Fia
February 28th, 2017, 10:38 AM
OK, as some of you asked me to recount what went down at my GM salon appointment today. :)
Sat down in the chair and Ann-Sofie started with a split end search and destroy on dry hair. She takes smaller sections of the hair, twists the length to make the split ends pop out and carefully cuts away just what's needed from each strand.
Then on to wash and condition. Two lathers with GM Cream Shampoo, hair is left squeaking (but not the squeak you'd associate with overwashed and stripped, this is more like a thoroughly cleaned squeak of the good kind - hard to explain but you know the difference when you've experienced it). Then GM Cream Rinse diluted in cool water is poured through the hair, diluted in this way to get to every strand and close the cuticle/acidify the hair.
Back to chair and a dusting of the ends to even up the hemline. And by dusting it means just that, millimeters (or fractions of an inch for you US friends) taken off, nothing more. True to its name it leaves just a scattering of dust on the floor, nothing that can be identified as strands of hair. She took of a bit more on the right side as the previous hairdresser I went to (that took of a good inch, despite me asking for less...) left my hair lopsided and longer on the right side.
Length prepped with a light coating of Biosilk before being gently dried with a hairdryer on low heat and held far away from the hair. It's not my favourite part of being there, but I can stand it the three/four times a year I'm there. Air drying would take far too long to be feasible and I can't re-attach my hearing aids with wet hair close to them as it would all but destroy them. So, hairdryer it is.
As always a few hair tidbits as we chat away. The dryness I see at the very front of the hair is due to not having used my BBB diligently enough. BBB used daily, 100 strokes, on hair that is flipped over so you can really get to all parts of the scalp. (Yes, I'm aware that there are people - curlies and similar - that shudder at the mere thought of a BBB, just passing on what is said in the GM method.) The bang area is naturally drier compared to the crown area (where most of the sebum is produced) and is more "salty" as there are more sweat glands around there. If not countered with the sebum from the rest of the scalp the area will dry out over time and may shed skin in flakes.
I also got the explanation to the slightly irritating halo I have around the nape of my neck and around the hairline. Every 7-10 years the body goes through a massive shedding cycle when many follicles have reached the end of their growth cycle and where a lot of hairs release at the same time. The dormant follicles will then start producing new hairs again after a rest, and this produces that slightly annoying halo until they've grown out to where they stay in updos and are less noticeable. Judging from the length of my halo she suggested that the shedding was probably 1-1.5 years back in time - which may be true as I did have a period of massive shedding around late 2015/early 2016.
The exciting part of this: I'm currently hovering somewhere between BSL and waist, and those hairs should not yet be at the end of their cycle, I also have that annoying halo of new hairs coming in that should have another 6-9 years of growth ahead of them. All in all meaning that the future for continued growth looks rather promising. Time will tell where I end up, but what she told me today gives me hope that I most likely will pass my old "record" of hip length which is where I was before I cut to get the henna out. All of a sudden that annoying halo feels less annoying as it is those little babies that have the future ahead of them and most likely the longest remaining time of their growth cycle.
Also purchased a new BBB (as my old GM BBB was nowhere to be found), Cream Shampoo, Cream Rinse, Biosilk and the mixing bottle used to dilute the Cream Rinse in. That and the visit itself set me back a good few dollars (OK, SEK, not dollars, but you get the drift). But totally worth it. Stepping inside the door to her salon made me realize how much I missed it from when I was a client there around 10 years ago. The price you pay for security and knowing your hair is in good hands and won't be mishandled or cut more than you want to is quite worth it.
Booked a new appointment three months from now, that's the schedule I was on before and creates the best balance between allowing the hair to grow and keeping splits at bay and a neat hemline. She doesn't want me back more often than that because I, as she said, don't do anything that will adversly affect the hair, I don't use heat, I don't colour, I wear it up most of the time, so there isn't really much to damage it other than the occasional washing and detangling.
Sat down in the chair and Ann-Sofie started with a split end search and destroy on dry hair. She takes smaller sections of the hair, twists the length to make the split ends pop out and carefully cuts away just what's needed from each strand.
Then on to wash and condition. Two lathers with GM Cream Shampoo, hair is left squeaking (but not the squeak you'd associate with overwashed and stripped, this is more like a thoroughly cleaned squeak of the good kind - hard to explain but you know the difference when you've experienced it). Then GM Cream Rinse diluted in cool water is poured through the hair, diluted in this way to get to every strand and close the cuticle/acidify the hair.
Back to chair and a dusting of the ends to even up the hemline. And by dusting it means just that, millimeters (or fractions of an inch for you US friends) taken off, nothing more. True to its name it leaves just a scattering of dust on the floor, nothing that can be identified as strands of hair. She took of a bit more on the right side as the previous hairdresser I went to (that took of a good inch, despite me asking for less...) left my hair lopsided and longer on the right side.
Length prepped with a light coating of Biosilk before being gently dried with a hairdryer on low heat and held far away from the hair. It's not my favourite part of being there, but I can stand it the three/four times a year I'm there. Air drying would take far too long to be feasible and I can't re-attach my hearing aids with wet hair close to them as it would all but destroy them. So, hairdryer it is.
As always a few hair tidbits as we chat away. The dryness I see at the very front of the hair is due to not having used my BBB diligently enough. BBB used daily, 100 strokes, on hair that is flipped over so you can really get to all parts of the scalp. (Yes, I'm aware that there are people - curlies and similar - that shudder at the mere thought of a BBB, just passing on what is said in the GM method.) The bang area is naturally drier compared to the crown area (where most of the sebum is produced) and is more "salty" as there are more sweat glands around there. If not countered with the sebum from the rest of the scalp the area will dry out over time and may shed skin in flakes.
I also got the explanation to the slightly irritating halo I have around the nape of my neck and around the hairline. Every 7-10 years the body goes through a massive shedding cycle when many follicles have reached the end of their growth cycle and where a lot of hairs release at the same time. The dormant follicles will then start producing new hairs again after a rest, and this produces that slightly annoying halo until they've grown out to where they stay in updos and are less noticeable. Judging from the length of my halo she suggested that the shedding was probably 1-1.5 years back in time - which may be true as I did have a period of massive shedding around late 2015/early 2016.
The exciting part of this: I'm currently hovering somewhere between BSL and waist, and those hairs should not yet be at the end of their cycle, I also have that annoying halo of new hairs coming in that should have another 6-9 years of growth ahead of them. All in all meaning that the future for continued growth looks rather promising. Time will tell where I end up, but what she told me today gives me hope that I most likely will pass my old "record" of hip length which is where I was before I cut to get the henna out. All of a sudden that annoying halo feels less annoying as it is those little babies that have the future ahead of them and most likely the longest remaining time of their growth cycle.
Also purchased a new BBB (as my old GM BBB was nowhere to be found), Cream Shampoo, Cream Rinse, Biosilk and the mixing bottle used to dilute the Cream Rinse in. That and the visit itself set me back a good few dollars (OK, SEK, not dollars, but you get the drift). But totally worth it. Stepping inside the door to her salon made me realize how much I missed it from when I was a client there around 10 years ago. The price you pay for security and knowing your hair is in good hands and won't be mishandled or cut more than you want to is quite worth it.
Booked a new appointment three months from now, that's the schedule I was on before and creates the best balance between allowing the hair to grow and keeping splits at bay and a neat hemline. She doesn't want me back more often than that because I, as she said, don't do anything that will adversly affect the hair, I don't use heat, I don't colour, I wear it up most of the time, so there isn't really much to damage it other than the occasional washing and detangling.