So Close, Yet So Far Away...

So a couple of weeks ago, my brother came home from college to surprise my sister for Senior Night at her last football game (she's in color guard, not football!). During the course of the weekend, there was a discussion at home about shampoo.

My mom had a list of stuff she needed at the store, and there was a certain "dandruff" shampoo on that list. Now, my parents have used this for years. I've tried to get them off since going CG, but all to no avail. Upon seeing this on the list, I once again brought up how drying sulfates can be and pointed out that it was probably just dry scalp (and that the shampoo was probably causing it in the first place!). For some reason, this finally got through to her. And apparently my brother.

(Side note: During that trip we picked up a Giovanni shampoo for her, as well as some Herbal Essences mousse; she is the second person in my family I've successfully converted! Hooray!)

Fast forward to today. My brother is home for the week and went with me to Target today to pick up ingredients for the desserts I made for tomorrow. While we're walking around, he became really interested in getting me to pick out "the right" shampoo for him. Since he's on the budget, the only low-poo I could think that would work would be L'Oreal's Everpure. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it. I'm not up on low-poos, so maybe it's discontinued? We couldn't find ANY L'Oreal hair products in the store, though. I did show him what surfactant he needed to look for in a shampoo.

After the trip home, he went and got his hair cut.

When he came home, he begged me to go with him to CVS to pick out a new shampoo and conditioner. Again, no Everpure. They did have the Organix line, so he picked out a shampoo. Also got some V05 conditioner.

I was just about to point out the Ecostyler gel to him when he declared he needed some wax to style his hair. Apparently this was recommended to him during the course of his haircut. Because mousse gives him too much volume, and gel is too crunchy. I tried to explain and reason with him - he could try out some of my stuff at home and then get some wax if he really felt he needed it - all to no avail. I pointed out that he had specifically asked for me to consult with him on hair products, but apparently that was just for shampoo and conditioner. There were other people in the aisle with us, so I didn't escalate the argument. He left with, of all things, a L'Oreal wax. At least the ingredients aren't as bad as the other waxes that were there...

So close to converting him, and yet he resisted. Maybe he'll think differently when the build-up gets bad!

Anyway, as far as my hair is concerned: I think I'm over-conditioned, and I think it was the Daily Fix that did it. Weird, I know. I don't have any other explanation. And I never get over-conditioned! ACV rinse tomorrow will hopefully fix it. Daily Fix review coming as soon as I figure it out all the way! This is one weird product!

My Hair Refuses to Dry

It's been a while since I've had a good old-fashioned rant. I'm rambling a bit here, but you can't say I didn't warn you, considering the title of the blog and all.

Here's the problem: My hair refuses to dry.

I'm not sure what's going on. It's like KCCC has become a magical force field that prevents water from leaving my hair for at least five hours. There are times during this process when it pretends to be dry, but that's not the case.

Not only that, but my dryer refuses to attempt to dry my hair. It's only interested in burning my scalp.

Once I figured out that the weird itch and pain I was feeling hours after diffusing was indeed related to the hot air going through the mega holes of my diffuser from two inches away, I started using the medium speed setting. Now it's content to make all the dryer noise and pretend to dry my hair. Twenty minutes after I turn it on, I realize my hair is still wet and I've fallen for it's tricks.

Here's Friday's hair:

This is after 45 min of diffusing time, three hours of air-drying time, and another hour after what I'll call the fakeout-SOTC. It looked good when I SOTC, but ten minutes later it was flat.

I wish I had a picture from later that night. It finally finished drying and the flat sides perked up to give some much-needed volume.

Today I spent another 45 minutes diffusing. After 30 minutes on medium speed, my hair was still cold and wet. That's ridiculous. I upped it to high speed and pretty much glued my thumb to the cool shot button. Two hours later, it's still not dry and no where near ready to SOTC.

I need to get some things done today (like a picture for a substitute teacher badge) but I can't go out with hair like this. I realize that sounds vain, but I've been burned by ID pictures before. Is it so wrong to want one picture to show what I normally look like?

Anyway, I will be writing a full review of the Remington dryer and our love/hate relationship very soon. I just really needed to vent. Right now, I will say that:

no heat/medium speed = my dryer laughing at me

medium heat/medium speed = hair that doesn't dry, ever

no heat/high speed = same as medium speed, but with cool high speed noises

medium heat/high speed = dry hair that will eventually fall out due to burnt scalp

It's like I can't win.

/rant