Creamy Crack Claims another Coiffure

Not sure if I'm in violation of the Boot Camp on KISS because a tiny snippet was made at my ends today.  At first it felt like this stretch was kinda eh cause there wasn't major length retained but my hair feels super thick and considering I dyed it last week still feels super healthy.  I did stretch out the sides to show you were they are hitting but didn't do the back.  Next wash day I'll get out the length check shirt and we can make a good comparison of any gain.  Last week we noticed some breakage in the back and I have said it the last few relaxers but I have to do better.  It's a small section dead center that is hidden by the rest of my hair but it's super annoying.  This may have been more of a health stretch than length stretch but feeling where it is and what it's looking like among other factors makes me super happy.  Without further adieu here are the photos.

So Zumba...yeah

I decided I couldn't continue to be a lazy bum tonight and went to workout.  I was prepped to do my Wii Fit stuff but said you know what that Zumba fitness game has been sitting there looking pitiful and untouched since you bought it.  I opted to at least try it and if it was boring or I hated it I could turn it off.  I tried it and knew I was in trouble with the tutorials.  But I did the three for the calypso a few times and then did the calypso warm up--it's 5/6 minutes and while I didn't need the tutorials for it really let me just say I was almost in need of an oxygen mask.  I made it through any score ended up around 550 or so which is allegedly a Zumba pro.  It was exhausting and I was sweating more during that warm up and tutorial than I have usually in my 30 minutes of Wii Fit.  I will definitely have to keep it up but woo that was murder and I wasn't expecting it.  On the plus side I wasn't as hungry afterwards so I didn't eat a lot and as normal I felt better.  Yeah working out.

Insomnia is totally upping my movie watching

The only upside to having insomnia besides the random cleaning spurts is there are a lot of weird movies on and that some of them keep your attention more than you think they might upon initially reading the info box.  I may have mentioned a few of these before but in no particular order here are some of the random things I've seen because I can't sleep.

Suspect Zero (stars Sir Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart and Carrie Anne Moss) is a movie about serial killers on the surface but it's also about a secret government program that taught men with special skills how to project their thoughts into the minds of those suspected killers in an effort to catch them.  Aaron is a disgraced agent trying to track down Sir Ben after Sir Ben keeps reaching out to him.  Well sort of reaching out to him.  Sir Ben has been driven crazy by the project and instead of helping to catch them is now killing serial killers and believes there's an alpha serial killer (suspect zero) who all other serial killers are either trained by or spawned from and who will never be caught.

The Skin I Live In (stars Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya) is a movie about well it's just a screwed up movie that is told in various time frames jumping from the present to past randomly.  I seriously couldn't describe the move justice and it is subtitled so don't be surprised by that.  It's fascinating but really creepy. 

Immortals (stars Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Stephen Dorff and Fredo Pinto) was totally kick ass.  It's dark a lot of the movie so that your eyes really do focus on what you can make out what's happening on screen.  On it's face it's an epic hero story as the hero comes to embrace his role.  And don't get me wrong that part is well done and I was embraced by Cavill and Dorff in their respective roles.  BUT OH MY GOD the scenes when the gods show up as themselves and not those shells they use to interact with humans were EPIC.  I am usually not shocked by much or can figure out what's going to happen in a movie which I hate but in this case I totally didn't care and was stunned quite a few times by the visuals and movements of the gods when they made their all too brief appearances.  And hats off to Mickey Rourke for showing he's still fantastic when given a chance to do so.  Oh and Zeus was BEAUTIFUL, so was Cavill as Thesisus.

Hair Updates

This may or may not be long.  When I got back from the interview last week I was really looking forward to wash day and then Sunday came and I wasn't so much--I think because I didn't have to teach on Monday night.  So Monday I said well yeah I'll handle that today and then I said nope it's a holiday and I need to mail stuff on Tuesday.  I contemplated doing it today but I'm getting may hair relaxed on Friday and that just seemed silly.  I completely forgot about it after I watched tv, bowled, made pizza and then watched Immortals.  I think I'll write a separate post on my movie watching habits lately.  It was very intriguing and that kept me semi awake so I figured I'd oil my scalp and seal my ends.  I haven't done it in forever and my scalp went woo girl what has been the hold up.  I have to do that more often than I have been cause seriously my hair and scalp is doing happy dance.  No picture cause it looks like NOTHING lol.  Just tied up for the night.  I also found some Hot Buns on eBay.  I have been wanting some for a minute but really didn't want to buy them from online cause I've been hearing tons of complaints online about shipping, delays, and overcharging.  They worked out to be the same price and no chance of random double billing.  I'll let you know how I like them.  Okay I think that's it for now on hair.  I'll tell you all about the movies soon.

Post Interview Post

I don't have anything pivotal to update you on.  The interview was interesting.  Very reserved so either I really sucked or they were really exhausted from the stressful week they discussed while I was waiting for folks to come in.  On the upside since I didn't have a scheduled dinner the night before I got to see my line sisters which was fabulous especially since I haven't been in town in a minute.  We turn 9 this Friday--on my creamy crack day lol--so I was sad I couldn't see them this week but it was nice to see them at all.  Got a call for another interview in a few weeks.  I have to say I was surprised how well my hair held up.  A few fly aways but at 12 weeks post what else could be expected.  Hair was still super soft and bouncy.  Oh and Walgreens was having a crazy sale on hair dye.  I probably won't dye it all the time but I couldn't pass up 2.50 for a box of normally almost 10 dollar Feria.  And the sales girl had coupons so I got another dollar knocked off each box.  Considering I only went in for Organix Macadamia hair masque I spent more than I thought I would.  However, I only spent 18 bucks for the hair masque (8), French manicure nail polish kit (also on sale 4 bucks) and 6 bucks for the hair dye.  Here's a photo of all of us.  Updated the blog for my nieces too so they could see my random job traveling self.  I'm trying to watch the all star game but these long intros, warm-ups and always being on commercial when I flip back has left me less than enthused.  Have a good night.

Pre Interview Hair Do

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get in and see my hairdresser but as usual she was a life saver and hooked me up.  We consulted for a bit and opted to dye my hair.  My roots turned dark purplely black.  My gray hair keeps saying give me free I swear.  We had to do another cycle of black dye on just my roots and I left looking less like a blue black flower and more like a normal human type girl.  I have used my February heat pass since we blow dried and flat ironed my hair.  I am almost 12 weeks post so my roots were in need of something since I opted to not go in for my quarterly dose of creamy crack.  However, I did get that scheduled and will be getting relaxed on one of my projected dates.  I'm going to roll it tonight and tomorrow night but I have to say my hair is SUPER soft and very bouncy right now which I adore and my hairdresser hit me with some heat protectant before she flat ironed.  I love her and she's part of why I hesitate about leaving here.  She's great and works with me a lot.  As she was playing with my hair she noticed the natural curl pattern and again encouraged me to go natural.  I told her yeah I can't right now cause my brain won't let me.  However, we did talk about maybe texlaxing or giving a longer stretch a try if I can stay up on things on my end.  I love my curl pattern around this part of my stretch too BUT I also like the ease of my relaxed hair without having to flat iron or do anything special to it when I want it straight.  I'll keep going back and forth on that one but I'm sure for now the most I'd do is texlax.

All in all today was a good day.  I did some work on my presentations for Thursday.  I took mom to run errands and managed to hit the bank, DMV (got my tags and mom's new i.d.), Wal-mart, the beauty supply store and get my oil changed and brakes checked out in two hours.  I was very proud of myself lol.  And I managed to not take more than a cat nap before I left for the hairdresser.  And I remembered to take her the braiding hair that I never use that has been sitting in a closet and the coconut oil I gave up on.  She was THRILLED with that lol.  Awww love her lol.  Okay I'm gonna finish unwinding and working on things for tomorrow since I've now checked in for my flights.  Oh and I got mom to take some pictures of the hair do before I laid down and crushed it lol.  You're probably gonna have to click on them to make them bigger cause she's not good with the zoom yet lol.

 

Wash Day & Stretch Notes

After saying I wouldn't do it again I didn't do much to my hair last week except tend to my edges.  I still had pretty respectable curls after a week using the snood instead of my old scarf tie down method.  There was minimal shedding in the shower but dentangled and saw a small puffball that is to be expected almost three months post relaxer but is still annoying.  My sleep cycle is still very off so I went to bed at 8 woke up and 1 napped till 2 and then got up and started working on my hair.  I prepooed for a little over an hour and realized I needed to clarify my hair because I haven't done it in eleven million years.  Okay so not that many but still a while.  I didn't follow up with the clarifying conditioner because it doesn't do a whole lot for my hair.  I went through my normal wash routine at that point and followed up with the As I Am deep conditioner for about an hour and then rinsed everything out.  The knots always multiply at this stage and I need to seriously not leave my hair in curls without a comb through first because they just laugh at me.  It took the better part of the hour to detangle.  I was going to flexi set but opted not to.  The pictures I took are crazy weird so I need to find a good spot to set up the camera and tripod again.  My hair was starting to puff and frizz by the time I was done combing through so I added some more leave ins and tied down my edges and am letting the rest of my hair out to dry straight.  Later tonight before bed I'll put them on rollers and enjoy a slight bump under before I got to class tomorrow night. 

I did notice as I was adding leave ins the sides of my hair were over my shoulders and at the longest point touching my collar bones.  I have no idea what length that will translate to when I relax but ha wet hair at my collar bones--insert happy dance or the girl doing the eff you sign language final--very very happy.  And because my hair was done well in time and I'm in a better mood than I have been the last few days I decided to show you photos of my products.  Not mine per se cause I'm being lazy but the ones I use in order.

 

The conditioners are added to the length of my hair and the Strong Roots to my scalp and massaged in.

 

 Clarified once using the rosemary mint batch.  I love the tingle from the mint.

I wash once with each of the shampoos then use the conditioners as instructed.  I think the light protein has been very helpful in keeping my hair from massive breakage during stretches.

I LOVE this stuff my hair feels great and when I wash out in the shower no tangles at all--I need to stop being lazy after I use it and rinsing out in the sink.

This has been the best combo so far.  I could eliminate one or two--and do from time to time but a dab of each makes my hair happy.

 

Almost forgot the weigh in

I'm a few hours later than I normally would be and I think it's cause I was waiting to figure out what were going to eat for dinner and mom was getting on my nerves.  My weight has gone down again--yeah, I'm closer to where I started I think and considering I was a ridiculously lazy human the last two weeks if I can just get back to the regular working out things should improve.  First six weeks have been very up and down.  I need to do better.  Check the box to the right for the official stats.