(no subject)

Discovered: If you show up at the door of the chemist's down the road from our house not quite half an hour before they open, but when the door is open because a repairman is working on it, but beg plaintively for just one urgent thing, they will, in fact, sell you that one thing. Quite cheerfully if it turns out you're paying cash and they can just deal with you at the door.

In related news, I'm definitely allergic to a new kind of cereal I tried this morning. But just "need serious antihistamines URGENTLY or I'll have to go to hospital for not breathing" kind, not the "anaphylaxis, go to hospital immediately" kind.

And now I'm going to go get dressed. Fortunately, last night's pyjamas were in the form of a t-shirt and shorts, so I only looked semi-disreputable walking to the chemist in them.

Asking the internet

So, here's the thing.

I know from reading posts like this that certain things my hair does are quite common with some types of hair more common in people of non-European/non-Asian descent.

However, I think that on the scale of asking non-white people to Represent Their Race, going up to random black people with nice hair and saying, "Your hair is awesome! How do you do it?" might come across just ever-so-slightly wrong.

The trouble is, I don't actually know anyone with hair like mine, and I've only seen people talk about hair like mine in the context of dealing with "black" hair. Most of it's fine - it's thick, it's curly, I haven't had it cut or trimmed in at least three years so I have slight split ends I'll get around to having trimmed at some point, and I manage it by being sure to use conditioner and keeping it braided almost all the time to keep it the hell out of my face, and it doesn't bother me. (And I can surprise people on special occasions by busting out some serious curls.)

But the hair near my neck refuses to get long, so it won't go into the braid, and it sticks out in ways I find both irksome and kind of distracting. That hair is tangly, kinky, and fragile. It gets about three or four inches long and then it gets tangly and knotty (even self-knotting) and breaks a lot.

Anyone know what I should do to maintain it better?

Asking the internet

So, here's the thing.

I know from reading posts like this that certain things my hair does are quite common with some types of hair more common in people of non-European/non-Asian descent.

However, I think that on the scale of asking non-white people to Represent Their Race, going up to random black people with nice hair and saying, "Your hair is awesome! How do you do it?" might come across just ever-so-slightly wrong.

The trouble is, I don't actually know anyone with hair like mine, and I've only seen people talk about hair like mine in the context of dealing with "black" hair. Most of it's fine - it's thick, it's curly, I haven't had it cut or trimmed in at least three years so I have slight split ends I'll get around to having trimmed at some point, and I manage it by being sure to use conditioner and keeping it braided almost all the time to keep it the hell out of my face, and it doesn't bother me. (And I can surprise people on special occasions by busting out some serious curls.)

But the hair near my neck refuses to get long, so it won't go into the braid, and it sticks out in ways I find both irksome and kind of distracting. That hair is tangly, kinky, and fragile. It gets about three or four inches long and then it gets tangly and knotty (even self-knotting) and breaks a lot.

Anyone know what I should do to maintain it better?