Changing up your routine: new discoveries!

[Celtica]

deleted because I forgot how to post...

[Celtica]

Suortuva, I love mousse, but the right kind. I discovered it recently as well. First tried volume mousse but... that wasn't it. But I still had a curl mousse as well and boy, that is niiiice!

Celtica, nice to hear back from you. Iron shortages in any way shape or form can do a trick on you! Are you feeling better now?

Heaps better. It was actually frightening how much I hair I lost. Every time I brushed, the brush would be full of a ball of strands the size of my fist I wish I was exaggerating. I'm not cold all the time either.
Where it's regrown, it's down just past my shoulders, so my hair is thick down to there, and it thins at that point to waist. It was watercolour paintbrush thin at hip. It HAD to go, it looked ridiculous.
I've just noticed I'm not a decade old...I joined in 2007. Yikes. Older, grayer... *shakes walking stick*

[lapushka]

Heaps better. It was actually frightening how much I hair I lost. Every time I brushed, the brush would be full of a ball of strands the size of my fist I wish I was exaggerating. I'm not cold all the time either.
Where it's regrown, it's down just past my shoulders, so my hair is thick down to there, and it thins at that point to waist. It was watercolour paintbrush thin at hip. It HAD to go, it looked ridiculous.
I've just noticed I'm not a decade old...I joined in 2007. Yikes. Older, grayer... *shakes walking stick*

That's good to hear!

[tuanyiji]

I went from heavily oiling my ends daily to baohuashui treatment daily, and it is probably the best decision I’ve made this year for my hair. I can easily stretch my shampoo days to two weeks without water rinse in between despite the fact that I have an hour of very sweaty cardio workout every day. Also, I shed fewer than 20 hairs a day now. What a game changer!

Here’s my braid waves after baohuashui treatment

I updated my daily experiment here: https://forums.longhaircommunity.com...=1#post3951211

[lapushka]

What is that treatment precisely? What is it used for? Is it like a perm?

[tuanyiji]

What is that treatment precisely? What is it used for? Is it like a perm?

It’s a traditional Chinese hair care treatment widely used in ancient times and is still very popular among retro-/vintage-lovers, opera performers and period drama actors. It’s very nurturing to hair and skin. It looks like a honey glue-like substance extracted from Chinese elm wood shavings. There’s a mature market for that type of material here, very affordable. It’s not a perm, I wet my hair with baohuashui and braided it to achieve the bouncy braid waves. My hair naturally returned to its straight structure afterwards. When you air dry, it doesn’t leave anything sticky or smelly, but a shinier, thicker, much healthier hair.

I explained every detail in the link I provided up there, including how I extracted the glue from raw material, different applying methods, the pros and cons, there are 7 separate journals there because of the image limits of the forum, I could be very verbose sometimes. I am still learning something new with it every day. The more I use it, the more I like it.

[lapushka]

That is *so* interesting. And it's the very first time I hear of this. Wow. I had no idea. Thank you for explaining it to me!

[shelomit]

It’s a traditional Chinese hair care treatment widely used in ancient times and is still very popular among retro-/vintage-lovers, opera performers and period drama actors. It’s very nurturing to hair and skin. It looks like a honey glue-like substance extracted from Chinese elm wood shavings. There’s a mature market for that type of material here, very affordable. It’s not a perm, I wet my hair with baohuashui and braided it to achieve the bouncy braid waves. My hair naturally returned to its straight structure afterwards. When you air dry, it doesn’t leave anything sticky or smelly, but a shinier, thicker, much healthier hair.

I explained every detail in the link I provided up there, including how I extracted the glue from raw material, different applying methods, the pros and cons, there are 7 separate journals there because of the image limits of the forum, I could be very verbose sometimes. I am still learning something new with it every day. The more I use it, the more I like it.

I vividly remember learning about this process while studying Jingju opera way back in undergrad core music history courses. We watched an excerpt from a documentary showing a performer readying their numerous hairpieces with the elm goop. I had no recollection of the name, if I had ever known it. Thanks for sharing!

[tuanyiji]

That is *so* interesting. And it's the very first time I hear of this. Wow. I had no idea. Thank you for explaining it to me!

Thank you, I enjoy this process and it grounds me to explore what’s in my roots, the way ancient people did certain things in a much under-developed condition and environment weren’t as “inferior” as we tend to think, they actually came up with some ingenious ways to deal with the hair style and care problem without having to wash it every day.

I vividly remember learning about this process while studying Jingju opera way back in undergrad core music history courses. We watched an excerpt from a documentary showing a performer readying their numerous hairpieces with the elm goop. I had no recollection of the name, if I had ever known it. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you. I know exactly what you’re talking about lol. Here’s a link for people who are interested in seeing the hairpieces (the loops and the face-framing fringes), the way they are so easily manipulated and clung to the performer’s face is because they had been saturated in baohuashui, and if you use modern wig glue and hairspray all day, it might cause serious conditions and buildup, but with baohuashui, they can easily do hairstyle and keep it intact during those fierce dancing or fighting scenes. And these hair extensions can be recycled for decades if it’s well-kept and gloomed like this.

[MusicalSpoons]

I actually forgot how big a difference even a superficial scalp wash can make. I think they've been better with using sulphates rather than sulphate-free (though if I were doing them regularly, I would need to include sulphate-free). And I keep forgetting how useful a crochet braid is for keeping my length contained and out of the way while my roots are drying - it takes calf-length hair up to above APL!

So not a real shake-up, but rediscovering useful tools.

I have recently had cause to skip or contract steps in my wash routine but sadly no useful discoveries there, just confirmation that every step is still in there for a reason