Before the New Year begins...

I am not one to do New Year's resolutions because I live how I want to everyday of the year! However, I wanted to share some pictures of my hair and some new hair regimen stuff I've been thinking about trying going into the New Year.

Normally, my hair stays in twists (you know how I do) but I actually tried to make an effort for my job's Christmas party.

As you can see it was just a pin up style using my hair combs and tons of bobby pins. I had some serious volume!

Then I had a nice little lunch with the people I worked with and got some further use out of those hair combs I bought awhile back.

This style was just a simple side ponytail as you can clearly see.

The people that I work with organized this cooking competition. It is based on the popular British TV series Come Dine With Me. When I lived in England that was the only show that I watched all the time. 

Basically, a group of friends get together and cook for each other. There is a budget and you have to create a menu (three-course meal) along with some form of entertainment. The person with the most points at the end wins 1,000€.

Since we are poor teachers we each just put in 5€ so the one who wins gets about 55€. Not bad, right? So this lunch was the second installment. I'm next year sometime and will definitely be breaking out vegan goodies from my two cookbooks: Veganomicon and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. But I digress...

In the New Year I'd like to try the Curly Girl Method and take a break from twists. I find that the twists make it such a chore to detangle my hair. Maybe it's doing more harm than good, I'm not sure, but I want to try something new. There are many ways to protective style that don't include twists.

I plan to buy the book either on my kindle fire or from Amazon.co.uk. We'll see what happens. I also plan to Henna Gloss every two months instead of every month. No matter how hard I try there is always some little particles left in my hair and I hate that! But I do like the results.

So I will just be extra diligent with my deep conditioning and do the Henna Gloss every two months. I did a mayo treatment the other day with mayo, Castor oil, olive oil and some sweet orange oil (for fragrance). My hair felt super good and smelled good too. I'm going to stick with that for awhile (maybe 3 months?) and see how I like it.

Every night I will moisturize my hair before going to bed so that in the morning I just have to refresh and then style. Last night I misted my hair with water and aloe vera juice. Then I put in my kimmaytube and detangled my hair. I put it in four giant twists for bed and today I will wear some roll, tuck and pin style. 

I will try to update the blog every month on how I like this new hair regimen. I'm also trying to use more all-natural products. It's just that the funds are not where I need them to be to revamp everything I own just yet.

FITNESS

Just a quick update on working out. I'm still struggling to establish a schedule. I got sick twice (once in November and once in December) and that completely crushed my plans. However, I'm doing what I can. I ran for 1 hour on Monday, 30 minutes on Tuesday and did some weight training. Today I did a 55 minute run and some weights. I'll probably do a fast run tomorrow.

To ring in the New Year I'll be running a 9K on New Year's eve (Monday). I'm excited about that since it will be my first 10K (well, almost 10K). I'm definitely enjoying this time not training but I still want to make sure I stay fit.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!! BE SAFE!

End of the month check-in

The plan was to do my henna gloss treatment this past weekend. So I left my hair out so that I wouldn't have to worry about taking out a bunch of twists. 

I wore my hair Monday-Wednesday as shown in the above photos, last week. Then I just put them in chunky twists for the rest of the week. (By Wednesday the puff was humongous!)

Saturday I had an all day conference to go to in another city (Seville). I got up at 6:15am, took the train at 7:55am and didn't get back home until 9:00pm. The plan then was to do the henna treatment the following day.

However, I got sick while at the conference. Go figure. I still am sick actually. I didn't want to sit around with a wet head while sick so it's been postponed. I guess with all that recycled air on the train and in the conference rooms...I caught something.

It sucks because it's just bad timing. The last time I was sick was this time last year! Plus it does have me worried about the half-marathon on Sunday. 

Of course I'm not even going to attempt to run this week until I feel 100%. That might mean that I have to run the half-marathon after only running twice after my full marathon.

That's completely unimpressive, but what can I do? It will be a bummer but I don't plan on running the half-marathon either if I'm not feeling better. Yes, this super sucks.

I also wanted to try this new workout I found on youtube but I guess it'll have to wait until next week:

My wish is to feel better by Wednesday. (As if I could control it, right?) But I have a feeling this decision is going down to the wire...

Next week marathon #2: Ciudad Real

I just realized this morning that my 2nd marathon is next weekend!

Clearly, I have a lot on my mind....

The goal is still to finish in 3:30 and although I'm nervous, I am NOT going to psych myself out! Last week I ran 20 miles (trail running) in 3:03 and I felt great afterwards. So I hope I do myself proud.

Either way I've decided that I need a break from training. My initial goal was to (after my marathon recovery) start training for an ultramarathon. However, my mind needs a rest from restrictions on my running for awhile.

Honestly, I miss running and racing simply for the joy of doing it. Actually, I haven't really run just for the joy of running...ever!

Of course I like running but once I was able to run 8 miles easily I immediately set out to train for a marathon. All of the races I have run (including 5Ks) have been during training.

To date I have run 2 half-marathons, 2 5Ks and after next week, 2 marathons.

What I plan to do is to run when and how long I feel like it. I might or might not record my runs. I also plan to sign up for more races because the thrill of being part of a race is something else! It just motivates you to keep running and improving and that's what I need right now.

I might even run the Córdoba half-marathon in November if I so choose! The possibilities (as they say) are endless!

Before the race on Sunday the 28th I will come back with a quick post on what I'm wearing race day and how I'm feeling. This race is also different because I have to pick up my bib number the day of the race. I can't wait until training is over!

Oh, and quick hair update:

I plan to do a henna gloss treatment tomorrow. For the past 3 months or so I've been doing my henna like clockwork. This week I just wore it in a ponytail because I needed a break from the twists.

Since I wore it all week I didn't want to put too much stress on my edges. To combat that I didn't wrap the ponytail holder around twice. I just made sure it went over my hair and then left it loose.

With the headbands I was also able to avoid using gel. I just spritzed my hair in the morning and added some moisturizer and the headbands. It was super quick and easy.

Summer is over!

I never thought I'd be so thrilled for summer to be over, but I am. While it's not "officially" over, the temperatures have dropped significantly making it so much easier for me to run.

But let's back up here a bit...

Yes, I am still here, alive and preparing for my second marathon (October 28th 2012). 

This summer has been hectic for me so I have been completely MIA as you well know.

There were some unfortunate deaths of family members at the school where I work so I had to substitute teachers. It was a lot of work because I was just thrown in the proverbial deep end. Actually, the last two weeks of August I didn't do any running because I simply didn't have the time. I started work at 845am and didn't leave until 9pm!

I'm back on track so far even though yesterday was the first day of classes for the fall semester. I did a 20 mile run on Sunday and today I'll do a 6 mile run (RP or race pace) after work.

This time around I'm finding myself a lot more nervous about the marathon. I have a goal in mind (3:30) but I've had a sporadic training schedule what with work and life and such. So I'm nervous. I can't believe that soon I'll be tapering...

A lot has been going on but my most exciting news is my new running shoes! I got some super cute Asics. I'll take some pics and post them on the blog when I have another breather.

What about hair?

Well, as for hair...it's doing what it does. Last week I put in another henna treatment (Henna gloss). I've been doing well with that. I think I might do another length check at the end of the year just to see what my hair is up to.

Life is good though. I recently moved and me and the hubby are happy and healthy. Oh, our 1-year vegan anniversary comes up this month around the 20th. So I will definitely give my thoughts and show some recipes I've wanted to post for awhile but haven't gotten around to.

So happy October to you all and I hope to make my presence on the blog more regular in the future!

Henna Gloss and Summer Hair Routine

HENNA GLOSS

I took the advice of a friend of mine and decided to try a henna gloss treatment courtesy of CurlyNikki.

While my application still "needs some work," this time around my Henna experience was great! It was so much easier and FASTER to apply. It probably only took me 10 minutes to do my entire head, maybe less.

Again, the application wasn't perfect, but it was much more uniform than my previous two applications. I can definitely see myself sticking with the Henna gloss treatment. I won't do this every month (because I don't feel like it) but I will do it more often.

To make this mix you just prepare the Henna as you would any treatment. Here's what I use:

1 100g box neutral Henna (meaning no color)

1 cup (250ml) green tea (I use 3 tea bags)

1-2 Tbsp. honey

Then you add the "gloss" factor, which is  1 cup (250ml) of your favorite conditioner. The one I have is a Tresseme product. It should be protein-free but I say use what you have because that's what I did!

I only lasted 4 hours with this stuff on my head because I was hot even with the air conditioning. If you do Henna for the color benefits you should leave it on for at least that much time. 

I usually leave it on for 8 hours. I wanted to try sleeping with it on, since that assures it will be on for a good amount of time, but I can't do it! I like to be comfortable when I sleep. What can I say?

So I just put on a plastic bag over the hair, lined it with some cotton-ball like material and then covered it with another plastic bag and some more cottony stuff. (To catch the leaks)

I know, not the best photos. But I had to take them myself as the hubby was occupied with his bike. 

After the 4 hours were up I proceeded to rinse out my hair really well. This is another step that is made easier with the Henna gloss recipe. I used more conditioner to rinse but I made sure to shampoo my scalp. I like a clean, itch-free scalp!

Then I deep conditioned and put in some seriously chunky twists in my hair. That's it! I seriously recommend this treatment to all newbie Henna people out there. 

SUMMER HAIR ROUTINE

My summer hair routine consists of protective styling and low-manipulation. That means I leave my twists in for as long as possible before taking them down to detangle and remove shed hairs. This time around I left them in for three weeks.

After the first week I condition wash and do a quick deep condition treatment with my Aussie 3-minute miracle product. 

The 3-minute miracle is the product on the far left.

This is mainly to make sure I have a clean scalp. I then moisturize and oil my scalp.

The second week I shampoo and do a more thorough deep conditioning. Then I moisturize and oil my scalp. 

All of this is I do with the twists still in my hair. I also make sure to moisturize my hair throughout the week as needed. 

The third week I take them down, detangle, remove shed hair, and prep for the shampoo. I was nervous, but the take-down was so easy! My hair tangles easy, especially when it's frizzy, so I was worried there'd be a long struggle.

But I took the advice of a youtuber (BeautifulBrwnBabyDol) and used some coconut oil and shea butter to help me. I just applied it to my twists then put them all up in a ponytail.

I removed each twist individually, detangled and removed shed hair. I then clipped it out of the way to work on the next twist. Definitely check out the above link if you want detailed information. 

I also took the opportunity to give myself a good trim because I haven't done one in a looooooong time!

This was about how much hair I cut off in total.

I then put my hair in about 5-6 sections and sprayed each one down with a mixture of: 

water

aloe vera juice (to establish a pH of 5)

conditioner

10 drops rosemary essential oil

coconut oil

My hair was dry and I didn't have the time to apply the Henna treatment that day. So to keep each section nicely stretched and moisturized I sprayed them and then twisted them back up until I could do my hair the following day. 

I ran in the morning and while I was showering rinsed my hair with some conditioner (still in the same sections). I put on a shower cap (actually a plastic bag!) to keep my hair moist until I applied the Henna treatment.

Of course I won't apply the Henna gloss each time I take down my twists but I will follow the same procedure. My hair was super soft and manageable and made shampooing a breeze!

The good thing about this routine is that I know my hair is staying healthy in all this hot weather. But since I have to moisture a lot more often, my twists frizz up quicker. 

I combat that by using my Janet Collection Afro Puff.

This helps me keep my hair in the best of condition while protecting it from the harsh weather...and still look presentable! I just jazz up the afro puff when I get bored with a flower, headband or scarf.

I plan to keep this up for the rest of July and into August. It usually stays pretty hot here in September as well so we'll see.

But I'm loving the ease of getting ready when I have to go out. I don't have to worry about what to do with my hair!