i don't usually 'review' products, but...

so i haven't shampooed my hair in just under three weeks.

yup, you read that right.  how's that for an attention-grabber?

about two and a half weeks ago i got my first taste of wen.  i had been considering the no 'poo crusade for some time.  back in florida, i tried co-washing ('washing' your hair with conditioner only) and had horrible luck with it.  i have very fine hair, but i have a decent amount of it.  it's not too thin - just each hair is so fine.  it's naturally medium brown (the non-pink parts of my hair are my nature color) and i strip my roots every few weeks then dump the color of the month on the hair from the crown of my head.

mah hairz.  pink on the top, brown everywhere else.  and white, when samantha's rubbed all over me.

lathering up every day was annoying because the lather would turn bright pink and i'd watch my color swirl down the drain.  so i started using dry shampoo and only washing my hair every other day.  this extended my color a bit, but it was annoying because, well, my hair is fine.  my scalp gets a bit oily.  my hair got nasty fast.  i wanted to wash every day, but getting my hair wet and then using dry shampoo didn't change anything.

i switched to the ol' standby of baby powder in the hair.  it didn't cake up or weigh my hair down as much as the dry shampoo did (i'm thinking because it actually had CLAY in it.  srsly.) but it was still, you know.  NOT clean feeling.  so i started looking into wen.

wen doesn't have shampoo.  it's conditioning cleanser.  no lather.  a lot of reviews were like 'i can't deal with it not lathering'.  you know what?  I CAN'T DEAL WITH MY NASTY HAIR.

there, i said it.  fine, very soft, but not very manageable i guess.  flyaways.  not shiny and lustrous.  i used to think maybe i SHOULDN'T wash my hair.  maybe all the oils is what makes the model's hair so shiny and lustrous (not so much, at least in my case).  it always looks okay, but that's because i was smothering it with chemicals and sulfates that suck the color out of my hair and leave it listless and dull.

so i bit the bullet and got the wen.  i got it at a major home shopping website (hey, i'm not plugging EVERYONE for free, bitches).  $50ish later, i have two 6oz bottles of cleansing conditioner, 2oz bottle of replenishing spray (wtf?), and a 2oz bottle of styling creme.  NOT cream.  CREME.

that's some fancy shit right there.

so three weeks ago this friday, i stripped my roots and laid in some cherry bomb and hot hot pink (and got some on our carpet.  but it came out - no matter what awesome husband says.  IT CAME OUT).  i washed with shampoo to get the lightener out.

saturday morning i pranced to the shower ready to play with my new hair toys.  it said 20 pumps for my hair length.

twenty. pumps. from a 6 oz bottle?  this shit's running like $2.50 an ounce, and you want me to use THAT MUCH?? the math almost made my head explode.  that's like $2 a wash.  my blood pressure started to rise and i figured, you know what?  let's try 14 pumps.  the reviews said it should feel really thick and creamy in your hair.

14 pumps did it.  incidentally, i'm down to around 10 for some flavors and 16 for others, and it really seems to cover my scalp and hair well.  so i massage that shit in, let it sit for 3-5 minutes, and rinse THE HELL out of my hair.  you know how things are 'squeaky clean'?  my hair was squeaky clean.  fo' realz, yo - it was SQUEAKY in my hands.  amazing.

and shine?  LIKE THE SUN, BITCHES.  i could NOT stop looking at my hair.  we went out to dinner with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and her bf and i COULD NOT stop playing with my hair.  it was so soft and silky and shiny and i was in love.

it said to wash every day to start with, because it will alter and correct the pH of your scalp/hair.  i have the cucumber aloe and lavender flavors.  lavender seems to cleanse better for me, but i want to try the other flavors too because I AM HOOKED.

i am a wen girl.

my hair after one week?  LUSTROUS.  it feels stronger.  it's lush, silky, my pink is still vibrant and my mousy medium brown even looks shinier and like it came from a very expensive bottle.

after one week of washing with wen

that's my natural brown  it's never looked so good.

i wanted to try all five flavors, so i went to the same shop-from-home network and ordered another kit they had that contained three 6oz bottles of the other three flavors - sweet almond mint, tea tree, and pomegranate.  i love the way they smell and i think they all cleanse my hair great.  the cucumber aloe seems to be the least awesome for my hair.  i'm still trying to decide which are best for my hair, but they all seem to help my color.

slightly creepy photo of me taken on my macbook pro 13 days into wen.  i'm not creepy, i promish.

and now, here we are at almost the three week mark.  i'm still washing my hair almost every day, which is really annoying, but it's been hot.  i know my hair is cleaner than it has been, and honestly?  my hair is awesome enough with the wen that i can't imagine going back to shampoo.  took this photo last night and i have NOT touched up my color.  that is 19 day old color, manic panic mixed with special effects.  anyone who's colored with semi-perm pigments like that before knows how fast that shit fades.  LOOK AT MAH HAIRZ

still so pink! so vibrant!  so AWESOME!

i am not using ANY extra product in my hair.  i have that fancy styling CREME that i put in my hair from mid-shaft to end once in a while to help with the few flyaways i get, but seriously.  no hairspray or anything.  i've needed hairspray for over a month and stopped using it the day i started using wen.   i love it.  i love it so much i might buy it by the gallon after i decide which flavors are best for my hair.  i've read reviews where women who used to get their hair cut and colored every 6 weeks because of split/dead ends and color fade who now go over TEN WEEKS between cuts and colorings.  TEN WEEKS.  that's two and a half months.

do you remember what happened the last time you didn't cut your hair for two and a half months?  and forget about the inch-long roots, do you remember how shitty your color was? 

i'm a wen girl now. 

hi there

hi.

how've you been?

me? okay, i guess.  not really busy.

just, you know.  tired.  and sad.  so lots of napping has gone on.

i have a whole blog post ready to go, i just need to add a couple of after pictures.

but, you know.  tired.  and sad.

so i really haven't been doing much of anything.  except eating cookies and tarzipan.

and rum.

lots of rum.

bucketfuls actually.

it's a picture from last weekend.  but still relevant.  however, i have retired the bucket and now only use it for it's delicious printed recipe.

so.

i mean, my cat was in one of those collars for a while.  but we took it off when he got shit on it.  did i show that to you guys?

i can't stop biting my butt.  well, my rump.  you know how it is.  right?  do you?

and now he's biting his butt again.  not as much, though, because i keep spraying it with nasty tasting shit.

and i got a new tattoo.  but it's all peely right now so i'm not posting photos of it yet.  i actually got two, one small one on my hand and a big one on my arm.  i love tattoos.

so, what else... what else...

nothing, really.  nothing good at least.

but i always have my family and friends.  and cats.  they all love me and keep me semi-sane.

we get by.

weekend update

SO. i am working on multiple blog posts.  one about my hair.  one supersecret possible BEWBZ related.  i'm also considering *finally* setting up my youtube channel, which will mostly have my cats on it.

because, seriously, what the fuck is the internet for if not laughing at cats?

no, that was NOT rhetorical.  fucking answer me.

in the meantime, i'm on google+ now and it's kind of my public persona, i guess.  facebook is really for people i know (or people i've known online long enough that i know they're not going to steal my identity, stalk me, or try to kill me).  but i'm going to keep google+ as kind of for everyone.  i think you need my email, right?  stephgasblogs@gmail.com.

right? am i doing this right?

and in the meantime, two of my new favorite twitterers: @dalailama and @wilw.  wil wheaton.  pretty normal and very funny. 

and finally, carmageddon.  seriously, los angeles?  SERIOUSLY?!?!?  CARMAFUCKINGGEDDON?

am i the only one who has been singing def leppard's 'armageddon it' it my head all morning long?

are you there, goddess? it's me, stephanie.

one of my current classes is HUM/130 - religions of the world.  i was kind of stoked to take this class.

okay, REALLY stoked.  i love politely discussing religion and sharing my ideas and interpretations with other open minded people.  note that i said OPEN MINDED people.  that may be important later in the story.

well, it's not actually a STORY per se.  more just me bitching about things.  and stuff.

now, my class blocks are nine weeks long and i take two classes at a time.  week 1 in my religion class was 'effects of religion'.  we had to talk about psychologists and philosophers and their views on religion (waste. of. time. if you ask me). i got sad and angry because i lost A LOT of points on a project because the facilitator doesn't know how to properly pose a fucking question.  SUCH AS insinuates like examples.  discuss some bright colors SUCH AS pink, blue,  and yellow would mean discuss colors that are bright, like pink, blue,  and yellow are.  i could discuss whatever fucking color i wanted to.  discuss some bright colors INCLUDING pink, blue, and yellow would mean discuss pink and yellow you asshole.  the facilitator put SUCH AS so i discussed pink, purple, and lime green.  and she only gave me credit for pink and said 'i don't think you got the point of the assignment.  purple and lime green are interesting, but not what i asked for'. 

um, what?

so i was all like 'such as insinuates that you offered examples, etc'. like just what i typed up there.  she was all 'i'll consider it' and then gave me 28/30 instead of the original 14/30.

but still, i have an 88 in that class at that point.  which will COMPLETELY FUCK my 4.0.  i know, i know.  a 3.8 wouldn't kill me.  but if i'm going to do something, i'm going to DO IT and i want my damn 4.0.

so week 2 is indigenous peoples.  which is interesting to me because christianity all but wiped out most indigenous cultures worldwide. 

but don't tell christians that. 

there were actually 'classmates' of mine who were like 'indigenous people believed in many gods because christian God had not yet shown Himself to them'.

ergh... what?

so that is basically how my week 2 went.  slightly entertaining, very frustrating, and lots of rewriting responses to my classmates so i don't come off as hating christians (because i totes don't).

this week is week 3 and we're learning about hinduism, which is much more up my alley.  i'm a bit bummed that neo-paganism isn't touched on at all, but there was mention of 'new age'.  i'm desperately hoping that paganism and/or wicca isn't shoved in there as it usually is.

psychology class is much less frustrating.  it's more challenging to me, and i'm enjoying it even though i'm not doing perfectly.  i have like 94% in that class and am back up to 90% in religion, so if i really stick to it and try to get full credit on everything, i might eek out an A in each class. 

in other news, jake can't stop biting his butt and has to wear one of those hysterical collars now.  long story, expect photos though.  he had a wound back when we still lived in florida that was healing and then was not healing and then was healing and is now not healing again and he picks at it and chews at it.  so he's wearing a fashionable collar now that we're hoping to sign with sharpies like it was a cast in elementary school.

and finally, be prepared for the blog entry of all blog entries coming up soon.  i've been saving this since last april and we are nearing completion.  that ought to wet your collective whistles for a bit.  trust me, it will be worth it.

hi!

i'm working on being more positive.  it's hard work, yo.  hard work.


you know what helps?  family, cats, and baseball.

jake napping on our couch

awesome husband and me on my bro's b-day

jake looking out our front window

meeeee at my in-laws

samantha on one of our cat trees

brother and sisterfromanothermister on father's day.

awesome husband and i at the melting pot for deliciousness

jake stretched out on our bed, imitating longcat

piglet hiding in one of the many boxes we've had around the house.

taylor showing you how he will take over the damn world

samantha playing

jake sitting in a box full of packing paper, tearing it bit by bit.

awesome husband and me at citi field

yay! let's go mets!

1986 world series trophy.  first time i've ever seen one!

at the game

PLAY BALL!

 

 

AMERICA. FUCK YEAH.