hair

Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there hair, shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there momma, everywhere daddy, daddy
Haaaaaaiiiiiiiirrrrrrr!  

Hair -- a woman's crowing glory, to be covered, to never be cut.  Somebody should definitely hammer this into little girls heads so the idea of cutting hair into a trendy, cute, easy care style will be shunned with their entire beings.  I grew up with long hair and a fair amount of it.  I went blissfully along with hair half up/half down with bangs until I hit 15 and had a bad case of split ends.  Off to the beauty shop to deal with the split ends and returned home with a "bubble".  Did I mourn the loss of my shoulder length, brunette, hopelessly split tresses?  No.  I liked the new "do" -- I was in style, it was easy and cute and I could put little clippies with bows of all colors and designs in it.  It was great.  Plus, my mother said that if I got the "long, stringy hair cut" she would let me get my ears pierced and trust me, she was banking on me not cutting the hair because she was the worlds loudest protester of the 1960's ear piercing craze.  Can I say "winner"!!!! Me -- not her.  I scored the cute hair cut AND the pierced ears -- the summer of '65 was great!

Well, long story short (no pun intended), the short hair stayed.  I missed the long hair and even tried numerous times to  regrow it -- I mean, what was Mom going to do -- UNpierce my ears?  But, every time I got to the stage where it was a decision whether to cut the hair or cut my throat I opted for the hair so, for the last 46 years, I have worn my hair essentially the same way.  About eight years ago I decided to abandon the "helmet head", quit teasing it and opted for a less structured effect  -- much better for the North Texas wind -- but it was essentially the same.  It was about that time that I noticed a marked thinning of my locks -- mostly on the top.  I tried blaming it on my "thyroid" -- my scape goat for lots of things -- then I figured it was all the teasing for years -- distinct possibility.  Since my aunt has exactly the same hair I GUESS heredity could have something to do with it and -----my age. I don't want to go there, though.  I would say that the genetics part is what scares me the most -- can't do much about it and my dad's hair got really, really -- gone. 

So, I started worrying about the thinning hair which is probably not doing much for it but I was still being "mean" to my hair with styling appliances and all.  Yesterday, while curling my dry, product-full hair with a very hot curling iron, I noticed a significant amount of hair stuck to my iron.  It scared the #%$ out of me.  So, when I went shopping at Central Market I decided to check out some new products, re-do my hair with gentler methods and see if I could go out in public with the results.

I have been using this off and on for a while now.  It is so much different than regular shampoo and it feels good but every now and then I have to go back to shampoo but my hubby loves this bar shampoo all the time -- he even shaves with it now. It doesn't strip all the natural oil out of the hair and it makes my "greys" (actually, "whites" much more manageable.

 Then I decided that I needed something a little less industrial than my Matrix products that I have been using for years and years.  So, I decided to try this

 I used it just like I use my Salon Basics gel, it felt pretty much the same and I had the added joy of it costing about 50% of the stuff I had been using.  I was happy.
So, I preceded to dry my hair with my blow dryer on cold -- yep, cold.  It took a long time even though I went to warm for a little bit and even high for a couple of minutes but I am thinking that all the heat isn't grand for my lame locks.  


I was thinking of rolling it up on regular velco rollers -- the ones I had purchased brand new just a couple of months ago -- which I cannot find.  Of course.  I probably threw them away.  Or hid them.  Whatever, I can't find them so I went back to my curling iron and put it on the lowest setting -- I mean it was so low you couldn't even iron a wrinkle out of a ribbon with it but it did seem to add a bit of a boost to the limp, mouse like stuff on the top of my head.


I was reasonably pleased and figured I could be seen by people in the current state but I decided to try another product that I purchased.

Lavender and coconut should smell fabulous, right?  Yeah, not so much.  However, the product promises to add shine and luster.  I read the list of ingredients and I could pronounce them all, they all seemed pretty benign except for the chamomile that I seem to be allergic to but I decided to give it ago so I put some -- a little -- on my hands, rubbed them together and then just ran them through the hair and finger styled it again and went on my way -- I was really bored by then and needed to move on.  


Fast forwarding to this morning.  I am not a daily shampooer -- never have been and never will be.  So, I fell out of bed, walked to the mirror, ran my fingers through my hair and was shocked -- it went back perfectly, was puffy, shiny and looked like I had just "done" it.  I couldn't believe it.  Now, trust me, I will never, ever win any hair awards -- just not in my DNA -- but I was completely impressed that it did what it did and I think I will keep my new products for a while -- at least while I am still looking for those lost curlers!