In which I talk about my buns

My hair's been bothering me lately, both in appearance and in length, so I decided to look up some of the old long hair sites and think about new options for both care and styling.

Our old standby, Pert Plus, stopped working on all our hair a couple of months ago - it still cleans, but it really doesn't condition anymore, so I picked up a different brand of conditioner last time, one that calls itself "anti frizz" because that's got to be a good thing, right?

But my hair didn't like it, and I didn't really want to start working my way through the hair care product aisle because each bottle is a chunk of money and takes weeks to use up and in the meantime your hair's too greasy or dry or whatever between washes.

So, as I mentioned briefly yesterday, I decided to go the non-commercial-products route.

Baking soda is a base, like soap, and cleans hair very nicely (couple tablespoons in a cup of warm water). Rinse well. Apple cider vinegar as a rinse (again, a couple tablespoons in a cup of water, followed by a good rinse) neutralizes the base and restores a healthy pH to the hair, as well as leaving it soft and detangly.

You wouldn't think so, but it does.

Plus, both are very cheap and I rather like the smell of the vinegar (which doesn't linger in the hair, but it does in the bathroom.)

Both solutions feel just like water - there's no soapy sudsy, no lather, rinse, repeat. But it works and it's nice that the first thing I tried made a difference.

So, on to the styling. I liked wearing buns back when my hair was long, and I can't help but notice it's only an inch or two above my waist now. That probably qualifies, once again, as "long." No wonder I'm getting tired of the daily ponytail.

I remember, in times past, struggling to find new ways of putting my hair up. I would find instructions for different kinds of buns, but they would be all Step By Step Instructions and "It should look something like this picture," when you can't see the back of your head anyway, and it was arm tiring and frustrating and hard to do.

And the pins. Oh, the Amish pins. Don't get me wrong; Amish pins are a wonderful thing. But it shouldn't take the whole package to keep a bun in place.

And then, suddenly, there was a link to this little blog with something like 30 styles, most of them buns, and each one has a teeny tiny (clickable to enlarge) picture and maybe three lines of text describing how to do it.

And I tried a couple.

And they worked.

And now I am happy,* the end.


* Well, okay. I'll be happier once my scalp gets used to snug hairdos again. And once Bob polyurethanes my hairsticks so they don't snag as much. And I'd have been happier if someone hadn't said to me, "What's with the bun, did you forget to wash your hair?" But in the grander sense, I am very happy.