Hair today Gone Tomorrow?

So, I am still questioning if I should cut my hair or not!  I put a post out to facebook, and unfortunately got more don't cut than cut, but I can't tell if that is because they think either I look good in longer hair or because they like longer hair in general.  The one person whose opinion I would trust beyond a doubt is my husband.  The problem is he doesn't seem to have an opinion, or at least that's what he says.  I do believe him.  I think he would be honest and tell me if he truly had a preference either way.  I am still having visions of having that cute short pixie cut again, but I am so afraid that I will cut it all off and hate it or I will want to go long again.  Part of me thinks that this is just who I am.  I love short hair, but then I get this urge to grow it again and as soon as it is long enough, I decide to cut it all off.  I keep it short for a while then I get the urge to grow it again an the cycle continues.  I should just accept that is who I am and go with what I feel.  Part of the issue is keepin gup with haircuts and the cost of keeping up with haircuts.  I remember having to go for a haircut every 3-4 weeks at times.  I used to love getting my haircut, but I just don't have the time of the money.  I put out to facebook that I am looking for a good inexpensive hairdresser and have only gotten 2 suggestions so far.  Maybe there is no such thing as a good inexpensive hairdresser or maybe what I consider inexpernsive just isn't a reality.  I was thinking about when I had my hair short for my sisters wedding.  I remember trying on my dress and feeling like Audrey Hepburn, not that I looked that pretty, but that was the feeling that I got when I looked in the mirror.  I can't believe that I am taking so much time thinking and writing about this, but this is a huge decision.  I really want to just take the plunge, but what if I regret it.  I know that i can always grow it back and the summer is coming.  I can always cut short for the summer and gorw back in the winter if I choose.  I have a feeling that a hair cut is coming my way.  I can always use the excuse that I am doing it support or my mom's risk of losing her hair due to chemo, which really is actually what got me started thinking about this.  I think I may just use my picture from my sister's wedding as the type of style I am going for.  I love having a classic yet edgy look.  My hair has always been the one area that I tend to experiment with, that and make up.  I have a feeling I have made up my mind, I just haven't decided when to do it.  I guess I'll have to talk to my husband about it.  Oh well,  I finally don't mind my curl and yet I still want to go short again!

This was October 2009, how I plan to cut my hair

Not the best picture, but this is me now

Thanks for listening,

Amy

Newest info: after I initially wrote this I posted to facebook about where to get a haircut.  One of my friends is a selectman in town and is trying to get something together where there may be a benefit.  I don't really know how this will work, maybe a cut for a cure type event.  I don't know, all I know is that now that I have made the decision to cut my hair, I can't wait to do it.  If it can be tied in with some cancer cause even better.  And, I have the best husband.  He is not only fine with me having short hair, but says he likes my hair either way.   Gotta love the supportive partners.  That's just one of the reasons I love him!

Who Am I Update

I've written a bit about who I think I am and what some of my life goals are.  I am actually starting to feel like I am accomplishing some of the goals that I have set for myself.  When my mom got diagnosed with Breast Cancer, I took a long hard look at my life and decided to make some changes.  Unfortunately, I decided to make the changes all at once.  I should know myself better and I should know that I need to go slow.  I need to make some small changes and make them stick and then move on to a few more small changes so that in the end I will have made all the big changes, just over a long time period.  I have totally eliminated soda from my diet.  With all of the new information surrounding soda, I am hoping that eliminating this will help in many ways, not just eliminating the bad things in soda.  I am doing better with eating healthy foods.  I think today might have been the first day I have been totally vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, but vegetarian at least.  I know need to continue in this manner then start moving towards vegan, yet if I have some meat at some point, I won't beat myself up about it, because I know that will just spiral me back to where I don't want to be.

Now that I have a working washer again, my laundry is getting more manageable.  I am back to using cloth diapers.  It's a little hard with Michael being in school and wanting to ensure that I have enough diapers for him.  I have enough, but I just need to get into more of a routine with ensuring that there are cloth diapers for school.  It's only been two days of school so I know I will get into more of a routine as time goes on.

As far as crafting and being creative, I just don't seem to make the time.  I should plan better so that I have a project to work on while I watch my favorite tv shows.  I am participating in http://flirtyapronswap.blogspot.com next apron swap again.  I am really excited for this one.  I have requested a full garden apron and put that I love bright floral prints.  I am so hoping that my partner sees what I like and makes me a beautiful apron, like the ones that I have already received.  I love how creative others in this swap can be.  I am really looking forward to getting my partner and working really hard to get a package together that is really special.

Lastly, not that this is a major piece of who I am, it's really just the outward appearance of me, but I am again considering cutting my hair really short.  I have spent the last year and a half growing it out and am actually for the first time in my life, loving my curls, which is what is making this decision so much more difficult.  For years, I had a pixie style haircut and loved it.  I felt a little outrageous, probably not the right word, but I can't think of a better one.  I felt like I was saying yes I can be feminine and have really short hair.  I loved wearing makeup and really wearing dramatic colors with the short hair.  This was also pre-kids.  Not that short hair is difficult, but you really need to get your hair cut often, especially me since my hair grows in so fast.  I really need to wear make up to really make the short hair look right.  The funny thing is, when I was getting married, I contemplated growing my hair out and my sister in law mentioned that it may be foolish since short hair was what I had been wearing for years and was at that time who I was (not that you should be defined by what you look like, but short hair was who I was).  I am thinking that short hair is who I am and I should go back to wearing my hair short.  I think my husband will shoot me if I tell him I want to go short again.  I was thinking that given that my mom is getting chemo and that there is a good chance that she will lose her hair, I would cut my hair short in support of her losing her hair.  I wish my hair was longer, then I would have no qualms about cutting it.  I would go pixie short once again and donate my hair.  I don't know that I can wait long enough to let my hair grow tile there is 8-10 inches of hair to donate.  I don't know why hair is always my thing to obsess about.  I think for a bit, I was afraid that to be feminine I needed to have long hair.  I'm not sure I feel that way anymore.  I think that I had fun with short hair and I think that some day soon I may end up with short hair again.

Just a few things about me.  I hate to say that the hair paragraph is really what I needed to write about.  It's not exactly what I want to focus on with this blog, but it is who I am and I think that I needed to write about it to figure out what I want to do, not that I have made any firm decision yet.

Amy

Allergy Testing

About 1 year ago the fall, I started allergy testing.  I found out that I have fall allergies, yealy allergies, candida allergy, and spring allergies.  Since having my allergiy testing, I am doing 3 shots per week and in the fall sometimes more.  Currently, I am do for my shots this week and my eyes are telling me I better do them soon!  Recently, I had a blood test for food allergies and like usual,, I figured I wouldn't have anything show up.  Well, I got my results today and lo and behold I have food allergies too (my husband knew I would be allergic to something).  Some of it I was surprised at and some I kind of figured.  The only issue is that there are a lot of false positives with this test.  The big food items that I am allergic too are cheese, egg yolk, gluten, wheat, yeast, and milk with a few others that didn't react as bad as these.  I was not surprised with the milk and cheese, since every time I eat them, I tend to feel sick.  I wondered about wheat, gluten, and yeast, but i really didn't think that there would be an issue.  Now I need to schedule an appt with a dietician and talk about where to go next.  Personally, I think I want to just cut out these food items and see how I feel.  One web site that I looked at suggested to cut out foods that reacted with a +3 or +4 for at least 10 months and then slowly introduce them back into the diet and things that reacted with a +1 or +2  for 3 or 4 months.  I will probably make an appt with a dietician, but I am thinking that the best thing to do is to eliminate these foods and see how I feel.

Today, I did really good until I went off to work.  As usual, I stopped at the local muffin shop and got something.  I had been feeling really good until then now I feel horrible.  Most probably because I ate something that I said I wasn't going to.  I am done now with eating things that I shouldn't eat.  The only problem is that the dinner I made was with flour and dumplings.  I can't decide if I should just eat it and start after that, but part of me says start now!  I seriusly feel nasty right now and really want to feel better.

I really think that I need to keep a food journal.  This is not going to be easy with 3 little ones, but I think that is the only way to figure out if things are getting any better.  So to start off today, I had tea with lemon and stevia, salad with lettuce, red pepper, tomato,cucumber, carrot, celery, goat cheese, walnuts, and dried cherries, and then I had a gingerbread muffin and diet pepsi.  I kind of feel bloated and will keep an eye on things! 

If anyone reading has suggestions for me, please let me know.  This is going to be a tough diet change for me!  My goal is to cut out the allergenic foods and also soda.

Curly girl update-I go for my first curly gorl haircut tomorrow.  I am so excited.  It's been almost a week since I washed my haid with shampoo.  I think my hair looks fine, but we shall see how it goes!

Amy

Let's hope Hurricane Earl is mild and over quickly here in the Boston area!

Swaps

I used to do a ton of swaps when I had more time.  Mostly knitting/crocheting, but I have also done fat quarter swaps.  Sunday, my husband reminded me of the dishcloth swap that I did on an almost monthly basis.  I loved it.  I also did a few granny square swaps that I loved, and I still have a ton of the granny squares that I really should put together as a blanket which would have squares from all over the country.  Now that I think about it, I also did rubber stamp swaps.  These swaps made me finish my projects because I had to send them to someone by a certain time!  Today, I found a blog http://life-is-a-musical.blogspot.com/ that posted about apron swaps that she participated in.  That got me thinking.  I would love to do one again!  Maybe I will try one out.  Now with the colder weather coming, maybe I'll have more time.  I'm thinking that simple dishcloth swaps would be a great way to start up again.  I know that I have 3 kids and to sign up for something liek this may be crazy, but I think it will be good for me!  I'm going to look more into this and I'll certainly post back here when I decide to or not to do a swap.

As a follow up to the Curly Girl post, a twin mom friend sent me info about a salon that has been trained by the woman who wrote the book "Curly Girl".  I have an appointment schedueld for Saturday with the owner of the salon who has been doing this friend's hair for 13 years.  I am so looking forward to getting a haircut from someone who should know how to cut my hair.  I'll follow up with pictures!

Amy

Curly Girl

I am a CURLY GIRL!  There I admitted it!  I have curly hair and finally at 37 years old, I really like my curls. After having my twins, and having 3 kids (my oldest is 10 1/2 months older than my twins), I decided to grow out my super short hair (boy short) which I had for probably over 5 years.  I would tell people that I kept my hair short because I hated how curly and frizzy, and crazy my hair was when it was long.  I decided that I had no time to get my hair cut every 3-4 weeks, not to mention the money I would spend only to have my hair never look the way I hoped that it would.  I had attempted to grow my hair out for my wedding 3 years ago, and that never happened.  I have super short hair in my wedding photos, which is fine, but i wish I had been able to embrace my curls back then.  Just recently, I was at Cambridge Naturals, a local natural food store and saw the book "curly girl, The Handbook".  I flipped through it and it was love at first read.  I have been reading how shampooing your hair is bad for hair, but here were "curly girls" saying that not shampooing actually helped your curls.  I was hooked!  I had been limiting how much I was shampooing my hair prior, but now I am going the no shampoo route.  I believe that I have Botticelli curls, which definitely means no shampoo for this head.  It also means that I will mostly be using water and once a week, I will cleanse my hair with conditioner.  I have been really enjoying my curls this time around, and now i think I will even more.  I plan to find a recipe for conditioner and hair gel that I can make myself and only use those products on my hair!  I know that hair gel can be made from flax seeds and that should be really good for my hair vs the junk that gets put into commercially based products.  Now I just need a good moisturizing conditioner recipe!  My husband who currently has super short hair, usually has curly hair when it is longer.  Even though he has curly hair, he has joined in on the no shampooing and maybe is even considering goring his hair longer again!  My 3 kids all have curl to their hair, my daughter being the curliest.  I plan to do the hole no shampoo thing if I can.  Unfortunately, they are still only 2 1/2 and 19 months, so they get food and things in their hair that may actually need to be cleaned out, but for the most part shampoo is no longer in our house. 

So if you are a curly girl, embrace it! Don't wait as long as I did to love what you have and do what's right for what you have!  Curls are beautiful, and like I've always been told, there are a ton of people that would die to have your hair!

Amy