3 MONTHS AS A SILVER FOXY LADY????

Well folks here i am exactly 3 months to the day i last added colour to my hair. When i see this picture, i wonder if i am really ready for the transition. On the plus side i can be quite stubborn so i think that trait will stand me in good sted.

Out of desperation and something to do to perhaps draw out my greys, i tied some grey cotton randomly down the entire length of my hair starting at the root where the grey meets the brown. I sat one evening & did a handful in front and it looked weird. And you can trust my 16year old son who just shook his head and said 'no mom, it doesn't look good'......so the following day i remove 80% of it and left a handful at random.

So in the meanwhile as i literally wait patiently....i will continue to try and wash out as much colour as possible by any means possible, so as to minimise the contrast between the colour and my natural greys.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions as to how to cope with the ugliness of this transition?

I have head band and scarfs at the ready.........but am looking for something really different apart from cutting coloured potion off once my greys have locked. Have i overlooked anything??

I look forward to your suggestions.

MATURING GREYS FULLY

Hello People of Blog land!


My first greys came when i was just 16 years of age....albeit a few strands but grey none the less!

By the time i hit my 20s i had started colouring my hair to disguise the grey. My late mother used to (Dye) her hair...nasty business with the little pot, brush old towel and black dye around her hair line and most of her ears. She had only one colour available to her...that's right BLACK!. It went everywhere....and i was only 10 or so years old....so i tended to associate grey hair with getting really old. Hence my struggle.....(though i obviously didn't realise it at the time).

I have now decided to bow out of the colouring my locks altogether as i and only i have allowed it to become the bane of my life thus far. At one time i was colouring every 4 weeks then i tried stretching out as far as 5.5 weeks (which was as far as i could stand it once upon a time).

Anyway fast forward to present day if you please. So far i haven't coloured my hair in 9.5 weeks (get me....mmme) and you know what??????? It ain't that bad! Am not as grey as i imagined i was....don't get me wrong, i am 80% grey and almost white especially on the crown area.....the back is just turning grey which is a good thing in my book......it will hopefully blend in nicely at the point which i decided to stop colouring. Mmmmme

People are funny....they look but don't say anything now.....i can just imagine what they are thinking. Ask me, if i am bothered???.....HELL NO!

The only thing am wondering is........WHY THE HELL HAVE I BEEN STRESSING MYSELF STUPID ALL THESE YEARS AND ESPECIALLY SINCE HAVING MY MICRO LOCKS INSTALLED?

Sorry, don't have an answer to that one........the mind boggles!

There have been times when i just wanted to start over....you know another big chop!!! If am being honest what brought all of this 'no more colour' on are HEALTH issues.... Eczema to be precise coupled with intense urge to SCRATCH myself to smithereens!!!!!!!

Am on top of it now with the help of my G.P. and Calendula creams and lotions to soothe the skin topically.

I have always said that i will forgo colouring my hair when am good and ready. Guess now is the time.....the thing is i am strangely at peace with the whole thing. I don't have anymore issues with the subject.

Guess what i noticed in the 9.5 weeks of not colouring......new hair growth around the front edges of my hair....wooopppppyyyyyy!!!

SSSHHHIISSH: Want to know another secret???? Am looking forward to more greys...am soo going to work it....with your support of course. ; o

2 YEARS OLD!!

I will let the pictures do the talking.

23 MONTHS LOCKED

Well its been 23 months since I had my locs installed by the lovely Marie of Cammalocks. The time is certainly flying by. On my 2nd year anniversary next month I shall show comparison shots to see exactly how far I have come.

HOW I EXTEND THE ODD SHORT LOC

Okay people a quick show of how I extend short locs with harvested 'two headed' dragons.

First of all I get my needle and invisible thread as shown in the picture below. (If you stare hard enough you will see the thread.... apologies for the quality).

Next I harvest 'one head' from a 'two headed' dragon and pass the needle through it and secure ready for re attaching below.

Then I locate the said short loc below


Dont ask how the picture below happened, it just did....the invisible thread is actually holding them together in a way it appears to defy gravity.

Anyway enough of the science, allow the new piece to over lap like shown in the pic and wrap the thread several times around the existing loc to secure. Then stitch as you see fit ensuring you go through the existing and the new piece and again secure.
(Otherwise it will come out every time you get your hair wet.) It's really trial and error for me.
And another thing, I only do this to locs in the front, what ever I dont see, dont tend to bug me so much. lol

Now you see the bump in the loc below (and again if you look hard enough you will see the thread hanging down from it).

And now you dont! Viola!!

That's it...... tutorial over, any questions?????

MY 1 MONTH MEGA TEK CHALLENGE

Well people if you remember I said in my last post that I had something up my very long sleeves?

You may well have heard about it, it's certainly been around for a while judging by the You Tube vids which date back as far as 2007. (Guess you are not meant to find out about stuff until the timing is right for you.)

Anyhoo....I couldnt find any micro lock or any kind of lock wearers who had tried Mega Tek. However, there were shed loads of people doing tutorials about how to use it on human hair....(okay so far I have failed to mention it is for use on pets....well it was created for horses and someone tried it and the rest as they say is history)

Okay okay dont get irritated with me = ( I shall come to the point now!!!

I sent for my bottle above and decided to read the instructions and 'do me'. I must say that one thread that was running through all the vids and forums, was to combat excess shedding to take garlic supplements along with garlic hair conditioner. I didn't I just stuck with the garlic supplements.

The only shedding I noticed was when re tightening and to be honest, not enough to cause alarm or for me to curtail the use.

My routine is to just shake the bottle then squirt a coin size dollop on my hand and rub it into the areas that need it most. I do this every day.

The lotion smells like coconuts and the boyfriend likes it.....(to come to think of it his nose is never out of my hair........lol.)

CONFESSION TIME.

I have a bald patch at the back of my hair that started off the size of a small coin some 3 years ago. It has now expanded into..... a big heart shape.....yep I got the love thang going on in my head. I know I certainly didnt help matters by going blonde and colouring like crazy every 4 weeks on the dot. Until you have greys like I do, guess you will never truly understand especially when you arent mentally ready.

Anyway I haven't been brave enough to post pictures. However i have made a promise to self that when it all grows back, i shall show the before and after photies....cant be fairer than that.

The GOOD NEWS here is that I have a little tufty island (as the boyfriend calls it). Long enough to braid YaaaaaaaaaaaaY!!!

They say its good for nails too.....not mine unfortunately, but WHO CARES??? I didnt buy it for that reason.

HEED THE WARNING THOUGH

I dont recommend this product to newbie lock wearers or any one with very fine hair, it would unravel your locks before you say Jack Robinson!

Even with my nearly two year old locks, I was stunned to find 1 lock more or less unravelled. It was then I reduced the amount and ensured i rubbed into thin and bald spots. A little goes a long way.

I 'do me' so you've got to 'do you' and find what works for you. You may decide to use it every other day or even once a week.....I have 3 words for you here....TRIAL AND ERROR.

I leave the product in, others co wash their hair 3 times a week and then apply it ...i dont.

Remember 'DO YOU' and do your RESEARCH!!

One other thing....be prepared if you are using it all over because your hair will grow depending on your personal rate of growth.

Lets just say two weeks after I re tightened I was able to go a full rotation in my rapid growth areas on my head.

I am happy with my rate of growth generally so not doing that again.....just the area that needs a likkle help.

Read all about Mega Tek below:

http://www.horsehealth.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=122_124&products_id=804

METAL FILLINGS: 2 MONTH GROWTH UPDATE

Picture directly below is how my right temple looks like now, 2 months after my dental appointment.And the picture below here was taken in the same week after I had the metal fillings replaced.

I have seen some growth and in fact installed a hand full of new baby ones, though from the 1st picture they don't look at all like baby locks because, I re attached locks (taken from two headed dragons) and cheated!! He he.... just smarter than the average bear!

A WORD OR TWO OF CAUTION

When re attaching locks any where on your head, be sure to harvest 'two headed dragons' from close proximity to the lock you want extending, so the lock size is uniform.

I made the mistake of harvesting from the back and re attached to the front....what a kerfuffle!! Needless to say I had to remove it, as it looked top heavy!!!!

I have vowed to curtail my hair colouring to 6 to 8 weeks, currently I have just passed the 4 week mark and am not in that desperate mode to hide the greys...I have just gone back to what i did in the past...the use of soft Kohl pencil in between week 3 and 6 (HOPEFULLY!!!).

I have been full circle with the flipping colour issues, cant fight mother nature, so i have finally learnt to live with it......well sort of...am still colouring but not as often....got to look after my hair as I have really treated it badly and its a wonder I have any hair left!!!

In light of that, I have purchased a 'No SLS green Intensive Repair' shampoo for colour treated hair....more expensive @ £10.50 for a 200ml tube. A little goes a long way so they say, i will find out myself when i use it for the first time this Sunday. Previous to that I have been co washing once a week for the past month or so. As a result I am seeing more baby hairs sprouting everywhere.

All I need now is a thicker body to give the temple a fuller look......watch this space because I've got something else up my very long sleeves...he he he.

(I am in the middle of reviewing a product which I cant wait to share the results of...safe to say am a very happy bunny).

Till next time folks!!!

HAIR GROWTH AFTER 3 WEEKS

My last couple of re tightenings have been at a 3 week interval, which takes long enough over a couple or so days. My fear is leaving it to 4 weeks and take forever to re tighten. I have noticed an incredible growth rate, granted from my crown area where all the density is on my head.

What's your rate of growth and where?

21 MONTHS

Well would you believe it, I am nearly at my two year anniversary!
It had been five and a half weeks since I re tightened so as you can safely expect, it took me a wee longer to complete. I did them in 3 evenings after work. A lot easier to digest that way. All i remember thinking was that it was taking soooo long and i was getting bored.

So the re tightening you see here folks are just 1 week old.

Just noticed the grid pattern is quite noticeable from the crown....good job am a 6 footer ...actually doesn't really count as i sit to do my work = (

But from the pictures below one cant tell = )

Till next time folks.

THIN HAIR ON RIGHT TEMPLE ONLY!!!

Ok i have a BIG axe to grind!

I notice years back that the right side of my temple is.......devoid of hair...okay so i exaggerate a little....lets just say its SPARSE. It has bugged me ever since trying to figure out why just the right temple and not both as most people experience due to tight braids, perms etc. I got by, by being grateful that at least its 1 side as supposed to both sides.

Only of late (not helped by my constant colouring to hide the greys) its become more apparent to ME anyways.

I had two issues on my hands regarding hair styles.

1) Just gotta hide the greys hair do

2) Definitely gotta hide the sparse side of my temple.

SOLUTION???? RESEARCH, RESEARCH AND MORE ON LINE RESEARCH!

A couple of weeks ago i read several forums and articles regarding amalgam metal dental fillings and the fact that they contain 50% Mercury. One lady in particular said she noticed after she took her 7 year old to have his teeth filled that his hair began to fall out. And she could only tie it in to the trip to the dentist. Later on she took him back and had the fillings replaced by white fillings and miraculously his hair grew back!!

Okay a lot of folks out there will poo poo this as non sense, trust me I am one of those folks who is allergic to this, that and the other (working on that issue) and i thought apart from the cost, what harm would it do????

This woman went on to challenged readers to check to see what side they had fillings and to note the side of thinning hair. Trust yours truly....i did just that and was happy to notice that i had 1 fillings on the upper right side (in fact my new dentist said i had 2!!).

My dentist also confirmed that the metal fillings did contain 50% mercury.

Any how...fast forward to 1 week ago today. I had both metal fillings replaced by white ones. After she finished excavating both teeth she asked me to rinse. I used 2 cups of solution just to get rid of the debris of metal fillings and when i felt the holes with my tongue i was shocked to find that 1 tooth in particular was so large, there was barely any enamel left. (so folks imagine the amount of metal filling it took to fill that hole!!!!!!!!)

Never been happier to spend £190 to replace metal fillings i have had for soooo long am sure its more than 20 years.

So now i have noticed that i have fine hair where there was none and thought i would share my experience and get you guys to follow my progress of new growth...yay.

I wear head bands loosely, (don't want to add to the problem!)
Now that my hair is a bit longer i wear the head band and tie my hair into one at the back.

Above is how it would be seen by the entire world.

This is it in reality, could do with a couple of rows of locks!

Click on this picture you may actually see fine hairs. I will continue to post my progress on a regular basis...so fingers and everything else crossed for me folks.

Anyway i feel quite positive about it and that folks i believe is half the battle!!

Till next time.

HAIR TEXTURE AT 20 MONTHS

Thought I'd let the picture do the talking.

YOGURT, OLIVE OIL & 1 EGG COLOUR LIFT

Well People,

As mentioned last week i decided to give the 'home made' colour lift and brassiness remover a go this weekend.

I did it, instead of retightening this weekend, i lifted more colour of my hair and guess what???? I got better than expected results, i got a more vibrant colour.....this stuff has definitely taken me back to my Henna days.

All i needed was 1 tablespoon of Olive oil, 1 beaten egg and 3/4 cup of plain yogurt and mixed together.


I applied this to my hair coating each lock as best as i could and left it in for 1 hour.

I then rinsed with cold water...LIE!!!!...didnt think i could bare the cold so i made it very tepid. WARNING FOLKS, DON'T!!!!

In short people i scrambled the egg a bit in my hair. Honestly you've got to use cold water or you'll spend all afternoon picking the damn things out of your hair all day long.

If you're going to give this a go, i recommend doing it in summer when you can tolerate the cold water better on your scalp.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE!

So what do you guys think eh?

COLOUR REMOVAL

Why the colour removal?

Please just take a look at the picture below....would have made an otherwise nice photy, but no my colour disaster ruined the whole scenario!!! I became quite paranoid, you know how it is when you believe EVERYONE is focused on your hair because it's the most important thing in the world!!!! lol.

The colour is a dark blonde used on the roots only but somehow the rest of the hair is getting darker and darker with each application.

Result is just plain NASTY. = {

Anyway enter 'Colour B4 Extra' £11.99 available here in the UK at Boots. It gently removes colour applied up to 72 hours. Reading the 124 reviews I found a lot of ladies were ecstatic as it removed years of colour disasters! It is safe to use up to 3 times without causing any damage.

I was very happy with the result it had on my hair. It appears to have taken me back to my Henna days...(remember the love affair i had with Henna???lol).

Overall the colour is more uniform with less of a contrast.

Having done that, i wanted to see if i can get more colour off, but decided i wanted to use a home made recipe. So i did a little research and it was as easy as some baby shampoo and vitamin C tablets.

Well to be precise 1 vit C tablet to about a teaspoon of shampoo. Crush the tablet and mix in with the shampoo and apply to dry hair and leave on for 1 hour. I figure it is safer to use on my hair than more chemicals. Apparently there are so many house hold products you can use to remove colour on the hair, cloths detergent to name just one!.....(yes but they are full of chemicals too, so user beware!!)

The picture below shows the mixture already in my hair. Bare in mind, that it shows where my white hair lies predominantly, so it is very light.

I left it in for about an hour and a half , then i lathered it up with some warm water. I noticed that some colour did wash away and i was very pleased with this. I finished up by leaving the conditioner in my hair for about five minutes before washing it out with cooler water.

The result is what you see below. Aside from the fact that i saw colour wash away with the water, i cant say i see much of a difference.

The main thing is that the home made 'hair colour remover' worked for me as it was simple, straight forward and safer to use on my locks.

(PLEASE REMEMBER NEWLY LOCKED, THIS IS WHAT WORKS FOR MY HAIR , YOU WILL NEED TO ASK YOUR CONSULTANT OR DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH TO FIND OUT WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU)

Okay at least one problem has been solved here. What next? There is another home made remedy i will try this weekend. It claims to remove brassiness of colour from the hair whilst conditioning it.

It is the yogurt, olive oil and egg 'colour remover'!

Mix ¾ cup of plain yogurt, 1 table spoon of olive oil and a beaten egg together and work into the hair.

Leave for an hour and rinse with cold water (do not use hot water, as it will scramble the egg!!).

Visit me next time to see what happens when i tried the above. Till then. xoxoxo

18 MONTHS LOCKED!!!

The first picture was taken just last night when i started messing with the camera on my phone........couldn't get to sleep so i occupied myself with stuff. lol

The second pic (taken on my way to work this morning) shows the gradual colour phasing am currently going through. According to my son, its getting lighter! Great!

When i colour now, i just concentrate on the roots and rely on the previous colour fading naturally.

I have noticed now that the locks on my crown have finally compacted......boy are they slim. When i retightened last weekend, i had to do what i had to do. That is combine locks that have always been a little on the thin side. Did that 4 times at least!

The fact that am thinking 'this lock is thin' means all is not well......so i leave it till the next retightening and if i feel the same way, i combine them. This helps me so as not to be combining wheely neely and wind up with just one phat lock.......ha ha ha.....as if!

Till the next time.

THE FRINGE THING

Some weeks ago i cut my hair at the front to create a Fringe, what i believe you Americans refer to as a Bang....strange, but anyway i think its rubbish on me but i feel perhaps if i wasnt quite as generous with the chopping it would have been okay. Still it can only grow and improve on a weekly process right????

I just wanted a different style to wear plus it hides a multitude of sins......e.g The Grey.

RETIGHT AFTER COLOUR

Well people, the photos below show my progress through the retightening process this Saturday gone.

My hair grows mega fast in the crown area and as you know it was exactly a week to the day i coloured my hair. If you click on both pictures you will see the grey sipping through at the roots. And to come to think of it, despite the fact that i spent ages ensuring i covered each and every lock with colour, it would appear i made a bit of a mish mash with it, but you know what, i dont care as i am going through a process.

This picture shows the completed back section. It is now taking a wee while to finish as my hair grows in length.
Three quarters have been completed with just 1 quarter to go, i think this photo shows the grey more, which just confirms my next plan of going lighter......gosh how i wish i could just go for it and let it all hang out. psychologically am just not ready YET!