how i wear my hair

As I've mentioned, I use the no-poo method of washing my hair. For quite a while, I used baking soda with an apple cider vinegar rinse, but I've gradually moved away from the baking soda. I use ACV once a week or less, rinse with just water the rest of the time, and once a month I'll actually shampoo. The only reason I do that is because I use LUSH henna, and the stuff they put in with it, while good for your hair, is hard to get out.

But I've pretty much decided that when I run out of my current shipment of henna, which will probably be around the end of the year, I am going to stop using it (and therefore the shampoo) altogether. I like it and all, but it's a pain in the ass to apply, to wash out, and to maintain. Currently because I am using the Marron mixed with the Noir, my hair is a weird sort of ombre, almost black on the ends and then a medium auburn up closer to my head (and then, if I don't reapply in time, gray at the roots). On top of that, due to the way my hair grows, unless it's about a week after dyeing I look like I have a bald spot on the crown. I suspect that if a professional were doing it, they could find some way of minimizing that effect, but my husband is the one that applies it for me and he hasn't figured it out. It's not his fault but it means that I don't feel all that comfortable wearing my hair down, no matter how great the texture with the no-poo, because of the weird streakiness.

So I'm gonna let it go gray, at long last, I think. Well, not JUST gray. What I'll probably actually be doing is throwing some red/purple Koolaid in it when I do my ACV rinses. I'm probably also going to be cutting it a bit shorter while it grows out. Right now it's long layers, basically a long version of this shag haircut, which would look great if (again) I dared wear it down very often. I'll probably continue to use that method, just do it several inches shorter, which will have the dual affect of getting rid of the very dark ends plus, over time, having less of the old color. Then once it's all or mostly grown out I'll let it go longer again...and probably vary the Koolaid dyes so that it stays interesting.

This isn't the first time I've decided I was sick of dyeing my hair and decided to just go gray. The first time was in 2008, and I did it then by hacking all my hair off. My hair was naturally kind of a pewter at that point. The reason I stopped then was that people were treating me like I was in my 60's just on the basis of my hair color, and since I was in my 40's it really pissed me off, so in 2010 I gave up and started dyeing it again. Since then, there have been a few times when I've let it go for months at a time (most notably in 2013), but aside from that I've been pretty religious about keeping it dyed. But I think I'm ready to try again, and I'm pretty sure, based on the current roots, that it's lighter, maybe more of a "tarnished silver" than the sort of dark pewter it was before.

Anyway, as I say, currently I don't really feel comfy wearing my hair down because of the streakiness, so most days I put it up. I have various styles I like to use, but my favorite is a sock bun right at the crown. I make my own sock bun forms; I'm currently using a brown one, but obviously I'll have to change that when my hair color is no longer darkish.

I love flowers, and while I was in Massachusetts this past summer, buying some flowered headbands for my mom, I also bought myself a couple. Problem: I don't actually like headbands, I just like HAVING them, which I know is weird but there ya go. But I've discovered something really cool; you can put your hair up in a sock bun, and then take one of those flowered bands (they have to be the kind with at least a little elastic at the back, NOT all wire, obviously, and double it around the base of the bun. I actually got the idea for this because of the pieces I bought myself, which is all on wire, was a bun decoration that you were supposed to just put around a bun...and then I said, well hell, I can just do that with all of them!

So here's pics:

You can just SORT OF see the base of the bun there, so let me try to make it more obvious:

See? you just wrap the headband around and it looks great. I actually messed up a little bit and some of the flowers are tucked under the elastic in back, but since the bun isn't RIGHT on top of my head, probably nobody has noticed.

And that's how I wear my hair!

better than the gym

My rheumotologist is always asking me if I exercise. The answer is no, I don't, if by "exercise" he means go to a gym (which is usually what people mean when they use that word, unless they mean "run", which HAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough* *wheeze*).

Where was I? Oh yes, my doctor. So you know what, I have gone to gyms in the past. It doesn't do fuck-all for me, no matter how long I go or how hard I work out. At this point, my health is such that I don't need the added strain of dealing with a gym. Joining a gym means:

• spending money I either don't have or could better spend elsewhere
• feeling uncomfortable in the presence of yet more strangers or, what would be worse, people who know me
• having to either go at a time when nobody's around or competing/waiting around for a place on equipment I want to use
• feeling embarrassed if I don't know how to use something
• having to carry around gym clothes plus makeup if it's a morning session, plus at a minimum moisturizer/body lotion if I'm showering, oh and
• having to shower someplace that's not my home 

And before you ask, no, I don't swim. Never learned, although I've tried multiple times. So basically, the gym is completely lost on me, and I refuse to even discuss it anymore. However, I should be doing SOMETHING. Walking, every once in a while, if nothing else.

This last time I saw my doctor, in June, he suggested I get a Fitbit. Now, I have actually been tracking my steps on my phone. But I don't always want to bring my phone with me when I run to the bathroom or whatever (which DOES count, every little movement counts). I had been a little concerned since changing jobs, because I'm actually walking fewer steps per day now when I'm in the office (although I'm going to the office more often), and I really wanted to be walking more over time. My doctor said that people who get Fitbits tend to get a little "competitive" with them by walking more and so on.

Well, I'm not really competitive like that, and I apparently don't know a whole lot of other people who are currently using Fitbit (trust me to be late on the bandwagon), but it turned out that my company has a "wellness benefit" that reimburses employees for buying certain items, and a Fitbit is covered. So I bought one. 

Honestly? No, I'm not "competing" or whatever. But I've been wearing my little rubber bracelet religiously so I guess that's not bad. I'm not bothering to track my meals or water because, honestly, I hate doing that. I mean, I don't mind writing down what I ate, but I have zero interest in researching exactly how many calories are in something that I didn't get at a restaurant or whatever, which is what I would have to do. And I'm already very careful to drink between 3 quarts and a gallon of water a day, because if I don't, I get really horrible charley horses at night. So, really, I'm paying attention only to steps, and I am doing a bit better.

But you're going to laugh when you found out what's actually helped quite a lot more than buying a Fitbit. I downloaded Pokemon Go last week along with everyone else, and while I'm sure I'm already pretty much the furthest behind of everybody I know in the game, I've actually made excuses to go on short walks, despite the fact it's the middle of the summer and I HATE summer in DC. So it looks like Pokemon Go is going to do for me here what getting a large dog did for me in Juneau, and get me walking once more. No complaints there because I used to walk all the time, and I miss it.

So, looks like I'll be going to the gym after all...the Pokemon Gym. That's the only kind of workout I need, and it's free.

ipso facto

Still haven't 100% decided  what to do about my hair. I'm currently out of my LUSH henna, so I'm going to have to decide sometime in the next month. My 35th high school reunion - the first one I'm actually going to, for various reasons - is at the end of July, so by then, I'll have to have it figured out since my hair will be staring to show the roots.

But in the meantime, I thought I'd write about something else. Most people know that I've been selling Avon for the past several years...since 2011, actually. When I first started, I was really trying to sell the stuff, and even grow a sales team, both of which are pretty hard for me because I'm an introvert. Since being back in the DMV, I have pretty much stopped making any effort to sell or recruit, and just enjoy the discount I get from being a rep. Avon is pretty much the only MLM that I'm aware of that actually allows you to do that, and if they ever stop (i.e., require you to stay active in recruiting or sale volume, like Mary Kay for instance does) I'm not sure what I'm going to do because I really do love many of the products. There have been times when every single item I'm wearing, including my underwear, has been from Avon. And since 2011, I have worn almost exclusively Avon makeup and perfume, with occasional exceptions (because I do have a Sephora membership).

However, last month I decided to branch out a bit and join Ipsy, and I recently got my first bag. For $10 a month, Ipsy will send you a cute makeup bag with five more or less full size products in it. I say "more or less", but to clarify: the products are what I would consider full size, but they are sometimes packaged as samples or one-offs. That said, I have no complaints (so far) about the size or the packaging; the bag itself is a little smaller than I expected but it's WAY cute. What I got this month was a blush, an eye shadow, an eyeliner, a double-ended eyeshadow crease/smudge brush, and a face mask. So far I've used everything but the mask (which I will probably use this evening), and I'm very, very happy with all of it. I don't think a single item, with the possible exception of the mask, would retail for less than $10, so I'm amazed and happy at the quality.

What I was sent in the June bag was:

- Urban Decay eyeshadow in "Lounge", which billed itself as a "road test" on the packaging
- Elizabeth Mott Show Me Your Cheeks blush in "Peach Pink"
- Vasanti Cosmetics Kajal eyeliner (black)
- BioRepublic SkinCare Fiber Mask Set (relaxing type)
- Royal & Langnickel MODA Crease/Smudge Brush (in a fetching teal color)

The blush, eyeliner, and brush are all great quality and are now part of my everyday routine, but I just have to gush about the eye shadow. I've often been tempted by Urban Decay when I'm at Sephora (which I go to at least once a year to pick up my birthday present in person, and more often if I can), but because I sell eye makeup myself, and because I've always been a little afraid to use their very bold shades, I've never bought it. However, recently, I read an article about the type of eyes I have and how best to style them; I have large, wide, but slightly protruding eyes, and apparently the best way to both accentuate their size and make them look deeper set is to use a darker or bolder shade on the lid, instead of a light or medium shade as I'd been doing. I don't have a lot of darker shades currently, so Urban Decay's Lounge, which changes depending on the light between deep emerald and deep ruby, was utterly perfect. I don't think my eyes have ever looked more amazing, and I have really pretty eyes, so that's saying something. The eye shadow was (like all the other items) a full size product, but of all the eye shadows I currently own, I'm going to be the saddest when I'm out of it, so I'm hoping it's something that's going to be part of Urban Decay's regular lineup so I can get it at Sephora.

At any rate, I have to say that the Ipsy Glam Bag is a definite win, and it's a subscription I'm going to keep. If you'd like to try it yourself, click my link above to get a referral. And if you have any questions, just ask.

a hairy situation

Since I'm sitting here "cooking" my hair (activating some LUSH henna), I thought I would update on the hair situation. I still prefer no-poo to anything else I've done with my hair in the past couple of decades, so yay! But I do have to say that I am less than happy about my latest experiment, which was to wash it with honey only. Now, I will preface this by saying that I don't use "raw" materials to wash/rinse my hair. The whole point for me, along with more healthy hair/scalp, is to save money and time, and running around looking for, and paying for, raw/organic materials, i.e. NOT something I can just easily grab in the supermarket, violates that idea. I was never hugely into specialty products in the first place, perhaps because I'm allergic to so much anyway, so I'm not going to start now. So I just use "regular" honey and ACV, and frankly, I don't think that should be a problem.

All this is to say, I don't think I'm allergic to "additives" in the honey, but I found that after using honey only, my scalp reacted negatively, by flaking up quite a lot. So this week, I've eschewed honey entirely, using only BS/ACV, and it seems a little better, but it's probably going to take a while. Like I said, I sincerely doubt that it's "additives" that were the issue; my feeling, based on experience and seeing other people post about honey being drying sometimes, is that it's just not something that's right for me. Pity, because I love how my hair itself felt. But it's not like my hair hates baking soda (as long as I only use it once a week), so I'll be sticking with that for now. Once my scalp calms down - probably in the next couple of weeks - I'll go back to putting a squirt of honey in my ACV.

Today is henna day. I sometimes consider, instead of using henna in my hair (which is a pain in the ass and which I need to use shampoo to wash out, since I use stuff that's mixed with hard-to-get-out ingredients), just letting my hair go gray and then dyeing it with (say) subtle pastel colors. I'd probably have to cut it a bit short (temporarily) to do that, because my hair, rather than being the bright red of pure henna, also has a lot of indigo in it and so is very dark in some parts. I did, back in 2009, go completely gray for a while, but I ended up going back to coloring my hair because I was tired of people treating me as if I was in my 60s, when at the time, I was only in my 40s. It's a little different now that I actually have an AARP card and therefore am eligible for "senior" discounts in some places. But that said, I don't think I like how I look with gray hair. It's not like the hot young thangs these days who dye their hair silver. Hell...even when I was a young thang, I don't think I looked good with the (natural) gray hair I've had since (literally) my 20s.

And the henna DOES look good. It's not like using most commercial dyes that leave your hair all one color uniformly so that it's obvious you've dyed your hair. It's sort of reminiscent of when I used to get my hair done with highlights, back in the days when I lived in LA and had a hairdresser friend who would do it for only the cost of the dyes. And when it's growing out, there isn't an obvious line of demarcation like there tends to be with most commercial dyes - again, it does it in streaks, so that it's not as obvious that I color my hair (until I recolor it, that is, and the gray all goes away for a while). Soooo I'm really ambivalent about the whole thing. Continuing to use the henna goes against my whole "convenience and low expense" deal I've got going on by going no-poo, but at the same time, I don't know if I'm ready to try again to take the plunge back into gray.

And actually, as I said, even if I did stop using the henna, I'd probably do SOMETHING to tint my hair anyway. So really, it's not about going gray...it's about ceasing to use something that requires me to shampoo my hair every once in a while, and that is messy, inconvenient, and expensive. And aside from the "expensive", I am not sure that I really have too many options.

losing proposition

When I lived in Juneau AK, for the first nine months I was on my own in the sense that my family was still living back in Southeast Virginia. It was a hardship for all of us to be apart. One of the results for me was that I lost interest in eating, which ended up having a good effect: I lost 50 pounds, which was about half of the weight that I needed to lose to be within the "ideal" weight for my height (5'2.5"). When I realized that I was losing weight, I joined Weight Watchers for community, accountability, and a way to check my weight without obsessing about it (which is a problem I tend to have).

I was overjoyed when my family joined me in Alaska, but I did start gaining weight again. After moving back to DC, I regained about 30 of the pounds I'd lost, mostly due to stress and depression. I've dropped ten of those pounds, but I'm having trouble losing any more, probably because I continue to be pretty stressed out (which makes me a) feel ill and b) want to eat comfort food).

In the past, I've done well on a lower carb, low sugar, no HFC type of eating plan, and since I am pre-diabetic, I should probably go in that direction anyway. (There is also some indication that a lower carb diet may mitigate the chronic pain of fibromyalgia.) Unfortunately, I really enjoy making (and eating) desserts and breads. In addition to that, my husband does most of the cooking (since I work full time and am ill), and I don't feel that I can make him work harder or deal with a list of ingredient restrictions.

That said, if I were to stop eating some of the convenience food that we use - commercial bread, frozen pizza (my homemade pizza dough is much better anyway), ice cream, and so on - I would probably feel better and find it easier to lose weight, plus I'd be cutting out most of the HFC I'm ingesting. I will probably never go truly "low carb" (as in almost no carbs) again, but I could go back to using Splenda instead of sugar in a lot of my baking. (And it's not as if I bake constantly, anyway.) My husband does enjoy making and eating salads and meals that contain vegetables and healthy items, and even when our eating is less healthy, it's rarely "junk" and we don't eat out very often. It's just the convenience stuff that's an issue.

One thing that I have been doing more of is walking. I almost never actually hit 10,000 steps (in fact, I've done it exactly once when I was tracking), but my current goal is 5500 on days when I'm in the office, and I usually make that. What I'd like to do is get to the point where I'm doing 7000 steps or more without really thinking too much about it, i.e. building walking into my daily activities to a much greater degree than I already do. Walking has always been a favorite activity of mine. I'm not into working out and I'm done with joining gyms and then never using the membership, but I love to walk and I used to walk all over DC when I was younger. Even as recently as ten years ago I was able to do quite a bit of walking, but since moving back here, the pain has been too much. So that's something I'd like to get back to. When Chris and I went to Brookside Gardens recently, we walked from the Glenmont Metro to the park, all the way through it end to end, and back. I made it almost the whole way back to the Metro before giving out, and all in all it was over 11,000 steps. I doubt I could do that every day or even every weekend, but the more the better.

So I have some thoughts on the issue, and those thoughts are turning into plans and goals. I'm very happy to already be in what people think of as "normal" sizes (i.e., non plus sizes), but I'm right at the top of that scale and I'd be more comfortable if I weighed less (I have a very small frame). So this is something that I'll be working on in the next few months, and I hope I have some good results. I'll keep you posted!

oops

I've been forgetting to post in this blog for, uh...the last two years. Le Whoops.

The main reason I haven't been posting, actually, is that, despite the fact that this is supposed to be a "health and beauty" blog, I have been feeling very ill in the past two years. Just before I created the blog, my family and I moved from Juneau, AK to the Washington DC area (having previous moved from VA to AK the year or so before), and it was just too much for my fibromyalgia. My health declined all through 2014 and much of 2015. When I finally started feeling better, in mid/late 2015, I changed positions, overdid things physically as a result, and subsequently felt ill again.

So, finally, about six months later, I'm emerging from all that, and realizing that I have a poor neglected H&B blog here that could really use some love. And since I have certainly been thinking about the subject, even while feeling sick, I certainly have things to say. I'll try to be updating at least weekly from now on.

My first entry had focused on the "no poo" method of hair/scalp cleansing, and I'd like to talk a little more about that. It's been working really well for me, and except for when I color my hair (still using LUSH henna), which is every four to six weeks, I never use shampoo any more at all. My normal routine is to no-poo on Monday mornings, using a tablespoon of baking soda, a squirt or two of honey, a drop of rosemary oil, and a cup of warm water. On Fridays I usually do a rinse consisting of a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, a squirt or two of honey, a drop of rosemary oil, and a drop of tea tree oil, mixed with 16-20 oz of warm water. The final rinses for both of these preparations is cold water for as long as I can stand (usually a few seconds). I might vary the days depending on what I'm doing; since currently I telework on Mondays and Fridays, those are the most convenient days for me, but if that changes I might do the washing/rinsing the night before instead.

As I mentioned, I haven't felt at all well most of the last two years. However, I have been seeing a really good doctor, who has put me on the one medication that actually works to help with the pain of FM, Tramadol. A lot of doctors, and particularly the ones in AK, have been against using Tramadol because it's a synthetic opioid. They think that makes it the same as an opiate and that it is therefore addictive, but they are wrong and it isn't (I did a lot of research before I ever asked for it). I take very little of it - usually about half the allowed dosage per day - and while I am not exactly pain free I have received quite lot of relief from it, which is not true of any of the other medications I had taken (all of which, by the way, were physically addicting, and had awful side effects, but were approved by my doctors in AK).

During 2014, I gained some weight, but then lost it in 2015. I'm still a bit higher than the weight I got down to in 2012, though, and I probably need to lose at least another 50 at that, so I need to start moving around more. Currently I'm eating a bit less and walking more, and I'm hoping to work myself up to being a bit more fit in 2016.

So that's where things stand. I hope to start posting at least once a week in this and my other blogs. See you then!