Do you “No Poo”?

That’s a funny title, huh? Yeah, I thought so too…and the concept behind it is even weirder to me. Amazingly enough this has nothing to do with my 5 month-old who generates a LOT of “poo” around our house…and I know that you’re relieved to hear it!

The “no poo” method refers to a way to deal with naturally curly hair. Which I have. In abundance. Even though I thought that maybe I was losing all of my hair right after Jax was born. I’ve still got it, quite a lot of it, and still look for ways to “tame” and “manage” it.

Now, to be honest, there’s a lot less curl to my hair these days when compared to how it was when I was younger. It’s gone from a tight Shirley Temple-type of curl to a nice wave that frizzles only minimally when left un-moussed. The humidity is bad here in Texas (although not at this time of year) but it’s pretty good here in Austin for my curly hair…no, living somewhere like Houston has never been and will never be a viable option for someone with curls like mine!

Anyway, back to my point. So this theory comes from this book (which I haven’t read) and basically gives you some guidelines and reasons behind why people with naturally curly hair should treat their hair differently than the rest of the hair world. The gist of it is (and please forgive me if I get this a little wrong since I’ve already admitted that I have NOT read the book!) that shampoo contains harsh chemicals in it that strip hair of its natural oils – reacting even worse on curly hair. Left alone, without treatment of shampoo, the hair will balance itself (along with the scalp) out in terms of oil and moisture and your curls will become more manageable and just better all around.

The first time I heard of this theory, I was like – HUH? Go without shampoo…eeewww! Plus, the blog post was recommending substituting a baking soda paste for shampoo and apple cider vinegar in place of conditioner…and it mentioned going days between shampoos…and a detox period of super greasiness as your hair/scalp adjusted…yucky. All of that did NOT sound fun, but I happened to notice that over the past few months when having a newborn in the house does not tend to leave time each and every day to shower and wash hair that my hair responded favorably to not being washed each day. You’re lucky to shower most days with a newborn, right? Right! But I did see a change in my hair…and in my scalp. So I went back and researched a bit more on this “no poo” business right before the holidays started.

Since I was going to be off of work for almost a week and a half, it seemed like the perfect time to try it out and see what happened. The comments that I gathered said that it sometimes takes the hair up to 2-4 weeks to balance out the oils and such…during which time I’m thinking that your hair can look a bit…not so good. Vacation time seems to be the perfect time to try something that might make you look not so good…especially vacation time spent at home, not actually out on vacation.

Here are some guidelines to follow that I gathered:
1. Wash your hair using only conditioner…only on the roots of your hair. (This is easiest if bent over at the waist – sort of upside down in the shower.)

2. When “scrubbing” your scalp with the conditioner, use only your fingertips…no nails.

3. Apply a generous amount of conditioner to all of hair…leaving it on to soak in for several minutes. Wash about 80% of it off in water that is as cold as you can stand it, leaving the remaining 20% in your hair as a leave-in conditioner.

4. When you get out of the shower, do not use your towel on your hair and scrub vigorously. Use a microfiber towel or a t-shirt to gently squeeze the excess water from your hair. Do NOT wring the excess water from your hair. “Scrunch” the hair up from ends to roots in microfiber towel or t-shirt.

5. Do NOT comb/brush your hair. Gently separate or “finger comb” your hair while in the shower – like after applying the conditioner.

6. Apply gel/mousse and scrunch hair again.

7. If possible do NOT dry your hair with a dryer. Let air dry as often as possible and DO NOT touch your hair while it’s drying. (This will help cut down the frizz factor.) If you must dry your hair with a dryer, use a diffuser and only dry hair until it’s about 80% dry then allow hair to air dry the rest of the way.

At least, those are the guidelines that I gathered and am trying to follow. I also bought a trial/travel size collection of some of the DevaCurl products that the author of the “no poo” theory developed. I bought: No Poo Shampoo, One Conditioner, Set it Free Mist (for frizz control), AnGEL hair gel and Mister Right (revitalizing spray for days of no shampooing at all). I generally liked the look/feel/smell of the products, but would be interested in a heavier gel for my hair…something like the ArcAnGEL gel. I didn’t see it in a trial size at my local Ulta store, so I went with what they had.

I’ve still got a few days left of the initial two-week trial period that I was attempting before I share my results. It’s gone good so far, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by a few things that I’ll share when I’m done.

Do you have naturally curly hair? How do you care for it? Ever tried the “no poo” method? Did you notice that your curls changed after having babies? (That last one’s just for my own curiosity…)

New Year...New Look...

That applies to both me and my blog!  Of course, changing the design of my blog was a LOT easier than changing the way that I look will be...but I'm going to bust out with a new look myself here pretty soon!  At least, that's what I'm hoping for here in a few weeks after I've spent some much needed time with Jillian.  She claims that she's TV's toughest trainer, and after a few days spent up close and personal with her, I'm not one to argue!  Wow - does that lady pack one hell of a workout in those 20 minutes or what?  And I'm only on Level ONE...times are looking tough ahead, that's for sure!

But, it's what I need to do to get rid of the last bit of baby weight.  Yeah, if you're a smart cookie, you might be scratching your head right about now.  You might remember a time when I boasted having lost more weight than my original starting pregnancy weight...yeah, that's what I get.  Weight took offense at those comments of mine, turned around, stuck it's fingers in it's ears, screwed up his face and went "na na na na boo boo!" right back at me...and graced me with the gift of weight gain instead of loss. 

So B (over at Our Journey) and I are on a work-out mission...we start officially today.  Here are my stats as taken by me two days ago:

Weight: 151
Waist: 35
Hips/Thighs: 39 / 22.5

Posting your measurements on the blog-o-sphere is always somewhat scary to me...but when I was a bride wanting to look smashing in my wedding dress, it really helped me to stay honest about my progress and kept me on track more often than not, knowing that I was going to have to post results in a few days.  Let's hope it works again for me.  We'll see, huh?

So that's one resolution.  Sort of.  I say sort of because I'm not normally a New Year's resolution type of gal.  It's just not my thing.  I have things that I want to work on or accomplish, but I tend to work on them all year long, not just at a particular time of year.  This year, I've got some specifics that I'll share with you all:

1. Healthy Body - this is two part.  It's not just weight loss, it's about how my clothes fit.  If it's my lot in life to stay the same weight, that's cool...I just want it to look a bit better on me.  So I'm trying to not be a slave to the number shown on the scale and to use how my clothes are fitting as a better tracker of my progress.  Right now, the pants...they are tight.  Guess that's telling me something, all right?!?! 

2. Healthy Mind - Having a sane mind goes hand in hand with the one before.  I need to work on taking time for myself.  I remember well what the first year of mommyhood was like from my first go-round on this ride...and I specifically remembering "waking up" about three years later wondering where the heck I went.  I had become Jenna's Mom (which was great and totally worthwhile!) and had lost Sandy somewhere along the way.  So I would like to avoid that all together this time.  I need to take time for me, and to learn to ask for help.  Yes, it might be easier to do it myself, the way that I want it done the first time around...but that doesn't lead to personal time.  It's ok if the bottles are washed "wrong" or if Jax cries for an extra minute or two waiting for Brent to wake up and get him instead of me doing the whole night shift.  It's not the end of the world...it's really ok. 

3. Savings - have you taken the time to check out where I am on my financial savings goals so far?  (If you haven't, just click out of your reader onto my actual blog and look on the right for the Savings button that I update weekly.)  It really added up as I did Xmas shopping and caught a lot of great sales!  You know what?  I'm already halfway to my original goal right now...and I've got almost a full year left to finish the other half - that's SO awesome to me! 

Those are my top three goals for 2011 right now.  How about you?  Did you set actual goals/resolutions for yourself this year?  I think that mine are pretty standard and nothing spectacularly original...but there you have it.  I've got some smaller things rattling around in this head of mine that also might "gel" into more concrete goals, but nothing that I'm ready to share just yet...maybe another day.

Post-Partum Hair Loss?

Is there such a thing, do you know? Because if there is, I HAVE IT.

My Mom is going to think that this post is silly because my whole entire life I have shed hair like a dog. Like enough to make a person sweeping the floors (Mom) ask herself why I’m not bald yet!

I’ve always been a shedder, but this is getting ridiculous.

And blog world, I do love you, truly I do. I went and grabbed my camera with the intent to take a picture to quantify how much hair loss is happening to me right now. But I stopped myself before taking the picture. Why? I already told you – because I love you! Trust me, no one wants to see a picture of a hair ball. Especially if it’s not your OWN hair ball. If you do, you’ve probably got bigger issues than I can address in this post…LOL!

I know that I make a lot of comparisons that start with the phrase “when I had my daughter.” Forgive me - it’s all I have to compare with so I probably overdo it a bit.

With that being said, when I had my daughter my hair changed so I was expecting a change this time around as well. Last time, my hair went from naturally curly (like REALLY curly) to just plain frizzy. There was just enough curl left in my hair to make you wish I had worn a hat before I went out that day. Seriously, it was bad. To fix the problem, I got a perm. For the first time in my life. Although it was a bit too curly at first, and I stunk for the next three weeks when my hair was wet…it did the trick and my hair returned to its normal curliness.

I’m not really sure what to do about hair loss. About losing a Barbie-doll amount of hair each time that I wash my hair. I don’t know about you, but something’s telling me that a perm isn’t going to fix this one! And since this is something that I’ve dealt with my whole life, you’ve got to understand that this is an alarming amount of hair falling out of my head if I think that it’s a lot! My husband of almost a year still isn’t used to the amount of hair that I lose on a monthly basis (since he’s the sweetheart who snakes the drain for me!)…but I look at the glob that had the drain stuck and just sort of shrug it off.

I can’t shrug off this amount.

So here’s what I want to know, if I may be so bold as to ask. Did this happen to you? Or someone that you know of? Or someone that your best friend’s aunt’s neighbor’s cousin's friend knew of someone else experiencing? Because I’d really like to think that this is normal…and will stop soon…you know, before I’m really bald this time, Mom!

(As an aside, I can say that I’m still taking my prenatal vitamins (since I’m nursing Jax) and hopefully my hair is growing at a rate that is equal to the rate that I’m losing it at. My hair doesn’t feel any thinner at any other time during the day. Of COURSE it feels thinner right after I wash it and have to throw large handfuls away…but at no other time does it appear more thin to me. Then again, that could be wishful thinking!! LOL!)

The Things We Do for Our Blogs!

OK - looking back at my post last night about how my clothes were fitting, I realized that the picture that I posted wasn't really fair. It's a dress, and not a tight one at that. So you can't really tell anything. I could still be fairly pregnant looking and you wouldn't be able to tell in that dress.

So, I can't believe that I am doing this, but I took some more pictures this morning. You know, after I realized that I can get into my skinny crop jeans WITHOUT sucking in. These are jeans that I wore regularly when I was going through my divorce...you know, the one time in your life when you don't eat?!?! And you lose all kinds of crazy weight? Yeah, these are THOSE jeans...yea me! I took some pictures, which it's so hard to take a good self-portrait when you and your infant are the only ones at the house, and didn't like them. I seriously looked like death warmed over. Hair not done, no make-up on. So, I ran to the bathroom and showed my large amounts of love for you guys and put. on. make up. Seriously, that's a lot of love these days! And I left my hair down so that it looks like I "fixed it" even when I didn't. The second set of pictures turned out much better and were post-worthy.

And then I took it one step further and raised my shirt so that you could see that I wasn't sucking it in to look better or whatever. Yes, there is still work to do, some slimming and shedding still needs to happen as things are not as "tight" as I would like for them to be...but overall, I'm proud of my post-baby body. Then my husband came home and saw me with my hair "did" and make up on and I had to tell a little white lie that I did it all for him. You know, since we're having company over for the big game today - UT plays this afternoon - and I didn't want to embarass him by looking all bedraggled. Even if it's just family.

But you guys know that I really did it all for YOU, right? 'Cuz I did!

Six Weeks Post-Baby

Well, I can hardly believe that it's been six weeks! Is that from lack of sleep or have I just gone crazy from the endless hours of crying that's happened in my ear? You would think that six weeks gone by would feel longer than it does, but I swear that it's not just me. My mom called this morning and when I said that I was leaving the drs office she got all worried that something was wrong. I quickly reassured her that I was fine and had just gone in for my six week check-up and even she was like "Has it REALLY been that long?!?!"

So see...it's not just the lack of sleep...or the crying that makes time fly!

Just kidding. There have just been a few bad days - about the crying that is. But it really HAS been six weeks. And I really can't comprehend that the time has flown by so quickly. I've got two weeks of maternity leave left, and although for the most part I think that I'm ready to go back to work there's still a small part of me that won't ever be ready.

But back to what I meant to write about...it's so easy for me to get lost on tangents, sorry. So I was sure to ask today about that pain in my lower abdomen that I was asking you all about the other day. I was prepared to hear the worst (and no as much as I really wanted to, I did NOT google my symptoms!) and I was pleasantly suprised.

She told me that a "tugging" sensation is normal around the incision site. She further explained that so much tissue is cut through and then re-connected around the incision site, that the stiching done down there is pretty extensive. She also explained that the ends of the incisions are the most likely place for hernias to occur, so often times she puts in a few extra stitches or makes the re-connection extra taut. She assured me that it would go away over time...and I just need to be patient.

Maybe she doesn't remember my pregnancy? Maybe she's forgotten since she doesn't see my weekly anymore that patience really isn't one of my strengths?? I just smiled, nodded my head and said "I'll try."

In other great news, I was re-weighed today on what I consider to be my "official scale." You know that the one at home is never really accurate unless you have a really nice, expensive good scale. And if you've been reading a while now, you'll already know that I'm cheap/frugal/whatever-you-want-to-call-it and can surmise that I bought the scale at Wal-Mart that cost $9.99. So maybe it's just my scale that's in a constant state of inaccuracy...

Either way, I got weighed today and I am PROUD (so, so proud) to report that I am officially 14 pounds UNDER my pregnancy start weight! That's less than I weighed when I got married, guys...and I worked really hard to get to my wedding weight! I guess that just goes to show that all of those old wive's tales about breastfeeding and weight loss after a pregnancy are true, because you know that I haven't been dieting, right? I eat a LOT. And I do mean a LOT. And it's not all healthy and nutritious food. I promise you that I'm eating candy, brownies and Oreo's every single day...and pizza twice a week.

Here's a picture to show me off: I swear that I'm not trying to be all annoying and "look at me!"-ish about losing weight, but I am really stoked about it! The dress that you see me in there? That was the dress that I wore to my wedding rehearsal dinner and it wasn't that loose on me at that time. I promise! Now, that's not to say that all of my clothes are fitting as well...I did manage to get back into my "skinny" jeans last week, but my "super skinny" jeans won't even button up. Or come close to buttoning up...but still, progress is being made.

Maybe I should try to go to the gym sometime in the next two weeks? What a novel concept! That might help tighten what's still a bit flabby...even though the weight says one number, that doesn't always mean that the clothes fit the same! But we're making progress!

Anyway, I've got the "All Clear" go-ahead from the dr on all activities - working out, s-e-x, taking hot baths, and carrying whatever I'd like to carry. I'm all healed, healthy and happy. And I got my prescription for birth control too! I nearly left without getting it, but that wouldn't have been good - Lord knows that I don't need another little one running around to add to the mayhem...