Going Natural

Good Morning -

This is what happens when you mix a big idea with a little bit of time. I had it in my head to write about what's going on with my hair and thought, "Oh, I'll cut out images of hair for the Virgen." This would have been a harmless enough thought, except that I get most of my imagery from either food magazines or travel brochures. This may surprise you, but neither abound with images of women's hair. What you see is what I was able to find - in the little bit of time I gave myself last night for Virgen making.

And what, exactly, is going on with my hair that would warrant it being a theme for a Virgen? Remember how I told you in Citrus-Scented Breasts that I couldn't use my regular conditioner while I'm doing the orange oil applications because it contains limonene? Well, my hair is not responding well to alternative treatments at all.

Drawing on inspiration from "Curly Girl", the book I've used to guide my hair care since directed to it 4 years ago by one of my sisters, I've been trying to find natural alternatives to my conditioner. One of the standard treatments in the book is to mix brown sugar in with your conditioner when your scalp needs a good exfoliation. Brown sugar by itself does not work nearly as well. Another key ingredient is baking soda to cut buildup - which works okay but doesn't touch the scalp and strips the hair of any good oils. Lemon is a third ingredient used liberally throughout the book, but we all know that's out for now. (Side note about the book - If you or someone you love has curly hair, this is a must, must have. The author does hair in NYC and I've always thought that, time and money permitting, I'd love to have her do my hair.)

Despite their supposed healing hair qualities, I haven't been able to bring myself to head to the mayonnaise and avocados yet. I have been mixing a drop or two of olive oil in with my gel to combat the baking soda stripping, but that tends to give me doll hair (bright, shiny, and strangely stretchable). In trying to think of other natural astringents, vinegar came to mind, but that's just too close to making a salad on my head for me to follow through with - plus the smell of vinegar is distinct and hard to mellow.

I have two more weeks of orange breasts, so I'm going to have to find something. Had my MRI composite shot not ruled it out as an alternative, I might have considered a shaved head - for both the lack of product needed and a response to the heat - which is here.

That's right. The heat has arrived, which is what the pink thread border around the Virgen is about. Now that it's triple digits every day (Yes. That's what I said - triple digits. Every day.), my little garden stands not a chance without some covering. Yesterday I used the leftover weed cloth I had to create shade, tying it in place with some pink thread.

For those who don't live just south of Hell, this may look extreme and you might be tempted to think, "Oh, those poor plants won't get any sun." Good. I hope they don't. The little bit that filters through is more than enough. Anything direct and they'll die. I can only hope that the cucumbers and pumpkins that are peeking out won't die - that the plant as a whole will evolve as it grows and have the energy from the part that is shaded to continue to support the part that is not. That, or the part that is not shaded will die, but the rest will live.

A little bit of morning and evening sun is all they're going to get.

My little shanty town garden will hopefully live to tell its own tales.

Really, being honest, I have no business trying to grow cucumbers and pumpkins in the desert during the summer. They don't belong here. As long as I live here and as long as grocery store tomatoes can have salmonella, though, I've got to try.