I don’t really consider myself a vain person. Not anymore. I used to be much more self-conscious and tried to “keep up with the Joneses”. But now that I AM a Jones and live out in the country and I’m rapidly closing in on 70, I find my beauty comes from within. And I’m good with that.

I stopped cutting my hair simply because of covid and then…it just seemed to be pretty cost conscious to avoid the salon. I got used to pulling it back in a ponytail and braiding it to keep it from tangling and breaking. This kept it healthy, but I’ve been toying with cutting it for a few months now. 

As I told you yesterday, I wasn’t really thrilled with it when I got home. I thought maybe the cut itself was bad because it looked really choppy. It turns out, my hair has changed drastically in the three years since I stopped cutting it. There are several reasons for that. One is my age. Grey hair has a tendency to be more coarse and wiry. But that doesn’t explain the curls that made an appearance since my last cut.

I’m sure braiding it all the time has trained it to curl more than it was before. And, my hyperparathyroidism seems to have been a factor. I asked in my Parathyroid Support Group if others had seen a difference in their hair and the response was an overwhelming “Yes!”  Interestingly, the results were about 50/50…some had gone from straight to curly like me, and some had just the opposite effect. They went from having abundant curls to slightly wavy. 

I called my regular salon yesterday. The gal who used to do my hair isn’t there any longer so they gave the name of another stylist who has over thirty years experience. I felt comfortable with that. Kendra spent a great deal of time with me. I’ve known the salon owner since high school. He came over and consulted and the two of them agreed it really wasn’t a BAD cut…but it did need a little finessing. 

It turns out, my hair is entirely different than it was three years ago. Though it was nearly stick straight and baby fine all my life, there was a LOT of it. And now, it’s coarse and really curly from my ears back. The whole back of my head. So when I blew it dry like I’d always done before, it did nothing but frizz out.

Kendra showed me how to style it to keep that from happening. We made a plan to let it grow and we’ll keep trimming it till we get the layers grown out, then maybe down the road, we’ll want to try a different approach altogether and embrace the curls. At any rate, I felt immensely better when I left the salon than I did when I went in. I bought some really good professional quality shampoo and conditioner to keep my hair healthy. All the girls in the salon were so envious of my color. They said they get women all the time that want them to put low lights in their hair like I have and mine is all natural.

When I was finished at the salon, I went to Sam’s because it’s close by. We needed a few things, but the store wasn’t terribly crowded and I decided to just browse and people watch. I’ve been wanting an enameled cast iron Dutch oven for forty years and never bought myself one. Sam’s had one for $45 so I bought a beautiful fire engine red model! 

I’ve also been looking for a way to watch the movies from my iPad on our big screen TV. I have the first generation Apple TV, but it no longer works with the newer technology. When I saw one at Sam’s for $65 dollars off, I picked one up. The bonus is, I can download an app from the Apple Store and watch Big’s college swim meets on the big screen! I hear of people ditching Satellite in favor of online TV and it’s much cheaper. I’ll be exploring that. It’s always a good idea to be more frugal in entertainment to keep the cash flow for the things that are currently more expensive.

I reached Daughter #1 by phone on my way home. We don’t always get a chance to just sit and talk at any length. She’s very busy and with the time difference, we miss each other a lot. This time we talked for a good forty-five minutes and it did my heart good. I ended my night feeling MUCH better…lighter, healthier, less stressed. One might call this “retail therapy.” I prefer to call it killing many birds with one stone that saves money in the long run and made my heart and mind healthy and happy. 

And…I got a really rad Dutch oven to boot!

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“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28 ESV

#Health, #Happiness, #Peace