as they hit my head, they started melting, and I had drips, drips, DRIPS for days. Messy, that was - looked like someone had an explosive accident all over the bathroom sink and the floor. Luckily, it wiped up well.

It only took me about 30 minutes - mixing, applying, saraning, papertoweling, shower cap and scarfing it - to have it all in my head. I sat with a towel on my shoulder to catch the drips that insisted on escaping.

I had PLANNED on rinsing it out before bed (because of the drips) but by the time I went to bed, they had mostly stopped (and I was EXHAUSTED) so, I just went straight to bed.

I got up especially early this morning, rinsed out the henna (once again, green only and SUPER easy) and - this here is the shocker - I combed through my hair with NO conditioner. True - there was conditioner in the henna, and true - it was on for a long time - but STILL! Also - as I sit here and play with it (yes, I'm playing in it - but I'm not pulling, I'm not tugging, and I'm rather anally checking my shoulders and very strand of hair that comes out to be sure it's SHED, not broken - so far, so good) I don't have a lot of the knots and tight tangles I had before. Now, I'm not saying it's not tangling - because it is, and it's going to be interesting 'untangling' it this evening so I can put the twists in, BUT - the tangles are coming apart much easier - I can only imagine how they would act if I had put some oil in my hair this morning.
I just used a bit of HH and put my hair into a puffro after getting out the shower - I'm DEFINITELY going to twist it tonight - even though I'm being gentle with it, I'm worried about being rough with it.

The color is gradually getting darker - still reddish/oragnish/brownish/goldenish color - I don't think there is a word for this color, but I LOVE it. The conditioning effects are definitely seen - I'm not seeing much more loosening of the curl (which is fine), and I think I'm actually seeing more - definition! The shed hairs that I'm seeing tend to be in tight, tight circles, that resist being mashed flat rather vigourously - so, I'm thrillllled about that.

What else is new, hair related?
Ah! I'm going to go home and make some cayenne oil tonight - I noticed a few 'bare' patchs in my hair line this morning (the spots where my locs were too thin and pulled the hair out at the roots - I hope I haven't ruined them) and I'd like to dab a lil oil right on top of both of those spots to stimulate them to grow, grow, grow!

I'm currently jabbering on another hair board about the politics and perceptions and desires of black women for long hair.

I SWEAR, my hair is longer. Seriously.....it's - amazing. I need to take another picture of me pulling down the front of my hair again - jsut to see if I'm really deluded.

I'm getting some liquid pectin at some point this week - I want to try to henna without any conditioner, and I think that the combo of pectin/honey/henna might work wonders. Or - I could do the henna/yogurt combo...... I've heard really good things about that - and I wouldn't have to buy anything new. But..... I don't know if my hair likes/needs/wants protien, and I'd hate to mess up a good thing. I think I'll try the pectin this week, and the yogurt next week.

Bugger, just broke a hair.

Okay, off to run errands now!

I finally updated my fotki with my henna pictures, and realized that I have neglected to take any good, post-oxidation pictures - I need to take pictures of my twists as the are now (the oil makes them look even darker), and then also take pictures of my loose hair - so I can see growth, as well as to check out what color my roots are.

I'm slowly beginning to accept the fact that no matter how much henna I use, I'll most likely not be able to get anything redder than a dark auburn on my hair - but ya know what? For the length, I'm willing to go for that. And then of course, I've still got just a TINY smidgen of hope that my hair will actually look even vaguely reddish for a while. *grins* Both me and my husband love me with 'tips' of a different color, so I'll definitely leave the dyed bits on til they just fall off on their own.

I tried to cornrow my hair after I posted the previous entry, and HAH! HAH! I say. I could get about to my ear on both sides, and then the combo of big head/short hair caused me to give up, and I just braided it into three outwards pointing braids on either side of my part. So, I suppose that makes my 'starting' length like - zero? *LOL*

Then, for SOME possesed reason, I tried to comb it out dry the next day. *sigh* you would think I would learn, at some point, that no matter how tight I might pull my braids, the ends WILL tangle - and I CANNOT comb through them dry without breakage. I finally broke down, and used a bit of my spritizer, and some WP, and managed to comb through it enough to put the twists in with some ORS Lock & Twist Gel. My hair was still pretty stretched out though, so it was easy putting the twists in - it took about 3.5 hours. I think that next time I should try for bigger twists - but I honestly don't know how to do them - my hands just automatically select a clump of hair that leaves me with rather small twists. I think that I'm worried about looking like I have 'dooky' twists - esp with my hair this short. But - I suppose a good compromise would be to make them bigger as my hair gets longer - that way, I SHOULD be able to keep my twisting rate around 4 hours for a while.

I've been taking the MSM and O369 every day since Monday (*LOL*) and the MSM is officially nasty, but mixing it with a little faux Crystal Light makes it edible - and I have a little coffee cup (paper) on my desk that I use basically as a shot glass to squeeze down the MSM and the O369 every morning. I take one O369 at breakfast, along with my badly measured MSM (I need to get a measuring spoon to leave at work). I take another O369 around lunch time, and I haven't been taking the dinnertime one yet - I want to see how my body acts with jsut these two.

Okay - it's almost time to go home, so I'm done.

They look really good - not nearly as fuzzy as they were last time, and I've gone two whole DAYS without putting any water in my head. I've given my scalp a good rubdown with the SS oil (that I added more rosemary and cedarwood EO too) every night, and they are still looking tight - I will DEFINITELY have to use gel in my hair to do twists from now on - which makes sense, considering how soft and flyaway my hair is - it needs something to keep it in check.

*brushes off dust*

*sighs*

I read, I note (occasionally), I laugh, I tear up, I pray. 

I'm more or less in denial of my life (it doesn't exisit, I'm merely passing through to another place) so I'm not writing much.

I've dyed my hair with henna twice, and am falling back in love with it - despite the shortness.

I'm going to be 30 in less than 6 months.

I've been sooo tired for what feels like - weeks now.  After that one weekend of horrid sleep, I feel like I haven't caught up yet.

Supposed to go dancing in the woods again this weekend. I said I would go, so I'm going, despite my suspicions that I don't really WANT to go - if that made any sense. But I'm tired (only sometimes, and only when I'm talking myself into doing something) of being a housebody (and sitting on my ass, rather than attacking that accursed wallpaper), so I'm going to go out, and have fun, and try to avoid the ticks. *shudder*

C is still in love with me, his job, and our house. Is there really any more to ask?

G is still in (cupboard)love with me, and (stalking)love with the house - but he's a cat, and anything more is simply beyond exceptional.

Work is - work. It amazes me sometimes, how fast and slow the weeks go by - blurring together. I've got more responsibility, but I still only work about 15 hours a week. Shhhh - I'm not complaining.

I've started smoking again (I might as well fess up, otherwise this next bit makes no sense) but I have to quit at the end of the year....finally, oh my god - I think we might be at the point where I HAVE to quit. How - delightful!

I only owe 390.00 on one of my two student loans.  I'm so enourmously geeked by that, I have almost no words.

I'm going on a mill tour - shit, this week! Um, on Thursday, I think it is. Wow - that crept up fast. Must figure out a outfit, and a headcovering, cuz I be damned if little particles of paper/wood get all stuck in the hair.

And..........

I'm done.

I just had a vision of what I want my hair to look like - the 'style' that I am reaching for is the perfect possible world. This is the star I am shooting for.

Last night, after I had tied my scarf over the henna hair, the end of the scarf hit me right at my tailbone - and I realized THAT is how long I want my hair to be - in a braid. I was thinking a little more about it today, and I don't want it to be that long in ONE braid - I want it to be that long from TWO braids - one on either side of my head. That way, I can bind them together at the bottom like they are one braid, and it would be an attractive (and simple) style to maintain.

Then, I thought about what it would look like out - would it be a pillow of hair? That's bigger than a halo - it would be like - HUGE. Oh my god, the size of that amount of hair - I don't know if it's possible. I have seen one black woman with hair that long - but only one. *grins* And sexy!!! Sheessshhh - just.... *nods* Yes Ma'am hot.

So - now I can actually measure, and see what length I'm shooting for. *smiles* I'm excited - I've got a GOAL now. And - I can measure my progress not by LENGTH of my loose hair (which, I've already figured out, is close to impossible to measure accurately) and instead measure by length of my BRAID. Right now, I don't think I would even make two cornrows - it's not long enough. So - that's my FIRST hair goal - getting my hair long enough to actually make two cornrows. Then, I can measure the length of how the cornrow changes every month. *grins*

Very happy, am I. Even if I only manage to reach the moon - it'll be SOMEWHERE. :)

So - left the henna in REALLY long this time - I stayed up late last night, and slept in late this morning - rinsed it out (came out like a dream again), and let it dry. I oiled my hair with SS oil and QHS oil, and put a little HH in it. I wanted to see how my hair would act WITHOUT the post-henna conditioning that I did last time.

After about 4 hours, I realized that um, no - I need to condition. My hair wasn't dry so much, as it was - tangly. I had knots all over the place - something that my hair DEFINITELY didn't do last time. So, I whipped up a quick mix of 2pts conditioner, one part honey, and heaped it in my head. I figure that after two hours, my hair should be good to go.

So - this has DEFINITELY let me know that I can't do WO until I finish my henna cycle - because the henna - and true, I DID use a bit of the leftover high-acid henna from last time, so that might make a difference - but the henna is strong enough to strip my hair of it's oils, so - I'll have to wait. Not that I mind, because I'm only washing/conditioning my hair once a week still - but, anyhow - WO will have to be put on hold.

The color - it's definitely darker, and my roots are starting to get a 'glow' almost. Still DEFINITELY not red - but - warmer, if anything. I have noticed some hairs at the very front that SEEM to be red all the way to the root - but I doubt that - unless I have some hairs that haven't grown at all since I dyed my hair, and were still bleached/red to the root.

I got my Omega 3-6-9 and MSM in the mail on Friday - I haven't used either yet- I'm considering using them only Mon-Fri, and just taking my regular vitamin on S/S. I opened the MSM powder and took a sniff - I've heard people say that it was yack-worthy - but it actually smelled - yummy. Protien powder like. I still didn't try it, but at least it doesn't SMELL bad. I didn't take a look at the size of the O369 pills, but - ugh. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

So - let's review.
1) Encouraging Growth:
Henna - to keep the scalp healthy.
Oils - to stimulate and condition the scalp.
Vitamins - Daily, MSM, O369

2) Retaining Length
Henna - to make the ends stronger and smoother
Twists - to protect the ends
Daily Leave-In - to keep the damaged ends moisturized.

3) Reducing Shedding
Henna - to improve the condition of the scalp
Vitamins - to strengthen the follicles.
Oils - SS Oil is supposed to help stop shedding - so I'm excited about that.

I need to look up what rosemary oil is supposed to be good for in hair. For some reason, I think it helps stop shedding, and if that's the case, I'll add a few more drops of it to the SS oil.

One downside to using honey in my conditioner - it drips on my neck and makes it sticky. One upside - I smell like clover all week. Ooooooohhh - I should put some ylang-ylang in it next time - I bet that would smell DIVINE.


Hmmm..... I'm supposed to be going camping next weekend. I should - since I have the henna pre-mixed - be able to henna, condition, and twist, all in the same day - Sunday, it would have to be. I mean - I KNOW that I'm going to have to retwist my hair at the very least - so why not add a couple of extra hours, and henna on schedule? I'll think about it - and see what my hair looks like - maybe I won't have to retwist it.


*sighs* Conditioner's been in for one hour. My scalp is tingling - it's a good feeling - like tiny tapdancers in my roots.

Henna #2 is in my head - things I've learned.

1) Henna is messy. Making large amounts of henna is messier.
2) It's a good idea to wear gloves at all times.
3) Paper towels really DO stop the drippies.

I used the following henna mix
400g Henna
1 cup red wine
5 cups water

Mixed it, let it stand til the henna released. Put most of it into ziplocs bags and stuck them in the freezer. Took the rest, plus the henna I had leftover from last time mixed it with a BUNCH of conditioner and a wee bit of honey, and slapped it in the head. I did that around 8:30ish....


About my hair......I untwisted it today, and - it's interesting. Some parts were really smooth and silky, over parts were still kinda - frizzy type ish. Might have been the oils, might have been the henna. It still felt good. I didn't pick it out to see the various lengths - I didn't want to comb it dry - so I'll do it tomorrow, and trim further as needed. I've more or less accepted the fact that I will be losing more hair tomorrow - not happy, but I've accepted it. Honestly though, I think there MIGHT be about a half inch difference, and if it's relaly that small, I won't be cutting it.

So.... went to the Coven Meeting (by the way, her craft name is Hecate - which to me, is a pretty ballsy name to take on - in my mind, that's along the lines of having the craft name Kali.........) 

*sighs* 
The good: Interesting meeting, two great women there, had a wonderful, wonderfully wandering conversation - I introduced them to the concept of chop wood/carry water pagans (thanks madrun !!!) and bascially bounced all sorts of things around. It was a GREAT conversation - definitely made at least one new friend.

The unexpected: The other two women there - were black! *jaw drops* Not only were they black, they also know of several OTHER black Kemetics (I suspect they are of the nationalistic variety, but beggars no choosers) - and as we hit it off WONDERFULLY - I might have found the link to another paganistic community in Memphis. 


The bad: *siiiiiiggghhh* I plan on going to another meeting (and those intentions get weaker and weaker every day)  - but - in and of itself - I doubt that I'm going to be participating, and I feel rather - badly about it, simply because Samantha (I can't call her by her craft name - it just doesn't FEEL right) seemed so - *thinks* despondent? sad? abandoned? lonely?
Firstly, of course, there was the whole 'coven meeting in a BOOKSTORE' thing. Then, there was the fact that despite she knew that the people coming would all be new (three people showed up, me, and the abovementioned two black women) she didn't have anything  - at all - to say. Then, there was the fact that out of a group of about 25 people (at least that's how many people are in her online group) - NONE of them but her showed up.  And if us newbies hadn't been there - she would have been sitting in the bookstore all by herself. 
It was like - it wasn't a meeting, it was a - a - I don't know - a chance to sit in the bookstore? If we (the three newbies) didn't get along (and provide 90% of the conversation), the four of us would have been sitting around the table in silence.  She talked twice - once about her cats, and once about how after she brought 200 dollars worth of food for a coven meeting, no one showed up. *erm?*  Is that really the sort of face you want to put on your group? Sheeee.......
And then, of course, there was Samantha herself.  I tend to judge a group (rightly or wrongly) by the leader - especially small, intimate groups like this one. She was......................I don't know quite how to describe it. Weak, isn't quite the right word. Ah! She had a very small personality.  Not small as in petty or mean, but small, as in mouselike and withdrawn.  Now, I know that not everyone is the bubbly outgoing type - but - at a meeting - for three new women who indicated some interest in your group - wouldn't you have SOMETHING to say about the group? About how it works? About what ya'll do? About - anything???  
And we - all three of us, at one point or another - asked her if she wanted to, ya know, kick the meeting off - and each time, we just got a little shrug, and a 'It's fine'.  *raised eyebrow*  




Overall, I'm glad I went.  I met some great people, I actually displayed the intestinal fortitude to be in a BOOKstore and not even browse (largely because I knew that if I browsed, I would end up buying. And it was a full price bookstore - and I haven't spent full price on books in.......well, it's been a LONG time).  
But, I definitely haven't found - at least not in the The Sisters of the Triple Goddess coven (wow, just realized the name - I wonder if that's why she picked Hecate? Tsk - if I go next Wednesday, I'll be sure to ask her) the group that I want to jump into and work with.  

Doors and windows, doors and windows. 

So - suprise suprise!! I get home tonight and what's waiting for me??? My Sweet Success oil! I didn't recognize the name on the box, and it was bigger than I expected, so when I opened it I was all thrilled and excited.

I sat down, put a drop on four fingers, and then rubbed that into my head. I figure I did that about five times - once on the left, once on the right, once in the middle front, once in the middle back, and the last time I paid special attention to my hairline.

I'm sitting here, and the top of my head is tingling a little, and I feel like something is stuffing up my nose *sniffs fingers* but, it's okay. My fingers, by the way, smell lovely. Like hair and herbs.

I've realized that there is no WAY my twists are going to last a week. I think it might be because I used WP instead of my usual gel, but it's the fuzz to end ALL fuzz now.

Ohhh - the top of my head is throbbing a bit now, I think I might need to massage a little more. *rubs head*

Ohh - that's the other thing, my hair feels different now.....or maybe it's my fingers. Something feels a little - tacky - sticky.

Ohhhhh... even MORE of my head is tingling now.... it feels REALLY nice. *rubs head some more*

Also, considering my hair is in twists, all this rubbing isn't helping either.

*pauses*

I had to go and rub on hubby's head - this feels SOOO good. His hair is shorter, so I only used 8 drops on him. My hair is tingling a little more now, it's almost imppossible to NOT rub it. *strokes hair* Hmmm... feels LOVELY. I really tried to focus a good bit of the oil (on my first rub) in the spot where my hair is about an inch long - I figure if I keep doing that, I'll see the most growth here and it'll catch up.

I don't wanna type, I wanna rub my fingers on my head. Excuse me, please.

Whinging.

I've been going all over, spreading my weepy ass across the landscape, so I figured, why should my weight loss journal be any different, hmmm?

So. still at 241 - yeah. Still eating - yeah. *sigh* I'm kinda, sorta, almost, but not really wondering if I have a mild ED - let me flow of consiouness for a while.

So... over the weekend, I was thinking (and bitching) about the fact that I HAVE to eat in order to lose weight, Not only that, but I have to eat regularly - or, more realistically, anytime my body says it's hungry. Now, I've always been able to tell the difference between hunger and boredom, hunger and thirst, and real hunger - so, that was never an issue. The thing is - I usually ignored it. I ate when I was good and ready - which might have been 6 hours after my body said 'Hey, hun? FEED ME!!!'.
I realized that I've always associated a sort of - spiritual purity - to not eating. Okay, maybe not SPECIFIALLY to not eating, but to transcending what my body demanded that I do, and control it with my mind - ie. not eating because my body said so, but eating because my brain wanted to eat. It felt - it feels - cleaner, righter, more in control - than leaping to the fridge the instant my body demanding food - whether I was in the middle of something or not.
But - doing some further thinking about it, I realized that is most likely why I lost so much weight on Atkins - AND why I stopped losing weight. I was able to lose so much weight because not only was I eating frequently, I had also 'tricked' my body into feeding off of it's fat source when it would normally tell me that it was hungry. As I lost more and more weight, I started eating less and less, and despite the 'eat fat' trickery, by body started being more reluctant to let anymore weight go, because you know, I've apparently got those famine genes. So - if I had continued to eat - maybe not ALOT, but at least regularly - I might have lost more weight.

I've noticed, over these last few weeks - the weeks that I eat - all seven days of the week, and don't skimp out and eat only once on Saturday, and once on Sunday (if at all on Saturday, depending on what time I wake up) I lose weight. Period. The weeks that I DON'T eat on the weekend, or skip a lunch, or eat a low-protien dinner - I gain or maintain.

In order for me to lose weight, it is simply NOT an option for me to skip meals. I NEED to eat breakfast, I NEED to eat lunch, I NEED to eat dinner - and I most likely should be sliding in a snack or two inbetween there to keep me going. That's so damn irksome.

I've also noticed that my blood sugar is MUCH more variable - it really is dependant on me eating, and if I go too long without eating, I can FEEL myself getting grumpy and - easily irritated. Or, I get a headache. Sheesh, is this what it's like to have a NORMAL metabolism? You have to EAT frequently?? Blargh. Too much bloody trouble is what it is. But - at least I'm learning, and I can accept the fact that for me to get what I want out of my body, I have to give it what it wants. The spoiled bitch.

In other news - I STILL don't have a blankety-blankety keycard for the fitness center. I'm - ready to start working out. Okay, I haven't fully figured out the whole clothing/shower issue - but that's just a matter of a little forethought. I suspect that once I start exercising, I'm going to be even HUNGRIER, and I'll HAVE to eat those inbetween snacks (and a more robust breakfast than yogurt) - delightful. But - I won't mind as much, cuz I'm sure my body will be routing those protiens into muscle, so, okay.

*sigh* There, I think I'm done whining. I've tried to be REALLY good with food this week (all of Wednesday that it is) and we shall see what the scale says Monday. I honestly do think I'm losing/rearranging, because some of my clothes are fitting slightly different. Can't say it's better or worse, just - different.

Whinging.

I've been going all over, spreading my weepy ass across the landscape, so I figured, why should my weight loss journal be any different, hmmm?

So. still at 241 - yeah. Still eating - yeah. *sigh* I'm kinda, sorta, almost, but not really wondering if I have a mild ED - let me flow of consiouness for a while.

So... over the weekend, I was thinking (and bitching) about the fact that I HAVE to eat in order to lose weight, Not only that, but I have to eat regularly - or, more realistically, anytime my body says it's hungry. Now, I've always been able to tell the difference between hunger and boredom, hunger and thirst, and real hunger - so, that was never an issue. The thing is - I usually ignored it. I ate when I was good and ready - which might have been 6 hours after my body said 'Hey, hun? FEED ME!!!'.
I realized that I've always associated a sort of - spiritual purity - to not eating. Okay, maybe not SPECIFIALLY to not eating, but to transcending what my body demanded that I do, and control it with my mind - ie. not eating because my body said so, but eating because my brain wanted to eat. It felt - it feels - cleaner, righter, more in control - than leaping to the fridge the instant my body demanding food - whether I was in the middle of something or not.
But - doing some further thinking about it, I realized that is most likely why I lost so much weight on Atkins - AND why I stopped losing weight. I was able to lose so much weight because not only was I eating frequently, I had also 'tricked' my body into feeding off of it's fat source when it would normally tell me that it was hungry. As I lost more and more weight, I started eating less and less, and despite the 'eat fat' trickery, by body started being more reluctant to let anymore weight go, because you know, I've apparently got those famine genes. So - if I had continued to eat - maybe not ALOT, but at least regularly - I might have lost more weight.

I've noticed, over these last few weeks - the weeks that I eat - all seven days of the week, and don't skimp out and eat only once on Saturday, and once on Sunday (if at all on Saturday, depending on what time I wake up) I lose weight. Period. The weeks that I DON'T eat on the weekend, or skip a lunch, or eat a low-protien dinner - I gain or maintain.

In order for me to lose weight, it is simply NOT an option for me to skip meals. I NEED to eat breakfast, I NEED to eat lunch, I NEED to eat dinner - and I most likely should be sliding in a snack or two inbetween there to keep me going. That's so damn irksome.

I've also noticed that my blood sugar is MUCH more variable - it really is dependant on me eating, and if I go too long without eating, I can FEEL myself getting grumpy and - easily irritated. Or, I get a headache. Sheesh, is this what it's like to have a NORMAL metabolism? You have to EAT frequently?? Blargh. Too much bloody trouble is what it is. But - at least I'm learning, and I can accept the fact that for me to get what I want out of my body, I have to give it what it wants. The spoiled bitch.

In other news - I STILL don't have a blankety-blankety keycard for the fitness center. I'm - ready to start working out. Okay, I haven't fully figured out the whole clothing/shower issue - but that's just a matter of a little forethought. I suspect that once I start exercising, I'm going to be even HUNGRIER, and I'll HAVE to eat those inbetween snacks (and a more robust breakfast than yogurt) - delightful. But - I won't mind as much, cuz I'm sure my body will be routing those protiens into muscle, so, okay.

*sigh* There, I think I'm done whining. I've tried to be REALLY good with food this week (all of Wednesday that it is) and we shall see what the scale says Monday. I honestly do think I'm losing/rearranging, because some of my clothes are fitting slightly different. Can't say it's better or worse, just - different.

Okay, so I HAD to break down and get the Queen Helene Oils that I saw yesterday. The 'Brand' name is: Good To Gro (why can't they spell ANYTHING right - I mean, MUST all black hair care products have at least ONE purposefully misspelling on the label??) and the oils are a 'Thickening Oil' and a 'Stimulating Oil'.

I looked at (and up) the ingredients, and basically, what they are is:

Thickening Oil
Soybean Oil
Methyl Soyate (a natural solvent and oil that absorbs deeply )
Olive Oil
Avacado Oil
Fragrance
Shea Butter
Brassica Camperstris/Aleurites Fordi Oil Copolymer (rapeseed and tung tree oil copolymer - antimircobials)
Vitamin A Oil
Vitamin D Oil
Corn Oil
Grapeseed Extract
Vitamin E Oil
Tea Tree Oil
Nettle Extract
Biotin
Thyme Extract
Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract (Pot Marigold)
Equisetum Giganteum Extract (Giant Horsetail)
Propylparaben (Preservative)
Sweet Almond Oil


Stimulating Oil
Soybean Oil
Methyl Soyate (methyl soyate, a natural solvent and oil that absorbs deeply )
Coconut Oil
Jojoba Oil
Wheat Germ Oil
Shea Butter
Linolenic Acid (Unsaturated fatty acid used as an emollient and thickening agent)
Linoleic Acid (Unsaturated fatty acid used as an emollient and thickening agent)
Peppermint Oil
Oil of Wintergreen
Grapeseed Extract
Vitamin E Oil
Tea Tree Oil
Vitamin A Oil
Biotin
Henna Extract
Menthol
Rosemary Extract
Propylparaben (Preservative)
Sweet Almond Oil
Vitamin D Oil
Sage Extract
Wild Cherry Extract

They are both suprisingly 'clean' ingredient wise - though, I wonder how much of this 6oz bottle is other fun stuff, and how much of it is soybean oil. I think I'm going to post over on the products board, and ask folx what they think of it. I think that I'll try them out while I'm waiting to get my Sweet Success Oil.

I know, I know, I said that I'm not a PJ, and I'm not - but - it was so CHEAP!! 2 bucks for each bottle (I do so love BigLots!) and I figure - if worst comes to worst and I hate it, I'll have two henna applicator bottles!! :) :D

So! What's new?

My hair is still in something RESEMBLING twists - they are fuzzy as all get out though. I planned on untwisting them this morning and going to work in a twist out, but somehow I slept through the alarm clock and didn't get up until 8am - so, no time for the twistout. I just did my cool water rinse, and rubbed some HH through my hair.

My hair is still sleek, shiny, strong. I think that the oils are helping it stay supple too - the couple of twists that I've pulled apart and retwisted detangled in my fingers with no knots. I'm REALLLY looking forward to taking my hair out - I twisted it as soon as the henna came out, so I haven't had a chance to see/play in my texture.

It's funny - just having my hair twisted for this little bit of time has DEFINITELY convinced me that a) I need to keep my hair in protective styles to keep me fingers out of it and b) I will NOT be locing anytime soon. I sit at work and stroke the roots of my hair - where it's loose - just to feel the lovely bumpy texture.

And while I KNOW it's just plain not possible, I SWEAR that my twists look longer now than they did at the start of the week. My hair really does grow fast, I know that, but it can't possibly grow THAT fast.

I'm going to use the henna I had leftover from last week (mixed with some conditioner) and a bit of my mondo batch of henna I plan on making tonight (and freezing in individual ziploc packages - oh, must get some ziploc bags tonight!) to rehenna my hair tonight. I'm going to make it thinner, and I'm going to use a LOT less wine this time - last time I used a cup in 100g, and this time, I plan on using a cup in 400 grams - which, I think is about the ratio that I planned on using before. I'm going to freeze the henna by itself - no conditioner, no honey (I'm hoping that I get the essential oils in the mail today - I'd love to put a few drops in to flavor the henna) so that when I'm ready to do my hair, I can put those things in fresh.

What else is going on up there? Ah! The oils. So - I used a bit of the Queen Helene Stimulating oil last night after I used the SS oil, and - I really like how the QHS oil feels - it's - thinner, and jsut a touch oily, and it tingles - I think that was the menthol in it. I'm focusing with both oils on my hairline (I have a 'wavy' hairline that is populated almost solely with 'babyhair') and I would GREATLY like for that area to thicken up and grow. It's cute wet, but it NEVER stays in any style I make. I used a little more of the SS oil last night too - I broke my head into five sections, and then used a little more to hit the hairline. Even if it doesn't help my hair GROW, I love the way it makes my hair FEEL.

Speaking of good feeling hair - I'm seriously thinking about this whole WO thing, and trying to figure out how I can get it to work with the hennaing. As I was thinking about it, I realized that there is really no reason the two CAN'T work together.
Okay, true, I wouldn't be doing pure WO, because TECHNICALLY, I would be cowashing every week by using henna with conditioner in it - but is that a bad thing? I can WO during the week, and 'hennawash' on the weekend....and see what my scalp thinks. So far, nothing but water & leave in have hit my head all week, and while I can tell that it needs a GOOD rinse (with loose hair, cuz rinsing with twists in isn't the same AT ALL) - it still smells good, and it still feels good.

I'm vaguely worried (because of the proliferation of longer hair strands in the middle of my twists) that my hair is going to be all kinds of lopsided lengths when I take it out, and I'm going to need to trim it again loose, to try to get my hair to ROUGHLY the same length. I plan on checking that out and doing what's needed tonight, as my hair will be dry, and it should be mostly stretched out...so I'll be able to get a good idea of the length.

WOoo - see, this is what happens when I skip a day or two of entries, I write the mondo massive entry of HAIR (dumdumdummmmmmmmm).

I think I only need five more posts to break 100. Whoohoooo!!!

ETA: Hey!! Page two!!! And - I got a trader rating!

My Life Rating.....

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.2
Mind:	7.2
Body:	4.5
Spirit:	7.9
Friends/Family:	5.9
Love:	7.3
Finance:	7.2
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Your Life Analysis:

Life: Your life rating is a score of the sum total of your life, and accounts for how satisfied, successful, balanced, capable, valuable, and happy you are. The quiz attempts to put a number on the summation of all of these things, based on your answers. Your life score leaves room for improvement. You can make changes to improve your trouble areas, and this will bring you greater satisfaction. Focus on your weakest points and set about to change them. Do not delay your happiness and success.

Mind: Your mind rating is a score of your mind's clarity, ability, and health. Higher scores indicate an advancement in knowledge, clear and capable thinking, high mental health, and pure thought free of interference. Your mind score is within a healthy zone. This means you have achieved a level of mental balance and harmony consistent with living a healthy, happy life. Continue doing what works, and keep your focus. In our fast-paced world, mental clutter is all too common. Be vigilant in maintaining healthy mental function.

Body: Your body rating measures your body's health, fitness, and general wellness. A healthy body contributes to a happy life, however many of us are lacking in this area. You have a rather low body score, which means that your physical health is not in a good condition. You must put a higher priority on your body, focusing on nutrition, exercise, and stress reduction. Proper focus will lead to great improvement, leaving you feeling energetic and happy.

Spirit: Your spirit rating seeks to capture in a number that elusive quality which is found in your faith, your attitude, and your philosophy on life. A higher score indicates a greater sense of inner peace and balance. Your spirit score is relatively high, which means you are rewarded by your beliefs. Spirituality is clearly important to do. Never let it slip, and continue to learn and grow.

Friends/Family: Your friends and family rating measures your relationships with those around you, and is based on how large, healthy, and dependable your social network is. Your friends and family score is not bad but can be improved. Maintain your current social net, while you try to expand it. Try new things and form new friendships. You will be rewarded greatly.

Love: Your love rating is a measure of your current romantic situation. Sharing your heart with another person is one of life's most glorious, terrifying, rewarding experiences. Your love score is in good shape, meaning that things are going well. Do all you can to maintain it, and continue to grow and move ahead.

Finance: Your finance rating is a score that rates your current financial health and stability. You have a rather good financial score, which is not all that common these days. Keep doing what works. Avoid common pitfalls and save for the future. You will be glad you did.