fiberaddict | More Hair-raising adventures... (Reply)

So, I wasn't satisfied with just 1 hair experiment this week, oh, no. I had to try something else. I mean - the first one worked, and worked extrememly well, so why not continue on, right?

Right.

On the Longhair forums, there have been quite a few postings about a HALO treatment. It's a final rinse sort of thing, supposed to make the hair soft, shiny, and non-frizzy. Cool - let's try that, shall we?

I spent last night mixing up a batch. It's fairly simple - 1 T Honey, 1 T aloe vera gel 1 T lemon juice, 1 t Oil, 1 t vinegar, and 8 cups distilled water. Got it? Check - let's mix up a batch...only, not.

I substituted 4 cups of Chamomile tea for 1/2 of the water (4 teabags to 4 cups of filtered water; brewed for...15 minutes or so)(this is to help with the blondeness. Chamomile adds gold/yellow to the hair)(Can one get arrested for overusing ()?). The aloe vera came from my plant - and wasn't *quite* a T. I used white vinegar (if I wanted a bit of red, I would have used apple cider vinegar)....and coconut oil. Smells good....

Did the usual shampoo/condition thing this morning. (Well, *I* didn't - J. washes my hair for me every morning. Sweet, huh? Go away - it's nice, and I feel pampered.) Filled a large cup with some of the brew, dunked the ends of my hair in it and let them soak for about 30- - 45 seconds, then proceeded to douse my hair with the remainder. Or....part of it.

See, I keep forgetting just how fine and thin my hair really is. It's baby-fine, and while I know I have lots, it just doesn't show. My ponytails are maybe 3/4" around (and that's really pushing it, ya'll!), but what I have is pretty healthy - all this stuff I'm doing is to help keep it that way and maximize the growth. Anyway - I still had 1/2 a cup after *5* rinses. It went back in the jug for later.

Wet, my hair looked the same. Maybe a little shiny-er, but that could still be the effects of the cassia. (Note to self: wait longer between experiments next time!) I gently smooshed the water out (NEVER wring out your hair, or vigorously towel it dry! Damage-city, that will be!), wrapped it in my Turbie-twist, and let it sit.

15 minutes later, I took the almost dry hair down. Still shiny, still soft, easy to (gently) comb.....but it looks......not blonde. :sigh:

Full dry - the gray hairs are *silver* (And I mean *silver* silver. Like they'd-been-polished silver). The blonde hairs have an ash-tint to them. Maybe the honey? (Although honey is used to enhance blondes. Huh.) Now, it could be that the gold will come out tomorrow after a normal wash/condition treatment...we'll see.

Now, I'm not disappointed - my hair has a habit of changing colors whenever it feels like it. This morning was *extremely* humid - thick fog covered *everything*, and that may have had something to do with this. Maybe it's the fact that I left the rinse in instead of...well, rinsing it out. Who knows? :shrug:

I am happy that my curls have decided to come back. While I am *nowhere* near as curly as

gypsybaby1, I do have a nice collection of s-curls that have come back to play. This shows me that I am on the right track here in my quest to keep my hair healthy and happy. (Even if I do plop my hair into a bun most every day. *I* know the curls are there, and that's what counts! *g*)

Anyway, Herself's hair is still nice - the curls were not at all defined this AM, but that's because she's slept on them. She'll do a regular wash (with conditioner ONLY, because curly girls should avoid shampoo if at all possible (except *me*, because my hair HATES conditioner only washes. Hateshateshates them - I tried a couple of years ago. After 6 weeks of seriously greasy, icky, dull hair, I threw in the towel and went back to shampoo and conditioner) and not wash every day (ditto that with mine. If I skip a day, it gets icky by that afternoon. Even after 3 weeks of "training" the scalp to not produce so much sebum. :sigh:) tonight, and we'll see how they do.

OH - and yes, I have a wonderful (most of the time) husband. He noticed that Claire's had a sale going on - buy 1 hair toy, get another at half-price...and spent almost $40 on hair sticks. *g* I have quite a collection going here.....and he's promised to *make* me some more. Plus some wooden hair forks. Can't wait! New hair toys for the ~~fiber~~ hair obsessed. (Wait - hair *is* a fiber, so....all this makes sense now, doesn't it? *g*)