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.

Just a Quickie: Home Alone

While I was irritated with him for the timing I have to thank my brother for getting my mother motivated to take a vacation.  She is off visiting her grandbabies and I get a few weeks of quiet.  I'm still rocking super relaxed hair.  Gym will reboot soon.  Met with a nutritionist and need to up my veggie intake.  I did get a free cookbook out of the meeting. 

Just a Quickie: Relaxer Update

So I am no longer counting down to the next relaxer.  I went ahead and went in today after doing a bunch of research and talking it over with the young woman that was going to do my hair.  Everyone agreed that ten days should be enough time and encouraged me to keep doing what I'm already doing when I go swimming.  And after talking over what I am trying to do with my hair and working out she was willing to help me find someone local to braid up all this mess of hair.  I'm thinking around the time I finish swim lessons.  I was actually a little dumbfounded by how much my hair had grown out since December and still looks pretty good after she took about half an inch off to even things up in the back and get rid of stray length along the sides and back.

 The back evened out

The front and sides and my newly arched brows.  The gray is here to stay.

Middle of the Night Wash Day Recap

I hate when I fall asleep in the late afternoon because I'm always up longer than I plan on being whenever I wake up.  Wash day went pretty smoothly.  I prepooed over night which my hair seems to like after swim class.  Can I just say I really love swimming too?  If I could make sure my hair never got wet I would go more than once a week but it's a nice change up from being on the treadmill or bikes.  Whenever I can master the whole breathing to the side thing then I will be back to being part fish lol.  Anyhoo, I added almost everything back to my wash routine this week.  Not because I had to but because I am considering getting a relaxer this week ahead of my line's anniversary on Saturday.  I could wait until the next round of swim classes are over but I haven't stretched to 16 weeks on purpose ever and I'm slightly worried about what my hair will look like by the end of that time frame.  I tried to do some snooping about swimming a little over a week of a relaxer but everyone has different info.  Some say never do swim at all if it has been less than two weeks.  The Motions website said do what you want just be sure to wash and condition your hair as soon as you can after you get out of the chlorine.  Which I normally do along with wearing a bit of conditioner into the pool with me.  I may try double capping this time to see if that aids in the water staying away but the cap I swam in on Saturday stayed on my giant head with no issues so I'm kinda in love.

I deep conditioned a little longer than I had to and after washing it out and t-shirt drying a bit I did the now weekly LOC method and my hair felt great as I set it on flexi rods.  It should be dry at this point but I won't mess with it at all till I gotta go to the dentist.  Hopefully the expected snow isn't as bad as it was projected to be.  I need to get these cavities fixed so I can get this crown put on.  I so need to work on taking care of all of me seriously.

How are you folks?  What say you about swimming and fresh relaxer?

Just a Quickie: Question for readers

Hey everyone,

after having a great fall in knocking things off my bucket list, this spring I signed up for swimming lessons again so I could get comfortable being in the water again.  Turns out I wasn't as afraid of the water as I thought and it has been the thing I really look forward to on the weekends.  I coat my hair with conditioner and then put on a swim cap before each lesson but as I get closer to relaxer crunch time I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience swimming with a fresh relaxer.  The first round of lessons started about a month post my last relaxer and due to lots of snow forcing cancellations of class is rushing up on my next relaxer.  My hair feels fine now, I always start a prepoo as soon as I get home from class on Saturday, but it's starting to do that hey lady I need a relaxer thing and if I don't do it before swim classes start I'm not sure what I would look like by the time they were over when I'd be about 16 weeks post.

Any feedback, thoughts would be great.

Thanks
SG