More stuff

Life is busy with school and lots of homework, but I've had time to make some more stuff for my shop. I'm also participating in my first self-made swap on TLHC, so some time is spent making stuff for my giftee too. I'm not fussing much about my hair anymore, I just let it do its thing. It's currently around hip length, so I'm planning on letting it grow a bit longer and then cut back to waist or something. 

EternallyInAmber Pink Granite shower comb

Surprise, I bought something new! The surprise isn't really that I bought something, because I do that all the time. It is that I bought a comb, because I think I have already made it very clear that I don't like combs. I have a wooden wide-tooth comb, and I absolutely hate it! I have only used my Tangle Teezers for the last 6 months or so, and I really like them. 

However, I'm easily brainwashed enabled by the things I read on LHC. I saw a thread about a shop called EternallyInAmber, which sell handmade acetate celluose combs, and I was intrigued. Smooth, seamless, nicely shaped, and so many pretty colours! I decided on a Pink Granite shower comb, because I wanted one with a handle. The shipping is high, but totally worth it. I don't think I have ever had an item arrive so fast, especially considering that it was shipped from USA (I'm in Norway, for those who didn't know that already)! It shipped on Friday, and it was in my mailbox on Tuesday. Amazing!

I think this comb is one of the prettiest things I've ever seen. Baby pink with dark purple and silver flakes, it's just perfect. Colour shouldn't matter much when it comes to hair tools, but for some reason it does. I want all my things to have pretty colours!

I had to try it right away, of course, and luckily I hadn't brushed my hair that day (not the day before either). I got to test it on some pretty nasty tangles, and it worked them out so easily. I'm amazed by how gentle and smooth it is. It just glides through my hair, enabling me to carefully get the tangles out. It's definitely much more hair-friendly than the TT.

I put it through the true test today, when I used it on my weird, clumpy, air-dried, post-wash hair. Same result as on Tuesday, it was so easy to detangle with it. This was partly because I was a bit naughty, and used it on towel dried hair too. I never comb or brush my hair when it's wet, but I wanted to see how gentle the shower comb was on wet hair. Answer: very gentle. No snapped hairs, and no pulling or yanking. I always pull my waves apart anyway, because I find that my hair dries faster when I do that. The comb does a much better job at that than my fingers do.

I'm so happy with this comb, and I've already ordered another one to use as a travel comb. The shop has a super awesome discount code, 50FOR10, where you get 50% off your order if you spend more than $10.

Forged of Violet

I got the prettiest fork from MountainMusings today! Actually, it's a french twist comb, but I can't do french twists, so to me it's just a little fork with lots of tines. Very bendy and sort of soft tines. As with my other Kanzashi fork (which I managed to break, by the way! Long story short, it fell out of my hair and got run over by a few cars. I can fix it with glue though, thank goodness!!), this is mainly a decorative piece, and I have to be careful when putting it in. This one did hold one side of my cinnamon bun, while a few long bobby pins held the other side. It could never hold my entire bun, but it's at least a bit functional. 
I also got some freebies this time, two cute bobby pins that match the fork. I forgot to take a picture, so maybe some other time. ^-^

But let's get back to the prettiness. I had of course anticipated that it would be quite pretty, because it's purple and why on earth would I buy something ugly, but I had not anticipated this level of gorgeousness. Oh. My. Goodness! It's the most perfect, deep purple, starry night sky captured in the most magnificently crafted Kanzashi flowers ever (you get a cookie if you get through that sentence)! And I love starry night skies! I've looked through most of the Kanzashi flowers on Etsy, and in my opinion, MountainMusings has the most beautiful ones. So many different colours and varieties to choose from.
My camera thinks that this fork is a blueish purple, but don't let it fool you. In reality, the fork leans more towards reddish purple.

A tiny wishlist

I've put myself on a hairtoy-purchasing-ban, but there are a few items I'd really like to buy after I get my paycheck. I'm very pleased that I haven't bought anything for my hair after I imposed the ban, despite seeing a lot of things that were very tempting. I'm not able to stay away from Etsy, and I'm adding stuff to my lists almost every day, but not buying anything. Willpower! Apparently I have lots of it. It also helps that I already have lots of sticks and clips. Ah well, back to my tiny little wishlist.

1. Another Tangle Teezer. I love the Hot Pink one I have, and I've decided that I need at least one more in a different colour. What if I accidentally broke my TT? What would I use to keep my hair tangle-free until a new TT arrived?? That's an easy one, I would just use my wooden comb, but that's not the point. I need a colourful, glorious backup TT! I'm leaning towards an orange or a blue one..

Pretty!!

 2. A plain hairstick from Emergent Glassworks. I adore EGW sticks and have quite a few already, but I'd love a clear spiral stick too. Those never really caught my eye in the shop, but I saw one in action on LHC a while ago, and it looked magnificent! So beautiful. It would be good for the days when I don't want the hair toy to get all the attention.

3. A Flexi-8 or two. The flexi was actually the only toy I would be allowed to purchase during my ban, because they're fairly cheap. This was just in case the Flexi-8 of the Month was stunning and something I just had to buy. The March 2014 FOTM has been delayed a week, so I have no idea if it's something I want or not. And I'm not buying anything until my payday, so if I love it, I can only buy it if there are any left by then. I'd love to get the Daisy flexi too. I didn't like the design in the beginning, but it has grown on me. I'd love to wear that one during the summer. Such a fun clip.

 And that's actually it. Only 3-4 things, approximately 87 euro if I buy two flexis, only 63 euro if I only buy one. That includes shipping as well. Not bad, compared to what I used to spend on hair stuff every month *shudder*

Purple flowers and pearl essence

My very first custom Timberstone Turnings stick. Chloe shape, 6 1/2" long, and very pretty! It's difficult to get good pictures of it. I purchased another stick too, a Chloe with moss and pearl essence. I wonder if it will get here before Christmas..

Shampoo bars

A few days ago I realised that I only had 1 bar of Chagrin Valley Nettle shampoo and 1/2 bar of Rosemary Lavender left. With my hair, 1 bar typically lasts for 8 washes. This means that I have approximately 12 washes left before I'm out of shampoo bars. I usually wash every 3-4 days, or whenever I feel like it. Let's just make it easy and say twice a week. 12 washes, 2 per week means that my shampoo bars will last for 6 weeks. 

I order my shampoo bars online, because no shops here carry the sort of super fancy, natural, chemical-free stuff I like to cleanse my hair with. Since these things come from abroad, shipping could take some time. I'm also a very lazy and forgetful person. If I don't act quickly, there's a risk that I may run out of shampoo bars!

This is why I decided to spend $49,95 on shampoo bars from SweetCreekHerbs. Well, half of that was shipping, but it was still quite a bit of money spent on shampoo. But! This was a package deal of 5 shampoo bars, so I actually saved money! And with 5 shampoo bars, I should have enough to wash my hair twice a week for 15 weeks. These bars are a little bit smaller than the bars from Chagrin Valley, so each bar lasts for about 6 washes.

I think I have justified my crazy spending sufficiently. Here's a random picture of me and a parrot.

Antler

I purchased an antler stick from JCMcCairn a few weeks ago, and it arrived today. Here's the original listing. This is my first ever antler, and I'm very happy with it. It's smooth, light, and slides through the bun very easily. It'll take some time getting used the curve of the stick, and I'm a bit paranoid about the dangles causing tangles and breakage. I wore it today and a few strands got stuck in the dangles, but I managed to untangle them. I think it'll be fine.