Tag Archives: New House

Maybe I Don’t Loathe Roses After All

I have ten rose bushes. Yes, Ten. Rose. Bushes. Ten separate bushes. Right after I graduated high school, my (future) husband and I rented a house with 4 friends. For some reason I took interest in caring for the yard that hadn’t been taken care of for ages. This included one very large rose bush that very badly needed pruning. I believe it took me two separate sessions to get that rose bush trimmed down to size and my hands were sad about it for a week.

Flash forward to now. I had noticed the rose bushes when we were looking at the house, but honestly didn’t really take much note of them. It was only after actually making an offer that I realized that this lady loooooved roses. It was my thorough plan to rip them all out the second I could because pruning them is such a pain. I thought to myself “I don’t even like roses, why would I put in all the effort to take care of them?” I’ve specifically said to my husband that he shouldn’t buy me roses because I don’t like them.

Then they bloomed.

Maybe I do like roses after all…

Where’d My Hair Go?

So I’ve been contemplating chopping all of my hair off for a while. I’ve been growing it since a month or so before I found out I was pregnant. The first book I read when I was pregnant was The Girlfriends’ Guide to Pregnancy—which by the way was very funny, but also told me that I shouldn’t try natural childbirth for my first child because I “have no idea what it feels like”—and she said something along the lines of “Don’t drastically change your hair while you’re pregnant because you’ll hate it and cry.” For some reason, I decided not to cut my hair at all. I think I got one haircut the whole time I was pregnant and it was just the ends.

Then new-mommyhood took over my life and I just didn’t care enough to change it much. I tried bangs once, but that’s about it. At some point, I decided that I would try to grow my hair to the same length it was in high school—which wasn’t really length because it was extensions—and do it all pretty again.

This is me in the day portion of my prom date (with my future husband).

Little did I know, the only reason my hair held any style was because it was more processed than Mac and Cheese (it’s the cheesiest!). So I grew my hair out and did absolutely nothing with it. The few times I did try to curl my hair, it was virtually gone within a half hour. So that’s what I get for having healthy hair? WTF Asian genes!?!

Whilst painting the new house, I dipped my ponytail into a paint bucket. No, I didn’t do it on purpose—tis the life of a klutz. I decided that it was a sign to take the plunge and I’m so happy I did!

Before:

After:

Yes, I did donate my hair to Locks of Love. I’ll forgo the picture of my headless ponytail that I sent to my husband because it kind of freaks me out.

This all coincides with the no-poo experiment. Prior to cutting my hair, I was no-poo for about two weeks. My hair was breaking off everywhere, wouldn’t do anything, and I’m tired of feeling like I’m giving myself cancer every time I walk into my bathroom. Everywhere I read recommended baking soda mixed with water as “shampoo” and apple cider vinegar as “conditioner”, but I just used baking soda because my hair doesn’t need any extra conditioning. I figured I might as well do it all and switched over to baking soda mixed with water as soap (as suggested by @victorianaaa) and honey mixed with baking soda as face wash (as suggested by TopHat).

Here are my results.

Hair: Seemed pretty much the same to be honest. I don’t wash my hair every day to begin with, so it wasn’t a huge jump for me. My plan was to shower every other day, but only wash my hair every other shower (just rinsing in water on off showers). This was working pretty well until I got the paint in my hair and stopped washing/rinsing it all together because I couldn’t even brush it and therefore got awful greasy hair. I ended up cheating on the no-poo because I accidentally left the baking soda at the new house (took it there to clean because baking soda is awesome!) and very badly needed to wash my hair before getting it cut. I started back on with the no-poo though and things are going smoothly.

Body: If anything, I would say I had less dry skin. The same day that I used regular shampoo is when I had to use regular body wash and I noticed something very, very weird. I’ve never been the person that needs daily deodorant (I know, I know, this whole post is getting overly personal) and when washing with the baking soda, I suddenly realized one day that I hadn’t put on deodorant for a long time with very little smelliness. Within 24-hours of using regular body wash I needed it again. Can anyone explain this to me?

Face: I did have more break-outs than normal, but I can’t tell you if that’s the new scrub or the fact that I am so stressed I could rip your head off with all of this buying a house, painting a house, and readying to move into a house nonsense. Either way, it feels fantastic on my face, smells great, and I never feel the need to put lotion on my face after getting out of the shower—which is something of a small miracle considering that usually if I open my mouth post-shower, pre-lotion, you can practically hear it cracking.

Any tips with the no-poo would be greatly appreciated.