Week 43 Hair: Henna Madness!

 So yea, I finally got the courage to try Henna. I LOVE how it had made my hair look and feel! It feels stronger, longer, fuller and heavier...all good things to me! However, for my schedule, and the realities of life, this is NOT something I can do every month. 

I got up at 8am on Sunday and wasn't finished with my hair until 11pm that night and I am not exaggerating.  The thought of sleeping with that stuff in my hair grossed me out. I am not a person that "sleeps pretty" so that gunk would have been all over the bed. That's why I had to do it all in one day. I actually mixed it the night before and then applied it the next morning.

The Henna process takes extreme patience in the application and rinsing out of the product, especially the rinising out of it. I can see myself wanting to do it every month because of the benefits but getting lazy with it. 

You really have to be careful to rinse that stuff out of your hair. It takes awhile. Right now I'm thinking I will do it once every 2 months. When my schedule slows down (in the summer) I might consider doing it on a monthly basis.

In the post Week 41 Hair, I didn't actually shampoo my hair. Since I didn't have the aloe vera juice I didn't see any real point in starting the process and having to finish it later. So I sucked it up and just wore my hair in updos for the rest of the week.

Last week is when I applied the Henna. Many people don't use shampoo to rinse out the Henna but I did. Partly because it had been 2 weeks since I shampooed and I wanted to have a clean scalp, and partly because I wanted to make sure the Henna rinsed out completely.

So here's the step-by-step process in pictures, Curly Nikki style.

This is how the bathroom was prepped. People aren't lying when they say it's messy. So if you are thinking of trying it make sure that you protect your bathroom. The Henna I used didn't have any color in it so nothing was stained anyway. Kudos to my husband for buying the plastic I put on the floor and cleaning up when I was done!

This is the mix. I made mine exactly how Curly Nikki makes her mix. I added 4 green tea bags to warm water and let it steep. After that I mixed it in with the Henna and then added about 2 tbsp. of honey. I made 200g of the Henna and froze my leftovers. Like I mentioned above, I let it sit overnight (approximately 8 hours).

This is my hair before the application. I wet my hair and throughly detangled before applying the Henna. It's important to do so because you don't want to manipulate your hair much in the application process.

This is at some point in the beginning of the process before I got super messy. The technique is to "smoosh" the Henna on your hair and not rake it through. Make sure you have some plastic gloves!

It is so hard to get this stuff evenly on the hair, or at least I thought so. Next time I will try to make it a tad bit more watery. I think it was too thick. But I did a decent job for my first time.

Now I'm one the second half of my hair. I split my hair into two sections and started each section in the back.

What my hair looked like before I put on my plastic bag. Again, the application was not exactly uniform but I did my best.

Here's a top shot.

 As you can see, I was filthy at the end. Make sure you wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty (or staining if you use Henna with color).

 Here I am again after cleaning up a bit. Now this stuff stayed on for 8 hours.

 After the 8 hours I was itching to rinse this out because it started leaking. Imagine sleeping with this stuff on!

 Yes, it is a complete mess!

Me in the shower right before rinsing it out.

I don't have any post-Henna pictures because, like I said, I didn't finish until 11pm and I was tired. But after rinsing it out really well (I used up all the hot water doing so!) I applied my deep conditioner. I added honey, olive oil and coconut milk to it. My hair felt great afterwards. I didn't have any problems with excessive drying.

I left the deep conditioner in for 1.5 hours and then applied my kimmaytube and twisted my hair up. It was a long process but I truly believe my hair reaped benefits from it. 

I recommend Henna but warn that it is an involved process. Only do this when you are in the mood and don't have to leave the house.

Week 41 Hair

This week I decided to give my hair a treat again and wear it out. I also planned on washing my hair on Saturday. So I figured that if I took my twists down and separated them a bit it'd be easier on me on wash day.

It's Sunday and I still haven't washed my hair. Saturday turned out to be a bit busier than usual so I didn't have time. I just kept them in the big twists I put them in to go to bed and wore a hat the entire day. Instead of trying to figure out what to do with my hair since I didn't want to manipulate it much.

Personally, I prefer updos. They are so low maintenance and continue to look perfect at the end of a long day. I wore the above style on a Friday. I only have a meeting and a 2 hour class on Fridays so I knew I wouldn't have to be out and about all day. Completely conducive to wearing my hair out although I was sick of it at the end of the day.

It felt great though because I used coconut oil to help me take down the twists. Coconut oil is the best! It's one of my favorite oils because it makes my hair so incredibly manageable and shiny and soft for days afterwards. I don't use it everyday because it can cause build up.

Other than that hair as usual this week. I probably won't wash my hair until Monday because I forgot to pick up the aloe vera juice. Yes, I just remembered Saturday night when all the stores are closed in Córdoba and they don't open again until Monday. Oh well, I guess I'll have a relaxing Sunday! 

Then again, maybe I'll simply detangle, shampoo and deep condition tonight. I'll keep my plastic cap on all day Monday at work and then after work rinse and apply the kimmaytube....

Week 42 Hair 

Detangle with conditioner

Shampoo

Deep Condition

Kimmaytube Leave in

Twists

Post Marathon Thoughts

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So, I had my first marathon-related dream earlier this week. I say "first" like all people who run marathons obsess about it to the point of dreams. Then again, if you have any idea what it takes to prepare yourself for a marathon....you know it IS a lot like obsession!

I was running my second marathon, or rather, a marathon that was definitely not my first. I know this because I was positive that I would have enough time to run a PR (personal record). I was completely relaxed throughout the entire run. So relaxed in fact that I was helping people along the course.

Friends and family members needed my help with this and that so I had to stop at various points along the course. Sometimes I would fix something, and other times, I would aid them in a task. The details on the actual tasks are fuzzy at this point.

Each time I stopped I was relaxed and confident that these little detours would not affect me finishing the race. However, at some point while I was running I got lost! I mean completely lost. I couldn't find the other runners or the route. Actually, the entire time I was running it was like I was running by myself because there were no other runners around me.

I was panicking at this point. I kept running back and forth trying to find my way with no luck. All of the previous confidence I had, had vanished. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to finish the race and the clock was ticking....

Strangely, I have no idea how this dream ended. Either I woke up suddenly or forgot what happened. The latter usually happens to me once the responsibilities of the day come flooding into my head. It was interesting though. 

Usually when I dream about running it's running away from some celebrity who wants to hurt me! Yes, I know, it's strange but true. This dream, though, was specific to marathons. Although it was stressful at the end I think it's sort of cool. Like I'm a new member to some kind of elite club.

In other post marathon news... I got the hubby to run!

Since I'm still in my recovery stage it's really the perfect time to introduce him to running. We've already gone out twice this week and will go out again on Sunday. The first time we did 30 minutes and the second day 40 minutes.

This is quite exciting for me because it's taken me since 2009 to get him running! He loves it, which makes it worth the wait. He is so happy and proud of himself after a run so I'm glad I can be there to encourage him. 

We are having a great time! It's also helping me not get super bored with these lax runs. I run at his pace typically so I can chat and such as we run. Who knew bonding and running went hand in hand?

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I've also given some thought on my future running plans. In a later post I'll provide more details. But just to mention it here I think I will run another marathon in September and the Seville marathon again next year. Anything can happen when it comes to training so these plans are tentative of course.

Once my recovery period ends on March 17th I'll start a conditioning program. This will basically keep me in shape until I start marathon training for the September marathon in June. I have no idea what marathon I will run but it will be something close by. After that I should have ample time to recover for the Seville Marathon 2013 in February. 

During the conditioning program I don't think I'll run any races. Once I start training I'd like to run some smaller ones like 5Ks and 10Ks. I initially wanted to run the Córdoba half-marathon again in November but I think I'll wait until 2013. If everything goes as planned.

I'll detail my conditioning and training programs in later posts. Right now I'm just enjoying running with Chema without thinking about distance, time or pace. It's great!