More hoary mountain mint, beloved of bees.
Today:
*Up early to go to 8 a.m. Mass
*Back home after Mass to walk the dog
*Coffee with my friend Lisa
*Home to reread and revise essays
*Continue reading: Phaedo, Confessions, Milton, Don Quixote (got none of that done yesterday, but did read Evelyn Waugh on traveling in Guiana)
*Get taken out to dinner
Wearing (per my plan for the week):
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Leila dress (M/L) in Chocolate Brown, bought December 2023, last worn --- wow, June 10? Really? That long? Anyway, here we are today.
*Secondhand Brooks Brothers merino cardigan, bought November 2023, last worn --- again, wow, truly ages ago. April 9. Granted, it's been warm. But I'm going to be in air conditioning a good bit today, and I really like this pink with this brown. Today's high is 90, so I imagine I'll be taking it off again, but I will be glad to have it on indoors.
*Default Birks, bought in April, worn yesterday
Washed my hair yesterday evening, did a 4-minute Glaze bond-repair treatment (still highly recommended), and brushed through one pump of LUS 3-in-1 emulsified with water in my hand. It looked really nice before I went to bed last night. This morning of course I had to comb it out, so the waves didn't hold so much, but I don't care. I'm kind of tired of gel and mousse for the moment. Half-updo-with-claw-clip it is, and a little damp-hands refresh around the ends.
You probably can't tell how shiny it is here, but trust me, it is. I love that Glaze stuff. And one moderate-sized tube has lasted me since quite early this year. I forget when I bought it, but January? February? I've used it once or twice a month since buying it, and can probably get one or two more treatments out of this tube before I have to buy it again. It was about $22, not dollar-store cheap, but it has lasted me a really long time, with results that make me consistently happy.
Off in a minute for early-morning Mass. I'm ridiculously happy that there's an 8 a.m. Mass. It's what I need to get me up and going.
SLIGHTLY LATER:
*Back from Mass
*Dog walked
*Leaving in a minute for coffee
*Considering hair regrowth, which I'm trying to encourage.
Again, last night when I washed my hair I noted a lot less effluvium, i.e., hair fallout, than I had been noticing. It's been coming out in clumps. Not exactly handfuls, but amounts big enough to equal entire locks of hair. But the last couple of hair washes, it's been more like strands.
This could be simply the end of this cycle of hair fallout. It could be that I'm washing a little more often, so not as much comes out in a single wash as was happening before.
But I'm also
-paying attention to caloric intake overall. I am trying to stay in a small calorie deficit for the purpose of slow fat loss (especially belly fat), but still to eat sufficient calories to keep my body from deciding it's stressed out and can't maintain hair on top of everything else.
-paying attention to my protein intake, adding whey protein to things like the kefir dressing I made for last night's chicken salad, and adding collagen peptides to my morning coffee.
-paying attention to sleep and stress (emotional, in addition to low-caloric-intake stress)
-using this rosemary water I made last weekend (link to putative benefits of rosemary water here)
In the photo above, I'm gratified to notice some tiny new hairs growing in at my hairline.
Here's a shot of the spot I really want to fill in with new growth:
As you can see, there's a good bit of new/regrowth here already, probably from the last fallout cycle, if the length is any indication. Obviously what's growing in is silver, which is fine, but I'd love for there to be more of it. That's still where my hair is most obviously thin.
Anyway, time to go, but I want to keep tracking this.
LATER:
Feeling really unmotivated to do anything real. What I have done is make the bed, put away some laundry, and pull out four pairs of shoes to photograph for Poshmark, once the leather cleaner/restorer dries. I am selling:
-Birkenstock Jackson hiking boots (because they hurt my feet . . . I hate to let them go, because I love them, but the hike I took in them in Norway has convinced me that I really can't wear them). Size 40. Bought practically new last year. Some scuffs and wear, but still in great shape.
-Birkenstock Bali sandals. Size 40. I wore them a lot last year, but the Mayaris (pictured above) that I bought this spring fit better (a 39 vs. a 40), and I just like them better overall. I haven't been wearing the Balis at all, and someone else could really get some use out of them.
-Birkenstock Madeiras. Size 40. I've had them for several years and worn them often in transitional-weather seasons, but I have never ever been happy with any outfit I wore them with, and I'm sadly coming to the conclusion that they don't work as well for me as I had hoped. Like the Balis, these still have years of wear left in them.
-Keens Mary Janes. I bought these with high hopes, but they really don't work for my feet. I've hardly worn them at all, and they came to me also barely worn, so are in excellent shape.
I plan to sell the Balis and Madeiras really cheap, like $15/pair. Both pairs are very clearly not new (which is the shape I bought them in to begin with), but they're leather and with care will last forever. I'll probably price the Keens about the same, just to move them.
I'll probably sell the hiking boots for about $50, which is roughly half what I paid for them.
So, that's a tiny little closet cleanout. I do still want to acquire some fall/winter boots, and some non-boot shoes --- lately my eye has been falling on Stegmann Mary Janes. I'm not buying anything yet, but I am thinking.
LATER STILL:
*Four pairs of shoes listed.
*Plato, Milton, Augustine read.
*Chambray shirt retrieved from donation bag.
Fortunately for me, I guess, I keep my donation bag a long time before I take it to the thrift store. I give myself LOTS of time to fill it up --- and these days, really, it takes me a long time to fill a donation bag, because
a. I resell things
b. I pass things along to the Texasgirl and her circle
c. I don't have that much to get rid of to begin with
Anyway, I'd kept seeing this woman on Instagram, wearing a black Isabelle dress with a chambray big shirt, and I really liked the look. I don't wear black much, but I do have a black dress, and I was thinking, yeah, if only I had like a chambray shirt to wear with that dress, that could actually be kind of cool . . .
So this shirt isn't that much like that one, but at least it's, you know, a similar idea. I have liked it in the past as a "shacket" (dreadful word, but what else do you call it, in shorthand?) and only outboxed it because I thought I had too many.
But I've been wearing them a good bit, and I just thought I might like to hang onto this one a while longer --- since I do actually own it. I like it, surprisingly, with this brown dress. Maybe I need to pull more of these shirts out . . . wonder if I still have the duck-egg blue cotton one I've outboxed and un-out-boxed a million times in the last couple of years? I am reflecting that I like collarless shirts a lot as [there's got to be some better word for a shirt worn as a top layer]. Maybe?
This shirt, meanwhile, really kind of needs a wash. But I like how it looks.