And it is wash day again...

So it's wash day after my last swim lesson for this cycle.  It helped me note a few things that I'm going to share as I keep updating you.  I enjoyed my class even though I have a very nervous sub instructor.  She was sweet and very encouraging which is what you need when you are learning to do anything.  My stroke apparently looked great and by the end of the class I was feeling better about breathing while I'm swimming instead of stopping to breathe.  I did have to wear the belt to keep balanced while I was doing that but it felt good.  Only glitch is that there was a slightly overweight man in the lane next to mine who wasn't swimming as much as gliding through the water on his side much as I would imagine a drunk octopus might.  Whenever I caught a glimpse of him next to me in the lane it threw me completely off.  I washed my hair like normal with the RUSK Bright shampoo and conditioner.  My hair felt better than normal but it really didn't matter because I couldn't really work on it because it was mom's birthday and I was on dinner detail.  After grabbing what she wanted and bringing it home along with a cake and lottery tickets, I ate my dinner and eventually got around to starting my prepoo around one this morning.

After getting woken up by a wrong number I was tempted to just get up and wash my hair but it was 6 in the morning and that turned into a quick no as my body went right back on to sleep.  I got up and washed my hair around 9.  Wash went smooth, no major or minor for that matter tangles, and my hair felt extra clean.  I know I've probably mentioned this before but my hair lathers no matter what shampoo I'm using especially if it's pretty clean.  Today I noticed it more because of the chlorine pull shampoo yesterday so that even with the first wash to get rid of the deep conditioners and Strong Roots my hair worked up a quick lather.  I used my Organix Macadamia Oil shampoo followed by the Moroccan Oil shampoo (one wash each and yeah I stashed a bottled of Organix without knowing it so I got a fresh bottle).  I am totally out of Aussie 3 Minute Miracle and forgot to get it when I went shopping.  So this week I used just the Moroccan Oil Conditioner, 2 Minute Treatment from Aphogee and the Moisturefuse from Mizani.  Each seemed to build on each other nicely so I was happy with how it felt.  I used the Dr. Miracle's Deep Conditioner for about 30 minutes before I washed it out and toweled dry about two hours.  My hair wasn't completely dry but felt good when I LOC'd and detangled it.  Next to know hair loss and it looked great when I looked at it in the mirror so I took a picture.

I was tired of fighting with the super straight look and working out/swimming so I opted for flexirods this week.  My hair still detangles like it's only five weeks post but my new growth is out of control.  I'm not sure if the swimming and chlorine made my hair revert but it's really wavy at my scalp.  I'm planning to sign up for the next set of classes after which I think I'll feel comfortable enough to not be swimming weekly unless I want to but I really like swimming and it feels great when I'm done.  If anyone is swimming with a relaxer what other styling options are you using besides just wearing your hair down?  Anyhoo here's a photo of the crazy roller arrangment.

As of right now I'm relaxing and watching a Snapped marathon.  I turned in 10 week reports for a few students who I hope follow up with me soon so they don't fail the class.  My hair is in a bonnet and probably will be until the morning.  The Orkin guy is coming by to protect mom from the mean squirrel who keeps looking at her when she goes outside and to spray for spiders and the like.  I need to get the car to the shop because the check engine light came on again and if it's another evap system leak I'm going to scream.  I'm thinking it may be a LONG overdue oil change but if not I just don't want to be shocked into more gray hair.

How is your weekend and wash day progressing?

Retro Wash Day: This time with Photos!

Okay there's nothing really retro about the wash day save the rollers but it was over as quick and dirty as my wash days are lately.  I washed my hair yesterday like normal after the pool and was happy with how clean it felt and finally understood that lovely term slip.  Since mom is home I didn't immediately go into my prepoo routine because she was pouting about going shopping.  I was air drying as I waited and nothing was feeling amiss.  Then after grabbing the nice woman from the store and recognizing she forgot the primary thing I asked for I opted to relax a bit because doing my hair angry leads to bad things usually.  Before I got to working on my hair I started playing with it a bit and it felt dry which considering it had been stripped I was somewhat ok with but then when I started playing with my roots I noticed something odd.  While let my hair feels pretty normal for this time post relaxer.  Dry it is wavy and feeling like a ton of new growth is there even though I know logicaly that is not possible.  I did take a photo though to share with you.  A few hours later I added a bit of heated Strong Roots to my scalp and finished my Organix Argan Oil deep conditioner bottle then added a bit of the Moroccan Oil deep conditioner and went to sit a bit.  Which turned into sleeping a while before I woke up this morning to do it.  It didn't feel as slippy but it was well behaved.  I relaxed while I went through the post wash deep conditioner and then air dried a bit before I went to LOC it all up.

Detangling was a breeze, very little hair loss which was great and then I opted not to be a big lazy bum and use my magnetic rollers to go for straight without being slave to the heat.  And to that end, ha hair pun, my ends are looking much better now that my brain remembered they haven't had regular heat on them save relaxer day in over a year.  I even remembered to take photos of that too.  While things went smoothly as wash days go I have to remember to grab some more Aussie 3 Minute Miracle and Organix Macadamia Oil shampoo if I can find it anywhere.

How was your wash day?

Glad my scalp looks healthy but seriously is that new growth?  Or is it just the by product of swimming so soon after relaxing?

 Hair loss today an I totally need to clean the bathroom

Just notice a place I need to re roll near the purple rollers.

Co-Wash Day & Good Food

So I started the co-wash yesterday after I grabbed mom from the airport and fed her.  That part actually went smoothly surprisingly and was actually ready to take her to the store if need be and nothing came up so I did a modified prepoo.  I just did the length of my hair with one deep conditioners and before too long I went to bed.  Well it was the middle of the night but I still went to bed.  I woke up this morning feeling crappy but went ahead and did my hair.  No shampoo just hit my conditioner line up save the Shiny Silver or Rusk since I didn't need to strip any chlorine and my gray is actually turning a nice silver.  After I rinsed it all out I towel tried it so that it wasn't dripping and then just let it air dry for a while.  A while around here normally means a few hours.  The top of my hair was damp but the rest was pretty dry.  I did finger detangle first and was surprised by how much hair I didn't shed.  Was very happy about that.  I got up to LOC my hair and properly detangle with full intention of grabbing the giant rollers again before my brain said umm no.  Since I had an extra pair of hands in the house now I opted for medium sized plaits for my hair.  The roots and edges will be pretty straight but the rest will be a nice wavy mass of hair when I take it down tomorrow.  I'm looking like a brown Pippi Longstocking so I'm hiding out for a while lol.  I need to get back to grading but I have a funky headache that I need to work through first.  I will say as co-washes go this was pretty smooth.  My hair loved all the extra conditioning and with the Aphogee 2 minute conditioner it got a nice dose of protein without it being too much.  And better still it's managing not to fall out even with all this swimming even though I can say my new growth is MUCH more noticeable than it usually is at this point post relaxer.  Ah well, the swimming is worth puffy hair lol. 

Almost forgot to tell you about the good food.  I found smaller steaks and marinated them longer than planned in some rice wine vinegar, lime juice, a dash of soy sauce, garlic powder and seasoned salt. They were the bomb with a large salad on the side.  Yummmmy.

Wash Day: Rollerset Madness

So for those that tuned in yesterday you know I started my wash day then.  The Rusk shampoo and conditioner were used to pull off the first round of chlorine before I did my normal prepoo which this time included my Strong Roots.  That doesn't seem like it should matter but my hair felt MUCH better this week having added it back to the routine.  This other thing that didn't seem like it would matter also go corrected this week.

Brief aside about that thing: some of you may remember I bought my first house when I got here and here are things you have to tend to as a home owner that don't matter in an apartment or a rental.  Turns out we live in a state with ridiculously hard water.  I know this because we have a water purification system and a water softener.  I had been saying I need to tend to both and kept putting it off.  In the mean time the water started to feel gross, the water pressure went off and my shower head was clogging up.  Yeah turns out your resident blogger here forgot to add the needed salt pellets to the softener which was making all the water hard and clogging up my shower head.  Three rounds of cleaning fixed the shower head and the water is both clear and not staining anything now.  Yeah for being a little handy.

Back to wash day: so after the aforementioned things were rectified my hair felt great today.  It combed out super easy and didn't have that funky feeling on it the last few washes have.  I can tell it's growing out but as I was less than polite to it the last few weeks I was careful to pay attention to my edges and ends.  I deep conditioned about an hour with the Dr. Miracle's Deep Conditioner and then rinsed it all out.  The rinse was almost enough to detangle everything then but it was too wet to style at that point.  I t-shirt dried for a few hours before getting up to add my leave ins.  I used everything from my now standard LOC process except I added a bit of water to my hair because it was very dry on the sides and bottom after being in a shirt for about three hours.  I then opted for a different kind of roller set with the oversized metallic rollers that need the clips.    I typically do the flexi sets but wasn't feeling the tight curls this week.  Plus I should go through that tub of rollers more often.  Several tweezers, another bonnet, and my missing tiny comb that I had been using as part of my three comb detangle was in that tub.  I didn't have any kind of pattern to the rolling and mostly kept it the way my hair fell into natural parts from the comb out.  The larger rollers got two clips and the smaller ones at the back just got one.  I almost took a picture but when I did there didn't seem to be enough rollers so I had to add more and redivide the hair and by that time I was kinda done with the whole photo thing.  The whole process made me feel very retro but will also let me do the straight hair without doing dumb girl things like putting heat on it two weeks in a row.  I'll try to take a photo of it when I take it down.

Since it's our spring break you will probably see me rambling a bit more this week.

Saturday Missions

This may get updated over the course of the day.  Today is swim lesson day and it was so much fun.  I am by no means ready to compete but each week we build a little more and a little more and if you want me to swim for a bit I can as long as I can take a breath.  Eventually I'll get to the breathing mid stroke but it feels better and like a good workout when I'm there.  Plus I heart my instructor she's funny and encouraging without it sounding fake.  So I decided that since this is a hair blog I should share more about the random stuff I do to it.  Since it's swim day I always prep my hair with leave in conditioner before I get to the pool.  This is my hair with enough conditioner to coat it but not make it sopping wet.

This is my hair after I get in from the pool.  It's not as dry as it was before I left but it wasn't dripping wet either.  The double cap isn't making it dry but it's stopping me from having to fight to repair it so much.

This is right after the shower I took to stop smelling like the pool and pull the chlorine off my hair too.  It does that semi part up front on its own now.  But it wasn't super tangled and seemed to enjoy being good and clean before I added my prepoo conditioners to sit for a bit.

And this is what I'm going to look like for the rest of the day more than likely lol.  There's a plastic bag under the bonnet letting my hair get a little extra love post swim lesson.  I will be looking into better swim caps soon.  I don't think any will keep my hair completely dry but we can get closer.

Ok whenever Wash Day fully gets under way I'll update you and what is going on with all of this hair.

Wash Day: Yes I know It's the Middle of the Night

So Saturday was swim class as normal.  I loved it.  Learning new kicks and working on swimming longer.  Floated around in the deep end again and I didn't wet myself--well that would be interesting in water anyway but I didn't panic.  Classes end on mom's birthday I think or the weekend of her birthday so I'll see where I am in three weeks and either sign up again or give it a break for a few weeks.  Turns out my instructor also does private lessons--may have to look into that.  It's good less body stressful exercise and it makes sure I tend to my hair well.  After a longer than expected trip to Wal-mart I came home and ate before washing my hair.  I normally wouldn't wait that long but I was hungry and sick (still am that's why I'm up--well sick that is) and wanted to eat before I got super involved with my hair.

Phase One is applying because of the swimming otherwise at some point during the weekend I'd just prepoo and wash my hair.  I washed my hair and conditioned it briefly with the RUSK shampoo and conditioner that I got from Ulta after I got my hair done last time.  I toweled it off and relaxed a bit before I started my prepoo.

Phase Two: I forgot to bring the Strong Roots with me when I went to the living room to sit down and add my deep conditioners to my hair.  I also forgot the conditioning cap so I walked back to my bedroom and slicked those on and still skipped the Strong Roots.  I put on my satin bonnet and chatted with a few friends before passing out for a few hours.  The joy of swim class, good workout, makes me tired.  After I woke up, I washed out my hair and went through the normal wash routine.  I added the Dr. Miracles deep conditioner post wash and killed about an hour watching tennis.  When I washed that out I put my hair up in a t-shirt and let it dry with the plan to take it down in half an hour.  Several hours later I finally took it down and took a few photos.  While my edges have grown in nicely I have been neglecting them so I added some of the oils I used to grow them out in the first place when I went to detangle and put it up for the night.

A few minutes later I had LOC'd and was detangled, yeah for only being 2 weeks post, and took a few more pictures.  I did notice that because I had waited so long to take the towel down that more of my hair was dry, and mostly straight, than I intended.  I was too tired to roller set it so it is wrapped again and I will check it tomorrow to make sure it's as straight as I want it to be before I have to head out to work on Monday.  I need to work on my ends as well especially as I am swimming each week.  You know all I'm seeing right now as I look at these photos again is there's a crap ton of gray hair on my head.  Oh and that wrap was quite pitiful lol.  I have yet to master that.  Oh well.  If I recover enough tomorrow to take photos of the finished product I'll update this post.  Have a good "lost an hour of your day" day.

Wash Day & Updates

It's been a busy few days.  After getting mom on a plane and our first interview candidate I finally got back to the gym.  I got two workouts in before the month ended and then took a swim yesterday.  I am now 20 workouts from matching all of what I hit last year.  I am in the process of prepping my meals for the week to stop me from eating badly and I will be upping my water intake again.  I finished all my chores and have all the trash ready to go out later today.  I had an epiphany about my love life which probably won't lead to drastic changes but I like to ponder on things.  I have made myself lunch instead of ordering pizza.  I tried to eat my salad but yeah I don't like Romano Basil dressing so it made eating the salad difficult at best.  I also cleaned out the fridge of a few things to go out into the trash as well.  Busy busy busy.

As for my hair, I washed it immediately after I got in for good to strip as much chlorine off of it as possible.  I mostly sat around for an hour or so afterwards and then got up to start my normal wash day prepoo which I let sit on my hair for the rest of the day while I worked on laundry and food and cleaning.  I woke up at an ungodly hour and started on my hair but took it super slow so it wasn't wrapped up and ready to hide out while it dried until around noon.  I had to remember to take my medicine then so that I can finish this antibiotic and not have anymore issues.  I lost a little more hair than I wanted to but I'm sure that was because of swimming and the overnight prepoo.  My hair wasn't sopping wet when I got out of the pool because I double capped this last lesson but because I had already but conditioner on there just in case I can't say how well that would work versus an alternative.  Ok I'm getting sleepy lol.