Saturday 8 November 2014

About henna

Buchfreundin (love that username btw) commented:
Just to add: Your haircolor is so beautiful and very even! I really hope you write a bit more about it, like, does it fade, would you do it again, etc.

And sure, I’d love to!

For me, henna was something I had rattling around in my head for some years.
It would “fix” two of my hair-annoyances for me:
  • I know it’s silly, but I have a real hate/love relationship with my natural hair colour. It’s not really blonde, not really brunette and not really red. Ideally I would love it to be both lighter (blonder) and redder, but that would require some bleach. That’s absolutely out of the question. So, I could get the “more red”.
  • I’m closing up on 13 years since I shaved my head, so naturally I have some fade going on at the ends. Unless you dye the fade away, you will have fade. Again, completely natural, everyone has it, etc, but I still get annoyed by it. Some indigo would fix it damage free, but indigo needs henna (first) to be able to bond with hair.

But I had two things that kept me from it:
  • That henna is permanent. Once you start henna, it requires upkeep. Getting out of a “normal” henna dose is painful and requires a ton of work.
  • That is seems henna is such a “thing” for the super-longhairs. Call me weird, but it really rubbed me the wrong way that it seems everyone with super long hair eventually turns to henna.

Of course then I realised I could get out of most of the issues by using a super low henna dose (Including the high risk of staining).

The procedure itself turned out to be extremely annoying though: I thought I was good with the super long deep conditionings, but henna is a whole other game. I guess it’s both heavier than normal deep conditioners, and when it dries (The dripping. The horrible, horrible dripping!) I guess it will pull on the hairs and the “updo” under the cling wrap and warm hats.
But the dripping… Argh. I really need to figure something out with that one.

It has a noticeable red tint for the first 48 hours, then it fades into a tone that I can’t really tell apart from my natural tone. My hair has a tendency to fluctuate in colour depending on light, products used and how freshly washed it is, so it already shifts a lot in colour. I’ve been asking Hubby since he sees my hair in all conditions, but he can’t tell the difference either.

I hope with my low, low henna dose I won’t be so stuck with upkeep. As far as I can tell, I don’t have any roots showing in a different colour. That’s a very good thing!
So I’m thinking I will do my super low henna dose for the full length and then the indigo for some length of ends maybe every two months? Of course I might be eager to try it again soon… With such a low dose and no roots showing, I guess I can more or less do it whenever I feel like it.

I guess that’s another thing I have learned from having such long hair: You get a special kind of patience.
So I can’t tell any remarkable difference right away, but my hair seems to be pretty neutral. No sudden splits, no sudden tangles, no loss of glossiness.
Some times that’s the only response you get from your hair, and you should take that as a thumbs up.
My red didn’t go much redder, my fade didn’t get remarkable unfaded.
But a year and 6-12 treatments down the road and I probably will notice a difference from when I started.
Some times “Do No Harm” is a perfectly fine strategy instead of chasing an imaginary (Produced in a photo studio with a bunch of stylists and photo shopped!) kind of magic.

I like the non-commitment aspect of doing henna and indigo like this.
I get what I want with no commitment, and I get all the good stuff and none of the bad.

They say you can’t date henna, you have to marry it.

Well. I guess I just made henna my friend with benefits.

Thursday 6 November 2014

Memebox: Banila Co. and Citrus Care

Hmm. Memebox has a new design for the superboxes. I guess it shouldn’t bother me, but I dislike the random, big splotch of black in the middle of it.
“Delivering beauty everyday”
What.



Memebox Superbox #69: Banila Co.
First of all, I’m confused at this being called a superbox when it came in the smallest box. Am I wrong in thinking that the superbox should be the largest box?
How odd. Are the special boxes larger?


Banila Co. Clean it zero
100 ml + a free sample size 7 ml ($22)
This is a cream cleanser that came with a little paper describing how awesome it is. Bleah. I hate non-foamy cleaners, so this is going directly into my sell/trade/gift-pile.

Banila Co. Prime primer classic
30 ml ($22)
I’ve never actually owned a primer before, so this will go into my makeup drawer and will be tested pretty soon. Cool!

Banila Co. Claypatra facial scrub
120 ml ($15)
Silly punny name. None the less it sounds good; it contains mud from the Dead Sea.


Banila Co. Eye love gel liner natural black
5 g ($11)
I’m going to try this. Black won’t be a good colour for my pale colours, but none the less I can probably make it work if I put some effort into it.

Banila Co. Glam muse luster lipstick in LPK 569
3½ g ($14)
Seriously confused by the name of the colour. I got the darkest one; a sort of burgundy  tone with some pink in it (I think?) I never wear lipstick so this goes in my sell/trade/gift-pile.

Banila Co. Vanilla tint balm pink illusion
5 g ($5)
I’ve already expressed my dislike for lipbalms and tints that comes without applicators. What am I supposed to do? Carry a little brush with me as well? Or just dip a finger directly into the balm and wipe the excess off on my pants? Usch. Sell/trade/gift-pile.

Verdict
3 things that goes directly into the sell/trade/gift-pile.
2 things that made me go “Yay.
1 thing that made me go “Sure, why not?”
I guess overall this is a “Meh.” box for me.

Memebox Special # 51: Citrus care
This was the largest box. So, special-boxes are the largest? Or is it just random?


Unni Recipe vitamin recharger essence
55 ml ($18)
6 different vitamins, lemon extracts, orange extracts, grapefruit extracts and lime extracts. Not bad. I’m not using an essence for my night care at the moment, so I will add this one to the routine.

Tonymoly clean dew red grapefruit foam cleanser
180 ml ($4)
Is this a typo or is it a very cheap product? Huge tube that was even slightly folded in the top to fit in the box. It smells delicious: Like real grapefruit instead of artificial. I ill put this to use after I run out of the Milkypiggy charcoal cleanser.

The Yeon all day sun cream SPF 50 PA +++
50 ml ($17)
This contains a bunch of extracts, but I’m slightly worried about it containing aloe vera too. However, it also says it doesn’t have a whitening effect! This is good, because the Vitamin sun cream I otherwise liked and use, really leaves a white tint behind that washes all colour out of my face. I tried some on my hands and I haven’t had any reaction yet, so I guess it will go into my shoulder bag. It smells vaguely fresh and soapy.


Mizon refresh time grapefruit body wash
200 ml ($14)
Another product that smells awesome! I once bought a Palmolive bodywash that as supposed to wake you up in the mornings… Think it was called something along the lines of “morning tonic”? This could have been something like that too.

Vivito make-up starter intro
70 g ($35)
These are exfoliating little pads. I received something like this before and liked it. I’m guessing it’s the same principle: The pads have a rough, exfoliating texture but it also contains some essence or something that will be left on the skin afterwards.

Vivito painting sweet lip balm orange farm
12 g ($24)
24 $ for this stupid little lip balm? I kind of hope this is just another example of Memebox’es inflated prices. Sell/trade/gift-pile.

Verdict
5 good products
1 for the sell/trade/gift-pile

Very nice. I like “inoffensive products” like this one contained. This is a good box.

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Etsy sucks!

So, my beautiful and awesome new hair stick is lost in the mail.
Effing Etsy!
After I placed the order, I had the thought that last I checked in on Etsy, it had this weird bug where it mixed my former Danish address up with my current Swedish.
So I checked, and sure enough: still bugged.
I managed to fix it and sent the store-owner an email telling her what had happened and asked that she would send it to my correct address.
Unfortunately she told me, her father who makes the sticks had sent the stick out without checking the email.
So now my awesome stick is lost in the Danish mail. I contacted them, but have no hope whatsoever that I can get my stick back. The Danish mail sucks ass and they don’t give a crap about customer service.
The store owner was nice enough to refund the stick and shipping cost, but I’m just upset at the loss of a stick.

Does anyone have any experience with the curly sticks in the store?

I like these two, but aren’t sure if a curly stick would work for me at all.



Rockpaperscissorlizardspock rocks!

Well, what can I say?
She’s awesome and we will definitely meet up again!

I had so much fun I forgot to even ask to take pictures (So, sorry for those reading this)

Scissor storage


I like keeping my scissor near my computers. The light and contrast of a monitor is simply the best for making damage show up in my hair.


Where do you guys keep yours?

Monday 3 November 2014

Fake bangs, part 3

Hmm. I haven’t been able to find colour #10 anywhere. I’m very disappointed in that.
I guess I can either keep looking on and off, give up or go for #12 which was the second best fit.

Opinions? 

Sunday 2 November 2014

Fake bangs, part 2

Checking the colours indoors in artificial light. 


Colour #09: The one I just can't find anywhere. Too bad, it seems to be a pretty good fit.


Colour #10:  Was a pretty good fit outdoors in sunlight, but indoors in artificial light I think this one is the best fit of them all! 


Colour #12: Was a pretty decent fit outdoors, but indoors it is too light and red. 
(Don't know why, but all the pictures I took of this one got pretty shaky)

So, what do you think?
Colour #10: Medium ash brown is the best?