Hair Beware

I am suffering from hair woes. I have great hair, but it rarely looks great. It usually is a big messy mess.
Again, my hair is awesome. Super-healthy, thick, curly, shiny. I love my hair. The difficulty is finding the time and enthusiasm to wash it and style it. It’s something I never learned how to do, and still don’t always find the time for. Especially with baby.

Washing now is with the no-poo method: baking soda to wash, apple cider vinegar to rinse. I have to say, it’s feeling better than ever with these two low-tech products, and the savings in cost and waste are also thrilling for me. The vinegar really brings out more shine. I have to confess, though, that I am finally beginning to notice the smell as it dries. My husband with his super-nose has never liked it, but he’s accepted my product choices.

Styling products have also gone low-tech, organic and natural: coconut oil. It moisturizes, takes down the frizz, adds some weight (for my coarse hair, necessary) and shine too. Plus, if there’s any left over on my hands I just rub it in, unlike the various petroleum products I’ve tried over the years. So so so much better from every angle!

Styling means rubbing coconut oil through my hair and shaping in the curls. Basic, but still hard to do sometimes.

When it’s freshly washed and styled, I love it. Curly and bouncy. After a few too many days between washes, yuck. Frizzy, shapeless. Choices are then scarves (which I haven’t pulled off well for years), barrettes, hats (also not tried in years), headbands (either the hard uncomfortable kind – no – or the elasticy round-the-head kind that feel great until you realize they’ve completely misshaped your hairline and bunched up the nape of your neck). Or just accept the mess, which is my position recently.

The frustration is that I am still trying to look professional at work. Hair tops everything else off. If my hair looks good, the rest of me is presentable.

I’m tempted to go short. Short-short, boy-short, or at least very-short-woman’s-cut short. Washing is easier, styling … ahh, there’s rub #1. My hair’s body and curl mean that styling is not necessarily easier as it’s shorter. It can go crazy wavy all over the place, and that’s just no, no good. I have to revert to the toque as styling tool, which is feasible but not my ideal. Plus, I will need re-cuts more often, which is a big cost and time-consumer.

Then what about long? Long is easy: ponytails. Ponytails are also the reason I’m going shorter, because they are – at least, the way I do them – incredibly non-professional-looking. Messy. But also the MOST comfortable hairstyle ever: all hair out of my face, out of the way, get to work, easy. I’ll often put my hair up in an elastic when I get up in the morning (we’re talking as I sit up in bed) and wear it like that half the day. Not professional. And then, the longer hair never looks as good on me as shorter. I look young and drawn out when my hair is too long.

Not sure where the solution lies. I would like to settle my hair issues before I turn 40. ha ha ha …

 

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