Hook 'em before middle age .... The Enablinator Strikes AGAIN!!!!

[GRU]

Okay, I have another exciting tale of The Enablinator! :cheese:

(For those who missed the first installment, you can catch up here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=65684).)



I'm in nursing school right now, and one of the gals in my clinical rotation this semester has MBL, 1b, iii hair that she's threatening to cut because she's tired of always wearing it in ponytail and "I can't do buns".

With her extreme thickness, she doesn't have the length to do my go-to Nautilus-style bun with a hairstick. She said she likes to put her hair in a French Twist, but "bobby pins don't work" and when she does a messy bun with elastics, it all falls apart after an hour.

It's a bird... it's a plane... it's.... THE ENABLINATOR TO THE RESCUE!!!!!

I knew we were going to have some down-time at clinical today (we were literally sitting in her van in a parking lot -- there was NOTHING we could be doing at that time), so I packed my bag of goodies, including the Tangle Teezer and my Spin Pins.

And the fun begins..... :eyebrows:

Tangle Teezer = big hit! (duh! :lol:)

Time to try her French Twist. She twists up, then has "the leftovers" at the top, which I teach her to keep twisting, fold down, then push under the original twisted section.

Now come the Spin Pins.

I demonstrate the need to "grab some scalp and some twist" and I reinforce the age-old "righty-tighty / lefty-loosey" adage, then I hand her the first Spin Pin.


"Oh my gosh, it goes right in!"

"Yep, that's what they're supposed to do."

"Oh my gosh, it STAYS in!"

"Yep, that's what they're supposed to do."

Four Spin Pins later.....

"OH MY GOSH I LOVE THESE THINGS!!! LOOK! MY HAIR IS STAYING! LOOK! I CAN SHAKE MY HEAD!!!!! I DON'T HAVE TO CUT MY HAIR!!!!"

"Yep, that's what's supposed to happen."


And with a swoosh of her cape and a wiggle of her hairsticks, The Enablinator flew off to her next challenge.... well, actually, my classmate drove us to our next clinical visit site, but that doesn't sound nearly as cool. ;)


So, LHCers, who have YOU enabled this week???

[gthlvrmx]

that was amazing to read XD made me smile. good job! :D spin pins are AMAZING.

[HintOfMint]

Oh, Enablinator, how can we ever repay you????

"Just doin' my job, ma'am." Swooooooosh!

Seriously, spin pins are a godsend.

[Amber_Maiden]

That is so awesome!!! :D

Where were you 4 years ago when I had no die how to put up my hair and cut it from hip to chin?! LOL

I enabled someone to buy a jellyfish hairstick, because I posted that I had bought one! ;)

[kme81]

Apparently I taught a friend of mine to rope braid several months ago (I don't remember at all!)...then out of the blue I see her roping someones hair and she tells me something along the lines of "You taught me this and it is super cool!"
It made me happy. :D

[Johanna]

I taught my cousin, who is a hairdresser, how to lace braid. My sister in law has extremely slippy hair, I managed to find her coil hair ties to keep her hair up. I think I'll have to introduce her to spin pins.
Thanks Enablinator!

[FrozenBritannia]

I don't think I have enabled anyone this week... I loved your story though! Thanks for sharing!! :D

[PixxieStix]

I got a kick out of your amazing story! Go the enablinator!

Lets see.... I've introduced a few people to hair forks this past week, and explained how hair sticks are awesome and non-damaging, but that's about it for my enabling thus far.

But oh young freshmen DH student with the long 1a iii hair who ALWAYS wears it in a ponytail, we need to have some fun with a few hair toys some day soon. :eyebrows:

[turtlelover]

My hair has been short for so long that I've pretty much ignored all of the updo threads. I guess I'd better figure out what "spin pins" and all of these other gadgets are, or I am sure that someday when my hair gets longer I will be stalked by a member of the LHC hair toy police someday in protest of my boring ponytails!:eyebrows:

[1nuitblanche]

You are awesome!

[Littlewing13]

Lol brilliant.

I have been enabled by LHC lots lately, but alas have no-one to enable. Most of my friends have short hair or just dont care at all about anything hair related.

Although, I have been getting a few people to try CO. I know so many people who think they have dandruff just because they have a few flakes, which is really just dry scalp from washing too often! My DBF loves CO too, and actually started before me!

[cwarren]

I spread the good news of good hair products to friends and coworkers. If someone says, "Oh! Your hair smells nice!" or "Ooooo, where did you get that hair clip?" I tell them which conditioners I used or which online shop I got a hair toy from and maybe a week later, they're raving about it :)

[skaempfer]

:love:
*sniff*
That's our enablinator.

I gave away some children's chop sticks at my daughter's bd party and now the girl across the street wears them in her hair- not in the enablinator's league, I know, but... :wannabe:

[Alvrodul]

You rock, GRU! :D:rockerdud

[sycamoreboutiqu]

That was "epic" as the kids say.

This week I think I got my daughter to consider doing a CWC even though she has oily hair. I explained that if she started diluting her shampoo and gradually cutting back she might find she does not actually have oily hair - just an overstripped scalp.

[sfgirl]

YAY for you. I try to enable people but they never listen. So I just stopped hehe. :)

[Quixii]

Sounds like I need some spin pins!

Umm, well, I'm not quite the enablinator type, but I wouldn't be surprised if I inadvertently enabled people to crazy-colour their hair. ;)

[didrash]

I have introduced may of my friends and co-workers to the joy of hair sticks. They are not widely known here, and even people who have heard of them did not think they would hold their hair - until I showed them :).

[whitedove]

I learned how todo cable braids, so I also taught my mum too. She is legally blind, so she used my braids as a touch and learn (aka braille braiding system), as my words were not enough.

[PinkyCat]

There are a couple of longhairs at my company who always wear their hair down. One has beautiful hiplength straight blonde, and the other has dark curls like mine but is TB. Just beautiful. They work in a different building so its hard to enable them. Oh well, soon enough....

[lapushka]

Enablinator to the rescue! :D Great story, I enjoyed reading that!

[SpinDance]

I've been working at enabling a coworker. She has very tight texture, not sure if it will go into curls at all, but probably 4-something, in small braids for ease of care. It is past shoulder but not APL, very thick. A couple of weeks ago she was getting ready to travel internationally so I lent her a pair of stainless chopsticks and a large Flexi. The large is just big enough for her to do a pony with it. She has since returned, saying she wore the Flexi every day.

I showed her/told her about doing a French Twist and we held it with a long 2-prong fork, which I've left with her. :D I think there are more Flexi's in her future, and possibly more sticks and forks. I need to learn more updo's for very thick shoulder to APL hair to further enable!

[moxamoll]

Well done GRU!

I love spin pins! I've also recently developed an attachment to the Good Hair Days pins that Torrin always mentions in her videos. I got some Amish style pins, thinking "I couldn't make hair sticks work before but look at me now! Maybe I can make the pins work too?" Nope, my hair still spits 'em out like I was asking it to eat broccoli or something. I took some very fine sandpaper to all the sharp or rough edges on the GHD pins and presto! Those things hang on like nobody's business and work well in styles that aren't thick enough to hide a spin pin.

[kme81]

I love these sorts of stories! It is so cool to see people fall for long hair!

[SpinDance]

Continuing my enabling of my coworker, today I dropped a couple of XL Flexi's on her desk to try out. This one (http://www.flexi8.com/0856.html?id=MELWBgvL)and this one (https://secure.lillarose.biz/MemberToolsDotNet/%28S%28bgg3bj5rbueqwglzuvkigu25%29%29/ShoppingCartNew/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=18642&CatalogueID=204&PartyID=0&PartyGuestID=0&InternalUse=1&ProductGroupString=67.80). :D (Hope those show up OK, the Lilla Rose site in particular can be a bit wonky.)

[3azza]

Haha gru that was fun :D

[Carrie Ingalls]

This was not really recently, but last school year I enabled a woman that was going to my school to use a 60th street fork (also bunheads hair pins) so she didn't "have to" cut her hair for clinical again. I had gotten the fork off the swap board, and after she tried it for a couple day and ended up buying it from me (one in the hand), it was too short for my usual updos anyway.

[Nae]

You are awesome as always!! I can just see you swooping away in a cape. Rock on GRU, rock on.

[mzBANGBANG]

Boyfriend threatened to shave his head and I started talking about how my hair grows so much faster than his *completely untrue* and he said, well then how about we have a hair growing contest? :D ;) reverse psychology enabling to the rescue!

[EdG]

GRU, you have saved the day again! :thumbsup:

MzBANGBANG, there is nothing like a little reverse psychology. ;)
Ed

[curlsgalore]

Great story!

[Vanilla]

My boss keeps on commenting on my new hair clips and combs. I showed her my spin pins and hopefully I'll be an enabler for her soon :). She has been asking how I do my updos.

[PrincessBob]

I got Mirrimblackfox (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/member.php?u=30877) her winter holiday present (albeit a little late)...

I had been searching for a medium Flexi8 with blue beads (she liked a large I have, which has been discontinued) that wasn't too "girly," as most of the Flexi-styles in blue tend to be IMO. Mirrim had tried mine on, but found that her hair and the Flexi were not intended to hold each other up. I thought if I could find her a medium it would take up that slack. Her hair is really quite thick, but of a fine variety.

Mirrim had long hair in her younger years (not that she's old, now, but she's kept it short since her teens) and is growing it out again because she thinks the long haired community is awesome and fun, also in solidarity with me growing mine out. She's a rock-solid friend and has some of the softest curls I've ever found on an adult.

Anyhow, I had looked on the Flex-8 website and Lillarose, but wasn't finding what i wanted to get her for the winter-gifting time-frame, and didn't want to deal with ordering a custom, either, so I just kept an eye out. I didn't post an ISO, because she's a member, too and I didn't want her to get suspicious.

Very recently, I finally found one on the swap board and jumped on it! A copper Flexi with four daisies, simple, flowers, but not too flowery. Copper isn't her color of choice, but it is understated enough to match her tastes, I thought.

It is an older style that doesn't have the size listed on the stick and when it turned out to be a large as well I was, at first, disappointed. But I figured there was no reason t have this not be a good thing. Her hair had grown significantly on the six months or so since she tried on my large and discovered it was too, too big.

I just handed it to her and said, "Hey, try this on." And it worked over her whole bun, a little loose, but when I saw that it would fit, I let her know what my plot had been the whole time. She's been wearing it for the last week and after some experimentation she's found several tricks to helping her Flexi stay snug and I am just tickled to have gotten her a long hair accessory.

Later on I was wearing my large to help anchor a milk-maid braid to my head and she said, "Is that the same size a mine? Mine seems bigger." I was very sure that they were the same size and she said, "I guess it just looks smaller in your hair." Yup. My hair is big. :lol:

Mirrim has mentioned looking into a small or x-small for ponies and half ups... we shall see if she has been enabled for real, or if she's simply pleased with the functional present I have given her.

[lacefrost]

I love this story. You put a smile on my face after a very long hard day, GRU.

[Neya]

I need an enabeler (more like teacher).
Even with super long hair the only thing I can do is awful falling out buns and pony tails. I can braid, but not my own hair. :(

[melusine963]

This is great! I've demonstrated my spin pins to some of my friends, but none of them have long enough hair to make anything bigger than a golf ball sized bun with. So no takers there unfortunately.

[Rose Petal]

Awesome story! I love a good hair story :)

[lunalocks]

I, too, spread the gospel of spin pins!

I repeatedly get asked how I french braid my hair, so I have done a number of "tutorials" during lunch, workshop breaks etc. to re braid my hair to show how it's done. It is so funny - word spreads when I am about to do this, and a crowd forms. I repeat the demo if there is someone who wants to try it while watching me.

[GRU]

I'm loving all these enabling stories! Keep up the good work, everyone!

I've got another to add.... my 12yo son likes his hair long in the winter for warmth (so he doesn't have to wear a hat), and I am always getting on him to keep it combed/brushed. His preferred method for ages has been to RIP a comb through his tangles, and I've been known to attack him with my hot pink Tangle Teezer from time to time, much to his pre-adolescent male disgust. :lol:

So the other day I had taken my TT out of the bathroom (it was actually in my car), and I heard DS say, "Hey Mom, where's that pink brush of yours????" YES! I HOOKED MY KID!!!! :cheese:

Being The Enablinator, of course I had an alternative for him... sent him down to my computer desk to get the black one that I keep there. :lol:

Looks like a trip to Sally's is in order, to get the boy a TT all his own!

[SpinDance]

My enabling continues. Today I dropped off a longer stick that has some pretty beads dangling from the top so my friend can try it. And I handed another friend a 2-prong wooden fork so she could try that. I know the fork is currently holding up a 'do, so it's working... lol