Yesterday I just washed my bangs and styled my hair as usual – all was well.

Today I went back to the conditioner-only routine. As I blew my hair dry, I noticed it was flat, limp, and somewhat greasy. Picking up my hair by the ear area, I saw flakes and lots of oiliness. What the heck?? I ended up washing my hair with shampoo in the sink since I was already dressed for the day.

I’m still staying away from products with silicone in them, but I don’t know about this conditioner-only thing any more. It worked so well for the first week or so! Maybe just the shock of doing something different tricked my hair? I’m not sure what the deal is. I just know that today my scalp feels oh-so-clean and my hair looks okay, too.

And so it goes.

First, here is a picture of my hair from 2 weeks ago. This picture doesn’t really do the mess that was my hair justice, though, because I totally tried to make it look as good as I could right before I took it. Within 15 minutes of this being taken, I’m sure the sides were perpendicular to my head as they prepared me for take off.

And here I am today. I did that baking soda and apple cider vinegar wash earlier, so my hair is a bit drier than it has been this past week. I’m hoping tomorrow it goes back to being a bit softer again. I love this first picture because of how much light was hitting my face, it makes my eyes look translucent.

The great thing about the hair now is that it stays the same way it looks in these pics. I mean, I might have to run a brush through it to remove tangles at the end of the day, but that’s about it!

I’ll update again in a few weeks to let you know how the no shampoo routine is working out for me.

“Yes, I realize I’m not a hairdresser and have no business with scissors anywhere near the vicinity of my head. And yes, I know I shouldn’t cut my own hair, especially right smack on the side of my head where it’s hard to hide a butchering. But you have to understand: I couldn’t control myself!”

Yeah – glad that scenario didn’t have to play itself out.

And this week, I’m singing a whole different tune. You see, I’ve found my panacea. And it’s in the form of a surprising new beauty routine.

For a while now, a few friends have been talking about how they discontinued using shampoo. I didn’t pay them a whole lot of attention because, well, no shampoo just sounded pretty darn gross to me. It wasn’t until Julie chimed in that she’d been shampoo-free for some weeks that I decided to start asking questions.

It turns out, I’ve got some knowledgeable friends (who knew??). First, Marisa schooled me in all things silicone in the hair product world. Here’s a direct quote from my wise mentor of all things beauty:

The reason you would want to eliminate silicones is because they are very drying. Silicones give hair a sleek, frizz-free look. They make your hair appear healthy. But appearances are deceiving. While the silicone coats the hair, giving it a glass-like finish, underneath it is drying the hair shaft. If you don’t use the ‘cone based product, your hair is even worse than before. The more you use, the more you need.

That made so much sense to me. I liken it to sugar in foods. The more you eat, the more you crave and destroy your body in the process. If you stop eating it, you don’t crave it and your body can start to heal. But, you have to stop eating it in order to get off the vicious merry-go-round.

So, I was on board with the no silicones and decided to go for broke and try the no shampoo thing, too. Even though there’s no shampoo being used, you still “wash” your hair with (silicone-free) conditioner – using it just like shampoo. Here’s what Marisa says about no shampoo:

In a nutshell, the shampoo is needed to remove the buildup of silicones and proteins. These are primary ingredients in styling products, anti-frizz serums and most conditioners. When you eliminate those ingredients, you no longer need such harsh shampoo.

Today was day 4 of no shampoo and I can barely express how thrilled I am with the results. That piece of hair that refused to behave before? Lies down perfectly in place where I want it and stays there all day. No more flipping out, or fly-aways!

Marisa recommends using Suave Naturals line of conditioners since they are silicone-free. I’ve been using the Tropical Coconut, but have a couple other scents on hand to use, as well.

As a point of reference, my hair is naturally a bit wavy, sometimes almost curly (depends on the humidity in the air), thick, and extremely oily. Since it’s oily, I was afraid of the conditioner-only routine, but I haven’t had any issue with my hair feeling or looking greasy sooner than it did when I was using shampoo.

I also want to give my hair a “detox” to clean out any remaining buildup from previous silicones. Here’s Marisa’s recipe to remove buildup in the hair:

Mix a couple Tablespoons of baking soda with water to make a paste, massage that into the scalp. Rinse well then rinse with about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 3/4 cup of water.

I’m going give this a try this weekend. I’ll also try to remember to take pictures of my glorious hair that I’m in love with all over again. I’m also so grateful I finally started listening to my smart friends. Maybe I should do that more often.

I need to know what I weigh on a regular basis so that I don’t have the opportunity to get into denial about my size. Believe me, I’ve spent lots of time there. “These jeans must have shrunk in the dryer!” I also don’t need to know how much I weigh on a daily, hourly, minute-ly basis. Otherwise I’m not only spending my precious time obsessing, but I’m also completely off focus and not on good spiritual grounds. I want to have a nice normal body size, but I do not want it to be the only thing I think about.

Anyway, this month I completely forgot to weigh myself on the 1st. I think a good part of the reason for that was how overwhelmingly busy and distracted I’ve been the past two weeks. However, I think part of it is because I’m really spending a lot less time thinking about how I look. This is huge progress for me because I’ve spent the majority of my life worried about what I look like. Today I’d rather be beautiful in thoughts and actions than in outside appearances. What a concept. Of course, I’ll take the outward beauty, too – don’t get me wrong.

Once I realized I forgot to weigh myself, I decided to do so the following morning – which happened to be today. I got on the scale this morning and discovered that I gained 4 pounds in the last month. Ack! How did that happen? The weird thing is my clothes all fit the same (if not looser), and I don’t feel like I’ve gained any weight. I actually thought I might have lost weight this month. I did quite a bit more exercise this past month than I’ve done in recent memory (which wasn’t hard to do considering my sedentary lifestyle!). Is it really true that muscle weighs more than fat? Is it possible the weight gain can be attributed to that? The miracle is that I didn’t freak out when I saw the number. There have been times when full days have been ruined by the number on the scale going up. Today I know that I am okay and that I don’t look any different than I did the minute before I stepped on the scale and thought I was looking pretty darn good for a 38 year old mom of two. :-)

With that being said… I went for my second PT appointment tonight. It was much needed after a stressful day. Hmm, maybe I need to write about that. Anyway, the visit started out with an application of heat which was pure bliss, then he moved onto the soft tissue massage which also felt great. Afterward, I sat up to do some neck exercises and then he had me stand to do some exercises with my arms/shoulders. When he saw how little range of motion I had in the left shoulder he was a little floored. We talked more about my calcific tendonitis and he said that I’ve got a frozen shoulder. WTF? I knew I was going to have to address the shoulder issue eventually, and he pressed me on that, but said that it would be best to wait right now. Once the neck is all cleared up, then we can go to the shoulder. He is afraid if we try to treat the shoulder right now that it will aggravate the neck. Plus, the car insurance is paying for the neck treatment, but the shoulder is a pre-existing condition so I don’t want to try to figure that out either.

Anyway – about the rest of my day. I woke up a bit late (note to self: double check alarm time) and then did my thing getting my food and self ready to get out the door by 7. On the drive in to work I take 3 phone calls from sponsees – usually the bright spot in my morning. Once I hang up with them, I either jam to the radio or listen to a book on CD so by the time I get to work I’m wide awake, in a great mood, and raring to go. Today, though, I got 2 more phone calls that messed my routine up a bit. The first one was from my friend who is going on retreat with me this weekend (ahhhhhh, retreat, oh how I need thee) to discuss the menu there. I’m a little stressed about that because we’re having the retreat at a different place this year and the person in charge of the menus eats a lot of things that I don’t, so she just doesn’t get it about making sure food is not marinated, cooked in oil or butter and that we need to have more starch choices for lunch besides bread. So, that was one stressor.

Then my mom called. She said, “We’re still at the hospital.” I was surprised because I didn’t know they had been to the hospital at all. It turns out she sent me an IM last night, but I didn’t turn my IM on so I never got it. My dad was in a lot of pain (he’s got kidney stones), so they went to the ER. Our phone call got cut off, so I went into work not knowing exactly what was going on. Thankfully my brother called a short while later to get me up to speed. The bottom line is – they tried to find the stone and take it out surgically today, but they couldn’t locate it. So they placed a stent in there and then also had to put him on a catheter for blood in the urine. He has to stay overnight for that issue; if it’s cleared up in the morning, he can go home. I feel bad for him.

Right after my brother called, Rob called. He starts his new job on Monday. In Montana. Okay, his job itself won’t be in Montana permanently, but he does have to fly out there to meet the people he’ll be working for, with, and those who will be working for him. He also has to travel to Texas and will most likely be gone 10 days. What a way to start!

Aric’s birthday is October 1st and I’ve already been feeling guilty because I will be away this weekend for retreat and next weekend for another assembly, so we were going to schedule his birthday party for next Sunday afternoon once I returned. Now, though, Rob will be gone, so I’m not sure what we’re going to do exactly. I’m sure we’ll figure it out, but this morning everything all together just felt so overwhelming. Oh! About Aric’s birthday: we got him the best birthday present ever. I’ll post about that in the next day or so, so stay tuned.

In other news, I got my hair cut the other day – she took about two inches off the length. I love that it’s more bouncy, but I’m seriously considering going even shorter. I want more of a bob, I think. Is that totally out of style? I also dyed my own hair last night – first time I’ve done that in a long time! Ever since I screwed up a dye job, I’ve been afraid to do it on my own, but I couldn’t get an appointment for over 2 weeks and I didn’t want to wait that long. The color looks pretty good, I think – very natural. I have the camera with me in my bag for work, but I just haven’t had the time to take a picture yet! Maybe tomorrow.

The doctor gave me a copy of my blood test results – she was blown away by the numbers. When I told her that I don’t eat sugar, flour, wheat, or caffeine she said those things definitely explained my results. Here are some of the numbers:

Triglycerides: 43
Total Cholesterol: 124
HDL Cholesterol: 58
LDL Cholesterol: 57
Glucose: 76
Sodium: 142
Potassium: 3.8
Chloride: 109
Carbon Dioxide: 25
Calcium: 8.5
Protein: 6.2

I didn’t know that things like potassium, chloride, and carbon dioxide were even tested. I’m not sure what it means if these levels don’t fall with normal ranges, either. The one concern she mentioned was that my calcium is a bit low. This makes sense since I don’t eat dairy, save for the recently incorporated clarified butter. I am working on getting the dairy back into my food plan slowly, and will get this re-checked in a month. There were two other items that showed up “out of range” (on the low side) and they were my total cholesterol – which she assured me was a very good thing – and my platelets – which she didn’t mention. I need to research what that means, if anything.

It felt good to be able to answer her questions in a healthy way. “Do you smoke?” – No. “How much alcohol do you consume?” – None. The only thing that I need to work on is being able to say, “Yes, regularly!” to the “Do you exercise?” question. So now that I’ve been given a clean bill of health aside from my neck and shoulder pain from the accident, I should be due to get hit by a bus any day now.

As far as my neck and shoulders go – she said it’s normal to still be in pain two weeks after the fact. If I’m still in pain in 2 more weeks, then she will send me to physical therapy. Here’s hoping that doesn’t have to happen.

These pics were taken on my new cell phone earlier today.

We talked about my hair and she agreed that going slightly darker with some caramel highlights is the way to go. I’m so excited for next Saturday now, when I can get transformed into something like this: – Amy: Before & After!

I’ve used these makeover sites before, you’ve seen the results of such in the past right here on this very blog, I’m sure. However, Makeover Solutions has the best technology of all of the sites I’ve used thus far; the hair actually fit on my head! And not only does the hair fit, but I can also add highlights and lowlights to it.

What I really liked was the site did a makeover not only on my hair, but also on my makeup. There are a lot of options for eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, lipstick, lipliner, and lip gloss even on the free version. I saw all kinds of makeup brands for the paid version that were awfully tempting, too. I could spend hours on this site, as could most women I know. Fun!

But now, it’s all different. I know designer names and have preferences for shoes made by certain makers. My head turns and my feet stop in their tracks when I see things like Josef Seibel shoes on a sign outside a store today. Seemingly out of the blue, one day I started getting hooked on shoes and I’ve never looked back. I’m sure Rob wishes I would look back, though. I’ve got closets full of shoes now! It’s hard to believe there was ever a day I didn’t know about and appreciate brands such as Geox shoes. Or that there was a time when I didn’t really care if my shoes were perfect for my outfit or not; they just had to generally match what I was wearing and I considered myself fully dressed. Today I wouldn’t dream of not having at least a few different choices for black and brown shoes to choose from when picking out my clothes for the day. Sometimes I even decide what clothes I’ll wear after I pick which shoes I feel like wearing.

I guess there’s no mistaking it: I’ve turn into a certified shoeaholic!

I got an email that Shoes.com is having a Saturday sale today, so I started browsing through… and a lot of sandals are on sale, but I honestly don’t need another pair of summer shoes. My closets are already overrun with them. I will need some new fall and winter shoes though, I’m sure of it. The only problem is, I forget what I already have, so I need to go through the boxes first before I buy anything. Since I’m still feeling dizzy and tired, I don’t know that I’ll be going through any shoe boxes today. Guess that means I’ll have to pass on the Saturday sale. Oh well. There will be more, I’m sure.

So I’m curious. Do you follow the general fashion rules? Things like no white shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day?