The beauty begins. Why do I love February? This right here.
It's another warm, lovely, early-spring North Carolina day. I was sitting on the back steps with Dora, because she was too wound up to come inside, and even though it's only in the mid-50s right now, I got hot in my cardigan in the sun. The high's supposed to be near 70F, which is crazy, but I'll take it.
I've finished and sent in my editing and index notes for the anthology –– hoping to have heard the last of that project for a while, at least until the galleys come back. I have also said yes to the proposal I was talking about the other day –– I made my friend wait about five days before responding, so I hope he still wants me for this thing he wanted me to do, but anyway, assuming he does, and once we've talked further, I should be able to say more about it.
My husband and I plan to go up to Blowing Rock this afternoon for a walk of some kind, then dinner out. One of the felicities of the empty nest –- though I certainly miss the chicks! –– is the lower grocery bill, the room in the budget for more frequent and ambitious date nights, and TIME. With our last two teenagers, toward the end, we all did just come and go independently like four adults, but even so, having only ourselves in the house (plus Dora) is remarkably freeing. Again, I miss the chicks, but this new phase does come with its compensations.
One of the chicks and I have been playing Wordle every day and texting each other our scores. This has been our major point of communication, which is a blessing, since of the four chicks, this one tends the most to go his own way. We don't say much when we share our daily score, but there's usually some brief exchange, and each of us knows the other is still alive. If the New York Times puts Wordle behind a paywall, that'll be the end of that, but for the moment we're still reveling in it.
About to go get dressed –– looking for something cool enough to walk in on what I hope will be a warm afternoon in the mountains, too, but warm enough for a colder evening. Hint: it'll be a swing dress of some description. Stay tuned!
LATER:
I did wash my hair again. Looks like I really can't get away with just co-washing Day 6 hair. My hair felt okay, but my scalp didn't. Meanwhile, my Ethique mini conditioner bar arrived today, so I decided to re-wash using the Yellow Bird peppermint shampoo bar for clarifying, then the Ethique bar for conditioning.
Here is the Ethique bar in its packaging (laptop to show scale):
It's definitely a sample size. Here's the bar itself, which is very cute, I have to say:
I washed my scalp, mainly, with the shampoo bar, leaving the length of my hair alone as much as possible. Then I conditioned with lots of water, concentrating on my length, but working it in all the way to the roots, too, because I wanted to see how that would work –– could I co-wash, potentially, with this bar alone?
The conditioner bar gave my hair nice slip. It was easy to comb out and detangle with conditioner in. It rinsed out pretty cleanly, but still left a good bit of slip in my hair, which is desirable.
I put my hair up in a "plop," to use the Curly Girl jargon: something I haven't bothered to do in a long time. In fact, it's been up in this microfiber turban for at least an hour at this point, so I do need to take it down and let it finish air drying. One of the reasons I've been pretty minimalist about products on my hair is that the fewer layers of stuff I've put on it, the more quickly it dries. I can't really decide how much difference plopping makes in that process. The main advantage is that it keeps all that wet hair off my back.
Usually, though, I just kind of squeeze it with this turban or a t-shirt and let it go.
So it's still wet at this stage, and it'll be a while yet before I can see the results. I haven't added any stylers at all, mostly because I'm just about out of them, but also because I can't be bothered.
I have gotten dressed, at least provisionally:
Merino Sierra dress + secondhand Patagonia long-sleeved base-layer tee + secondhand marble-pattern bamboo/cotton leggings + Xero Colorado sandals. So clever of me to match my microfiber turban to the rest of my outfit.
Of course I can't really go out like that –– it's warm but not that warm. For now I've just knotted this navy merino base-layer tee over my dress ––
–– but am feeling kind of meh about it. Wishing I had a merino cardigan or jacket, but alas I do not. And that's not an exception to my no-buy year, so I will have to ponder what I have and be creative if I want to both be warm and feel however it is I want to feel for an afternoon in the mountains with dinner to follow. Of course, I could just put on jewelry, which I have not yet done. But I think I'd really prefer the look of the dress as a dress, not a skirt/top combo, with another layer over. Shall ponder this while I do stuff I need to do . . . back later with updates.
PROMISED UPDATES:
When in doubt, just go for the simple little cardigan:
I'll take a jacket in any case, and in the meantime, I like the look of swing-dress/cardigan a lot better than I liked the tee tied over it. This just feels more kicky and fun.
I finally took down my wet hair, let it air dry a while, then diffused it until it was mostly dry, another thing I haven't been bothering to do. The result is not exactly influencer hair.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting, to be honest. But here's my review of the Ethique Curliosity Solid Conditioner and Co-Wash (not solicited; I just bought this; these are my entirely unremunerated views):
While my hair was still wet, I noticed an absence of wet frizz, which is always a trouble sign (wet frizz, I mean, not the absence of it), meaning a product has left buildup on my hair. Frizzy when wet/damp: limp and overmoisturized when dry. That's usually how that goes.
Now that it's mostly dry: it feels very soft, but clean, not overconditioned. I did use a shampoo bar first this time, rather than co-washing. As long as I'm going many days between washes, I probably won't be co-washing –- which means that, really, as long as my hair is as long as it is, I won't be washing that often, which means I'll be continuing to use the shampoo bar. BUT I like the results I've gotten today with the Yellow Bird peppermint shampoo bar plus the Ethique Curliosity bar as a conditioner.
I have the kind of hair that tends to curl more toward the ends, not from the roots. If I cut my hair short, it does not become curlier; in fact, usually the opposite happens. Because my hair goes in these loose waves and spirals, I have to have some length to have any curl at all. At the same time, right now my hair is really long, for me, anyway, and for this cut. There's a lot of weight, and it's pulling itself straighter. Still, the tapered, layered cut is more or less holding its shape, and I like the soft, semi-defined waves and curls I have here. My hair will curl more tightly, but oddly, when it does, it's usually because it's overmoisturized, and I hate the way it feels: stringy and a little damp, even when dry. I honestly prefer a little less definition, a little more frizz and "big hair," when my hair feels soft without being weighed down.
Almost forgot to include this arty attempt at a back view:
It can get a little curlier than this, but generally that happens in the summer when humidity is high. It's also always curlier in front than in the back, and my top layers are curlier than the underlayers. This time of year, no matter what I do, this is about as good as it gets.
Anyway, I'm going to be walking around in the wind, so it's just as well not to be hung up on having perfect hair. But I did want to come back to say that after this initial wash, I am quite pleased with the Ethique bar, far more than I was with my previous conditioner bar (which lasted so long I've completely forgotten what brand it was).
I'll take some extra layers with me up to the mountains, including a change of shoes and some socks, but it's 67 degrees currently down here in the Piedmont, and I am feeling fine.