platformnine: Oh my gosh what a cute school girl-esque outfit! I LOVE that look and have tried to pull it off before, but I'm just too gosh darn tall! I look like an overgrown doll. @_@ Oh, and I saw your buns! How cute! I have a bun too. Her name is Kizuna and has black fur with some white, and blue eyes. Here, I'll post a pic for you. Also, you're looking AWESOME in your progress pics! That bikini's actually starting to look publicly acceptable, if you know what I mean. Isn't that awesome?
Your second outfit you posted on page 5's also uber cute. The hair is rocking! Seriously! Awesome color!
Stellarose: You look stellar, girl! Oh and nice new shirt. I love plaid! I feel you on the legs though... I mean, I'm normal weight and still hate my thighs though. They look so big at the top to me if I'm in a bathing suit (look okay in jeans though!). My two problem areas will always be my stomach and thighs, I guess.
At least I can hide both of them in clothes, though!
LittleMoonRabbit: Wow... that is an awesome picture of the tarantula. So close up! You can see like all the hairs!
Mickeypnd: You're so pretty! And you look like you have small lips, which look perfect on you! Almost like a constant, very mild, pouty look, but in the best of ways.
forestroad: You really DO look young in that picture. WOW. That's pretty awesome. I wish I didn't look so old, because I know that means that I'll just look OLDER later. LOL I think I think ahead too much.
mamaspank: Your photos are always so adorable. You always have such the biggest grin on your face that it makes me want to grin too. And those ears look so adorable on you!!!!!!
duckyyellowfeet: I like your haircut. It's really cute on you!!!
mamabekki06: Okay, a lot of times I look at subtle progress pics and can see no difference, even if other people are really gushing over them, but in yours I really CAN see a difference!!! You're looking thinner already, girl!!!
Starrynight: Your hair is so pretty! I'm really noticing hair now. About 2 weeks ago I realized the hair I've had all my life is not the hair I always thought I had and I'm now noticing all non-straight hair I see now! Will elaborate more below!
First, here's my beautiful bunny, Kizuna:
And yes, she IS sitting in her food bowl.. what a goofball. I call it her mugshot.
Next... OKAY.... WARNING... MAJORLY LONG RANT FOLLOWS!!!!
OMG MY HAIR!!! I'm 20 years old, right? I'm already TWENTY and didn't realize my real hair. I thought I had very thick, poofy hair with a slight wave to it. I've been told all my life by so many people that I'd be so much more attractive, if I could just do something about my HAIR. Total triangle head. My hair would poof out the longer it got and expand out to my shoulders. You'd touch it and it'd feel like feathers, because it's so light and airy. The poofiness was not dense, just my hair with lots of air in it. Oh and I have the WORST frizz of anyone I know, practically. I'm a total frizzball even in the middle of the winter. And now I live in HAWAII, which certainly doesn't help with that. I've always hated how big my hair got... you wouldn't see my face, you'd just see my mass of HAIR. I always thought it just meant I have super thick hair and would have to get it thinned or something. I didn't know anyone else with thick crazy hair like this. It drove me nuts.
I was talking about shampoo on 3fc last August, and a girl suggested no poo to me. I looked it up and was fascinated. It means no shampoo, and basically implies giving up shampoo and using baking soda to eliminate grease and apple cider vinegar rinse as a conditioner, and slowly weaning yourself off of them so eventually you just wash with water. For those who have never heard of it, the idea is that shampoos contain sulfates, which strip your hair of its natural oils. As a result, you have to use conditioner to put moisture back in, but because the moisture you add back in is NOT your hair's natural oils (called sebum), it still thinks it is totally stripped and produces extra sebum to compensate. This is why the more you shampoo, the faster your hair gets greasy. Your scalp learns to produce more sebum to compensate for the stripping, which makes you have to shampoo it even MORE... it's a vicious cycle. The purpose of no poo is to slowly wean yourself off shampoo so your scalp produces less and less sebum until eventually it produces just enough to keep your hair healthy but not greasy, so you no longer need to shampoo at all.
Well, I read that it worked best with people who have dry, frizzy hair, so I was excited! I thought maybe SOMETHING could finally get my frizz under control and my hair could look... normal. So I tried it for a month at home, and it was still getting greasy hair, but the baking soda seemed to be helping. Then I came back to Hawaii and found that my dorm has hard water... well I don't have proof, but this is what happened... I put baking soda in my hair, but the MINUTE my hair touched my hair (that had the baking soda on it), it felt DISGUSTING. It felt coated with a film, like when you are in a pool and your hair is coated with chlorine, but worse. I tried to deal... I got out of the shower... guess what? My hair didn't dry! It wasn't greasy, but it still had this film on it that was trapping the water in my hair so it couldn't escape, so it LOOKED like it was. It felt disgusting! I couldn't stand to touch it, so I wore it up EVERY day. Eventually I decided I just COULDN'T use baking soda here. So I said screw it, I'll try going cold turkey and washing my hair only with water... blast it with hot water to try to melt excess sebum, then finish with the coldest water I could stand to close off the cuticle. But it still wasn't working. I was at this for TWO MONTHS, and my hair was so greasy that it was coated from root to tip, and yet my frizz was worse than EVER, standing practically 3 inches off the top of my head! I continued to wear it up every day, but it looked so awful I could just cry. I felt so hideous and unattractive with my hair looking like this. So I caved... 2 weeks ago I tried using a small amount of shampoo, and a LOT of conditioner. But I still wasn't satisfied, now I was back at square one.
So... a week ago I was officially SICK of it. I had been wearing my hair up every day lately and I posted on some sort of online community for curly hair because I figured, hey, I have slightly wavy hair, so it's not straight, so maybe these people will know how to cut it flatteringly so it's not so POOFY, and what to do with the frizz. And their response was to inform me that if they did their hair like I was doing mine, their's would be JUST as bad. WHAT?!?! And I thought I was doing a good job! I gave up my paddle brush several months and started brushing it a few times a day with a wide-toothed comb, and I was only air-drying my hair and never subjecting it to any heat treatment. So why was my hair still so bad?
This was my routine:
1. Shampoo and condition twice a week. NO blow drying or straightening, no products in it other than shampoo and conditioner. Shampoo in warm water, then put conditioner in hair and let sit for about 10-15 minutes while doing the rest of shower routine. Then wash the conditioner out with lukewarm water.
Then squeeze as much moisture out of hair as possible with hands, then take a towel and squeeze and pat out whatever else I can, but try not to rub it too much. Then put it up in the towel for about 15 minutes while getting dressed and then take it out of the towel and comb it with a wide-toothed comb and leave it down until it dries. Then comb it every hour or so while it's drying. Then during the days I am not washing it, comb it with my wide-toothed comb once or twice a day, and about once an hour or so comb over it with a boar bristle brush because that is the only thing I have found that even slightly helps my awful frizz, although the effects ARE temporary.
They told me that because I didn't have straight hair, THIS bolded part was what was making my hair a mess. They told me I should only comb it while it's soaking wet in the shower and smothered in conditioner, either with a wide-toothed comb, or preferably with just my fingers and very gently. That by combing it dry I was disrupting my wave pattern and as a result my hair was getting insanely poofy and airy because I had destroyed the waves. And also that my wringing my hair and rubbing it with a towel was also destroying it. And that with my kind of hair, you should NEVER let a terry towel touch it, because it actually causes frizz, and that a tshirt would be better.
O_O I never knew that! I was doing hair like I THOUGHT you were supposed to, like all my friends did. I had no idea you were supposed to do otherwise. I didn't know my hair was different. So one week ago I took their advice and combed it only in the shower and then instead of wringing it dry I scrunched it some with my hands and then plopped it in a tshirt for half an hour and then let in air dry for a few hours...
*gasp* My hair was 1/3 the thickness it usually is (because instead of being all airy like usual, it was clumped together) and actually was almost CURLY! I've gone my ENTIRE LIFE thinking my hair was VERY poofy and only slightly wavy and very thick, when in reality it's a normal thickness and VERY wavy, practically curly! I always thought my hair was ugly, but now I know that's not true; I just didn't know how to take care of it. So here I am at 20, just realizing for the first time that I have almost curly hair. It's still all so new to me. I'm reading up on it like crazy, but I have a LOT to learn. But I finally know my true hair. For once I have a chance of actually making my hair pretty. I CAN'T brush my hair out dry, ever again. Maybe some girls with wavy hair can get away with that, but I have done that MY ENTIRE LIFE and it never looked good. I look like HAGRID. Now that I know it's almost curly, I know I HAVE to wear it curly to make it look good. It's like I have gotten a whole new head of hair in a week. It's very novel and I am making a photo hair diary on Facebook of all my progress. Every day I am trying something new. Yesterday I actually learned that my hair has a very low porosity. That's why it's so hard to get it wet, and when it IS soaking wet it takes 7 hours to airdry if I don't squeeze any excess water out (it's only armpit length!!) and why my hair is so dry... it doesn't accept moisture easily. I'm learning something new every day, and it's so exciting! So now I know... I was getting all the frustrations of curly hair, without the actual benefits of the curls.
Some people STILL aren't believing me about my hair thickness though. My roommate says I MUST have super thick hair. But... I really do have cotton candy hair. 25% hair, 75% air. I measured it (you put your hair up in a pony and measure the circumference right after the bander) and I AM on the thicker side of medium, but NOT thick. I guess it's just a really good optical illusion.
Anyway, sorry for the rant! Here are some pics of me and my hair!
Big poofy brushed-out hair I've been sporting all my life:
Hair starting from a week ago:
Yeah... I totally just picture spammed you all. I apologize. But I'm just so excited right now!!!
And there is a huge difference in those photos!
- that's not even all of my brushes - those are just my styling brushes - I have one in my room just for brushing. I have one flat one, 3 round and one super big round (for my bangs). I really do use all of them - and I accumulated them over years and years. I started actually taking care of my hair when I was 20, and over the past 7 years I've gotten various brushes after I learned how to style my hair when its layered. I have a lot of hair, and if its not layered its just a pain in the a$$. 