Photos: Hair on a Sunny Day

Greetings, everyone! Hope you're all doing well!

I've decided to post today to show some really great pictures that my wonderful boyfriend took for me of my hair in the sunlight!

 It's been kind of dreary outside, but today was nice and sunny, so we decided to do a little impromptu hair photoshoot! I hope you guys like it!

Usually, I don't get to take very many photos of my hair outside! So this was very much a change from the ordinary for me.

I was really taken aback at how bright and vibrant my hair is in the sunlight!

This was very much impromptu and "on-the-fly". My hair's got some very pretty soft braid waves in these pictures because I had just taken my hair down from my usual braided bun!

My hair in these pictures is quickly approaching classic length, and is a bit over 40.5".

At these lengths, it is somewhat of a challenge to wear my hair down without a bit of planning!

























I hope that you guys liked seeing these pictures!
I hope to do more of these kinds of shots of my hair in the future as it gets longer! Thanks a lot for stopping by!

Tidying up the blog

Hey, everyone! Hope you're all having a wonderful day!

I've added a new page to my blog that more easily organizes my product reviews by category.
It's looking kind of sparse in there right now, but keep your eyes peeled for new product reviews coming soon!

Have a lovely day!

Hair Tracker Part 20: November 2016

Hi everyone!

Wow, busy times. I had meant to post a little while back for October, but life got in the way. So, I thought I'd update with my current hair length!

Left- August 2016 at 39.5"

Right- November 2016 at 40.5"

I'm now at 40.5"! Which was my original hair goal for 2016! Hooray!

I've been trimming to keep a blunt hemline, which I prefer as I do not have particularly thick hair. This helps give the illusion of having thick hair, and as a bonus, my braids are less messy and don't have as many little stray hairs sticking up everywhere.

You guys may also notice a demarcation line in both of those pictures. Wonder what that's from? Last year, I did a hair experiment to try and bleach over some henna that had gone too burgundy. As you can see...well, it worked- that's for sure! ;) Check out that post here, if you're interested!

So where am I growing now? Classic length, which, on me, is about 43"

Until next time!

Hair Tracker Part 19: August 2016

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing well. I thought I'd post an update of my hair! I measured today at 39.5"! Looks like my original goal of 40" by the end of 2016 is TOTALLY feasible, considering we still have 4 months left to go! :D

39.5"!

I'm starting to see classic length in my near future! And then...who knows?

Until next time!

Product Review: Selkie Herbal Hair Detangler

Hello, hello! Hope you're all having a great summer! I sure am. And yep, my hair's still growing along. I'll be posting a fun update soon showing my growth progress! 

Today, I've got a review for a product I picked up on a whim that's become a real staple in my haircare routine- it's Nightblooming's Selkie Herbal Hair Detangler.

-The Lowdown-

I have somewhat fine, tangle-prone hair that tends to do best with coney conditioners. This herbal, cone-free and mineral oil-free serum promises to deliver smooth, detangled hair. Does it deliver? Let's find out!!!

-The Ingredients- *

(From the Etsy page)

Distilled water, Marshmallow root, slippery elm & fenugreek seed herbal infusion, Aloe vera gel, Apple cider vinegar, Argan Oil, Borage Oil, Camelina Oil, Vitamin E Oil, and the essential oils of Catnip, Cedarwood, Lavender, Lime, Petitgrain, and Sage

-How to Use-

You can use this detangler a couple of different ways. You can use it on damp, wet, or dry hair, depending on your preference. Spray it and coat the hair lightly and then detangle with a comb or your fingers.

-My Thoughts-

This is a strong-smelling, but delicious leave-in. The scent is very noticeable - it is very sweet and almost candy-like with a hint of celery. I personally love the smell, but some people may not care for it!

Does it detangle? For me, sadly, not really, and not as well as even my regular old conditioner. I think my hair just does better with more conventional detanglers and tends to scoff at herbal and oil-based detangling products.

HOWEVER! That does not mean this is not a staple in my routine. Why? It makes an amazing hydrator.

The texture. Watery- slightly slippy.

When applied to damp, towel-dried hair, this stuff leaves my hair incredibly soft and shiny after drying. On dry hair, it doesn't do much for me, so I usually apply this after my shower, then enjoy having hydrated, soft hair for the rest of the day.

I'd like to think of this product as a hair toner, much like how I use hydrating toners for my skin. It's a fantastic leave-in, and will more than likely stay in my routine as long as Nightblooming is selling it. 

If you have hair that needs a bit more hydration, give this leave-in a try!

* I have recently read the product was reformulated because some people didn't like the smell, and that the amount of catnip was causing some people's cats to go absolutely nuts. I can definitely attest to that second fact, for sure! :P

Catnip is supposed to actually be pretty good for preventing the formation of split ends, so taking it out would have been obviously counterproductive, but I believe the concentrations were adjusted so the smell wasn't so powerful.

You can pick it up at Nightblooming's Etsy shop. She offers a sample bottle, full 8oz bottle, and a refill pouch. 


I hope you all have a great day! 

-maborosi

Hair Update- A picture of my banded ponytail

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a great summer (Or winter, for all my southern hemisphere-dwelling friends!) I thought I'd give you guys a little look at how my hair's doing lately, since it's been a while. I've been super busy, but I always like to take some time every now and then and really appreciate how my hair has grown, grown, grown!

Today, I thought I'd post a picture of a hairstyle that I've really come to love- The Banded Ponytail!
It lets me show the full length of my hair off, just like a real ponytail, but keeps the hair restrained so it doesn't tangle or get in the way! Have a look!

To do this, I typically like to prepare my hair by CO-washing the night before, then following it up with a coney, smoothing conditioning treatment. This ensures I don't have much frizz, and my hair will lay flat and neat.

Then, I pull my hair into a ponytail, then tie off sections of my hair all the way down.

It's an easy, fun, and really great way to wear your hair! And for other longhairs out there, this is a safe and relatively painless way to show off the length!

Hope you all have a great day!

-maborosi

Hair Tracker Part 18: May 2016

Happy May, and wow it's been a while!

But good news- I have temporarily resolved my camera situation and can take some photos- YAY! They may not be too good, but, well, it's better than nothing, I suppose! Since my last update, wow, the time's really flown, huh?

And I'm measuring in at 37.5"! Yes!

What a fun shot. I'm getting to the point now where I've had to change my location where I take my photos because it's hard to really grasp just how long my hair is getting without comparing it to the rest of my body! :P

I had an opportunity to give the Crea Clip a shot, and, well, I think it'll be a staple in my haircutting arsenal for sure- it gives a really excellent, neat, crisp hemline and I'll definitely use it again!

I'll see you guys again soon! Hopefully, I'll have a bit better of a camera then. :P

Sad day

RIP my camera.

I guess I've dropped my phone one too many times, and despite its protective casing, my phone's camera is pretty much wrecked. This means- well, sadly, no pictures for right now. I'm not sure what this means for me at the moment- I've had to delay many weeks of hair photos because of this. It's also made it a real pain for me to take photos for some of the product reviews I've been planning for a while now.

I may have to finally bite the bullet and buy a point-and-shoot camera- something I've been meaning to do for quite a while now, but this may be the push I needed.

On the upside, my hair's still growing like a weed. I'm now in TBL territory and I should be there pretty soon. I am always so amazed to see just how long it's grown!

Hairstyle of the Week Part 3: Hawser Braid

Hi, everyone. Hope you're enjoying your weekend! I've been test running some new products, which I hope to get to do in-depth reviews for.

This week's hairstyle of the week is a fun one- the hawser braid.
In order to do the hawser braid, you should know how to rope braid.
It's accomplished by rope-braiding 2 rope braids together.

This is a really cool braid- it's basically a mock 4-strand braid, and I find it's actually much faster to do than a true 4-strand braid...it doesn't tire out my fingers as much, either! (And that's always a good thing, haha!)

It looks really neat, always gets a ton of compliments, and eats up length! I've found that with some of these combo braids, shorter hair will feel stiffer in them. As your hair gets longer, you'll be able to do these more easily, and they won't be as stiff.

I think around waist is when I began doing this one, though I like how it looks much more now at just-past-hip-length! :)

First, we'll start off with a ponytail, like so:

I like scrunchies! This is a silk scrunchie- much gentler on hair than regular elastics.

Then, split the ponytail into two sections and rope braid each one. Make sure the rope braids are both going in the same direction! Tie those off.

 Next, you'll rope braid these two braids together together tightly- and...

You have the hawser braid! Just tie it off at the end and enjoy!

You can see that this is a great braid to shorten the hair with. It takes my nearly TBL-length hair and brings it up to just below waist.

Here's a closer shot showing it a bit better:

I hope you enjoyed this week's Hairstyle of the Week!

If you'd like to keep up with these, you can check out this page for my previous updates.

See you next week!

Hairstyle of the Week Part 2: 2-strand Rope Braids!

Hey everyone!

So this week's hairstyle of the week is one of my go-tos. It's a simple, quick, and easy braid that can serve as a base to a lot more complicated, intricate styles! It's the rope braid.

You can also see that, due to the twisting involved, this braid can eat up quite a bit of length! This is useful if you, for whatever reason, wish to shorten your hair. I like to start with a ponytail to hold this one, as it serves as a secure base to make sure it doesn't untwist. In this example, I'm using a silk scrunchie!

I like this style- it's fast, easy to learn, and it looks really cool, too. People really like this one, and I get lots of compliments wearing it this way!

I like it more than the other 2-strand braid I know, the herringbone braid. This one doesn't take more than about a minute to do, tops, and holds just fine.

The 2-strand rope braid is useful to learn- it can be used in buns, and it is also involved in more complex braids, one of which I'll be covering next time. :)

I hope you guys will check out next week!

Hair Tracker Part 17: February 2016- 4 years of growing

Hi everyone. Today's a special day on my hair blog! This update marks 4 years of hair-growth tracking, hair-blogging fun! I am really excited to take a look back and see how my hair has changed.

4 years of growth. 

At these lengths, it's getting more and more challenging 

to get my hair to cooperate for a length shot, it seems.

My hair has grown a lot. I started from 16" in February of 2012, and am now at 36.5" today in February 2016. Years ago, 36" was my original goal length, and, of course, thanks to LHC, I want to grow longer!

I've spent a couple of months here and there maintaining to keep my hemline as even and thick as I can. It seems to have paid off- my hair doesn't have too much taper, and as I'm growing beyond hip, it's still pretty thick at the ends.

Ever since bleaching back in November, I have been diligently watching my ends for splits. I regularly trim off any splits that pop up. Due to my hair being longer than it ever has been, and the fact that I did bleach it, I have noticed a slight increase in splits. But it's not a catastrohpic amount- nothing that warrants cutting off a lot of hair. In the coming months, we'll see if that changes, but for now, my hair is in really good shape.

My hope is that by next year, I'll be close to classic length. Fingers crossed that by the end of 2016, I'll be hovering around 40". I'd like to continue maintaining a straight hemline, and have considered purchasing a Crea Clip, after reading some nice reviews of it online.

All in all, I'm happy with my hair and I'm looking forward to growing to new lengths!

Hairstyle of the Week Part 1: Comet Bun

Hello everyone, thanks so much for checking out my blog!

Today, I'd like to introduce a new weekly feature- the hairstyle of the week.
Every week, I'd like to show you guys a new hairstyle that I like to do, and maybe I'll link to some tutorials, as well.

This week, I'll be featuring the comet bun.

Comet buns (I've also seen them called comet knots) are a variation on the knot bun (this is a tutorial by torrinpaige here, but there are countless others online). However, instead of continuing the style after pulling the hair through the knot the first time, you just leave the tail hanging. It's pretty easy, like tying your hair in a knot. Just make sure to secure at the base, and you're good to go.

This is a great style to do if you want to wear a ponytail, but your hair is too long for a regular one to work. It's not a completely protective style, but it's much better at keeping some of your hair out of the way. However, this can and will make obvious any tapering that your hair has. Keep that in mind.

Here's a before-and-after of my hair.

That's a lot shorter!

There are also fun ways to put your own twist (haha!) on this style- with braids!

In this example, I used an English braid for the base, and then just let the ends stay loose. I really like this look. It eats up more of the length, though, because of the braid.

Alternatively, you can also braid the tail, too!

In this picture, I did a two-strand rope braid on the tail. This is different and makes the updo look like a pretty flower!

This is a fun style, and there's TONS of possbilities to make something cute, practical, and unique!

I hope you guys find this feature interesting! I'll be back again next week!

Hair update!

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone's looking forward to my next post!
2/22 will be four years since I started keeping track of my growth, and I am so surprised at how well my hair has grown!

Recently, I've gotten to use this magical concoction from Nightblooming, and I absolutely love it.
I'll be writing up a full review of my experience with it as soon as I can get a hold of a nice camera.

I would like to share a couple of photos I did a little while back of a really nice (in my opinion, of course, ha) attempt at a 4-strand braid.

You can click on each picture to enlarge them. 

Normally, when I do a 4-strand braid, my go-to method is to rope braid 2 rope braids together. 

That technique is a cable/hawser braid (This is a great video demonstrating it) 

For these braids, however, I did it the old-fashioned way, by weaving 4 single strands of hair together. 

This braid is beautiful, and it eats up quite a lot of length- much more than a 3-strand English braid. 

I've also been experimenting with 5-strand braids and beyond, but those can be quite difficult for my fingers!

I hope you all have a nice day!

I'll see you again soon!