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Samikha
February 2nd, 2009, 02:47 PM
MASSIVE PICTURE SPAM AHEAD. You know how some members claim to be spamming you with pictures? Well, I really am. The page might take a while to load if you're on a slow connection. It also might take a while if you are on a fast connection. You are hereby warned.

There comes a time in every LHC member's life - well, hardly just one - when it is time to dig through the hair photos on your hard drive and do a massive, image-loaded post. My time is now.;)

When I was younger, I cared little for my hair. My dad would braid it for me, and that was fun, but beyond that...why bother? I recall massive tangles as a child, as we didn't use conditioner (why, mother? Why?!) and growing out bangs. The hair moment I remember most vividly is when my best friend kindly informed me that my face was too pink to pull off the dark green dye I fancied. Sigh. Anyway, moving on...I kept it in a blunt cut anywhere from chin to early BSL for years. Then I got layers, which was what everyone was doing at the time. These pictures postdate that.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/Sidsel/lhc/pre-lhc.jpg


Well, as the title says. Sorry for the poor pictures, but unfortunately it wasn't a hobby to take hair pictures when I was younger:o And mind you this was my hair after some - relative - TLC. When I was younger, I used Herbal Essences. The less said of that, the better - a dry, straight mess of static and frizz. At the time of these pictures I had crossed over to organic products. However, a sulfate-free shampoo doesn't do much good when you're overdosing on protein. Dry, brittle hair...it should need a repairing conditioner, right?

Right?

Nooooo. Argh.

I also overused hairspray. It did make it shinier for a while, but then frizz ensued, as you clearly see here. That sunlight is a bitch for showing off damage, innit?



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/Sidsel/lhc/experiments.jpg


Early LHC days, prior and after joining. Here came a time of experiments. Those were days of brave new ventures, of creativity, versatility, and a great lack of common sense. These are the Bad Hair Days.
#1 is the only picture I will ever show to anyone of my Great Oiling Disaster. Yeah. I thought you had to put a lot in. Stringiness ensued. I don't want to talk about it:cool:

Number 2 is from my first attempt at CO. It went rather poorly. The conditioner I was using was far too rich. I wasn't applying it properly, using too little and not leaving it in long enough. You can't really tell from the picture, but it was icky. I had this weird cloud of greasy frizz to go along with the stringy length.

Picture number 3 is post-clarifying. My hair was dry enough that it could probably provide enough electricity to heat up my flat. Nonetheless, a definite improvement from the CO disaster. Note how you can see where the better treatment - non-protein conditioner - stage begins. The damage, while not dramatic, is plain.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/Sidsel/lhc/cassia.jpg


The experimentation phase wasn't entirely over. #4 is my hair after two weeks of NW. I did a lot of preening, scalp massages, brushing. But in the end it was too plain boring. While my hair looked okay down, it didn't exactly swing in the breeze. And in addition, my mother was very skeptical to my hair experiments. A visit home was coming up, so I ditched the NW thing.

5 is...I don't know. Err. Clarifying has occurred, but the hair is nicely settled down, so it must have been a wash or two ago. I do recall that I used Fox's Shea Butter for the first time that day. I loved it! There is some frizz, but far less than in the past, and the waves look nice.

6 is post-Cassia, the first time I used it. My hair was weird, as I had read it would be, but a couple of days later I really came to appreciate the herb. It brought out the waves and gave it an entirely new texture. It also gave it a certain greenish tint in some lighting - ashy meets greenish yellow - but I've been able to mostly avoid that since.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/Sidsel/lhc/winter.jpg


#7 is a day or three after the cassia. The waves have loosened a bit with braiding, and I really loved the way my hair felt. This is the CO era - I finally figured out what it was supposed to be like, which the next picture shows.

#8 is, my poor memory aside, the results of CO and cassia. Very nice! Less volume than with shampoo, obviously (see #3 for why I don't like shampoo) but more importantly an immense reduction of frizz. I also used Jessicurl products here for forming the waves a bit. Strangely enough, the cassia alone makes it more wavy than actually trying to encourage them, but I'm partial to this form of waviness anyway :)

#9 is mostly the same, but in daylight. With the short daylight hours we have here getting that picture was more of a pain than you'd think. Anyway, as you see, my hair isn't unnaturally shiny without the flash. It's a sad thing. It's also an important reminder that our hair doesn't look like in the photos all the time...unless you hire a papparazzi to flash-stalk your hair.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/Sidsel/lhc/today.jpg


And this would be today - or this week, anyway. Left is combed out, right is slept-on, bed hair really. Less wavy because I haven't been sleeping on it wet in addition to more combing than usual. An inch or two from waist, and eagerly awaiting what the next weird thing I do to the poor hair will be...

I'd like to thank you all for making this such a nice place to be :flower:

ETA: And if you made it through all that, congratulations!

paper
February 2nd, 2009, 02:53 PM
Wow, you have gorgeous hair! The color and waves are very pretty.

Great progress report, thanks for sharing!

Xandergrammy
February 2nd, 2009, 02:57 PM
Your hair is gorgeous!!! Thanks for all the pictures, too! I love pictures.

Coriander
February 2nd, 2009, 03:30 PM
Thank you for sharing your pictures! It's such fun to see how hair grows out, and grows up, too :)

You have beautiful hair. Congratulations on your growth and finding out what works best for you!

Michou
February 2nd, 2009, 03:36 PM
I am in awe of your hair! Your hair in #7 and #8 (as well as how it looks now) are what I want for my hair, you've inspired me! Lovely!

Pixna
February 2nd, 2009, 03:43 PM
Awesome hair -- just gorgeous. You've made great strides both with health and texture. Thanks for sharing!

Samikha
February 2nd, 2009, 03:57 PM
Thank you, guys! It's come a long way, hasn't it? You really made my day (err, night) with your comments:) Best of luck with your own hair, and I hope you'll take a leaf out of my book and start picture-spamming too:D

Paper, I really love detailed reports, so I guess I owed it, didn't I? Xandergrammy, I always get excited by pictures too, it's so much fun actually getting a look-see since we all don't live in the same village. Except, of course, online :)

Coriander, growing up is really the best term for it:D Although technically, it's growing down, I guess...

You made me blush, Michou :) I promise, just listen to it and it'll surprise you one day. Pixna, the texture change is indeed something else. It's...you know, actually soft.:confused:

JamieLeigh
February 2nd, 2009, 04:03 PM
Wow! Very lovely hair! And you can really tell that there is a softness to the later pics that wasn't present in the first few. You've done a wonderful job; congrats on your progress & thanks for sharing!! :D

desertrose
February 2nd, 2009, 04:12 PM
woww very pretty!!! i hope my hair will be as beautiful as yours some day:D

EtherealJane
February 2nd, 2009, 04:17 PM
Wow! I'm having some hair envy! Hopefully mine will look as good as yours once I'm through experimenting on my poor hair. Way to go! :D

Xi
February 2nd, 2009, 04:21 PM
Congratulations, Samikha! Your hair is looking wonderful. Thanks for sharing your progress!:blossom:

FB
February 2nd, 2009, 04:23 PM
WOW you hair is so pretty and I am very jealous of your waves. Do you do anything to get your waves to be that pretty or is that just how it looks from washing and air drying???

xkitxgirx
February 2nd, 2009, 04:30 PM
We have very similar hair type. Your pictures all remind me of my own, except that your hairs a bit more wavy than mine I think. Gorgeous though! And yours looks better than mine! lol. I'm new here so I've just started with my experimentation. REading through all of that confused me though. I thought I'd get some incite as to what works best for other people with my hair type. What treatments did you like the most?

Addy
February 2nd, 2009, 04:33 PM
Your hair has come a long way! It's beautiful! :)

Citrine
February 2nd, 2009, 04:53 PM
Wow, what a hair journey! It looks like after many trials you've found what makes your hair happy:cheese: Keep up the good work, and keep the pictures coming!

Tangles
February 2nd, 2009, 04:58 PM
I'm admiring the thickness. BTW, how does your hair change color so drastically in different lighting?

SchnauzerMom
February 2nd, 2009, 04:59 PM
Wow your hair is very pretty. Lots of progress there!

Elphie
February 2nd, 2009, 05:21 PM
Made it through? That wasn't a struggle; that was awesome! It's so great that you paid such close attention to what worked well and what didn't! Thank you for sharing that with everyone.

Garnet66
February 2nd, 2009, 05:44 PM
Your hair is so pretty. Thanks for sharing with us.

NeilTheFuzz
February 2nd, 2009, 05:53 PM
That's not picture spam :p That's art. Your hair is absolutely stunning!

suicides_eve
February 2nd, 2009, 06:14 PM
oh i love pictures!!!

Samikha
February 3rd, 2009, 04:12 AM
JamieLeigh, thank you. The softness is indeed the biggest change. I love your waves, by the way :) Desertrose, hang in there and do...unplanned stuff. It seems to have worked for me... EtherealJane, wild experimentation is the way to go! Just don't pour oil on your hair. Let that die with me:o

Xi, your hair is stunning! Thank you for reading. FB, for enhancing waves, cassia and sleeping on loose, damp hair works for me. Combing draws them out and brushing makes them almost disappear. If I do comb and want waves after, doing double Dutch braids that joins together in one larger braid at the back helps reactivate them :-)

xkitxgirx, it does get to be confusing, doesn't it? For me, going CO with a really cheap conditioner gives consistently good results - not fantastic, but good. Cassia makes my hair feel stronger and look more shiny. I also often mix conditioner with honey, about one part honey to two parts conditioner. (I did regular SMTs for a while, but the aloe doesn't really do anything for my hair). Fox's Shea Butter (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=4586) as a leave-in or whenever my hair feels dry or excessively frizzy does good also. What is most difficult for me is getting the balance between moisture and cleansing right - not perfect, yet, but getting there. I can't promise this will work for you, but it might be worth a try :)

Addy, thanks! I like your haircolour, btw, it looks so unusual. Citrine, my camera is working this week, so there may be more in not-so-long :P

Tangles, I am equally mystified. It's this really dark ash colour that would be brown if it had more red tones. Kinda like milk chocolate. Most of these pictures are a lot darker than in real life (I think?!). #2, 3 and 9 are the most colour-accurate. I think mostly it's because it's such an ashy colour, it takes up whatever colour the environment throws at it, and it's quite dark here now.

SchnauzerMom, thank you very much :) Oh, and kudos to you for growing your hair out past the official "long hair stage". I wish my mother would do that! Elphie, I'm glad I didn't bore you too much. I wish I had paid a little more attention throughout the process, but hindsight is 20/20... Garnet66, thank you for reading :)

NeiltheFuzz, who said you can't spam people with art?:eyebrows: My teachers in art history surely did. And thank you for the compliment. Suicides_eve, I'm glad to please you with pictures :) It was, aha, no trouble XD

Dreamernz
February 3rd, 2009, 05:25 AM
Beautiful hair, you've made great progress! :D:D:D

Vivien'
February 3rd, 2009, 05:33 AM
Wow. It's a great progress report! It seems that you finally found what works on your hair ! Contrary to you, I love your hair on the photo 3; of course, if it isn't manageable...
Congratulation, anyway ;)

DavidN
February 3rd, 2009, 05:35 AM
Thank you for sharing your progress with us, Samikha, and your hair is in excellent condition with lots of shine. The LHC is a wonderful community for finding out what works best for you!

Johanna64
February 3rd, 2009, 06:09 AM
Wow,your hair is beautiful!!
What a progress,thank you for sharing :)

scalawaggirl
February 3rd, 2009, 07:04 AM
Wonderful progress and way to go figuring out what works for your hair w/experimentation! I have similar hair to you and the same challenges but am diligently working out how to get to a more natural state of calm w/my waves.

I'm a bit sick of using products to weigh my hair down. :)

Islandgrrl
February 3rd, 2009, 07:13 AM
I loved looking at all the pics and taking your hair journey with you! Thank you so much for sharing your impressive progress. Your hair looks nothing like when you started - the condition has so greatly improved. Just beautiful!

Nera
February 3rd, 2009, 07:19 AM
Wow! That's so interesting(: I love how you still know what product you used on every picture, so you can really compare. I am still discovering all this for myself(: thanks for the post!

going gray
February 3rd, 2009, 07:24 AM
Your hair is lovely, enjoyed the photos.

xkitxgirx
February 3rd, 2009, 08:47 AM
xkitxgirx, it does get to be confusing, doesn't it? For me, going CO with a really cheap conditioner gives consistently good results - not fantastic, but good. Cassia makes my hair feel stronger and look more shiny. I also often mix conditioner with honey, about one part honey to two parts conditioner. (I did regular SMTs for a while, but the aloe doesn't really do anything for my hair). Fox's Shea Butter (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=4586) as a leave-in or whenever my hair feels dry or excessively frizzy does good also. What is most difficult for me is getting the balance between moisture and cleansing right - not perfect, yet, but getting there. I can't promise this will work for you, but it might be worth a try :)



I've been wanting to find something that will make my hair shiny, or at least help it along so I may try the Cassia. Thanks so much for letting me know what worked best for you! There are so many treatments to do I was having a hard time narrowing it down, lol.

Akiko
February 3rd, 2009, 08:59 AM
Gorgeous hair. I can clearly see the great improvement of your hair. Your hair looks so healthy and glossy. Thank you for sharing.

RoseRedDead
February 3rd, 2009, 01:00 PM
Goodness gracious, you have amazing hair! So very thick and lush. :flowers: Congratulations!

LutraLutra
February 3rd, 2009, 01:25 PM
Fabulous, I do like a good progress thread - I'm nosey and I love to see what other people are up to. Your hair looks great. :)

FallenAngel
February 3rd, 2009, 02:31 PM
Very pretty hair!

Thank you for sharing pictures and reporting about your experiments. I found it very interesting, and when looking at the pics, I can imagine that CO only will be something I try when (if) my hair gets long. Also - thank you for showing why a little oil is better than a lot. :D

leilamarie79
February 3rd, 2009, 02:46 PM
Love your hair. Hope mine looks that good someday. That someday is a loooong way away, so thanks for providing inspiration to prevent me from chopping all my hair off when I get frustrated with it.:)

tina1025
February 3rd, 2009, 06:18 PM
I am in love with your hair, especially #10....Just gorgeous :)

Fencai
February 3rd, 2009, 06:25 PM
great progress!!! you have beautiful hair!

dolcevita
February 4th, 2009, 06:54 AM
You can see a definite improvement in your hair! Your waves and shine from picture 5 and onwards is beautiful. Congrats!

Little_Bird
February 4th, 2009, 07:36 AM
Isn't it great when you are that close to waist lenght?? Your waves are really nice and they sit very well. Congratulations!

Samikha
February 5th, 2009, 07:03 AM
Dreamernz, thank you :flower: And you as well, Vivien'. I don't think the picture fully conveys just how flyaway and dreadful it felt, but at least there was plenty of volume:o

DavidN, I have noticed in your photos that your hair seems very shiny of late too :D Good times all around, yes? Scalawaggirl, wavy hair isn't the easiest to figure out, I think. At least mine isn't; it's dry but not that dry, thick but not that thick, so you have to keep adjusting things until you find what works. Islandgrrl, I'm very happy to hear that you think so too :)

Nera, enjoy your experiments! Best of luck to you and your hair. Going_gray, thanks :) xkitxgirx, the biggest problem with the LHC is indeed narrowing down the options. I hope some of the things that worked for me will also be helpful for you.

Akiko, thank you for all the compliments. I've always admired your avatar, by the way. RoseRedDead, you really made me smile. Thank you very much for that :flowers: LutraLutra, I'm dead nosy too. I love these threads :eyebrows:

You know what they say, FallenAngel...if you can't be a good example, be a horrible warning.:rolleyes: Hang in there, leilamarie79. Hair grows...if slowly. Fencai and tina1025, :flower: I always used to think my hair was genetically flawed, so it means a lot to me to hear someone say different. lilcoopr, it's surprising how easy it is to see in these pictures! I thought nothing had changed much;)

Little_Bird, it's so exciting! It's never been this long before - uncharted territory lies ahead. *puts on explorer gear*

redneckprincess
May 6th, 2009, 11:54 AM
I dont know what all those text speek lettering means but you have nice hair...I hope mine is half as nice when it grows out

free_hug
May 7th, 2009, 01:59 AM
Course we made it through the whole story - it was a lovely one! Thanks for sharing and making it so pic and experiment heavy :)

free_hug
May 7th, 2009, 02:00 AM
Oh, and you've got lovely hair. Tons of lovely hair. (envy envy envy)

jessie58
May 7th, 2009, 02:04 AM
Your hair is looking really lovely.

Ndnlady
May 7th, 2009, 04:29 AM
I love seeing pictures!:) You have beautiful waves!

KajiKodomo
May 7th, 2009, 08:19 AM
Congrats! Your hair is amazing! Such progress! :D

simply_me
May 7th, 2009, 11:24 AM
Your hair is absolutely beautiful. I really enjoy when people post photos of their progess. Thanks for posting your's.

long-hair-fan
November 23rd, 2009, 11:50 PM
Fab hair, nice!

Aditi
November 23rd, 2009, 11:56 PM
Simply GORGEOUS hair and love those waves :flower:

pdy2kn6
November 24th, 2009, 12:21 AM
Your hair reminds me so much of LittleBirds, nice progress, keep up the great work :)

argyle
November 24th, 2009, 12:32 AM
Looks great!

Vrushali
November 24th, 2009, 07:52 AM
Your hair is beautiful!! :flower: