Hair Care Information on the Internet
Fox, around 2 years
..I was born with blonde hair, not much hair, but what was there was ..indeed blonde. As my hair grew, it was curly. I was pretty cute as a .child, plump, blonde, and curly. Mom took great delight in putting my .hair up in bows, ribbons, and barrettes, not to mention little pony tails .perched right on the top of my head. I had no clue of all the others things .Mom would do to my hair as I grew older. If I had only known... I .would have run screaming! LOL!
Fox, age 2
As I grew older, I continued to have a natural curl to my hair, although .my hair didn't really look "curly," but rather wavy instead. I wore my hair .long as I grew, and always with bangs, cut straight across the front. I .don't remember my hair being much longer than mid back though. I .suppose that Mom kept it trimmed up to that length. I don't remember ..going to a salon in my younger years. Mom went to Beautician school .before she got married, so she liked to experiment on our hair. Unfortunately, ..for me that meant perms! Oh dear! Even though my hair didn't look curly, .it took curl very well, and the perm was a bomb! I was 9 years old, had a .broken arm, and to top it all off, a poofy, frizzy, mess of hair on my head. .My school pictures that year were horrible. Mom tried to roller my hair the .night before to smooth the mess, but instead I ended up with a bouffant of a hairstyle! Ick! Did I mention I hated my school picture? I did have it .retaken, and it was much better, even though I still had my cast on.
Fox, age 9, hair was already getting darker
I did start going to salons with Mom when I was about that same age. Perhaps I had had enough of the experiments! LOL! I got my first .shorter hair cut, a mid-length Dorthy Hamil. It wasn't as short as hers. Mine just skimmed my sholders. My bangs were longer and feathered back .on the sides, so I wore them parted down the middle and feathered back. I .loved it. My hair just swung around so nicely. From that point on through .my teen years, I had hair between that length and just passed my sholders.
Fox, age 11, had have "wings"
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Fox, at right, age 18 - lots of layers , on left, age 18, hair twisted up on the beach at South Padre Island, TX.
From the time I was 17, I started growing my hair out a bit longer. Spiral perms were something new, so I just had to try that! It actually .turned out pretty well. My hair was just past shoulder length. I don't .remember getting much damage from it at all. Nothing more than regular .split ends that we trimmed away. However, perms would not always be so kind to my hair!
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Fox, at right age 20, all natural curls, layered hair - at left age 21, still wavy, looks darker than it actually was...
By the time I was 22, my hair was about as long as it had ever been, a few.inches above waist length. Later that same year, 1992, my Mom was .diagnosed with breast cancer and was considered a terminal patient, with no .hope of survival. At the time, I was also not well, having been misdiagnosed with a problem I did not have. I had been on antibiotics for years, which had wiped out my immune stystem. At this point, I did not yet know I had been misdiagnosed. It would be a few months more before I went to a specialist, due to the fact that I wasn't getting better no matter how many medications they put me on. The reason I never got better was beacuse I didn't have that problem! Sorry... little rant there. All of that to say... A lady who knew of what was going on with Mom, offered her salon .services to us free of charge. Mom had her hair cut very short, since it was .going to fall out during chemo anyway. She didn't want lots of hair falling .all over the pillows and her clothes. Tina offered to put a perm in my hair. Big hair was still in, especially in the South, so I said, sure. It was a .mistake! A big mistake! My hair could not take the perm, and it was .badly damaged. I don't think Tina did anything wrong. I just think that my hair condition combined with the stress my body was under made for a disaterous result! I ended up cutting off about 6 inches just to get rid of the .bulk of the fried ends. Tina gave me conditioning treatments that seemed to help, but my longer lengths were gone. It was a very hard adjustment for .me. I think it was just the stress involved with the hospital trips and the .adjustments I was making to taking care of the family, combined with the ..perm that caused my hair to "crumble" so to speak. It seems I've been .battling weak ends every since. I began to grown my hair out once more, but I didn't really have any plan, or any other knowledge about growing out, .other than to trim as little as possible. With the damage I had, I couldn't .afford not to trim regularly, so the growing out seemed slow.
Hair Care Information on the Internet
I did not know that there were any hair care boards on the internet when I .went browsing one day. I think I was looking for Victorian things when I .stumbled across http://www.longhairlovers.com The home page was filled .with Victorian pictures, there were photograph galleries, and so many things .which appealed to me. My hair was at a low point, the damage catching up with me. It was a do or die situation, basically get my hair in shape, or cut it off and start again. I started reading the boards and posting a bit. I learned so many things! I read and read and began to make a few changes in my hair care methods. These would make a big differnce to the health of my hair as time went on.
Hair Care Routine Changes
I have always been a daily washer. I would wash my hair, often I would blow dry it. If I did this in the morning, I would follow that with some hot rollers and curling iron work. This happened every day and for my hair, it was too much. Until I read about the damage that was happening because of it, I just thought it was my hair, not what I was doing to it. So the first change I made was to try to wash less. This was very hard for me. I read that your length was the most fragile, so I decided to only use conditioner on my length, then wash only my scalp with shampoo, then condition from the ears down again. This was before the method was named CWC. To me, it was just what seemed to be helping me. Though I shared this routine, it was not really clear to others what I was doing until Martine came up with the concept to give it a real name, Condition, Wash, Condition.
Visitors who were online then, like Martine and Jade21, were extremely helpful to me in learning about good hair care. Jade21 told me about Aubrey Organic products, which I soon fell in love with! I am still not out of my "honeymoon" stage with these products. I haven't used anything from AO that I don't like! My scalp has always been very sensitive, and the itchy scalp was one of the reasons I washed each day. It seemed like if I didn't wash, then my scalp would just itch worse. AO really helped to soothe my scalp. I realized I was sensitive to some of the synthetic ingredients found in most store/salon lines. AO products combined with vinegar rinsing soon began to help my hair improve. My Mom began to notice, really before I did, and mentioned that my hair was looking healthier. This made me feel good, and I knew I was on the right path.
My first picture that I took for hair was taken back in 2000. This is what my hair looked like then.
Fox, age 29 1/2, early March 2000
I never realized how thin my ends were, even when my hair was shorter. Feeling those ends made me feel like my hair was longer, and I never thought of taking pictures from the back view. Looking at my picture now, I realize I should have cut off those stringy ends back then. Maybe my hair would not be as long now, but it would have looked better, and perhaps would have grown better from that point as well. Doing this retrospective reminds me of the mistakes I made in the past, and how in some ways, I still resist doing what is ultimately right for my hair. I really don't want to trim. I have a love hate relationship with trimming. I want nice, neat, smooth, full looking ends, so trimming is good. I want long hair and I want it now, so trimming is bad!
You can see that the lower length was pretty sparse! Overall my hair was very split, frizzy and not in the best shape. It was an improvement from what it once was. I did still enjoy it... don't know how, but I did! Looking at the picture there is a clear line where the underneath layer is shorter than the outer layer, resulting in thin looking ends. I still have a somewhat similar problem since my underneath layer is much curlier than the rest, and ends up being shorter. Still, my thinner ends are farther down my back at least!
Here are some pictures of the natural curls on the underneath layer of my hair...
Fox, underneath curls (2005)
Fox, December 2000
By December of that same year, my hair was already showing good results. It had a smoother, healthier look. I was enjoying it then more than ever! I was participating on the hair boards and learning so much. I even began to collect nettles to make my own vinegar based hair rinse concentrate. I used scissors and gloves! No prickles for me!
By the summer of 2001, I was beginning to have some bangs issues. They no longer behaved for me. I had to continue to use a curling iron on them just to keep them laying somewhat straight. I was annoying since I was tyring to avoid the use of heated styling tools and hair spray! My bangs after being ironed and sprayed, would behave for a few hours, only to begin to part off side and look utterly ridiculous! Here... have a peek!
Fox, summer 2001
I was not too pleased with this look! It was very annoying. I trimmed my bangs back then decided to grow them out. I was more tired of the how they were behaving than I was afraid of how I'd look! Besides, according to the Dr. George Michael theory, it would help my growth rate. I didn't know if this was true or not, but I figured, if it worked... all the better!
I decided if I was going to grow them out, I should begin to wear them differently to make the change easier. I used a side sweep, even for my shorter bangs. It looked like this...
Fox, July 2001
I grew my bangs out until September, then saw a picture of my hair at that point! Oh no! I look terrible! I cut my bangs back! This was a mistake, because only a month or so later, I decided that I could not deal with that silly part, and began the growing out process again. This time I was determined to grow my bangs out longer so I could get a better idea of what they would look like. Martine was very supportive to me during this time, encouraging me with her belief that no one "needed" bangs, and that we all had a unique beauty to our faces. So... with a deep breath and a sigh of relief, I stopped fighting my bangs and began to let them have their own way. I hung in there and began to grow again.
Fox, parting even my shorter bangs in a side part, as they began growing back out
By December, I was already happy with my choice of growing my bangs back out.
Fox, before and after partially growing out my bangs
I loved the new look of my bangs. The began to have a swooping effect, framing my face nicely. They began to nicely blend into my longer lengths, sometimes you couldn't even tell I had any shorter bangs at all! I was liberated from my bratty, misbehaving bangs! I couldn't have been more pleased!
For Christmas I had gotten some golden henna. So began my interest in henna and henna related products. After trying it out, I saw little change, but took an outdoor picture just to see. This is what my hair looked like the beginning of January, 2002.
Fox, January 2002
Fox, a closer look at the light highlighting effect of golden blonde henna
I began to experiment more with henna moving on from golden blonde, to marigold. I was very cautious with the henna, which I would later learn was probably not real henna at all, but senna instead. I didn't want to end up with anything drastic, so bit by bit I worked my way up the color ladder.
Fox, spring 2002, marigold henna from Rainbow Research
My hair was still damaged and those fraglie ends always seemed to need some trimming. I would wait and wait as long as I could between trims, but would then end up losing almost 3 inches in the center to even up the look. Still, it did need to be done. The worst of my ends were just breaking off anyway. Shaping up did help the over all look. The next picture shows my hair after a 3 inch trim.
Fox, spring 2002 - waves altered by wearing a braid and baseball cap, then going out for a jog
My progress from this point seemed to happen faster. Looking at the pictures I could finally "see" some results, from my perspective anyway! I continued to avoid all heated styling tools, only washed my scalp, avoided hair spray and styling products, and had switched over to mostly all natural products. I learned that even though Aubrey Organics was more expensive, I could make it last longer. I also didn't need gobs of the conditioner to be effective, so my products, with careful use, lasted as long or longer than my previously less expensive, yet more irritating store bought products. This was a valuable lesson! Learning how to dilute these products and apply them using a shampoo bottle with a squirt top, was key to this success! Want in on my secret? Diluting natural shampoo with water or aloe vera gel (for added softness) can stretch your product, plus allows for more lather. Pouring natural shampoos into your hand, and then trying to apply to your scalp area usually gives very little suds. While suds are not a factor in cleansing, it's something we are all used to, and it does help to make sure you are getting the product over all your scalp area. So whether you use natural shampoos or synthetics, diluting and applying by the squirt bottle can make a big difference in how long your products last, and how well they work when applied.
My hair began to thrive and grow. I enjoyed the progess!
Fox, August 2002
September 2002
November 2002