Diet and Exercise

I spent today trying to really focus on diet, exercise, and nutrition... and I have to say I both failed and succeeded.

I succeeded because I kept below my calorie goal as far as intake and output. I worked out fairly well, though I wish I would have had time to get a run in. I ate some healthy foods.

But I failed because I ate some really UNhealthy foods. I had 6 Oreos AND a Butterfingers... and buffalo chicken pizza whoops.

I have a really hard time not eating these really crappy things because I have them readily available for me at work. But I also have more healthy things available to me as well.

Since I was trying so hard to specifically watch my calories today I was really frustrated to only have half a chicken sandwich (nothing but chicken and bread) and a hard boiled egg for dinner. I hope that the memory of how disappointing dinner was tonight will help me to make better nutritional choices from now on.

While I'm watching my calories to help me lose weight, I need to watch nutritional value for the sake of my hair, as well as the rest of my health... but obviously this blog is about my hair.

I've also been really conscious lately about my water intake. I've been trying to keep good track for a few months now, but I've been even better about it lately. According to my research you should drink 1 oz of water for 2/3 of your body weight... this includes water intake from food, tea, coffee, milk, etc. keeping in mind that things like caffeine and sugars dehydrate you, so if you're drinking caffeinated tea it probably only counts for about half an oz per actual oz.

Most of my exercise is about giving myself a calorie deficit (so I can afford to eat a little more and still stay under my calorie goal) and sculpting my body, but it also makes you all around healthier which means healthier hair! It also improves circulation, which we know helps your hair grow faster!

Improving My Condition(er)

As I said in my post last night, my experiment with diy conditioner fell flat. SO today I went and bought a new conditioner. I'm really excited to try it out!

I bought Renpure Originals Argan Oil Luxurious Conditioner. It has no sodium chloride, sulfates, dyes, harsh salts, parabens, or gluten! The gluten isn't a big deal for me, but the rest of those things are EXACTLY what I'm looking for. There's hardly any chemicals at all, it's mostly natural ingredients! If you're avoiding "toxins" all together I wouldn't recommend it based on the ingredients Diazolidinyl Urea and Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate. However these are only found in very small amounts in this product. There are two kinds of silicons, however they are much less harsh than some and still allow moisture to your hair shaft, they're mostly there to protect your hair from heat and sun!

I also think it smells pretty good... kind of musky. I'd like to add a little lavender oil or extract to make it smell more like my Castile soap (I love it when things match!)

I'm also a fan because it came in a 32 oz bottle for only 5.99 at Walgreens, which was by far the cheapest option with the biggest bottle, and what I perceived to be a great product!

I'm really excited to try it out and let you know how I like it!

Things That Don't Work

So I've really been struggling with my hair texture this week, originally I thought it was because I was doing inversion therapy and my hair just had excess oil that wasn't being cleaned out well... but today I used Castile soap and my hair felt great until I put my honey/ACV mixture on it. My hair instantly went back to feeling terrible... it felt dry and strawy... and I was still in the shower! I'd also been noticing my face and part of my neck being really red and splotchy after washing my hair the last couple days.

It's really disappointing because for the first 3-4 days my hair was so clean and healthy and I didn't notice any issues. But obviously it's not working in the long term.

So I dumped it down the drain.

I've spent the last hour looking for new ideas on Pinterest, but I think I'm going to purchase a natural conditioner. Most of the recipes call for things that would cost just as much as buying a conditioner with more ingredients that has a better texture to work with and actually smells good.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to buy, but I'm definitely trying to use natural products. I'm not generally a "natural products only" kind of person, but I love the effect it has on my hair!

Defeating the Oil

Going no 'poo is a scary thought for a lot of people. I've done it several times in my life, I usually end up using shampoo again for one reason or another... usually because I find shampoos that claim to fix things that are wrong with my hair. The only shampoo I've ever loved is available at Sally Beauty and is specifically for curly hair, and it was amazing! But it's also fairly expensive and I think my hair would be even better if I didn't use it at all.

For most people giving up shampoo is hard because it can make your hair greasy. After being off shampoo for a while your scalp with adjust to not being stripped every day and start producing less oil. In the meantime, or if you have really oily skin anyway, there is hope!

If you're trying to go longer inbetween washes and can't handle the grease dry shampoo is amazing! There are tons of natural/diy recipes on Pinterest, but I personally use one from Herbal Essences! I find it especially helpful if I've used heat to style my hair and want to keep it for a few days before getting it wet at all! (Don't worry I still shower, I just use a shower cap!).

My current issue is during my inversion week my homemade 2-in-1 mix of apple cider vinegar and honey doesn't effectively get rid of the oil I rub on my scalp, making my hair incredibly greasy and heavy.

So I decided to buy some Castile soap (which as a huge Supernatural fan I like to call Castiel soap). I haven't used it yet, but my intentions are to use it during inversion week, if my hair gets reeally oily, if I use coconut oil as my deep conditioner, or when I do another thing that I'm going to talk about in just a second. I've looked at a lot of diy shampoo recipes on Pinterest and they all seem to contail Castile soap, I may end up adding something to it eventually if I'm not perfectly happy with the results of using it on its own.

When I do use Castile soap, diy shampoo, or any other kind of soap/shampoo I rub it directly on my scalp and only let it on on the lengths of my hair as I rinse it out.

The other thing I'm really excited to try I will probably do once a week every week except inversion week... it's a scalp scrub! We exfoliate our bodies and our faces, so why not our scalps! The recipe is 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (or whatever other kind of oil you like to use on your hair). Really gently massage it into the scalp fro 3 or 4 minutes.

This scrub claims to "unclog hair follicles and stimulate circulation to promote hair growth" Now, with as much hair as I have I doubt any of my follicles are clogged! So my main goal is to continue to stimulate circulation for healthy and fast growing hair!

The Story So Far

As a child I had thin straight hair, when I hit puberty my hair quadrupled in thickness and got incredibly curly. I didn't really know what to do with it, I tried lots of different things, and eventually decided to cut it off the summer before my senior year of high school.

It was really short, but I loved it! It was great and fun and easy to work with. The following January, though, I decided to start growing it back out. It went through awkward stages, but as it grew I learned what to do with my curls and how to make them look beautiful! I actually loved almost every stage my hair went through and managed to cut and color it to make it look good.

A little over two years after I started growing it out it was down past my shoulders, almost to my armpits when straight!

But then I went through a breakup and decided to cut it all off again. I'd loved it before and I thought I would love it again.

But I was wrong... I hated it, it looked terrible, it was badly done and I really missed my curls. I wore bandana's for the rest of the school year, and my summer job required me to wear a hat. I kept growing it for 10 months... I dyed it a lot and got a few trims along the way (including some bangs that were similar to ones I'd had before but since my hair was purple it looked like I was wearing a wig. Yikes!) And then in January I bleached it... I was going for a dark gray color, but what I ended up with was extremely damaged white hair. I bleached it twice in one day... such a bad idea! Then my hair wouldn't soak up anything else I put on it... dye, conditioner, anything! And it was straight... and thin and frizzy... just everything terrible.

I let it grow out and dealt with it as best I could. I even managed to get a boyfriend with my terrible white damaged hair.

I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore. I went and got as much damage cut off as possible, while still trying to keep as much length as I could. Because I'd had an undercut on the right side we had to go with an asymmetrical cut... which I actually really like.

There's still a little more damage that will need to be cut off in a month or two, but it looks so much more healthy now! It turns out most of the damage was at the front of my head (you know, right where everyone can see it first thing).

SO... my plan is to continue growing out my hair as healthy, long, and FAST as possible! This blog's purpose is to document my journey!

Currently the right side of my head is about an inch (maybe a bit less) and it gradually gets longer through the back until it's just about halfway between my jaw and chin on the front left. My eventual goal is to get my hair to the middle of my back or so. But my current short time goal is to get it to my shoulders and to a point where I can have it the same length on both sides!

So here's what I'm doing to reach my goals:

I don't use shampoo or conditioner, but instead I use a mixture of equal parts honey and apple cider vinegar. Twice a week I use a deep conditioner (right now I'm using Joico Reconstructor, but usually I use $.99 packets from Sally). Also, every day for one week out of the month I do inversion therapy (Google it!) which has mixed reviews, but even if inversion doesn't actually help massaging your scalp with oil is never a bad thing! When I'm not doing inversion therapy I do try to massage my scalp for 3 minutes every day (usually without oil). 

After I shower I use a tshirt to dry my hair rather than a towel. On days that I'm not doing inversion or deep conditioning I use leave in conditioner and Garnier hair oil. And don't comb or brush my hair when it's wet (except VERY gently with a wide tooth comb to spread product evenly).

I limit using hot tools and a blowdrying to when I HAVE to (ie special events) and I'm *trying* to stop dying my hair (at least not as often!).

I take a multivitamin (One a Day Women's Gummies), 1500mcg of biotin, and a vitamin E supplement daily as well.

I try to eat healthy (mostly fruits, veggies, poultry and salmon.... salmon is supposed to be really good for your hair), drink LOTS of water, and exercise when I can!

I'll post some pictures eventually so you can see how much my hair grows from month to month, but right now it's inversion week and I have a lot of oil and a towel on my head :P