Let's Talk About Hair

kat@theburbblog.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:42:00 GMT

Last week, a friend of mine asked me to go with her to get her hair cut. Really, she was asking me to chop 10 inches off of my own hair so that we would both donate it to lock of love. I insisted that my hair was colored (I know! And you thought it was natural too, right?) and damaged. Nope, they’ll take it, she said. I protested more; it’s not long enough, it will be too short, I have weddings this summer, I’ve been growing it out forever!

I’ve pretty much always had long hair, except for the great hair debacle of senior year. I love having long hair, or at least, not having short hair. It’s not like I ever do anything with it but I love it just the same. My friend’s request got me thinking. When I went to the hair dresser on Monday I prepared her for chopping off my locks in the fall…maybe.

My hair has never been easy to deal with. It’s frizzy, it’s dry, it’s oily, it’s damaged, its blah. Once I asked my friend Annie how her hair always looked so beautiful. She told me it’s a combination of product and maintenance. She was right but she forgot that genetics are also a BIG part of it. Remember my big idea to save money, use OPS (Other People’s Shampoo)? Well, at my hair appointment two weeks after this big idea, my hairdresser (the magician) asked me if I had been doing anything different because my hair felt (and looked) dray (awful). Yeah, apparently Other People don’t use shampoo as good as mine. So, I went back to my good shampoo.

Well, my new online buddy is doing an experiment too; she’s not going to shampoo her hair anymore. Ever again…unless the experiment ends poorly. I think she’s nuts but mainly because I don’t think I could ever do it. I know it’s not the same thing but I abstained from washing my hair at all for the past 4 ½ days. It’s horrible. What do you all think of her experiment? What kind of shampoo do you use and why? Have you ever gone without?

She’s documenting everything that I would ever want to know and she’s running into many of the same problems that I would have guessed I’d run into too. She has smoother hair than I do even when I use product and tools so I’d expect she’d have better luck but either way, I’m glad she’s doing it so I don’t have to. My bet is that she cuts her hair short soon because then the results will be better and maintenance will be easier.

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Let's Talk About Hair