I’ve begun to enter the transition period where my hair is a bit slicker than I would like, but brushing it from root to tip has really helped that out, along with cleaning it with water. Based on what I’ve read, it can take several weeks before one’s scalp is used to the fact that the oils on it are no longer being degraded with shampoo, and then everything is happier from that point onward. I’ve just been burned one too many times in the past using “color-friendly” shampoo and conditioner on my hair just to have it leech the color that I actually wanted to keep in my hair. When I have my hair tied back in a ponytail, it actually looks really good, and it’s easier to manage than it would be if I… didn’t. That said, I think I’m going to keep it this way more often than not until the transition phase of “no shampooing” is over and I only make enough oil and sebum on my scalp to manage… well, that. That’s the blog post. My scalp. Waiting for my scalp to normalize, heh.

From here on out, I think I’m only going to shampoo it before I completely dye over my hair, or there’s enough of my natural hair color that’s come in to warrant another dye job. If I can get past the transition period of my hair being… slightly oilier than I’m used to, that’s what I think I’m going to do as a general rule of measure…

I am now on day three of “no shampoo (and conditioner)”, only cleaning my hair with water and brushing it.

If I can get through this with my hair intact, I’m only going to wash it before I dye it so that the hair strands are as open and stripped as they can be. Normally I don’t have to wash my hair that often, maybe once or twice a week, but I’m tired of dying my hair and then having the shampoo strip it, no matter what kind it is or how “friendly” it’s said to be to hair that has been colored. I just want my hair to stay as bright as possible, and if that means saving money not buying myself shampoo or conditioner from here on out… that’s great.

Bub’s microSD came in the mail, and so far so good downloading all of his games “from the cloud” onto it. Well, aside from how long this looks like it’s going to take, but I knew that going into this. This is a 400GB microSD, so here’s hoping that it holds all of his games and the ones that he will pick up afterward for… well, at least a year. It seems like we’re getting a new microSD card every year now, but I don’t mind as long as there’s something that I can keep all of his games on. Some of these games are large, so downloading them from the cloud time and time again (which is where they are kept after purchase if they’re not on the actual card itself) can be and is cumbersome… just a bit. And this one is an actual Nintendo microSD card as well!

Here’s hoping that it doesn’t take more than two days to download all of these games, big as some are…

This is not a sponsored product review. These are merely my own opinions on the matter.

I was given Madison Reed as a Christmas present in the shade of rimini garnet (or is it Rimini Garnet?). Initially, I couldn’t choose between that and volterra amethyst (Volterra Amethyst?), but the red shade won out because I’d read reviews on the amethyst one and saw that several people who had dyed their hair that color had the amethyst portion of it wash out really quickly. As an asthmatic, and as someone with… a weird immune system, to put it bluntly, the last time that I actually dyed my hair was probably more than ten years ago. I just gave up on it. But I’d heard a lot of good things about Madison Reed, wanted to try them out for myself at some point, and hoped that I wouldn’t adversely react to any of it. I react to, well, a lot of things.

First of all, there’s no bad smell with this hair dye like there is so many others out there. All you have to do is put on the barrier cream that they give you so the dye doesn’t stain your ears or forehead, put on the gloves, and mix the colorant in the activator bottle that they give you. It’s surprisingly simple. What was not quite as simple was me covering all of my hair with the colorant because I have thick, wavy hair. There is more hair on my head than it looks at first glance. Another thing that I like(d?) about Madison Reed is the fact that it doesn’t stain the shower when you rinse it all out, and it doesn’t even stain your hands that badly. Using Splat, I was guaranteed to stain the shower and my hands for at least a week, and generally longer, heh…

The shampoo and conditioner that they provide also leaves your hair extremely soft, which I really liked.

After this, to maximize how long my hair stays colored, I think I’m going to start on the “no poo” (no shampoo/conditioner, just water to clean it) method. I’ve heard that part of getting over the hurdle until your scalp produces the proper amounts of oil is to brush your hair a lot, which I’ve started doing in advance.

All in all, Madison Reed is a lot better than all of the other dyes that I’ve tried in the past. I like it a lot.