[Hair Journal] 2024

It's that time again! As seen in the pictures above, I've cut a good chunk of my hair off in July. I finally got tired of dealing with all that hair. I'm satisfied that I grew my hair to the longest it'll ever be in my life. I do enjoy a lot of what my short hair is doing for me most days. And while there are days I look at my hair confused as to what I wish I wanted it to do for me, there's at least a lot less of it to deal with during those moments.

Hair type, concerns, history: late-30s, 1c, low porosity hair, buzzed on the side, longer on top and undyed. Focused on anti-aging: hair loss and white hair prevention. Still living with hard water, though I moved early this year and the newer building's newer pipes seems to have helped a bit. I mostly feel my way around with my hair and scalp, but I understand both a little better than I did two years ago. But truthfully, having way less of it just makes it easier to ignore. 

My Hair Currently

Back to an undercut again! My partner buzzes the sides down roughly every 2 weeks. I went to his barber first to get it cut. Maintained it with my partner for a few months, went to my stylist to figure out the layering of the top, maintained it for a few more months, then went back to the barber to get the back buzzed sections shaped a little differently.

Having my partner cut my hair has been a fun relationship-building experience. We have very different hair types and he was afraid to buzz it the first time around. He actually buzzed a bit and started worrying something was wrong because my cut hair "looks like felt". He's now very comfortable with it and will often bring up my needing a haircut before I do.

The barber originally suggested I look into pomades with the styling I wanted, which I'd never used. Booooy howdy it has been A TRIP! It took hours of reading through dozens of reviews of pomades, before I finally realized some men really don't wash their hair with shampoo regularly. When people were saying a product was "hard to wash off", they just meant they cant run it under water and everything will be peachy keen😑

Ultimately, I decided I don't love pomade. I still use either Uppercut's or Loadstar's once in a while, and have a few spray way or beach hair sprays, but oftentimes I just end up bobby pinning or tying it back to a style I like. I'm not reviewing styling products because I'm pretty sure the product I want is unrealistic. I really don't know what I'm doing and it doesn't seem fair to review them.

White hair growth has been about the same since last year which I'll count as a win. I still pluck them when I see them because I have a lot of hair and can stand to lose the white ones (for now). When the sides are buzzed short, they're harder to get to though.

What Else Has Changed  

New place, slightly softer water.

I noticed it pretty early one for my skin (see routine update), but the hair felt different too. Before cutting it, it felt like I needed it descale less often.

My hair gets wet almost every day.

It's so easy to just wet it to reset a style (even without any product in it) then air dry. I feel like I can shampoo every two days now instead of every other day, but I will shampoo after I've used product in my hair.

I use a lot less product now.

Like, a lot. I save so much money, it's great 😭I use a descaling shampoo roughly once a month. I switch between the shampoos regularly based on the level of cleaning I feel my hair and scalp needs. And I only just need a tiny amount, it's great! I rarely use conditioner. My hair tonic use is down to about 8 pumps versus a dozen at a time.

My hair needs less oil.

The "long" parts are short enough that the oils from my scalp are still getting to the ends. I help it out with some hair oil if it's looking sad, maybe once a month. But I also have a spray on conditioner that is okay for such purposes too.

I usually don't miss my hair.

It's great to just get out of the shower, roughly towel-dry it, spray some hair tonic and move on with my life. My hair can be styled to fit various moods. It naturally wants to fall to a split part which reminds me of a hairstyle my mom used to have. Which I hate. I love her, but looking like her is a different story. I have missed my hair in winter, though, since my neck and ears get cold so easily now. 

I'm transitioning out of KBeauty.

Except La'dor (for now). I'm mainly talking about LG H&H because I had been going so hard into the brand, but I cannot stand the whole using gen-AI for marketing. This just happened about a month ago, and with how slowly I'm going through products, I haven't even looked into replacements yet. EXCEPT using Decorte for my hair tonic. It's going well! More below.

Current Routine

Usually gets wet every day, shampoo is mostly dependent on feeling (eg: if I've used a styling product, or if it's a been a few days since my last shampoo, or if I've been extra sweaty). Conditioner use is rare. If I do, it's just a pea-size pump to use on the ends. I don't even use the shampoo brush much.

I still have my Sekkisei oil cleanser that I'm happy to keep using for my skincare, just so I have the option to use it to oil cleanse my hair. But I haven't needed to, so I'm leaving it out of this year's hair journal.

I don't brush my hair much because it thankfully doesn't tangle at this length, and I like it kind of wild. But I've read that benefits of hair brushing include moving oils from the scalp to the ends and to give your scalp a nice massage. So I want to get better at it, it's just nice to forget about that step.

Hair tonic twice a day, hair oil use is rare. I tend to like to style my hair while it's still wet because I feel like it softens the end result of the products used. Except the spray wax, that goes on dry.

I very rarely use the hair dryer that I still love.

Reviews

Picture of the cleansing products I'm currently using. In order of left to right, the red brush is last.

Cleansers/Shampoos

• La'dor Keratin LPP Shampoo – I went back to this shampoo because I was tired of looking for a gentler shampoo for my arsenal. I had considered this HG a few years back and it got kind of boring to use when I wanted to learn more about my hair and scalp. I often recommend this shampoo to those starting to want to take better care of their hair. And when you're trying new products, it's always good to keep a good-but-boring product in your back pocket. I would still love a more fun, gentle shampoo, but I'm just not interested in the hunt right now.
• Dr. Groot Microbiome Genethick7 Hair Loss Care Scalp Scaling Shampoo – I loved this, but alas, it's an LG product. I barely use it now and this was a backup I had since last year's hair journal so there's still two-thirds of it left. There's a good chance this same bottle will show up in next year's hair journal.
• Skylake Herbal Cool Shampoo – This was the last my my backup. I had wanted something less scaling since my last review, so I could be open to buying this again, but it's harder to get and the...
• Sansim Daol Shampoo – is a stripping hanbang shampoo. So I would rather just use this since I like(d) Sansim (more on that at a later date; they reformulated my beloved toner and it's not as good). This actually lives in the guest bathroom for a theoretical guest to use, so it's technically not currently in my normal rotation. Once I'm done with the Skylake, I'll move this into rotation to use up. It's very stripping on my strands, I don't love it.
• Dr. Groot Microbiome Genethick7 Treatment Capsule Shampoo with Biotin - even before deciding I didn't want to buy LG, I didn't love this. It was just fine. I wouldn't have minded continued use, but it didn't feel like it was doing much. I use this when I want something more cleansing than the La'dor, but not as much as Skylake. 
• Tsubaki Hair Shampoo Massage Brush – Still the same one from the last journal entry, which is the same from the last, last entry. I just use it less often now since I have less hair to battle through to get the shampoo onto my scalp. 

Moving Forward: I'm just not really into trying anything new for my hair right now, so I'll likely rebuy the La'dor at least one more time before trying a new shampoo. I would still love to try the Cha Tzu Tang Mulberry Shampoo.

Picture of the conditioner/treatment products I'm using. In order of left to right.

Conditioner/Treatment

• La’dor Hydro LPP Treatment – still HG for general conditioner. Still simple, does its job, still makes my hair feel light.
• La’dor Perferct Hair Fill-up – still HG, despite not using it since I've cut my hair short. I suspect I'll want to do it at least once every 8-10 months though, which means soon. Knowing me though, I'll likely be putting it off for as long as I can because opening a new product just to use it once every year feels like a shame. 

Picture of the hair care products I'm using. In order of left to right.

Hair Care

• Dr.Groot Anti Hair Loss Scalp Tonic – this was pretty close to HG last time. I got quite a few people to try and buy it. But it's an LG product and it's also been reformulated. It's now in a larger bottle too, so I suspect like all recent formulations, shrinkflation's affected it and the quality has gotten worse. I really do love how this version makes my hair feel - healthier and bouncier - but I've not noticed much of a difference since switching to Decorte's, so I think it's a good sign that I've found my replacement.
  
• Decorte AQ Scalp & Hair Energizer – I really enjoy it! I've been using it for over a month and I'm so thankful my hair hasn't been missing the Dr. Groot hair tonic. My hair feels about as healthy as before and I really enjoy Decorte's cologne-like smell. As much as I love hanbang, I would prefer it if my hair didn't smell like it, so scent of Decorte's wins over Dr. Groot's. This is $65.30 for 170mL (on yesstyle) vs Dr. Groot's current version $22.40 for 150mL so it is more expensive, but I think it's worth it, especially since I'm saving so much money of using less product at a time now. Plus I feel all giddy I have a (close-to) HG luxe hair product like a grown up. 
• UNITE 7Seconds Hair Detangler – I got this when I still had long hair. I really don't need a leave in conditioner/detangler now and have a lot of it left. I'm trying use it to free up shelf space by putting it on the few occasions my hair feels dryer than I'd like or to use it for the heat/UV protection properties. 
• BathSabbath GHOST Unscented nut-free Beard Oil GHOST - I use it as a hair oil, it works well. It's not mind blowing other than being absolutely scent-free. They're a small business and I bought quite a few from their etsy shop based on a recommendation from a friend. This is my last bottle and they're closing down their shop soon. If you've been looking for an unscented, nut-free hair oil, I do recommend them! I just think with where my hair's at now, I won't need it before they close up.

Moving Forward: I'm mostly set with the Decorte. I would love a hair oil of my dreams that feels like nothing on, smells like fresh/clean and makes my hair soft and silky smooth, but I don't think that really exists 😂