Humidifier?

Someone posted today on nc.com asking about humidifiers and their effect on hair. This is funny, because I've been running a humidifier since October. I have one for home and one for school. At home, I run it at night. But when I'm at school, it's on the entire time I'm in my dorm room.

The model I have is a cool air humidifier. I started having continuous sinus infections in July. In October, we realized that a humidifier would help (in conjunction with 12 weeks of antibiotics - but that's another story), so I started using running it at night. It helped so much! It was on continuously following my sinus surgery last month, and even now there's a big difference between when it's on and when it's not - so not using it isn't really an option for me.

What does this mean for my hair? I'm not entirely sure. I spend a good amount of time in my dorm room with this thing on. I'm not entirely sure of the humidity or dewpoint levels, but I wonder - would it be beneficial to use humectants again? Remember, my hair has been frizzy and rather gross since the fall. Is this due to cutting out humectants when spending a lot of time in a humid room? I don't really feel the humidity since it is cool air, so I hadn't thought of this before. I do spend time walking around campus to classes. It takes about 15 min to get to class from my dorm. Outside, the dewpoints are regularly under 20. Temps have been in the 40s.

I guess this is something new to experiment with. There was one other reply in this thread, in which the author theorized that if the hair dries in the humid environment, it retains moisture. I'm interested to hear other thoughts on this!

Super Experiment Day

So I came home this afternoon to my box of Sally stuff and my Donna Marie Honey & Aloe Curling Jelly! Since I don't really have anywhere to go, and I was going to experiment as much as I can this weekend, I decided to use more than one new product. In fact, I only used one "old" one - Aussie Sculpting Gel.

I used Lustrasilk Olive Oil Cholesterol as my co-wash, rinse-out, AND leave-in. Overkill? I don't know. It's light enough to be used as a co-wash, but it's also supposed to be super moisturizing, right? My hair has gotten a little dry since last week's DT, so I figured it could use the extra moisture. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to find it. The co-wash was ok, but the rinse-out was pretty much the opposite of moisturizing. My hair sucked this stuff up. It didn't feel like I had any kind of conditioner in my hair. And it got tangled, which was a pain. I did let it soak in for a few minutes before rinsing, but I don't think that helped. So I'm kind of confused about that one...

After rinsing with cold water, I smoothed in about two quarter-sized blobs. I then smoothed in about a quarter and a half-sized amount of the DM jelly. Scrunched upside down and to the sides and then followed with my usual plopping routine.

As the plop came undone to diffuse, it wasn't looking particularly pretty. My curls don't have the clumping that pink boots or even FOTE gives me. They're very skinny. After diffusing, it's too early to tell if it's curlier. I don't have the volume I usually have, but that also could be due to the lack of clump.

So overall, nothing to be excited about - BUT I totally realize it was just a crazy experiment. Will continue experimenting throughout the weekend!

* UPDATE *

Took some pics. Not liking it at all. The rest are in my fotki.

Ice Day Means It's Time to Play!

Yep, we had an ice day yesterday. They called and texted everyone at approximately 5:23 AM to tell us. So I got to sleep in and do some hair experiments!

So I decided to change up the routine yesterday. I co-washed with GTTTT, which I'm just now realizing has protein towards the end of the ingredients list. Fortunately I haven't noticed any dryness or other symptoms of protein. I followed this with KBB SS as my rinse-out. After turning off the faucet, I squeezed some water from my hair and used about a quarter's worth of KCKT as my leave-in. I smoothed it on as if putting my hair in a ponytail. I took a very small amount of Pink Boots and smoothed it in the same way. Then I bent over and did the "scrunch and pump" method, before plopping in my curl-ease. After plopping, I finished off my usual routine with ASG.

I didn't scrunch the crunch and left it clipped until I was ready to go to bed. Instead of just pineappling, I double pineappled and clipped. Basically the first two inches of curls on either side of my part went into it's own pineapple near my forehead. The rest went into a pineapple at the crown. I then used five mini jaw clips - one on each side of said pineapple, and then one on the back of the first pineapple (in the direct middle of my head) to keep it from moving. It worked pretty well! I did start off the day with volume, and my front curls hadn't been stretched out, which is what I was noticing with just one pineapple. As the day went on, I did lose volume and gained a little frizz. But overall it was nice.

The weather today was 25 degrees (feels like 19!!! It was 80 like a week ago!!) with a dewpoint of 20. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The worst thing about today was having to walk (more like SLIDE) to class. They gave us off yesterday and today campus opened at noon. Which is stupid, because all the sidewalks were still coated with ice. I can't imagine driving! And my sister (who is in high school about an hour south of me) and my mom (who works at another college about half an hour south of me) both got off! Lame.

/rant.

Another Update

I feel like I should be writing something other than updates on how my hair is doing (and actually, I should be working on school stuff right now, but that's not happening either!). But this is my first major "my hair is dry and looks like crap!" crisis, so hopefully it will help someone. And if it doesn't, at least I'll have documented it for my own sake.

Anyway, Saturday night I repeated the same DT as Friday night, but I think I used too much honey because my hair felt like leather (gross!) upon waking up. Results: my clumps and spirals are back, for the most part, and my hair is more moisturized!

It was actually a little frizzier than it had been on Friday night after the much shorter DT. I don't think I rinsed out all of the vinegar, and that didn't play well with FOTE. You can tell this is happening when scrunching in, because your hair feels weird and almost dry. Hard to explain, but if you've done this, you know what I'm talking about.

I pineappled last night and today was a good hair day! The canopy was a little messy, so I put half of my hair up in a flexi-8. Everything underneath that was very clumpy and spirally/ringlet-y. I honestly don't think there's much of a difference between these two terms, so I'll use them interchangeably. One of my clumps spiralled all the way to the root! There are more pics in my fotki, but here's what it looked like. I almost wish I had taken a pic on Friday for my before. And yes, the camera on my laptop sucks, as does the lighting in my room. Oh well.

Today's weather was the worst. Freezing cold. Sprinkling, which later turned to showers. Windy. Foggy. Gross. I had to drive up here in it, then walk around campus in it, then drive across town to go food shopping and stock up, because tomorrow it will likely be ice. We have an "ice storm" warning right now. Temp is 37 (feels like 29) with a dewpoint of 35.

I can't wait for my products to get here! I'm especially excited about Lustrasilk. Unfortunately I had them sent to my home address, which I'm not supposed to go back to until next weekend. I may make the trip down and back just for my stuff though! I also was a bad PJ and bought a DevaFuser kit on the swapboards - it was a good deal, I swear! Just checked my tracking number, and UPS delivered my Sally's order today at 2:30pm. Nice. That was about five hours after I left to drive back up here! And apparently I have another package that arrived - Donna Marie? They were having lot of shipping delays, so I'd be really surprised if that is my DM. The DevaFuser was just mailed today, so... pretty much torture for my PJ but I think I'll live!

The Road to Recovery

Just a quick update.

Last night I co-washed with GTTTT conditioner. I figure I need all the moisture I can get, and the tea tree oil is good for the itchiness, which for the most part has gone away. I didn't even think about using this until I read that someone else does this. It's been ok so far. The flakes are starting to disappear. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I then did a DT with a mixture of olive oil, honey, and KBB milk for between an hour and an hour and a half. After rinsing (used more GTTTT to get the olive oil out), I did an ACV rinse and used cold water. I then added a little bit of Suave Cucumber Melon from a bottle that is almost gone and the tiniest amount of FOTE. I started doing the "pump and scrunch" method. Basically I scrunch, hold it, and pump my fist 8 times. I think this mostly just gets rid of water, but it might help spread product. It's working better for me than just regular crazy scrunching and plopping.

I did the usual routine, but used HEBE instead of ASG. Diffused and clipped. When i was ready to go to bed, I just pineappled it loosely. I'm not sure how this works better than adding a scarf, but whatever. I woke up with pretty good curls! My hair feels like it has more moisture, and there was a lot more clumping. Some of my old spirals are back, which was nice to see.

I'm going to do another DT tonight, although probably longer. The temperature dropped considerably overnight. It's 33 (feels like 25) with a dewpoint of 14. Did I mention our weather is crazy?!

I'm glad I figured out this texture/porosity thing. No wonder DTs just didn't seem to matter.

Lightbulb Moment

So I just finished reading through Tiffany's blog and some threads at nc.com, and I think I've figured out my texture/porosity.

I thought a good majority of my hair was fine, but apparently it is coarse. I did several strand tests, and each one is a thick strand with a rough cuticle.

Going the other direction in several strand tests leads me to believe that my hair has a high porosity.

These make sense, because my hair cannot tolerate much protein. Shampoo bars didn't work well for me because of their chemical makeup. My cuticles are already raised, so it's obvious that didn't help.

My hair also sucks up a lot of moisture. My first plop, which only lasts for five minutes at most, leaves the towel soaking. Every time I get my hair cut, I get a comment on how much moisture it holds. But it also can't retain it. Looking at my hair today, you would never know I did a DT the other night. My hair is begging for moisture. I'm not using anything particularly heavy with emollients or humectants (though that one is for obvious reasons), and my hair is reacting to that.

High porosity is also probably a result of my unprotected straightening days. I didn't straighten often, but when I did, I didn't use any heat protection. And I straightened every section multiple times, especially the canopy. And this was all done on the highest setting, which I believe was over 400 degrees (or is that too high? Can't remember).

So with this new information, I'm ready to find what my hair needs. First up is to get some moisture back!

Stuck in a Rut

So it's about this time that I have started wishing I had updated this blog earlier in my CG career (it's a tough job!), like when I created it in the early fall. I had such great success and I feel like now that I've started updating, I have nothing insightful or interesting to share.

Basically, I'm in a rut. The winter dryness has hit me hard. The dewpoint has been in the teens for much of the past two months (with random exceptions, like three days this week, where it's been in the late twenties). The weather here is notorious for being RIDICULOUS. And that's made it much harder for me.

Most of my pictures here and in my fotki are from summer. I feel I've been dishonest, because I've been CG for almost eight months now, and my hair doesn't resemble (in my opinion) what it was in the summer/early fall.

I haven't mastered the art of sleeping with freshly washed hair, which was necessary in the fall semester.

I haven't been able to figure out how to classify my hair. I don't know how porous it is. I have a mixture of all three types (fine, medium, coarse), so it's hard to pin what exactly my hair needs and likes. I don't know if a leave-in weighs me down. I should know that, right?

What worked in the summer doesn't work now, and I did such a horrible job of documenting what I was doing that it wouldn't matter if it did. I can't remember.

My hair is dry, like with my protein sensitivity. I don't know if this is related to FOTE or what. I don't have much time to figure it out, what with 18 hours of class a week and a part-time job taking up my time.

I need a haircut. But I'm afraid to go get one, because I'd like to have it done by the curly stylist that's close to home. But how would he be able to cut it if I barely have any curls? My hair looks like crap and I don't know how cutting it in this state would make it better. I'm really confused.

Monday night I used GTTTT shampoo, followed by Suave Ocean Breeze as my rinse-out, KBB SS as my leave-in, FOTE scrunched in, and Aussie SG as my final gel. I double plopped, diffused, and clipped. I had some spirals back and some volume on top. Things looked good. I loosely pineappled and wrapped with a silk scarf. In the morning, my hair was very dry, frizzy, and loose. It was embarassing. I actually put it half-up with a flexi-8.

Wednesday I wore it in a bun, and then added generous amounts of KBB nectar for an over-night DT. Yesterday morning, I co-washed with GTTTT conditioner, used Suave OB as a rinse-out, followed by the KBB SS, FOTE, and ASG. Same routine as before. I had to scrunch the crunch out about twenty min after I finished diffusing, so I'm sure that had a hand in the results. Still, I had a complete flat top, and all the hold from my gel was gone by mid-afternoon. I scrunched in more FOTE at various points, but I think that made it drier.

I'm home now. I do have some products here, but some of my more recent purchases are at school. I'm thinking I'll DT with whatever I have here and do more research.

I do have some products on the way:

• Donna Marie Honey & Aloe jelly
• Lustrasilk Olive Oil Cholesterol
• GVP Biolage Conditioning Balm
• Denman Brush
• Square Silk Scarf

I'm thinking the DM could replace FOTE in my routine. Hopefully the weather will get better (though tomorrow it's plunging again. Make up your mind!). It's almost 80 out right now, with a dewpoint of 41.

I might go get the GVP Conditioning Balm today to DT with. It's pretty cheap. And if I like it, I'll already have two.

Not sure about the Denman. I've only raked with the Jessicurl products, which didn't work for me anyway. I tried combing CK through during the summer without any success. That could have been user error or the fact that I over-diffused. I don't think I'm evenly distributing my products, and probably using too much trying to accomplish that. So I really hope this works.

I'm kind of excited about the scarf. The one I'm using now (when I actually use it) isn't square, so it's harder to use, I think. I'm hoping this will help.

Getting this off my chest makes me feel a little better. But it would be better to have my hair figured out soon.

Changing Up My Routine

So I think in my first post I went over the problems I've been having since fall/winter set in.

Basically:

• Figured out I was protein-sensitive
• Figured out FOTE wasn't helping
• Started using a leave-in, which I'm now thinking wasn't a good idea (it would be nice if I could figure out my texture/porosity...)
  
• Stopped co-washing altogether when shampoo bars arrived
• Ended up with frizzy/undefined curls with the addition of KCCC during the lowest of dewpoints this season
• The protein in LVPNG (practically the last ingredient of the bottle) got to me, so it's now in my stash for rare protein treatments
  
• Used a low-poo and went back to co-washing
• Clarified a week or two after with a sulfate shampoo and went back to the routine of Suave co-wash/rinse-out, FOTE, and Aussie Sculpting Gel
• Stopped experimenting with the Sedusa (need to find a good, consistent routine first)
  
• Added Pink Boots for about a week and a half with inconsistent results

Right now my hair hates me. It's frizzy, undefined, and stringy. And it's been flaking for a good month now, no matter how many brown sugar scrubs or ACV rinses I do. The itching has been worse recently, with nothing helping.

So I'm done trying to go back to the simple routine that worked in the summer. Obviously the weather has changed, so I'm not sure why I thought it would work now. I don't know anymore.

KBB stopped working for me around the time of the KCCC incident - or rather, I realized it had stopped working for me. My hair was getting tangled (it still is, which is a royal pain) and actually hard while wet. It was also frizzy, even when using Super Silky. I'm thinking it might be the panthenol, but I have no idea.

So starting tonight, my new routine will have a shampoo included for the first time since early June. I'm adding Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat as a weekly low-poo. I'll continue with co-washing the rest of the week. I'm thinking about adding the GVP Biolage Conditioning Balm and Lustrasilk after reading Katrina's blog. We'll see.

Well, I'm off to go wash. School starts tomorrow (suck!), so it's back to night-washing for me.

Hollywood Curls: The Duchess

I finally got around to watching The Duchess the other night, and while I was enraptured with the story, I couldn't help thinking "I want those curls!" every now and then (although to be fair, I was also thinking "Give that girl some conditioner!").

Yes, I know. They were wigs. But there are many curlies out there that are lucky enough (in my opinion) to have tight, bouncy curls. The kind I might do anything for.

Don't get me wrong, I love that I have curly hair. But sometimes I can't help but wonder how tighter my curls would be if I weren't on certain medications (which are actually critical to my standard of life, so not giving those up for a very long time).

My mind boggles at the questions such lucky curlies post on nc.com about wanting a looser curl pattern. My curls are seemingly inconsistent. I can do the same thing every day and get different results every time. Of course, I'm also having problems with products and the weather right now, so this is probably just frustration talking.

Anyway, I also think it's cool that this story was set at a time when curls were very much embraced. Sure, it wasn't real hair, but everyone (who was anyone...) wore a wig made of beautiful, perfectly coiled curls. If only this acceptance existed to the same extent today!

Unfortunately, the only pics I could find (thanks, google) to post were all of Keira. Hayley Atwell and just about everyone else had great curls as well!

I got in a fight with my Sedusa...

... and I have the scar to prove it! How ridiculous is that? Here's what happened:

I co-washed and rinsed with Suave Ocean Breeze (which smells awesome! This week was the first time I've used this "flavor"). Then I rinsed with cold water before scrunching in a little FOTE and my newly received Pink Boots. I plopped for about five minutes in a flour sack towel, scrunched in some Aussie Sculpting Gel, then plopped for another five min in my Curl-Ease. When I took it down to diffuse, it was looking really good! I had great clumps and some volume. I haven't had good hair when wet in forever. So this was definitely a good feeling.

I first diffused with my finger diffuser to get the roots dry. This took maybe two minutes. Then I switched to the Sedusa and things went downhill. Here's what I've realized about the Sedusa:

1. I can't plop it all in and dry. All of my hair will fit in it, for the most part, but it dries weird. And I don't know how long to dry it.

2. The Sedusa works better with high heat at a high speed. My hair loved it the other day. My dryer, not so much. I wasn't about to test it and see if it would still shoot sparks out, so I diffused with high heat at low speed. It would have worked out ok, except...

3. The Sedusa pulls out curl when it's not dry enough. I plopped a section in the bowl and turned it on for a bit. Then I decided to switch sections. I turned it off and attempted to remove the bowl. Sometimes curls get stuck in the curly do-dads. Usually my hair is dry enough and will come out easily if I shake the diffuser gently. The problem is that my hair wasn't as dry as the Sedusa wanted it to be. So it wouldn't come out when I shook it, and I had to pull it out. And my curls stuck and transformed from a few beautiful ringlets into frizzy and weird-looking waves. Not cool!!!

4. Overall, the worst thing about the Sedusa is that I can see there's potential. I just have to figure out how to reach it. And that's frustrating.

So then I decided that the Sedusa probably works better after hair has been diffused for a bit. There's less chance of catching hair and I get better curl formation. I attempted to pull the attachment off. Now, the attachment does fit on my dryer. The problem is that it gets super hot and expands. So not only is it super hot, it's hard to get off! I couldn't do it with my hands, so I decided to try with my legs. I put the dryer in between my legs (luckily sweat pants protected me from the searing heat that was the Sedusa)and clamped down, for lack of a better word, on the Sedusa, pulling the dryer out in front of me. The only problem with that is that I was bent over. So when the diffuser finally came off, I hit myself in the chin with the end of the diffuser! It even knocked off the thing on the end of the dryer! There's a patch about an inch long that looks like it's bleeding under the skin.

Sigh. And I knew it was going to be an awesome hair day! I did finish diffusing with my finger diffuser, but I don't think that saved it much. It's clipped and air drying right now. So we'll see how it turns out. I think finger diffusing followed by the Sedusa will work out best for me. I wish it was easier to figure all this stuff out!

So there's my post. The weather is freakin' crazy here, so I'm a little confused as to what to use. I wanted to go simple, and for the most part I have. I think the Suave/FOTE/Boots/Aussie Gel will be the most/only products I'll use. Except we had a lovely warm front for the past few days (80 degrees with a dewpoint of 60!)... and today was in the 40s with a dewpoint of 16! Definitely not making it any easier.

I'll probably update tomorrow with the results of some more investigations. I'm trying to figure out my overall texture and porosity, and then what to do with that.

Oh and shoutout to Amy! Thanks for the lovely compliment!

First Post!

Ok, so I've decided to start a blog. Well, re-start it anyway. When I started CG back in June, I wasn't too adept at documenting my routines and experiments. Taking pictures and posting them proudly on facebook and fotki aren't worth much if you can't remember what you did to get those beautiful curls! So this will mainly be a way for me to document what's working, what's not working, and investigate the ins and outs of curly hair. I know, it's a big thing to take on, but I'm up for the challenge! And if I can help one curly out there, I'll have done my job. My new computer has a webcam, so I don't even have an excuse now for not taking pics while at school.

I guess I should tell you a little about me. I'm a college student, if you hadn't guessed. I'm in my third year, but have been classified as a Senior since I finished my summer classes in July (courtesy of AP credits and transferring schools after my freshman year). I'm majoring in interdisciplinary studies, which is a fancy term for education. After graduation and certification, I'll be qualified to teach math, science, social studies, and english/reading for grades 4th-8th.

I'm the only true curly in my branch of the family, though my brother has a good wave going. Actually, today he went on an anti-CG rant at me and suggested I go back to what he's using - John Frieda mousse (lol, as if). It would be funny if he wasn't so serious. So obviously they're not understanding of the the whole curly thing that has become my "obsession." They roll their eyes and make fun of my plopping, but that's about it. I tried getting my sister to go mod-CG, which she pretty much is. If she dedicated herself more and used product, she'd be about a 2a/b. But she brushes, so it's usually straight. My 12- and 13-year old cousins have at least 3b curls without even being CG. I'm so jealous! I did a brief workshop and demonstration for them in August, complete with a fifteen page "Curly Girl Addendum" that covered most of the stuff the book didn't. I've gotten a few friends started on it, but I'm pretty sure they're not into it now.

I don't consider myself to really have one type of curl. If I had to type it, I'd say 2c/3a. According to Lorraine Massey (author of Curly Girl), I have straight hair. I have pretty much no shrinkage. It's sad. Oh wait! I guess I had no shrinkage. I just did the boing test and I have 2 inches of shrinkage! Woohoo Sedusa! Clarification to come in future posts. But basically my hair is a mixture of loopy S curls and elongated spirals/ringlets. I still have trouble deciphering between the two. My hair likes to clump with the right product (FOTE!) but only when scrunched in. Absolutely dislikes raking and/or combing (tried that once; see fotki for results).

I guess I'll give a brief history of how CG has worked for me.

Before: My hair has always been curly. I was bald for the first two years of my life, but when my hair finally came in, it was thick and curly. I didn't know what to do with it until my mid-teenage years. I was surprisingly good in caring for my curls considering I wasn't CG yet. I only combed my hair (no. brushes. EVER!), blotted with a towel instead of rubbing, shampooed maybe 2-3 times a week... Not bad, but also not good. I started taking the pill when I was sixteen, and that combined with bad health problems (that would plague me for the next four years....) left my curls looking barely wavy.

It's crazy to look back and see how clueless I was. I knew it wasn't as curly as it had been, but I still thought I was pretty curly. I'm dubbing this "Curly Ego Syndrome." It happens a lot with the newbies on nc.com. We curlies have been the curly girls when around families and friends. We're constantly told how curly our hair is, and when we encounter the typing systems, it's a bit of a wake-up call. I used to use mousse (usually John Frieda - gross - but pre-CG it was HETT) and then medium-sized jaw clips to scrunch sections of hair up to my scalp. I'd do that for an hour or two to help with the curl. Then I'd hairspray the crap out of my hair, because dry hair almost always equalled frizzy hair.

After: I decided to jump on the CG bandwagon about five days after my brother graduated from high school. My hair looks so much different from when I started, so I pretty much cringe when I see those pics. My first day CG consisted of using Suave Lavender for co-wash/rinse-out and then the Aussie Sculpting gel. I believe I plopped in a t-shirt for a while and then let it air dry. Like I said up there, the early days are pretty fuzzy to me now.

During the summer, I pretty much used just conditioner and a gel. I rotated between the Suave conditioners (lavender, coconut, green apple) and gels (HEBE, HESMU, ASG). At some point I added FOTE. I always plopped for at least ten minutes in a t-shirt.

I started diffusing after a few weeks because 1. it takes like six hours (at least) for my hair to dry completely, and 2. it gives me volume. I had a diffuser for three years. The first time I tried it, I used it like a regular dryer, got a lot of frizz, and then it stayed under the sink until I started CG. That dryer only lasted until October. Kinda sad. I realize it was three years old, but I had only used it for a few months. Probably shouldn't have bought another Revlon diffuser (I have the Ionic 1875 now) looking back, but it was cheap. I actually just started having problems with it tonight. Using high heat and high speed with my Sedusa attachment resulted in sparks flying from the end of it. So I'm contemplating getting a new one, but that's a different story.

Diffusing usually consists of pixie-curling with the medium heat setting and the low speed setting. I'd start upside, diffusing different sections one at a time. Then I'd flip to the left and do the same, then to the right. I diffused until my hair was crunchy, then clipped the roots. After it finished air drying, I'd scrunch the crunch and be good to go.

Clipping is another story. When I first started CG, I attempted to use those metal Conair clips everyone was talking about. I tried the msgiblet way, the shellynot way, and a few others. The clips always came loose and slipped out. I got a lot of frizz just trying to insert and remove them. Then I read that you should bend them into a banana shape. It didn't do much for me and I didn't bother with clipping again until it got cooler. Now I'm using mini-jaw clips and doing the loops around my crown that shellynot does in her clipping video. It's working pretty well.

As we progressed into fall, things changed. Our weather is freakin' CRAZY. For example, Saturday was a sunny, breezy day. It was in the 80's. In January. Today it was in the low 30s with freezing rain and ice. There was one day in December that started out in the 70s. The temperatures began dropping around noon, it got super windy, and by six it was in the 20s. Humidity and dewpoints also vary. This all makes it just a little bit more difficult to get a routine down. Not even that, but I've really learned that everyone is different. There's another curly that lives pretty close to where I go to school, and we can't use the same products sometimes. I have better luck with FOTE on wet hair, she prefers it on dry.

Anyway, when fall hit, my schedule changed. One thing I value a lot is sleep. With class in the morning, it was pretty much impossible to wash then. Even with diffusing, my hair takes around 2 hours to dry completely (though that has changed with Sedusa, so we'll see how this semester goes). I would wash at night, diffuse and clip, and then pineapple. At one point I added a satin cap, and then towards the end of the semester I used a silk scarf. In the morning I'd scrunch the crunch left and refresh with water and some FOTE.

One thing I've realized is that pineappling pulls out my curl. My hair is pretty long (BSL), so I have to pineapple more towards my forehead then the direct center of the top of my head. This pulls out curl. If I do the ponytail with two loops instead of just the one, that pulls out curl.

The satin cap didn't help much for me. I pineappled under it until I realized that wasn't working. Then I tried just the satin cap, and that pulled out curl because it could move within the cap and it was squished weirdly. I guess I should say that I'm not a still sleeper. I toss and turn. A lot. I think of everything I've done at night, the silk scarf has the most potential. I'm still experimenting with it though. I'll probably do an update on that once I go back to school, unless I end up being able to wash in the mornings (later classes + Sedusa = awesome!).

I think I'll do some individual product review posts, because this is getting pretty long. Yes, I'm rambling. The title of this blog should give you a good clue as to what to expect, lol. So much for brief. The pics layered throughout this entry are the befores, and then weeks 2, 3, and 4. And then Christmas Eve is down below. I haven't transferred all of my pics over to this computer yet, so that's all for now.

I should mention that with the start of this blog, I'm going to clarify and almost re-start CG. I've used a few products over the past few months since I've last clarified with a sulfate that I'm sure are building up. I'm currently investigating polyquats, and recently had some bad experiences with a mild protein conditioner (oh how I wanted to love you LVPNG!) and the panthenol in KBB (sigh). So I'm going back to what worked in the summer. Not the humectants, obviously, just a simpler routine with products that moisturize and don't weigh down my curls. As I type this, I have a bottle of Pink Boots on the way thanks to a curly who spent the holidays in England. So I may make an exception at some point and layer that before my gel. But overall, it'll be a big change.

And I literally just spent two hours of my life writing this. I'm being a slow typer tonight, I guess. Anyway, stay tuned for what's to come! I have a lot of reviewing and some picture posting to do!