Here's a weird, impressionistic shot in which the reflection of the other window in this room is superimposed on the pink crape myrtles I was trying to capture, tucked in among the other trees across the street.
Today:
*Going to Mass for the feast day at the Abbey, to see Br. Gabriel make his first profession of vows.
*Minding the Open Thread discussion on the Substack
*Editorial meeting this afternoon
*Self-assigned reading: The Phaedo, the Confessions, a poem by Milton, and more Don Quixote
Just washed my hair and am waiting for it to dry. This time, especially because I'm going out both today and tonight, I wanted to direct a little more effort toward having it look good all day (although honestly, if it doesn't, that's what claw clips are for). Last night I was revisiting one of my favorite hair accounts on Instagram, which serves as my all-purpose home, fashion, and beauty magazine with its every-changing features. I really like this woman and her hair, which is not dissimilar in texture to mine, though I think it is naturally a little curlier. I don't think mine would ever spiral quite like that. Her techniques have worked better for me than just about anybody else's, when I've bothered to do them.
So I revisited this technique of hers, which I've done today. She also does gel-mousse-gel, but I happened to find this tutorial, so that's what I've followed. Mostly I'm trying to get some lasting wave definition, cut down on humidity hair, and maximize shine.
I mean, good morning:
Welcome to your standard wet hair. I shampooed with my usual Head&Shoulders Bare, because my scalp thanks me for that, and followed it with LUS 3-in-1, a dime-sized amount well emulsified with water in my hands and squished through my hair, then combed and wet-brushed to distribute and encourage clumps.
Then I wet my hair some more and applied a palmful of Not Your Mother's Curl Talk Foam, again wet-brushing it to distribute, then adding more water and scrunching. Mind you, my hair when wet falls into wavy clumps even when I don't scrunch it. That's how you know your hair has some texture. If it naturally looks mermaidy and snaky when wet, and only looks straight when wet after you brush it out, then yes, you've got waves. Scrunching just encourages the waves to re-form after you've brushed it through, either to detangle or to distribute some product. And then whatever styling product you've added --- gel or mousse --- holds those re-formed waves, to help them last through the day.
I followed that with two probably-nickel-sized amounts of LUS Irish Sea-Moss gel. I haven't added a second layer of foam, but I might, just to see if it makes any difference.
My plan is to let it air-dry for another hour, then diffuse it the rest of the way, since we need to leave the house by 10:15, and I'll have to walk the dog before we go.
As always, it's taken me longer to write all this out than it took me actually to do. That's important to note. I'm never doing some hair routine that takes all day. The longest part is the drying, which is just a fact of life even when I do nothing extra to my hair.
LUS products --- the ones I've tried, at any rate --- are consistent favorites of mine. But for off-the-shelf drugstore products, I really like the Not Your Mother's Curl Talk line. I've used their curl cream (too heavy for my hair), their rice-protein leave-in conditioner (really like, especially as a hair oil on dry hair), and this foam. My one complaint about this line is that the scent is very strong. I prefer the mild scent of LUS products. But for inexpensive, readily available products for textured hair, Not Your Mother's really wins for me. (NB: not a sponsored advertisement: I just buy these products and like them.)
I'm boring myself with all this, so I think I'll take a break and play my New York Times games. They've added a new free word-search game, Strands, which I now play religiously along with Wordle, Connections, the Mini Crossword, Letter Boxed, and Tiles. I should really teach myself to play Sudoku, because that's also free, but I haven't yet.
ONE HOUR LATER:
Hair much dryer, and I've diffused it to about 75% dry. Still in the gel/mousse cast, so it looks a lot wetter than it is. I'm about to go walk the dog briefly in the sunshine, then diffuse it a little more before we leave for the Abbey.
Wearing:
*Wool& Audrey dress (S) in Black Heather, bought November 2022, last worn June 30 in Norway.
*Trades of Hope silk-cotton kimono, bought May 2024, last worn (as a scarf) June 30 in Norway
*Birk Mayaris, bought in April, continual default shoe. This outfit would probably look sharper with my bronze Crocs, but I'm wearing Birkenstocks.
Going to walk the dog, then finish my hair (can I also make a plug for a diffuser as a must if you have wavy or curly hair?) and take off.
LATER:
Back from a very lovely Mass and an impromptu touch-base with my MFA student for the fall, who happened to be there because Br. Gabriel, who made his first profession today, is her friend.
So, the hair process, since I was devoting time to it earlier.
Here's how it looked in the car on the way to Mass, having been diffused pretty much dry but not combed out or fluffed or anything:
Husband: What is with all these selfies?
Me: What selfies? I don't know what you're talking about.
And now, hours later, having been combed (in the car as we were turning into the Abbey) and fluffed a bit:
Amazingly, it's not appreciably dryer here than it was in the previous shot in the car. I've just gotten rid of the gel/mousse cast.
And it's okay. I have some defined waves. It feels soft --- softer than it often feels, because I think the products have smoothed down and sealed my hair cuticles. It hasn't developed the humidity frizz that it usually develops as the day goes on.
It feels maybe a little producty? But not bad. I didn't have a lot of wet frizz while it was drying, and it's shiny now, not gunky, the way hair can look when I've used too much conditioner. It's not sticky or oily. It's just . . . smooth?
I'll take it. I'll probably experiment more with this layering of gel and foam, but it is a technique I think I can adopt when I want to. Of course, I can also just not do any of that if I don't want to.
And so back to work.