The Hairy Adventures of Katja

OFFICIAL END OF 2005/BEGINNING OF 2006 HAIR STATS:

Length (from hairline to longest strands): 28" (waist length)
Length of virgin roots: 7.75" since December 7th, 2004
Length of "Bangs": 13"... almost collarbone length!

I have some progress pics, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow as I left the USB cables for my camera at home (I'm staying with family for New Years').  But trust me, they're worth the wait.

As for my hair's current condition... after my last entry, I went into a sort of "hair rut."  Two weeks into October I decided to dye the non-virgin portion of my hair back to its natural color (summer made the dyed part a gross orangey-blonde color and my hair was two-toned and very unappealing).  I know I said I'd never dye it again, but I just couldn't stand being two-toned.  Anyway, I used a semi-permanent dye to just color the blonde part and the color blended almost perfectly with my roots.  And over 2 months later, it hasn't really washed out which is good. 

However, the dye caused A LOT of damage.  Whoever said semi was better for your hair than permanent was wrong, because the damage was about the same if not worse.  The last 6 inches of my hair looked completely fried, the ends were fuzzy and I had major breakage.  I ended up having to cut about a half inch off.

Then, just as my hair was recovering from the dye, I was hit with a ton of schoolwork.  An endless array of papers, projects, etc.  Not to mention it was "crunch time" for a play I was in at the same time.  For about 3 weeks I was under massive amounts of stress, which stressed out my hair, and I didn't have much time to eat which just made my hair problems worse.  Finally, as soon as the stress was winding down, I had to get my hair done to be a bridesmaid in my brother's wedding.  The stylist, while very respectful of my length, butchered my hair with a curling iron (she did use heat protector spray, however, which I'm convinced saved my hair from breaking off at the root).  Then she put it up in 43 jagged, metal bobby pins and topped it off about a pound of hairspray.  My updo looked AMAZING, but it was such a pain to take down and then wash out.  I had to cut another half inch.

But now, with all of that ugliness behind me, my hair looks and feels great.  I was going to trim another half inch last night just to start fresh for the new year, but the ends looked so healthy that I only took off about 1/8 inch.

My recent hair setbacks may delay the arrival of hip length, but the important thing is that I'm back on track and ready for all the growth 2006 is willing to give me.  And for the sake of my sanity, I've decided not to measure again until June 1st (that's right, six months ), but that doesn't mean I'll stop taking progress pics.

Wishing you all the best hair possible in 2006,
Katja

Here are those progress pics I promised... taken on December 30th:

 And so far, I've kept my resolution not to measure it.

I do, however, have some semi-exciting hair news: I cut my bangs!  I realize this probably makes me a masochist, as I was finally getting out of the awkward length stage with my bangs (which, at 13", were pretty much not even bangs anymore) and now I have to wait for them to grow again.  But the ends were always really ratty and tangled no matter how often I trimmed them, and when I ran my fingers through them I could feel the damage.  So I decided to cut them.  However, the real exciting part is this: I only cut off the chemically processed part (about 5"), so now when I run my fingers through them, I am feeling 100% VIRGIN HAIR.  It feels so soft and healthy.  And I haven't felt virgin ends in almost 2 and a half years, which is why I'm so excited about this.  It also satisfies my haircut urge for awhile, and I looooooove the cheek-length bangs.

As for the rest of my hair, I trimmed off about 1/4 of an inch this week.  I'm starting to think it may not reach hip length by March, but that's okay.  As long as it's healthy, right?  I also did an ACV rinse for the first time in about 2 months (LONG OVERDUE, I know) and my hair felt great afterwards.  It was like all the hard water deposits had been choking it all this time, and now that I did the ACV rinse my hair can breathe again. 

I've changed my hair routine a lot to accommodate the cold weather, as well as the New Year and my hair's general health needs:

-I only wash it once a week (normally weekends), and if I feel like my hair needs it I'll condition it once during the week.  As my hair gets longer, I'm finding it a lot easier to go a few more days between washing.
-I do an ACV rinse and deep-conditioning with hair mayonnaise every 2 weeks.
-I ACV my brush every 2 weeks.
-I don't brush my hair with anything but my fingers while it's wet.
-I wear it in some sort of "contained" style every day and allow myself one day a week to wear it down.
-I conduct a search & destroy of split ends once a week.

That's basically it.  Happy hair adventures to you all!

~Katja

Has it really been over two months since my last hair journal entry????  I swear I wrote just a few weeks ago.  Strange how time flies, eh?

Anyway, happy Spring!  Thank goodness the warm weather is on its way.  This winter really did a number on me, not to mention my hair.  Basically, right after my last entry I spiraled into another hair rut.  More like a hair, skin, mind and body rut actually.  Not sleeping enough led me into a vicious cycle of eating junk food, being a couch potato, and drinking wayyyyyyyyy too much coffee.  Which, of course, led me right back to not being able to sleep.  My face broke out, my stomach felt chronically ill, I had huge dark circles under my eyes, I gained five pounds and my hair became a giant ball of frizzy stress.  And my brain felt totally fried.  After a while the coffee didn't even wake me up anymore, so I would have to either upgrade to a 24oz cup in the morning or have a second and third cup during the day.  Seriously... you don't realize how destructive and addicting coffee can be until you're addicted to it.  On the very rare mornings when I decided I could do without coffee for the day, I ended up being terribly irritable and feeling like I was about to collapse.  And of course, walking to campus every morning in the freezing wind with my hair down (because I never had time to put it up) didn't help matters.  Let's just say that caffeine and winter are a heinous combination.

It was at the very end of February when I realized that I needed to make a change.  So I, the perpetual listmaker, made a list of what I needed to do to turn things around.  I made a plan on how I could gradually give up coffee, and I decided to start doing yoga again as well as get more exercise in general.  So far, giving up coffee has been easier than I initially thought.  The first week was really rough- I experienced that same irritability, extreme fatigue, and the ever persistent caffeine headache- but I knew that I was going to have to go through the "withdrawal symptoms" before I could be completely coffee-free.  During the second week, all I had coffeewise was a tiny 6.5oz mocha frappuccino.  Now, two weeks later, no caffeinated beverages have passed my lips since. 

As for the exercise part, I started a full program last week to help lose those five pounds and improve my hair's condition.  In addition to my two daily walks to and from school (I really should buy myself a car, no?), I've been doing Abs of Steel workouts for ten minutes a day and yoga for twenty minutes every night.  And a thirty minute jog three times a week.  As a result of all the physical activity, it's been much easier to fall asleep at night and therefore much easier to wake up in the morning.   Not to mention I feel absolutely wonderful.

All this rambling is, in fact, relevant to my hair.  I promise. 

Since giving up coffee, cleaning up my diet and increasing my amount of daily exercise, my hair has begun to feel a lot better.  It's so much softer and shinier already, and the split ends I cut off last week haven't been resurrected yet.  I've also noticed that my hair finally looks waist length when it's dry.  Which is great news, considering it's technically been waist length for a few months now.  This must mean it's grown.  I've been really itching to measure it, but I know it'll be much more thrilling if I hold out until June 1st so I can see all of 2006's growth thusfar.  I can't wait.

My only real hair concern right now is my neverending quest for the perfect product.  See, the bottom layer of my hair is genetically coarse and kinky and wiry.  It has all the symptoms of "stressed hair" (and I suppose, to some degree, that it is a bit stressed), but it's always been like that and many of the women in my family have the same condition.  I've tried cutting them off, but they just grow back the same way.  And for the most part I've learned to live with that one section of hair.  But sometimes, like tonight (which is probably why I'm writing this), I can feel the wiry texture against the back of my neck and it really irks me.  Really.  I've tried tons of products that claim to make even the coarsest hair smooth and soft, and none of them have ever really worked.  But I refuse to lose hope.  There has to be something out there that will fix- at least temporarily- what genetics did wrong.  So please, if you know of anything at all that might help, don't hesitate to tell me about it. 

That's about all I have to say for now.  Sorry for that long coffee ramble.  But seriously, if you're a long hair enthusiast with a coffee addiction, I strongly urge you to either give up the caffeine or kiss your long hair fantasies goodbye. (Yeah, quitting caffeine is definitely the better option.)

Looking forward to some warm breezes and long, silky hair,
Katja

Some Quick Hair Updates:

In less than a month, I will be measuring my hair for the first time since New Year's.  The measurement, I've realized, will either leave me ecstatic or thoroughly disappointed, depending on what it turns out to be.  So I'm a bit apprehensive about measuring.

But you see, it feels like it's grown. 

I'd like to think that even with all my winter hair woes, it managed to grow at least two inches.  Having thirty inches of hair to start off the summer would be quite nice, but I don't want to get my hopes up. 

I've started taking a multivitamin again: "Hair, Skin, and Nails."  I'm sure you've heard of it.  Basically, it's got all the essential hair vitamins, including antioxidants, a B-complex and 3000mcg of biotin (which I had great success with last year).  I've been sporadically taking it for almost a month- sporadically meaning that some days I'll take the 3 recommended caplets and some days I'll only take one.  Or none.  I'm really bad at remembering these things.  But I'm definitely going to try taking all 3 every day this month so I can maximize my growth potential for measuring day. 

In other news, I'm really regretting the layers I cut for myself back in March.  They're just face-framing layers, and I only cut them because I thought they'd make my bangs look better (yeah, cutting those bangs was a mistake as well), but they make my entire head look positively horrendous.  I've been putting just my bangs and my "layers" into a half ponytail recently so I can pretend they don't exist.  Please, do yourself a favor and don't try to cut your hair into any sort of "style."  Cutting split ends is easy enough, but cutting your own layers is definitely a job for a professional.  I learned that the hard way, and now I have to wait for this monstrosity to grow out.  Five words: RESIST. THE. URGE. TO. CUT.

Speaking of split ends, I found a strand of hair today that was split twelve times.  Very shocking (and scary) indeed.  I cut it off immediately and searched for others like it, but thankfully that seemed to be the only one.

I tried John Frieda's Brilliant Brunette Color Glaze for "amber to maple" shades, and I really don't recommend it.  It didn't damage my hair, which was a plus, but it didn't add any sort of color either.  And it sucked the moisture out of my hair, so I had to use gobs and gobs of conditioner afterwards.  I used it four times and kept getting the same result.  Believe me, it's not worth it.  I want to color the bottom (aka previously bleached) part of my hair again, just so it's not two-toned for the summer like last year, but I'm honestly at a loss for what to use.  I hate to use a drugstore dye, but none of the natural dye recipes work on my hair.  I was thinking of trying the new L'Or

So tomorrow is the big day.  Measuring day.  It will be six months and two days since my last measurement, and I'm dripping with excitement.  I can't believe six months went by so fast! 

Bad news.  Very bad news.

I've lost my tape measure.

wow, it's been quite a while since i was last here!

Here are those pictures I promised...:

Mid-August 2006: 22 inches
 December 31st, 2006: 24.75 inches