she said, “And baby look pretty, too.”
“Yes, you look pretty,” said I.
Then I saw the patches of scalp showing through the baby’s hair. And, as I went down the hall I saw the clumps of curls lying about. “Oh dear,” thought I, “I should not have spoken so soon.”
Well, Cow’s first haircut.. No camera working. Hardly enough hair to cut. She’s not even a year yet!
I’ve had several inquiries into what I’ve done with my hair. Thank you, I hadn’t realized that I’d put you in suspense.
My husband’s incredibly long extreme programming spree is almost up. To me, having some sort of reprieve from lacking contact with those over 4 feet tall will be close to bliss. The last couple weeks, I’ve been just hanging in there waiting on the weekends. So, please forgive me if I don’t really care what my hair looks like right now. (hahaha)
This is generally how I wear my hair. I miss the length and look forward to being able to do something with it again.
This coming weekend is the “Women’s Retreat” for our church group. I’m dreading and looking forward to it. I’ll have Cow with me, Ben will have the other three. They’ll have a good time. I won’t have the built-in entertainment units of older siblings, so it should be interesting. It’s hard to focus on the message at times when entertaining a baby.. and taking a baby to such a meeting often means that the woman is segregated from the group (after all, who else is used to a pottying baby?) (Note: This is better than just a few years ago when they would say absolutely no babies and I’d say that I wouldn’t be able to go).
The ‘Women’s Conference’ a few weeks ago had the nursing mothers in the nursing or infant/toddler rooms. In the morning, I was directed to the baby room - one other person there, and the baby was too tiny to play with Cow. In the afternoon, they stuck a sick person in that room, and I was directed to the toddler room. Cow had a much better time because there was someone else to play with, and I could focus on most of the message while keeping an eye on her. I even took notes! That was a good learning experience and I’ll have to see what’s available next time.
I need figure out what to pack. Clothes, toiletries, toys. Should I take the PackNPlay? Maybe just some extra pillows.
Locks of Love, here they come!
The last few days the baby has been grabbing my hair, I haven’t given it as much time as it needs, and I had a weird dream about it being shoulder blade length. My aim had been to grow it down to my bum (classic length), then chop it back to my ribcage. My hair was to my waist, which is the longest I’ve ever had it, and that only took about 6 years (with a few big trims). Goal 1: Locks of Love has been accomplished. Now that I know that I like that length, it’s time to aim longer 
Here’s the lineup so far: top row: henna&water, henna&vinegar, henna, tea tree oil, &lemon juice
Those first two were mixed and let sit maybe a half hour before the sample wads of hair were added, they were in maybe 3 hours. The third was mixed, allowed to sit in the sun, then the hair was added and let sit 4 hours.
bottom row: all samples were mixed up last night, allowed to sit on the fridge overnight (trying to think of a warm place), then split. Tea tree oil was added to half of each and let sit another hour (oops, hour and 3/4…), then hair was put in and soaked for 4 hours. Left 2 are lemon juice, TTO on the right of those, right 2 are with vinegar, TTO again on the right.
So far, the plain vinegar is my favorite, followed by the sun lemon.
Note: no mane was injured in the making of these samples. All hair was previously shed and collected for making of the samples. All cut hair in these samples was the result of impatience to make thicker wads for first samples. As seen in the pictures, bundling thickly does not make for better coloration. Best coloration is done by massaging henna into all hair.
I washed my hair.
I know, read it again. Let it sink in. I’m upset that I washed my hair.
I’ve been trying the “no shampoo” thing this summer. Then we went camping and I was thinking that washing out the grime with shampoo would be good. Seriously wrong answer. Sure, my head and hair are clean, but it’s not a good feeling. It’s like using plain soap on your skin and ending up with super dry tight skin and within hours sudden oily breakout. But, it’s my hair.. So, the best description is super clean hair that’s left really fragile! Without the ‘poo, the hair has a natural barrier that keeps it from breaking as easily and I don’t need other ‘products’ to keep a style looking nice.
What? Oh, how do I clean it without ‘poo? Easy peasy: oil.
All my babies have had cradle cap to some degree. Cradle cap is yellow scales on the scalp. Basically, it’s the accumulation of natural grease and whatever grime that doesn’t get released. No matter how clean you keep a baby, it can happen. Well, when AJ was tiny someone told me to try olive oil. Oil? Okay… I put a few drops on my baby’s precious scalp and worked it in and in the morning brushed her hair and after a few *now white* flakes of dandruff came off, she had a clean pretty head again.
That leads to what I do. After using this method on and off for the babies, and visiting the hair boards occasionally (I might ought to more often, but I’m forgetful), and then I started the no shampoo kinda commando style (nothing at all), I realized that I could use the oil to work the gunk off my scalp. And, it worked beautifully. I started off with the jojoba oil at hand, and next I’ll try olive oil or coconut oil.
Natalija recommended the Castor oil and/or olive oil for the skin. I’ve just learned that Castor Oil cleanses while Olive oil moisturizes. I have a bar of olive oil and honey soap that I’m trying, this leaves my skin really soft, but needs more moisturizing! So, may be that I’ll use this, then use pure EVOO for moisturizing. I’ll try this out and get see if I can work out a routine!
I’ve been shampoo-free for almost 2 months. For those that have asked, start slowly! I worked from every day to every other day over several months, and it took me a couple years to do once or twice a week. Most days, I love how my hair is now. It does seem a bit heavier from the natural oils that stay in it. Because of those oils, I have to wash my comb more often -lint sticks a bit, but I’ve found a gentle combing in the shower gets most of that out as well as massaging my scalp.
I was asked, “Would you start washing again?” Yes, and no. I don’t plan on using the regular bottled tonics (”shampoo” and “conditioner”) any more. I do plan on trying out some natural homemade recipes.
For example, it’s been some time since I bought any facial products. After this insane outbreak week, I was blog hopping and happened to read about someone harvesting her honey. Of course, now I can’t find the post. Anyway, I remembered telling Ben that I wanted to take care of my skin better (haunting voice in back of mind, saying of his spouse, “(specific person) has aged well, but I wish she’d taken better care of her skin.” He had enjoyed his wife’s beauty in her youth, and hoped that she would continue aging well, but she’d not cared for her skin and now he was losing something he had enjoyed (the rest of the relationship tells the story that the looks don’t really matter, but it would have been a bonus). Perhaps, if I start now, I’ll save my husband some of that heart ache.
So, tonight I put honey on my face and let it sit (like a mask), then washed it off. It was weird, it tingled. And, it dripped off my nose, but that’s my fault. My skin feels softer already. I’m sure if I ever slept that would help, too. Hmm.. yeah, bedtime. Good night!
