Henna #10 is complete, as well as the coconut/lime experiment, and I must say - WOW. I really need to get a camera.

So - I started putting together my experiment Friday morning - I opened a can of coconut milk, and was thrilled to see that it had separated, so the thick creamy bits were all on top, and underneath it was the thin watery stuff. I poured off most of the watery stuff, and dumped the cream into a bowl. I cut open a lime, and squeezed the whole thing in. I used a whole lime instead of a half lime because - well, the lime looked so LITTLE. I mixed it all together, and stuck it into the fridge.

Friday night, I pulled it out of the fridge, and it was an almost solid block. I didn't see any of the foaming that was refered to in the original article, so I figured I'd just put all of it into my hair. I went to the bathroom and started squishing it into my hair - and it was SOOOO thick and - hard - almost that it just sat on top of my hair. I added some ACS oil, and a little water, and mixed it together until it was the consistency of conditioner. It still had some gritty bits in it, but at least I could get it into my hair. That stuff was COLLLLLDDDD - I can tell you that much - I wonder if it actually got semi-frozen while it was in the fridge.

So - left that in for about 4 hours, rinsed it out, and slapped Henna #10 in. I switched up the mix a bit - I used the remnants of the ACS that I used to make the oil instead of using ACS oil itself. I didn't want to toss out the stuff, but it was so oily that I couldn't imagine what else to do with it. I left that in overnight, as usual.

Rinsed out today, slapped in the deep conditioner (WR, honey, the last scrapings of V05, ASC oil) and left that in my hair for about 3 hours.

When it came time to comb out my hair - I noticed that it was VERY soft, but strong, and almost untangled itself. I went and took a look at it - and it was - just plain lovely. I wish that I had a camera so that I could take a picture of it - but it was LOVELY. My kinks were definitely looser, and my hair was soft, soft, soft!!

So - I'm totally happy with the results, and while I most likely won't do this EVERY week (coconut milk ain't cheap), I will definitely do this anytime my hair seems to need a reallllllly deep conditioning.

In other happy hair growth news - I'm sitting here right now with two flat twists in my hair - on either side of my head!!! My hair is OFFICIALLY long enough to start doing the 'measuring' that I was talking about - so, my hair has grown enough/is long enough for me to truly start my measuring - I'll keep track by remeasuring the last day of every month (or, if my hair is bound up, the closest day that it's loose to the end of the month).

Sept 30, 2006 - My 'tail' just touching my shoulder - It's about the length of a lighter (I have no CLUE where my measuring tape is), but I'm guestimating 3.5 inches.

In Hairstyle related news - I HAVE to learn how to cornrow, really, I do. I can never get them to look the same on both sides on my head - one side is 'under' and the other side is 'over'. I like the way the 'under' looks better......but I can't figure out how the heck I'm doing it. Maybe I'll wander about and find some hairstyle guides.

Oh! I went to Hancock Fabrics Friday night, and they didn't have a SCRAP of 100% acrylic yarn. The closest they had was 80% acrylic, 20% wool....and even that was in funky colors. I'm thinking that I might actually have to *gasp* go to Walmart. *weeps* I plan on going grocery shopping tomorrow, and I'll MIGHT go by then. Or, since I know that I'm not going to do it this weekend, I might go to the Walmart near my job Monday.

I keep stoking my head, because my hair is SOOOOO soft. I don't think I've ever felt my hair THIS soft. I can't wait to see what it feels like dry - I've rubbed a little WP on the outside of my flatwists, just because I want to see what it feels like product free.

So!

I'm such a flipflopper - yesterday, I called the braiding salon, and found out that they would be open all day Saturday, and planned on going there and checking them out. But then, my cheap gene started acting up, and I figured I would slide on over to NP.com, and see what kinds of info they had in their Styles section - and I found the BEST ever [url=http://public.fotki.com/delushious/how_tos/twist_extensions_101/]tutorial[/url] on how to do twists - and as I kept wandering around, I found one or two more (I'll have to come back tonight and edit this - I saved them as friends on my fotki, but work doesn't allow me to access fotki) including one GORGEOUS yarn twist - that I definitely think I will try. The idea of having fake hair in my head was - ehhhh - to me the whole time - I'd rather have yarn!
Now - if I can get my twists looking even HALF as good as those girls - the first set will cost me about 30 bucks (for the yarn and for a braid sealer machine) and after that, each set will cost ABOUT 5 bucks. HELLO???? Five bucks! And I won't have to waste an entire day in the salon! I figure I should be able to get them done in about 6-8 hours - which ain't bad - even if I go long with them.
I paln on swinging by the fabric store near me to see if they have yarn in a nice color for my two tone hair - that's always the interesting part - matching the colors....

And Whoohoo!! I'm on my fourth page!

Did I mention that I'm not going to be weighing myself?

I had almost convinced myself of this last time - saying, quite logically too, that if this was REALLY a full life change - something that I was doing for my health, then the pleasure of doing it - and doing it better than I did before - was the only reward/carrot/result I should be looking for. The numbers on the scale WILL change - as long as I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

I'm serious this time - no scale.

And - I'm amazed at how sexy exercising makes me feel. Okay, that's not absolutely correct - it's more that I'm not in the depths of despondency over mah fat arse because I'm actually TRYING to do something about it, rather than continiuing to sit on the aforementioned body part and stuff dingdongs in my mouth. Not that I actually EAT dingdongs (I prefer Oatmeal Cream Pies) but, you get the idea.

I did my first independant wieght lifting workout yesterday - Oh my god! One good thing I can say, is that when I was done, my thighs hurt less. Yes, I thought that was odd too - considering I had worked out with the demon whom I shall call D (otherwise known as my personal trainer) on Monday, and had skipped a day on Tuesday (because I had taken a half day from work, and also because my thighs felt like they were going to physically rip themselves from my body) - but after working out yesterday I feel almost - normal. Nay, human even. My thighs still hurt when I first stand up and start to walk around, but - other than that - it isn't half bad. So, I guess working out isn't half bad, neh? Though, squats and shrugs are still el diablo himself - I'm delightfully satisfied when I'm done. 

The fitness center that I go to is popluated by mostly BOYS which is vaguely creepy/embarassing/oh my god I am teh suck/ but I firmly try to ignore them, make sure I have the proper form, and pretend like I'm a hawt strong girl doing this instead of an almost hawt utterly weak girl trying to get hotter & stronger. There is one girl there who dares to touch the weights, and another woman there who I don't think knows that the weights EXSIST - but other than that, it's a pretty small crowd. But then, it's late in the year..... I'm sure that after January, it'll be ass against the glass in there - for a month or so, and then people will fade away again. 

Umm - I've tweaked my points system a little, and corrected a REALLY obvious mistake, and I'm going to use it for the rest of the week, and then see how well it turned out for me....but I think that I will stick with it.  I was debating punishments/pointlosses for eating 'bad' foods - but no. This is a life long change - there is no such thing as a 'bad' food - there are jsut more supportive and less supportive foods, and if I want to eat something that has all the support of a 12 year old bra, then dammit, I will. Technically, I WILL lose a point because it won't fall into protien/starchy carb/fibrous carb - but I just really want to get away from the idea of good food/bad food. 
I need to work on a shopping list, dammit all.  Grocery shopping MUST be done this weekend.  I need to put together some meat & veggie combos for lunch - though, I suspect that sandwiches and soups will be a favorite. I had oatmeal for lunch today - YUM! I think it'll be easier for me to deal with that for lunch than anything else. I'm also thinking about making some breakfast burritos and freezing them, to give me a quick grab yum! for snacks. Hm. 
I think that's it, for now. Must do grocery list TONIGHT!

So!

Much fun with hair to be had.
Last night, I finally sat down and rubbed a healthy bit of my ASC oil mixed with SS oil into my hair, working it in well around the hairline and the like. Didn't feel much tingling, which tells me I can use more cayenne next time, and decided that the smell is like burnt sugar. Interestingly enough, the oil was - thick. Syrupy, somehow. I'm starting to wonder if there was a bit of sugar in the pot that I cooked it in.
The interesting thing is that today - my hair feels - AMAZINGLY strong - almost, not LIKE hair....at least not my hair. It doesn't feel like it's baby fine strands - it feels - wiry - it's not as elastic as it usually is either - but I have to pull REALLLLY hard to break a strand - it doesn't stretch, it just *pop* breaks - and it's still SOFT.
The breaking could be because my hair hasn't been properly moisturized all week, but still. I'm in love with this stuf - I LOVE how it makes my hair feel. I'm not going to make anymore until I use up this bottle I've made already though - even though I've figured that I'll do the next batch in the crockpot so that the Amla won't react with the metal and turn dark brown - I think it will end up being a gorgeous oil - red and orange from the cayenne and henna, and maybe a little brown from the Amla? This current batch is a dark brown syrupy color, so who knows.

Also - I got my shea butter yesterday!! It's really smooth and soft - I need to test it again today to see if it's still so soft, or if it was maybe a little softened from sitting outside before DH got home. My FNWL shipment went out yesterday as well *happy dance* and it's scheduled to be delivered on Monday, so YAY!!! Though booooo! because I won't have a chance to play with ANY of it until the weekend. *sigh*

Ah! On LCHF, there is this discussion going on around straightening your hair with 'natural' items. The current one (and the one that I'm considering doing) is coconut milk and lime juice - mixed, allowed to sit and curdle into a cream, then putting the cream on your hair. I'm SERIOUSLY considering doing this - but only to the 4b section of my hair on the left hand side. From what I've heard, it acts like a 'blowout' on your hair, without the use of heat. Verrrrrrry interesting. So - I think that I might do that this weekend, between henna'ing (my next to last one!) and deep conditioning and the like.

I've fully accepted two things - one, I'm going to have dark brown hair until I start going gray - even with the henna, it will just be a sheen of red. With that said, I'm STILL going to henna on a regular basis - the conditioning/strengthening aspect of it just plain rocks and two - I'm going to have to stay in protective styles until my hair is long enough to do some more 'fun' stuff with it.
I've been checking out the Hairstyle board on NP to get more ideas as to what I can do with it, but I'm going to have to do more of that at home, as the netnanny blocks most picture sites. I also wonder - how much TIME do these women have? Or am I just lazy - having been spoiled by YEARS of having wake up & go hair - literally not having to do a THING to my hair on a daily basis besides get it damp and go? I think that's another reason I'm eagerly looking forward to having longer hair - I can do LESS manipulation to it, and still manage to get it into a lovely style - without having my ends exposed. Yes, Yes, I'm going to be a bunning & braiding fool.

Along those lines, I'm going to do the crowning glory method during the winter time - you are supposed to keep in braids for 7 weeks, leave your hair free for one week, and then repeat. I figure I'll do three - C&G cycles each winter. 7 weeks is 49 days, which is a little under two months, so if I get my hair braided October 14th, like I plan on doing, I'll be taking them out December 2. Give my hair a week of rest, put the braids back in December 9th, taking them back out January 27th. Another week of rest, put them back in on February 3rd, and take them out for the last time March 24th - that's close enough to the start of spring that my hair will be growing faster, AND will need more exposure to the sun to be happy.

So - three cycles, that's not too bad. And considering how much of a hibernator I am during the winter - anything that allows me to sleep later is a VERY good thing.
I just called to set up a time for a consultation at the salon that I plan on getting my braids done at on Saturday - which is PERFECT, as I'm going to do the coconut milk/lime bit tomorrow night, and I'll just get up and go out early, so that I can come home and do my henna. Fun, fun, FUN!!! They'll be able to see my hair in it's most gorgeous, blown out status (cuz you KNOW I'm going to most likely go to sleep with the stuff in my head - smelling like a tropical drink).

Okay, I think I'm done.

So.

Oddly enough, despite the fact that I am anal, I can't stand anal people. Maybe it's anality that hasn't been explained to me that irks me. If I understand why you are being such an asswipe, I jsut might appreciate it more.  Maybe.

Work (continuing in the vein I started with) is well. Let's just say I spend 12 dollars a week on powerball simply so that I can escape this soulsucking hellhole. I feel rather guilty sometimes, whinging over the lack of - anything - at my job, rather than having concrete idiocy to whine about. Though, maybe I paint things with too rosy of a brush, and this stuff really IS stupid. Either way, I'm still here, still wishing that I wasn't, counting down the months remaining until I am free.

The house - the house is slowly becoming a home. This weekend, the game room should be DONE (which gives us not only a game room, but also a dining room, as all the crap that should be in the game room is currently taking up 1/4 of the dining room) and sweet mother of God herself, a living room. All that is left to do in both rooms is bottom trim and the doors - and I WILL get those done this weekend. Hub was supposed to do the bottom trim in the game room yesterday, but he had to do the DMV duck hunt instead, so. Well. I'm efficient, they'll be done. If for no other reason than I am sick - SICK, I tell you! - of living in 1/3 of the space of the living room because everything is pulled 3 feet away from the walls.

I'm working out and eating right (again, for the 15hundreth time in my short life) and utterly refusing to weigh myself for love or money. I finally broke down and got a *gasp* personal trainer (who isn't really all THAT personal, as I'm in a 'group' with two other people - a lovely 72 year old woman named Jane, and a future med-school student named Justin) but it's not that much, and I know that it will be useful, and dammit, spending a few hundred dollars for health isn't that bad. I wonder if I can get reimbursed through my health care plan. I doubt that I can, just - well, just because any HMO paying for actual PREVENTATIVE care would be - well, it would be too much like right.

I'm half-assedly charting - more so keeping track of my periods and when we do the wild thang than anything else. I 'supposed' to be ovluating around now, so tonight I'm going to go home and spit on the little lens and see what it tells me. We are waiting until March to really START trying, but we are enjoying the practice. Though, hubby pouts each time I tell him we need to use a condom (which isn't ALL the time) and I just laugh. Mwhahahaa! March, you horny man you, MARCH!

I'm such a slackass OD'er lately - I've been trying to note more (which ain't much, considering my track record of noting) to make up for the half assed writing that I do, but well.... life is so - so - level and balanced that I tend to not have much to talk about.

I do keep threating to combine the *thinks* 4 different journals that I have scattered around on 3 different sites into one (body, spirit, hair, life), but I haven't come up with a way that I'm happy to do it - either here or on LJ - so I'mma keep waiting.

Because, I'm anal, ya know?

If you think you might be anywhere near the Midsouth the next to last week in October - take a gander at the previous entry. Or, just gimme an email address, and be suprised.

*smoochieboochies!*

So!!!

I've been wandering around the Recipes board, thinking about my hair butter of Heaven that I'm going to make.

So far, I know for sure that I want it to be a whipped shea based butter. I want mango butter, jojoba, and a little coconut oil in it - and maybe a SMIDGE of cocoa butter. I want Amla, Shikakai, Henna and Cayenne in it. I'm thinking about adding a little Rosemary EO, and a little Sage EO.

Hmmmmm....... I think that about covers it.

*twitches* They still haven't sent out my order yet.

9-26-06

Umph.

I got slapped with a hungry stick around 9:30am, and wolfed down a yogurt. (One point) Good, that I ate, bad, that all I had was yogurt. I have to bag up some Oatmeal, and go to Family Dollar tonight.

I was only at work for half a day, and I gulped down a protien shake around 11:00 ish (hungry again- yet another sign that the yogurt wasn't enough - another point).

I ran some errands, went home, started making lunch, got interuppted several times, finally sat down to eat (a BTC sammich) around 2pm. Had chips with it, made two sammichs, only ate one. (2 points)

Then, got bust doing stuff, was full - and okay, until around 8ish, I suppose (ah, just lost a point here). Ate some leftover cheesy goulash of hubby's that I dotted with the remaining bacon. (3 points)

Took my last set of supplements around 9:30, was in bed by 10:30, sleep by 12.

I didn't work out - the whole half a day thing (lose 4 points - I refuse to count a weekday as a cheat day), but that's really no excuse as I HAVE weights at home, and I HAVE a piece of cardio equipment so - I just generally suck.

I REALLY need to set up a 'home' schedule, because otherwise I jsut sit on my ass and get jack ALL done. So. Yes.
And I need to start working on my grocery list - the monthly shoppin trip is this weekend, and I've got a whole world of supportive eating to prep for.

My God, how much do I suck?

Seriously??? 


So, it's pretty obvious that I haven't done jackall for well over hte last month.  I was in the zone, grooving and moving, and then - SPLAT. As I always do, I nicely sabatoged myself, and stopped doing EVERYTHING.  But - a couple of things have come up, and a couple of things have changed, and hopefully - sweet jesu - no, there is no hope. I am GOING to do this, gotdammit - no ifs, no ands, no buts, and any damn excuses should come out of my ASS. 
*clears throat* 

So - firstly, I finally got the key to out fitness center - it's an nice place. Has several treadmills, a couple of machines, plenty of free weights.  I hadn't bothered going until last week when I - 
Secondly - started working with a personal trainer.  It's the same fellow that I was emailing back and forth with a few months ago (most likely when I started this journal), and while it ain't cheap (but really, how expensive is 425.00 for a lifetime of health?), I think that it will be useful. On a personal level, I think he's a bit of a twit, but - it's the asskick I need. Plus there's
Thirdly - I just joined a challenge that was on one of my hair boards (we aren't going to go into that obsession right now, TYVM!) - 2007 Head to Toe challenge.  As I've begun to realize that - from my hair to my body to my spirit - I'm all one, all intertwined, and I can't expect one to truly flourish while I neglect the others, I'm on board with that. The hair aspects are in my hair journal, the spiritual aspects with be in my spiritual journal, and the body aspects will be here. 
I swear before ALL that is holy - at some point I'm going to grow a set and combine everything into one place. 

So - as part of pushing myself along (accountability, accountability) I'm going to start scoring my days.  According to the fitness trainer, I need to work out 6 days a week, and I get one cheat day a week.  I need to eat every three hours, and while he doesn't recommend a certain level of protien/carbs/fats (he just gives us this list of 'supportive' foods, which really, might work better for me anyhow - as he says, you don't have to be PERFECT, you just have to do better than you've done before).  There are two portions of my workout - cardio and resistance, and three portions of my food - protien/starchy carb/fibrous carb. 

3 points per meal - (I'm not going to specify how MANY meals I should eat a day, because on the weekends (when I sleep in) it will get thrown off. 
4 points per workout (2 points for cardio, 2 points for resistence) 
3 points per supplement (I'm supposed to be taking a supplement 3 times a day - I usually only do it twice a day) 
5 points for timing - I'll just GIVE myself five points for eating every three hours (I figure 15 hours is about my max) and lose points as I go along.

So - that's 15 points a day, which means in a perfect week, I should have 90 points.  I'm going to START by shooting for  75 points - five perfect days. Each thing that I miss - I lose a point for.  For example, if I eat breakfast at 9am, and then don't eat again until 2pm, I lose a point - if I skip cardio, I lose 2 points. If I eat a meal that only protien and starchy carbs, I lose a point (no fiborous carbs). I'm going to start each day out with five points for timing, and add the rest as I go along.

I'm officially kicking off the point system today - I'll put together a little chart in Excel that I can keep up with easily - Gods Bless GoogleSpreadsheets. I'm going to give myself a week to tweak it, and then shoot seriously for 75+ points EVERY week.

And I still owe someone a freaking workout CD - as soon as the computer room is back in shape and I can actually get ON my computer - it will be burnt and sent.

Hmm.
Okay - did henna #9 over the weekend
1 bag of henna
healthy drizzle of ASC oil
healty drizzle of honey
lots of conditioner.

And - I think I'm about done with hennaing my hair. After I had rinsed the henna out, DC'd and WP'd my hair, I went out into the sun with a mirror, and looked really, really, REALLY hard at my roots - and - nothing. Okay - there is a 'sheen'. A bit of a 'glimmer' even - but red? *snorts* Nay. So - if after 9 henna treatments, I'm not getting much red anywhere on my naturally colored hair, I'm going to accept *sniffsniff* that I'm going to be going back to my natural hair color.
Now, I must admit, I will still henna my hair - most likely much more infrequently - it might become part of a bimonthly cycle, or something along those lines. So - I'm going to use these last two henna packets, use part of the henna I'm getting from FNWL to make some hair oil, and tuck the rest away in the freezer until I'm ready to give my hair a boost of shine and strength.

I plan on using the stuff from FNWL to make hair oil, and a hair butter - I'd love to get something like WP out of this stuff. I also have some Elasta QP Mango Butter (that I LOVED) sitting in my cupboard - it has cones in it, so I quit using it for cowashing, but - I still refuse to give it away. Anyhow - I want to try to make a cone free version. Really, I want to make a cross between WP, the Elasta MB, and the ACS oil. Just a one stop hair buttering shop.

I twisted my hair last night with loads of WP - my hair is still slightly oily today, but a LOT of the oil has soaked into my hair. Also, since I'm working out, that extra oil will get rinsed off over the week.


It's interesting - I really wish I had kept track (or at least taken pictures!) of my hair before I locked it up - I really have no recollection of what my hair USED to be like. I think that I have an old college ID photo of my with two strands twists - 50 pounds light and 7 years younger (I think the weight's done me worse than the years), but other than that - most of the pictures I have of me from BL (before locs) my hair is in braids. Even the period of time leading UP to me having locs - I remember that the main reason I went to locs is that I figured I would always have my hair 'up' - either in braids or in twists, and rather than spending all that money to have someone else do it, I could do it myself. But then - the interesting thing is that it would take me the ENTIRE weekend to do my hair - untangling it was a chore, and washing and then combing AGAIN and then retwisting - and compared to what I do now - I'm not sure if I was making it harder on myself than it really NEEDED to be, or if my hair is going to turn back into an unholy terror once it get to be a good bit longer. I honestly - don't remember. I have no hair history - I can't even remember how LONG it was- though, for some reason I'm PRETTY sure that the front twist could go under my chin stretched - which is about 12 inches.

I've more or less decided that I'm going to have braids put into my hair. I'm going to henna again this weekend, then for the last time for a while next weekend (Oct 7th). Our housewarming is Oct 21st, so I'd like to have the braids put in the weekend between that - Oct 14th. That would actually work out perfectlllllly. I'm still split between kinky twists, regular braids, or cornrows. I've found a salon that I THINK I will be comfy with - they seem to be reasonally priced, they include the hair in the cost (I need to find out what kind of hair they use) and they don't ask that you press your hair before coming to the shop to get it done. *sigh*
Kinky twists or braids though? I think I might ask them which last longer, and go with whichever one lasts the longest. They also offer touchup for 50 bucks - Hmmmmmmmmm - I might be able to keep braids in for a good long while - I would really like to have my hair 'bound up' all winter, so that I won't be obsessing about it during it's time of less growth.

Okay - I'm A PJ up to my waist now.... I just finished a DELIGHTFUL shopping spree (see, this is what happens when I'm bored at work and start browsing the recipe files. All in all, I spent every dime in my paypal account (Naughty Kiya, Naughty!) and I got:

3 lbs Shea Butter (got this off of eBay - it's the raw kind - I don't like the sound of the refined stuff, and I can whip it myself)
2 lbs citric acid (FNWL - it was the smallest size they had! I might offer some here for shipping, as I doubt I'll EVER use it all up)
1 lbs cocoa butter (FNWL)
1 lbs mango butter (FNWL)
16 oz fractionated coconut oil (FNWL)
16 oz jojoba oil (FNWL)
8 oz henna (FNWL - I've heard good things about their henna from another board, and while Mehendi's henna is the sureshot, it's bloody EXPENSIVE. 8oz is about 220g - which would run 13 on Mehendi. FNWL is only 3.75 :shocked: )

Hopefully, I'll get most of this stuff next week. *happy dance*