Nice to see the sun again, after a two-days' deluge. It's cold but not too cold: 39F currently, with a high of about 50, dropping tonight into the 20s. Just your basic winter weather, and we can deal with it.
I'm feeling headachy and sinus-y today --- in just a moment, before I walk the dog, I'm going to make myself some "fire cider" with apple-cider vinegar, honey, lemon, and cayenne pepper. But I've gotten dressed, and my plan is to knock out the last of my essays through Christmas week, most of which are repeats anyway and --- I hope --- will not need extensive rewriting. We shall see how that goes. I thought John Donne was going to be an easy recycle, and reader, he was not.
Wearing today:
*Wool& Audrey dress (S) in Black Heather, bought November 2022, last worn November 30. Total wears this year to date: 29. Still my very-most-worn dress of all.
*Secondhand Connemara merino cardigan, bought September 2024, last worn November 23.
*Hand-crocheted wool-blend shawl, generous gift of a friend, November 2024.
*Snag merino tights in Silver Lining, bought fall 2021, feet cut off last year.
*Darn Tough Socks, bought last year, in their second season of wear.
*Xero Tari boots, bought summer 2022, in their third season of extremely regular wear.
Today I've departed completely from my outfit plan for the week. As always, this is completely fine. Plans are there to be departed from. They exist to give you a way forward when you don't have a better idea. If you do have a better idea, great --- go for it. The plan is just there for when you don't.
This week I've just really been craving the comfort of knits. My plan is full of outfits centered on my linen dresses --- and they're all great outfits --- but what I'm wearing is what I really feel like wearing right now. If the linen dresses get a little more of a rest than I had intended, that's okay. They'll make up for it in the summer for sure, when all I want is airiness and bare shoulders.
Today, however, I was feeling the Cambrian Bog Witch, with a side of the fun art-shop lady with her lacy shawls. And I thought: I have all these brooches. A shawl is a good way to wear them:
Here you see my very old star brooch, a gift from my husband years ago, pinned through holes in the shawl's pattern and through the cardigan beneath it, to keep it in place.
I washed my hair this morning, as you can probably tell --- it's diffused almost dry in these photos, though the ends are still damp, and there's a good bit of foam cast that I haven't scrunched out yet.
I did something like this routine, though I didn't bother using a bowl --- people swear by that method, because the bowl catches your product rinse water (like conditioner, for example), and then you pour it back through your hair, so it's like double conditioning, I guess? Anyway, so far for me that has been one step too many, so I haven't done it. And I didn't use gel.
The chief thing I did do was take more care brushing my soaking-wet hair after I'd worked LUS 3-in-1 through it (I also didn't use any of the same products she uses here, because they're all UK budget products that I don't have). I don't have that expensive Bouncecurl brush, but I do have a cheap wet brush that I bought at Walmart that has slotted sides rather like that, so that when you bring the brush through a section of your hair, you can turn it so that your hair slides through the slots and is sectioned neatly.
So I brushed my soaking hair in sections like that, up and away from my scalp and turning the brush so that my hair slid through the slots. Then I scrunched a good bit of Not Your Mother's Curl Talk foam (a fairly budget-friendly drugstore-or-Walmart purchase, with a strong smell for those who like strong smells) into my brushed-and-sectioned hair, and squeezed more water out with my microfiber towel. Then I diffused it for about 15 minutes to start it well on its way to being dry.
My hair tends to go very straight in cold weather, but we'll see how this works out. So far the results look reasonably nice:
This foam does add a good bit of shine, and overall, especially as relatively inexpensive as it is (about $7), I really like it. It adds a little extra hold and smoothness, which are always welcome. I don't bother with extra products every time I wash my hair, but when I do, I'm generally glad I did.
And now the dog wants to go out.
BACK FROM OUR WALK:
And more about hair.
I can't ever take good photos of the back of my head. Maybe in truth my hair does not look as good as I think it does when I look in the mirror --- almost certainly it doesn't.
BUT one thing I've noticed over the last few months is that even when I don't make much effort at styling, somehow the things that I do do --- extremely low-ingredient shampoo (to benefit my scalp, which is prone to dermatitis), this LUS 3-in-1 leave-in conditioner/styler, and some gesture toward brushing it through to encourage clumps to form --- has resulted in a lot more actual curl in my hair. Even at the back, which has traditionally been a lot straighter than the front of my hair, I am getting actual spiral curls, like the hair turns over fully at least once, as opposed to just making a loose S.
And it's not anything I'm directly doing. I'm not twirling my hair or anything like that. It's just doing this on its own. All I do is brush it in informal sections and scrunch it --- and often enough, diffuse to take the water weight out, at least, even if I don't dry it completely.
For the record, I do not at all believe that you can change the basic texture of your hair, or its patterns. That's genetic. Your hair is programmed to grow in a particular way. If your hair is straight, the only way you're going to have curls is to curl it mechanically or get a perm (both of which, especially repeated over time, will damage your hair). If your hair is curly, the only way you're going to have straight hair is to straighten it, mechanically or chemically (and ditto the damage). If your hair is wavy, all the product and technique in the world isn't going to make it significantly curlier than it is. I don't think I'm going to wake up one day in a cloud of curls like the Texasgirl's. It's just not going to happen.
But I do think that a little technique --- even a very little technique --- can make a difference. So, of course, does simply having healthy hair. People talk about "healing" their hair and their curl pattern, but in truth the only way to do that is a) to cut off damaged hair, and b) to take gentle care of what remains after you do that. And the real difference --- the real progress, I believe --- is in learning some basic tricks for washdays (and refreshes, if you're into that, which I am mostly not) that support the hair you have in doing its natural thing better.
Doing this brush thing, for example, brushing out soaking-wet sections of my hair and turning the brush so that the hair slides through the slots on the sides, encourages my hair to form these spirals, but doesn't force it. It just gives it the opportunity to do something it naturally does when conditions are favorable.
I haven't used any hard-hold product, like gel or hairspray --- I'm out of my favorite LUS gel and haven't ordered more, because I'm trying just to use what I have for the time being. So these waves and spirals will largely relax out as the day goes on. AND I probably won't be able to resist combing my hair. But I still like the results I'm getting and am interested to see how much more of this my hair will do.
Again, I don't think I'm going to wake up one day with significantly more curly hair than I already know I have. But the more I can support it in being whatever it is, the better I'm going to like how it looks.
OH, by the way, on our dog walk I was pretty warm in these layers without a coat. In the house I am VERY warm. I think I'll be bumping the heat down when the chilly person who shares this house with me isn't looking . . .
AFTERNOON HAIR UPDATE:
OK, I know. This is boring, me banging on about my hair. But bear with me.
It's 3:45 now. I've been out twice with the dog, I've uploaded . . . four? . . . essays? . . . all retreads of things I had written, that I could put together with some minor touches . . . anyway, I've now finished everything I had to write through Christmas week. If I could just do my two for the week after tomorrow, then I would be free and clear until that week. We'll see if I can pull it off.
Anyway, hair. At this point in the day, it's not perfect. I have combed it once. I've been outside. Waves have stretched out some, and it's messy. But here's what my washday results are after some hours of living with them:
This is the left side, the side most of my hair falls on when I've side-parted it. As you can see, it's kind of messy and windblown. But it is shiny (the shine doesn't translate well into photos, alas), and even though I did break up the tightest curl clumps with my comb to give it more volume/less wet look, there are still a lot of fairly defined waves, and maybe even still one or two real spirals. This side of my hair, which is most of my top layer/canopy, is curlier than the other side, as you will see:
I generally part my hair at the cowlick on the right side of my forehead. This, as you can see, is the less-curly side --- but there's still a lot of good wave, even after combing.
The back:
In these photos my hair always looks a good bit duller than it actually is. I guess you need a ring light really to show things up nicely, and I have not such a thing. Again, it's kind of messy, because I've been messing around with it with my hands, as well as just living --- but you can see where it has made spirals.
For a chilly, dry day, this is a lot more lasting wave/curl than I had expected. The foam does give it a little oomph --- that little bit of extra texture that keeps it feeling alive and bouncy. In the summer, with the humidity, it has plenty of oomph without foam. Then the foam or gel is there to try to smooth down frizz, although in truth I don't worry too much about that. I'd rather have slightly wild hair anyway. My husband likes to touch my hair, and I'm not going to be too precious about it. Life is too short for that.