Hair musings

Early morning - hair everywhere

I looked in the mirror this morning and was surprised to find my hair so long.  It seems to grow overnight sometimes - going from shoulder-length to long without me noticing.  I like to vary my hairstyle - sometimes it's long, sometimes I have a very short bob, occasionally I have a crop, sometimes I have a fringe, and sometimes I have layers cut in.  The idea of finding one style and sticking to it makes me feel bored and restricted.

I used to dye my hair quite regularly when I was a teenager and in my early twenties.  I mainly hennaed it, or dyed it various copper shades.  Now my hair is beginning to show silver streaks I am less inclined to dye it though.  I rather like the idea of having silver hair, although the in-between stage of salt-and-pepper shaded hair is less enticing.

For work I have to have my hair completely tied back.  I once arrived on a ward with a new haircut and no hair elastics and the ward sister informed me that even my short bob needed to be tied back, so I spent the day with it scraped back into an elastic band that she produced from her desk drawer; which, as anyone who has ever had to do that will know, was incredibly painful!  So now I have a little zip purse of hair elastics and kirby grips in my bag at all times.

When my hair is long I am guilty of tying it back into a ponytail almost all the time, which I sometimes think is a shame.  I am very fussy about my ponytails though, as I like to make sure they are high, symmetrical and secure.  I find there is something quite energising and uplifting about sashaying out of the house for the day with my hair swinging up in a high ponytail!  I do high ballet buns on Olivia for her ballet lessons, and she is just starting to learn to do them on herself.  However, we both find them much harder to do on ourselves than on someone else ...I haven't really mastered doing a bun on myself.  Not a satisfyingly, high, neat one anyhow.

So I shall start thinking about what I do with mine now.  Let it grow even longer and practice doing buns? Cut it off? Leave it long but get a fringe cut in?  This probably means there is a Pinterest board to be compiled....

Here and now

The last two Olympic weeks were extraordinary, and glorious. Cam had a wonderful time at the Closing Ceremony, and although the BBC didn't show much of his bit on their coverage of the ceremony, he didn't care.  He had seen Usain Bolt and The Pet Shop Boys, had his photo taken with loads of soldiers, high-fived an armed police officer (he found this even more exciting than seeing Usain Bolt, I think) and, best of all, had his name and photo in the official programme. 

Olympic cast member

Here is a clip of his section from YouTube - if you pay very close attention you will glimpse a few seconds of the children in blue between about 3 mins 30 and 4 mins!

I went to school to collect him at 11pm on Sunday evening.  All the parents applauded the children as they came off the bus, still in full costume and make up, and all as high as kites. We thanked the teachers too, who had given up so much of their own time to chaperone the children these past few months.

Home from the Closing Ceremony - demonstrating his moves

The next day, he wore the sparkly blue tracksuit to walk round to our friends' house to feed their hens.  I think this was done purely to embarass Olivia.  Now he knows how much she dislikes the outfit, I'm sure he'll be wearing it more often (or perhaps threatening to...it is very bright...).

Sparkletastic

The Olympics are now over - but our summer still continues.

Right now I am drinking coffee and listening to the children potter about upstairs.  Olivia is lying on her bed, reading new library books and a new copy of The Beano, whilst smoothing down her new fringe.  Cam is lounging on some cushions on his bedroom floor, reading his Kindle and starting conversations with anyone who walks past about Minecraft.  I am wearying of discussions about Minecraft.

The hens in the garden are stretched out, sunbathing, and ignoring next door's cat who is lying on top of the fence, glaring at them.

I've just hung out a load of washing, and my fingers smell of tomato leaves because I always run my hands through the leaves as I walk past the plants.

When I've written this blog post I will spend a couple of hours in the kitchen - making a batch of yogurt, baking some biscuits and making a chicken salad for the children to eat for lunch tomorrow while I spend a couple of hours at the hospital helping out with other people's lunchtime.

We are having an ordinary sort of week - quietly productive and very satisfying.  I know that come September when the children are back at school and I am at University full-time there won't be any more weeks like this for a long time.

New haircut for Olivia

New things

Short hair

Yesterday was full of new things:

• a new haircut (I had a whopping 25cm cut off),
• a new mustard-yellow hat,
• and a new little niece. 

All these things are making me very happy indeed.

Mustard-yellow hat

A 24 hour knitting distraction

In the middle of quilting leaf, after leaf, after leaf onto G's birthday quilt, I decided yesterday that I needed a break.  So I picked up my knitting needles for a quick distraction, and decided to knit a solution to a hair problem that had been aggravating me for several weeks.

I change my hairstyles as often as I can afford it, and at the moment I have long hair - well below my shoulders.  I'm happy with long hair (although I'm dying to have a fringe cut in again), but it's been causing me problems on my winter walks.  If I want to wear a hat, I need to have my hair down - you can't wear a woolly hat over a ponytail or a bun.  But if I wear my hair down it blows all over my face, and much as I love long hair, I HATE hair in my mouth. Ack.

Last week I agonised the whole way along the Regent's Canal to Gill, and the whole way round Kew to Tracy and Kristina, about my hair/hat dilemmas.  I had hair in my mouth, so stopped to put my hair up.  Then I had a chilly head, so my hair came down and my hat went on.  Then I got hair in my mouth, so stopped to take off my hat and put my hair up.  You get the picture.  So did they.

When I got back from Kew, Kristina very kindly emailed me a link to this pattern on Knitty which was the absolute perfect solution to my hair/hat difficulties. 

Calorimetry is a headband designed especially for the problem I have been moaning about wrestling with.

I knitted it exactly to the pattern requirements, in Rowan Pure Wool Aran yarn in the sage shade.  It took me only a day to knit, and was such a fun, easy pattern on two needles.

The headband is fastened by a button at the base of the neck, and I was so happy to be able to use this fine button which Anna gave me - I think it comes from the lovely Cowboys and Custard.  Choosing the perfect button is always a favourite part of any project.

But the very best thing? It fits, and it works!  I LOVE it!

It covers my ears, and keeps them toasty warm.  It covers the top of my head, and keeps me warm there too.  It lets me wear a lovely high, swingy ponytail.

And it even keeps pretty earrings on display. 

I really don't think I've ever knitted anything quite so satisfying in such a short space of time.  Happy days.

I must not be a control freak

I was very proud of myself this morning. I did not give in to my control freak tendencies, despite temptation. Some might say quite extreme temptation.

The occasion was C, doing his hair ready for school. He spent a good ten minutes putting gel in (yes - that means nearly a whole tube of the stuff - if there had been a naked flame anywhere near his room this morning the whole house would have gone up).

What's so bad about him putting gel in his hair? you are thinking...but wait until you see what hairstyle he was trying to copy...

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Oh, yes. A manga-style character from his beloved Yu-Gi-Oh card game. That's manga as in sticky up hair in vertical clumps.

I was tempted to ask him to go and wash out the gel and comb it flat, but just in time I remembered that self expression is a Good Thing in children and that I shouldn't crush his emerging sense of individual style with my desire to have everything just the way I want it.

So today's post is in celebration of my only-sometimes-under-control control freakery. Here are some other things that turn me into a CF:

• Being a passenger in a car. I would much rather drive. Sometimes, members of my family who have endured me as a passenger also say they would rather I drive next time.
• Leaves on the lawn. Argh - this drives me mad. There is a beautiful and very old cherry tree that grows in our garden. I love it in the spring when the blossom is so beautiful and in the summer when we can enjoy the dappled shade, but I hate it in the autumn.
• My pens. Please don't borrow them. Ever.
• Unmade beds. I really hate them. You can't start the day with an unmade bed. And just tweaking the corners of the duvet does not mean the bed is made. You need to shake out the duvet and toss it over the bed freshly every morning.
• Felt tip pens with no lids on.

I can't help but remember the wonderful episode of Friends where Monica hosts a party and the guests play games which require the use of felt tip pens. She hectors everyboby on how the lids mustn't just be put back on the pens, but they must be put back and pushed until you hear the little click. Whenever I see a felt tip pen with no lid, I do scrabble around looking for the lid, and tut to myself. But I also remind myself that a new tub of 100 pens is only £5. Not the end of the world.

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PS. Have just noticed that there is a pencil in the pen tub above. Now that really is upsetting.