Friday, June 29, 2012

The Incredible, Edible--though not being used for eating--Egg

A few months ago, I got a curly hair tip/idea from my friend Rebekah (who is also has a fantastic blog called Head Over Heels. Check out the button on the sidebar --->). She showed me this link from The Letter 4 blog which suggests using egg whites as a gel and the whole egg as a conditioner. I liked the idea, but I haven't gotten around to trying it. Until now.

I started off by using the egg as a conditioner. I felt as though I was getting ready to make an omelet as I scrambled the little sucker in a liquid measuring cup. I made a quick shower playlist on my laptop (with just a few of my Showtune favorites) then hopped in. I made the mistake of washing my body before doing the egg-ditioner. When I dumped the egg over my head, it went dripping everywhere. So I ended up washing my body twice. I turned the water down to barely lukewarm, mostly cold temperature so that I wouldn't end up with a scrambled mess in my tresses. And I made sure to thoroughly rinse my hair as I belted out my Broadway tunes (On my own, pretending he's beside me....anyone else excited for the Les Mis film?). When I got out of the shower, I sniffed the air. It smelled slightly like cooked eggs in my bathroom. Hmm...I hope that doesn't last too long.

I couldn't really tell a difference between the egg-ditioner and my usual conditioner, but my hair did comb a little bit easier.
 
Since I did the egg-ditioner at night, I decided to wait until the morning to do the egg gel. But, since I was in the DIY/spa mood, I decided to do a little Internet/Pinterest research and see if I could find some sort of facial mask. On Pinterest, I found this suggestion to combine 2 tablespoons of honey with a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of nutmeg and use it as a mask for 30 minutes. I didn't have any nutmeg, so I decided to find another mask idea. By typing DIY mask into google, I found this link for a bunch of facial masks made out of stuff you have in your fridge, and low and behold, one of them suggested an egg. So I decided to combine that with the honey/cinnamon to create something I would like to name The French Toast Facial.

Now, when I combined the egg, honey and cinnamon together, it looked a little like this:


Yep. It looks like poop a little bit. And I'm not going to lie, when I scooped it out to put it on my face, the mixture felt a lot like phlegm. So, I spread it over my face, making sure not to get it in my eyes.


And it looked like I had gotten a really bad spray tan. I checked what time it was and did some math to figure out how long 30 minutes would be. 

Well, let's just say, I did not make it 30 minutes. Whoever suggested putting cinnamon on your face for that long is a cold-hearted, evil being. It BURNS! After making it about 8 minutes, I was in a lot of pain, and after running around my house screaming for 2 minutes, I finally decided to just rinse the dang stuff off my face. The directions suggest to rub the mixture in circular motions to use the cinnamon to exfoliate, and I tried to, but all I could think of was getting the stuff off. 

Even after rinsing, my face felt like little flames were blazing everywhere; and as you can see here my face looked like I had a really bad sunburn (it even matches the shade of pink from my bathroom walls). I placed a cold rag over my face, which felt good for the moment, but it was smothering me and I couldn't breathe very well. So then I ran to the freezer and stuck my head in, which reminded me of that Friends episode where Monica is so hot she opens the freezer and just sits there in the cold air.

After about twenty minutes, my face finally felt better. And my skin did feel smooth and fresh. Probably because I burned all the dead skin away. I think that if I do the mask again, I will decrease the amount of cinnamon, and only leave it on for about five minutes.

This morning, I decided to try the egg gel, which will now be referred to as the Meringue Mousse. When I got out of the shower, I went into the kitchen and took out my eggs. I thought that I should use two, just to be on the safe side, since my hair is pretty thick. I carefully separated the yolk from the whites, and then started whipping the whites with a fork. It was probably from my lack of sleep that took me about two minutes before I realized that using a hand mixer would be a lot faster. I whipped the eggs to the consistency of hair mousse and then proceeded to my bathroom. I grabbed some of the mousse and worked it through my hair. I quickly saw that two eggs was way more than I needed. I now needed to blow dry my hair.

"But wait!" some of you may be saying, "if you're using the curly girl method, you can't blow dry your hair without a diffuser" and those of you who have read my posts before know that I don't own a diffuser. But while digging around in my sister's bathroom drawer last night, I found an attachment. Hooray! So, I dried my hair, but left it slightly damp, and then I scrunched my curls and styled it like normal. Let's just say, the curls looked pretty good, but they were a little crunchy.

I don't think I'll use the Meringue Mousse everyday, but I think a once-in-a-while occurrence may be in the future, especially when I'm running low on gel.

Who would have known that one food item could have so many uses.

Here are the directions for all three of the eggs-periments! :)

Egg-Ditioner:

1 egg

Beat the egg like you would for scrambled eggs. While in the shower, put the egg over your hair and work it in like you would your regular conditioner. Let it sit for about a minute, then rinse in lukewarm water.

Meringue Mousse:

1-2 eggs (depending on length and thickness)

Separate the yolk from the egg whites, and then whip the whites until they form a hair-mousse consistency. Work the mousse through your hair, and then blow dry using a diffuser. Scrunch curls into desired style. Make sure to wash your hair the same night, otherwise you might end up with some scary looking hair the next morning!

French Toast Facial:

1 egg
2 tablespoons honey
1/2-1 teaspoon of cinnamon (depends on your pain tolerance)

Mix the ingredients together until they form a runny paste. Spread the mixture over your face evenly, avoiding your mouth and eyes. Let it sit for about five minutes (or however long you are comfortable) and then rinse with water. While rinsing, scrub the mixture in circular motions over face and exfoliate your skin. Pat dry.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

A new tip


OK, so I've been doing something a little different with my hair styling routine, and I think it is helping a little bit.


After I get of the shower and put my contacts in (oh to have perfect vision!) I've been waiting a few minutes before I put any styling products in my hair. I usually go and browse facebook or pinterest for about 5 minutes (or sometimes longer if I get distracted) and then I go do my hair. And for some reason, it's been curling a lot better. When I don't do this, sometimes I get this weird flat spot where my hair comes out from my head and it's flat and then it poofs out at the bottom. Not all that attractive. Anyway, I thought I would just give this little tip.

Song of the week: One Sweet Love-Sara Bareilles

I haven't done one of these in forever, so I thought I would do with this post. I couldn't decide what song I wanted to use, so I decided to let my Zune choose for me. I went into my song list and chose the song that I have listened to the most, and this was the winner. This is not a huge surprise to me. I love Sara Bareilles. I bought her first album when I was a senior in high school and I've actually performed some of her songs before (church talent show/humanities project), although I haven't done this song before. This is my favorite song by her because I love the lyrics and it's heavy on the guitar, which is different from her piano-centered songs.

 

OK, maybe I'm cheating a little by posting two songs, but I also love this cover of "In Your Eyes" that she did.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Comeback

That's right. You're not seeing things. I finally have an update.

This is what my hair is looking like these days. It's doing a bit better because I'm using a new conditioner. Which brings to my sad news. My favorite conditioner, the Burt's Bees Shiny Grapefruit and Sugar Beet Conditioner is no longer being sold in stores. It is only available online until supplies last. Working in retail tells me that this particular conditioner probably isn't selling very well, so they are selling it at a lower price to get rid of it. Dang it! I loved this conditioner--not just because it smelled like those chocolate oranges you can get at Christmas time that you smack on the table and it breaks into slices--but because it did wonders for my hair.

After trying the Yes! brand of conditioner, which made me backtrack to frizzy hair land, I decided to go back to the Burt's Bees brand because it is amazing and advertises right on the bottle that their conditioners are sulfate-free. These are key-words to any Curly Girl method follower. Sulfates and Silicones are like poison to curly hair.

Very Volumizing Pomegranate Conditioner
My new best friend.


So, I chose to use the Very Volumizing Pomegranate Conditioner, and my hair is starting to get back to curly, non-frizzyness that my hair was at in March. It doesn't smell as good as the Grapefruit and Sugar Beet, but as long as it gets the job done, I guess it's alright.