Soooo when your teacher comments on the state of your manicure and says a shocked, “I have never seen you like this before!”, you know there’s a problem.

True story.

I got a little lazy the past few weeks cause of my funk. But I’ve started to reform. I found time to get my nails done.

I bought a face wash (a really interesting gel texture Mineral Spring Cleansing Gel from Watson’s. I’m not sure if it’s doing anything of use and it doesn’t even foam that much but the fresh liquid feel is amazing! I think I’m gonna stock up before I come back to the West)!!!

But most importantly…I found a hair moisturizer. Schwarzkopf Extra Care Shea Cashmere Treatment. And everything has changed since.

Now don’t get me wrong. This hair moisturizer is not remotely appropriate for black people but it’s SOMETHING compared to the NOTHING I have been using for the last two months (except for my Organix Moroccan Argan Oil Renewing Penetrating Oil which we all know is just a Moroccanoil knockofff). Added to that, I couldn’t order the relaxer from Taobao because they all came from the US and would need 4-6 weeks for shipping, by which time I will be back in NY anyway so I decided to forgo it. So its officially 10 weeks since my last relaxer and last week my hair felt like an unmanageable pile of twigs.

And don’t talk about the dropping. I think I’ve mentioned before that my hair falls out on the regular because its so thick and sometimes I think that it’s a survival of the fittest situation going on with my follicles. But the past weeks have been scary. Like to the point where I was considering cutting it all off again in New York and starting fresh. So the moisturizer was SUPER welcome.

BECAUSSEEE today I was able to achieve this:

A high bun! Well….kinda. It’s the front half of my hair thats up in the bun and the back is messily gelled and pinned to within an inch of its life lol.

BUT this is a hairstyle that has been completely off limits to me since 2009 because of my various short haircuts and weaves. It was such an accomplishment, completely unattainable last week, that I completely reconsidered the haircut idea. That can wait until next summer (and let’s be real. I may think I can maintain a short haircut in Europe, but this is the same girl who thought she could maintain a bob in China…and failed). I’d much rather do the model off-duty high bun well into the summer and embrace it and get tired of it before I go short again.

I plan to take my lessons of the past couple months in China into Europe. What was I thinking coming without a soft bristle brush or a cream moisturizer?! I am going to be super prepared for the next rounds.