Its Been Awhile!

I haven't posted anything in a while! its mostly because i've been so focused on my youtube videos. all the new revelations and good tidbits are getting posted there! but a lot has been going on in hair-land lately. i recently switched to Herbal Essences shampoo. the Hello Hydration line. i must say, i LOVE it! the shampoo is crazy thick, so i have to make sure to water it down to use it. i used to do a half water, half shampoo mix. then it mostly became 60% shampoo and 40% water, since a lot of the shampoos were thinner and i didn't feel the need to dilute them so much, but with this herbal essences shampoo, its more like 40% shampoo, 60% water! the smell is heavenly. and it makes my hair look and feel soft and shiny. it also made my hair look thicker! i'm not sure if its all in my mind or not, since they say nothing can make your hair thicker than it naturally is. and it could in part be because i have a lot of hair unlatched right now. yeah, i've been lazy. i've only been doing my hairline so i have about 1-2 inches of unlatched hair. so maybe the shampoo is really moisturizing the unlatch hair and making it puff up with hydration and that is giving me the appearance of thicker hair. who knows. my other shampoos didn't do this. so i think i've found a winner. i'm gonna stick with this shampoo for a bit. i bought the shampoo and conditioner, but i've only used the shampoo so far. i'll probably try them both when i wash later this week.
i've been really trying to streamline my hair routine. since i started making the hair oils and finding all these products, i've been going a little product crazy. but i'm really trying to cut it down to a few essentials i use on a regular basis. so what i've been doing is just a shampoo or just a conditioning no 'poo wash, not both. then some JML island oil on the scalp and some of the leave in product i used in the "Extreme Shine" post. i can't think of the name of it offhand. but anyways, i went back to Sally's and bought 10 more tubes of that stuff. i mixed two tubes of it with about 6 oz of water in a spray bottle, and after i oil my scalp, i spray that on my locs. and thats it! no more extra stuff. this routine seems to be working for me. my hair is looking healthier and shinier than ever. the non colored part is looking AMAZING!! more and more i'm questioning my decision to go back to coloring. the non colored hair just looks so much more healthy than the colored parts. do i really want to purposely damage my hair again? i'm not sure. i might actually cut off my hair where the color parts starts and just start all over with my natural color. this would also solve my long hair problem. i'm not sure. we'll see. i'm still a little scared of how that will turn out. its super hard to find anyone around here who has experience cutting and styling locs.
on to other things, i've been trying to make my own hair ties. maybe you remember from the "I Hate My Hair" post a few months back, i'm not a fan of long hair and i try to keep my hair out of my face, but hair bands, head bands, and heap wraps give me a headache, so i'm not left with much options. so, since i've been on a knitting craze (since Christmas is right around the corner and i've got NO MONEY this year!) i been knitting i-cord hair ties. i like the results so far and i've been trying to jazz them up with beads and wires and all that jazz. maybe i'll post some pics when i have it more figured out. the most difficult part of that is finding the right kind of yarn that won't frizz up and leave lint in my hair. i'll experiment with a few more different types of yarn and then i'll do a post about that later.