Lil's hair care routine

Updated April 24, 2008

• Increased washing to twice a week.
• I always put oil on my hair before I wash it. Lately I put lots of avocado or monoi on the last six to ten inches then wear it up. I leave the oil in for up to three days. As I see it, since it's in an updo it doesn't matter that the ends are oily and stringy. No one sees 'em anyways since the ends are hidden.
  
• Giovanni Organic shampoo, the 50:50, is my favorite shampoo and creme rinse.
  
• I dilute each product (you don't need as much as you think you need) and pour it over my hair. It's more efficient than applying globs on my head.
• I quit white vinegar rinses. Haven't used vinegar for like a year.
• To apply the creme rinse I divide my hair into two sections and bring it over my shoulder, mix a generous dollop of creme rinse with about 1/3 cup water, then dip each section as high up as possible several times and pour the remainder over my hair - which isn't much because my hair soaks up most of it. I only apply it from the ears down because the top of my punkin' head doesn't need creme rinse.
• Pin hair up with Ficcare and finish showering. This is about, hmmm, 20 minutes I guess.
• Take hair down last and rinse thoroughly and do final rinse with cool or cold water to close the cuticle and increase shine. If ever I learn that cool rinse has no true effect, heads are gonna roll. I almost always do a cool or cold rinse even when I don't want to. One time I did a cold rinse then forgot about it and flipped my hair back behind me. HOOoooo Weeeee! Think that'll get your attention? Long, cold, hair all the way down your back on a winter day? Eeeek. Nearly took my breath away! Don't worry overly about this happening though because the up side is...it'll only happen once.
• Never wring. I stand in the shower and let the water trickle off my hair till it starts to drip, then I squeeze it from the top down and put it in a towel. While it's in a towel I can oil my bod up without getting it on the wet hair. I will lightly oil the hair, but not yet.
• Always air dry. I avoid using a blow dryer except for my bangs which I wash and blow dry almost every day. I'll only blow dry under unusual circumstances, and then not for more than ten minutes to get rid of a chill or maybe get ridges out for some occasion.
• The newest change in my vita-veeta-vega regiment (I inserted an "I Love Lucy" joke) is that I stopped combing my hair in the shower while the conditioner is in it. I now rinse the creme rinse out in a normal fashion like the rest of the world does, but! I don't comb through it at all until it's completely and thoroughly dry. Okay, I have to lightly comb the top of my head right away or my bangs will be wacky. It's working well! It leaves just the tiniest bit of wave or body in my hair this way. I have smooth, sleek hair, sometimes too much so, and I like the effect my new regiment has on my length.
  
• I eat a balanced diet. I dance for exercise. I take no supplements for hair, mind or body except a calcium pill my husband makes me take. Well, except for Excedrin or Ibuprofen or Tylenol sometimes. Good food and exercise are key to growing healthy long hair. There are no substitutes for proper eating habits and regular exercise. Did anyone notice I had Ibuprofen spelled wrong on this page from August 2007 until now? Heavens to Mergatroid.
• After completely dry and as soon as possible before it's bone dry (do you know what I mean?), I apply a wonderful leave-in that my friend, Kara, makes. It smooths the wiry hairs at my neck like nothing else and makes my hair shine and keeps it from drying out too much.
  
• Wear my hair up 95% of the time. I wear it down more often now. Still, it's not super often but when we go someplace I will wear it down sometimes. A girl named Karen Marie did an accidental big chop (hers was still pretty even at the shorter length) and said one thing it caused her to see in a new light was that she wore it up way too much. Pretty much always, as did I. Sounded good to me, so I applied her idea to my life. It's working well. I like it. I wear it up at home mostly though because the other day I walked by the hall and my hair caught on the door jamb sticking out on an open door (we have a bunji cord on it because it bangs around too much when we drive ) and it about gave me whiplash it yanked me back so hard. The hair didn't glide apart, it chose to knot up at the end and that's why it stopped me cold in my tracks. You'd think I'd stepped on a banana peel. I was lucky it didn't pull a bunch of hair out. It could have been a Cal/Osha recordable, as my husband says. That's a form you have to fill out when there's been an on-the-job workplace accident.
  

The end!