Hair Talk

I got Son#4 to measure my hair yesterday and then DH checked it again today. I've gained 1/2" in length! Finally after months of not growing or hardly growing, my hair has got back into the habit again. Yay!

I'm now at 34-1/4" or 87cm. So close to my goal of 36". The plan was to get to 36" and then maintain that length until I felt my hemline had thickened. It's not noticeable in photos (and possibly I'm the only one who sees it) but I feel that the sides are not as thick as they could be and I want to try and even them up.

However, today DH said that he thought another 4" would look good on me which would make a final length of 38". If I decide to go that extra little bit I might hold off the maintenance programme until I hit 38" since it should only take me another 4 months to get there.

I can't believe I'm so close to my goal. When I started 2 years ago it seemed like forever until I reached longer lengths. Of course, it's not super long, but it's long enough for me.

However, I'm struggling with this length. I find myself pinned down by my hair in bed and in chairs. If I wear it down it falls into the washing up water, the bread dough, and other equally nasty substances. It gets caught on just about everything and between things and at times is a real pain. Sometimes I feel so tempted to cut back to waist, but I'm so close to my goal that I want to see what it feels like. Plus, every now and then I catch a glimpse of it in the mirror and I realise that it is long.

After a summer where my hair was dry and frizzy, I'm enjoying a period where it feels oh so soft and silky. I think this is due to two factors:

1. Weekly Pre-Wash Treatment where I add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon oil (I use a blend of coconut, almond and olive in the ratio of 2:1:1) to 1/8 cup boiling water and then add enough conditioner to make a thick paste. I apply this to my hair and leave it for an hour before washing as usual. This has been so successful that if I feel my hair needs conditioning mid-week I'll mix a small amount of conditioner and boiling water together and apply to my ends for five to ten minutes. I suspect that the heat enables the oil and conditioner to better penetrate the hair shaft (but I'm no scientist and this might just be an old wives' tale - but hey, it works for me);

2. I've been using A'Kin conditioner but it's rather expensive especially when I'm mixing it with 1/8 cup of water each week so I went looking for a conditioner to use that was a little less costly. I found one in my local health food shop that was quite simply called Lavender Conditioner. By looking at the back of the bottle I learnt that it's made by Jeymar Handmade Soaps and contains six ingredients total. It was one of those ingredients that interested me.

Two years ago I found a conditioner that my hair loved but soon after it became unavailable locally and I wasn't able to find anywhere that sold it online (not even the company that made the product could help me). I knew that it contained hydrolysed wheat and soy proteins so I went looking for conditioners that contained those ingredients. I found many with hydrolysed wheat proteins but none of them seemed to work any magic on my hair.

Until now. A quick look at the ingredients in my new conditioner and - you guessed it - it contains hydrolysed soy proteins. My hair loves soy proteins! Now why didn't I think of that earlier?!