Day 320 – Vinegar Hair
My girlfriend and I have been busy doing some major cooking lately. On Thursday we cooked for 4 hours and made 2 lasagnas and some italian bread. For the second lasagna we used gluten-free noodles because my brother has celiacs disease, meaning his body has an intolerance to wheat gluten. It was extremely delicious and totally worth it. Each lasagna had a whopping 4000 calories and there are still leftovers! The recipe we used came from allrecipes.com, this website has a ton of great recipes if you want to try something new! Just last week we made a filling beef stew.
I’ve also started washing my hair with baking soda and vinegar. Why you ask? Because the shampoo we use is full of chemicals that strip all of the oils out of our hair and cause the scalp to produce even more oils to compensate for the loss. So the more often you shampoo, the more often you will have to!
Shampoo is basically detergent, and a strong one at that. Baking soda is a much milder Alkaline that will still clean the dirt and grime from your hair. Baking soda is a common ingredient in toothpastes for this reason.
Because vinegar is an acid, it will neutralize the baking soda. (An acid canceling out a base, brings you back to high school chemistry doesn’t it?) This acts much like a conditioner would.
Some of the obvious benefits of not using shampoo is that your head will produce less oil and will be needed to be cleaned less often. No more over-dried frizzy hair! You will also save a lot of money on hair care products, I have become addicted to shampoo that costs $13 a bottle and I will save hundreds of dollars if I no longer need it.
How do I wash my hair with baking soda and vinegar?
It is very simple, first you need to make a solution of 1 tablespoon baking soda, to 1 cup of water. I put mine in a sports water bottle that fit about 3 cups so that I could easily squirt it over my hair. Next, do the same thing in another bottle with the vinegar, 1tbsp/cup of water. Apple cider vinegar is suggested but I only had white vinegar on hand, both will work just fine.
In the shower, squirt the baking soda solution over your hair and massage in for a few minutes, then rinse thoroughly. Then, spray the vinegar solution over your hair and do the same, you may need more or less depending on your hair type. I always comb it through when I take a shower to get out all the tangles.
After a good rinse you are done! It has been nearly a week since I used shampoo and I used this combination for the first time last night and my hair came out surprisingly clean. There is a transitional period where your body gets used to the lack of shampoo, oil production should decrease once it realizes it does not need to overcompensate for the oils the shampoo removed. This can take a few weeks to a few months, it all depends on your hair type.
There is no reason not to try it out for a few months to see if it works for you, and if it doesn’t, you can simply go back to your shampooing ways. Here is a blog that goes a lot more in-depth into the process. http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/
I’m going to finish things off with a recent AA question, I will get another post up in a few days after my next electrolysis appointment.
Until next time,
Abbey
Q: I was wondering how easy it is to start hormone therapy in Mass? I’m around the same area you are, and I want to start hormones a.s.a.p. I might be able to start them in like October, but they told me I have to get all these tests done first, which I hope to do in a few weeks. And I was wondering if there were any trans stores around eastern Mass, I know nobody in real life who shares these feelings.
-Ashley
A: Hi Ashley,
It can depend a lot on who you are going to see in order to get your hormones. For me it took about 4-5 months from the time I started therapy until the time I took my first hormone pills. The general rule of thumb is 3 months of therapy before they will give you a letter for hormones, but some will do it only after a few visits. I got my letter at around the 3-4 month mark but it took a while longer due to the time between my lab work appointment and my follow up. (This is heavily dependent on how busy your doctor is) The actual test itself is pretty basic blood work, it should take no more than a week or two to get the results back. From what I have heard clinics tend to prescribe HrT faster than a private therapist would but it is important to make sure they are professional.
There is one trans-friendly shop that I know of in Wakefield, MA. It is called Florence’s Fashions and is a small boutique store that has a variety of women’s clothing, wigs, and breast forms. The owner is heavily involved in the trans community and is happy to give you advice help with your outfits. Shopping at a big department store can be extremely intimidating for the first time, Florence’s provides a safe place to start learning what to look for when shopping for women’s clothing. They do not have much casual wear like T-shirts and shorts but they have a decent selection of dressier clothes. Here is a link for more information about Florence’s Fashions.
Day 315 – 45 and Life
Greetings and salutations!
Today I had my 6th electrolysis appointment. In 45 minutes we treated most of the regrowth, it was mostly light hair anyway. In the 6 days since I last shaved It had grown about as much as it would have in 24 hours before I started treatment (Much thinner though). I am really happy with how my my beard removal is going, I feel as though I am really lucky with how much progress I’ve made. I spent all evening working on my electrolysis timeline and got half of it done. I will be adding a second set of photos showing under my chin as well as two more to show today’s treatment. After this point I think I will only add new pictures every few treatments or else it will become an extremely huge file.
Tomorrow I am going to a support group that my therapist put together for the second time. It is a pretty small group (5-6) and we are all around the same age range so it should be fun. Out of all of the people who attend I am one of the farthest along but that isn’t to say I won’t be able to get anything out of it. At the very least I can help some of the others with any questions they have about transitioning.
I still haven’t sent in my name change petition yet. My mom is insistent that I at least consider a middle name of her selection. The problem is that she is so busy and stressed out dealing with one of my uncles who has a drinking problem, and now has a blood clot in his lungs, that she says she can’t deal with me changing my name right now. It is pretty frustrating and part of it has to do with the fact that she is still holding onto what remnants of my past self still exist. I will have to sit her down and talk it over.
P.S. My skin is unbelievable soft!
Abbey
Day 309 – The Beardless Lady
My lovely face after 45 minutes of electrolysis.
Yesterday I had another electrolysis appointment and we finally treated all of the dark hairs on my face! There are still a lot of white hairs but they are much softer and grow a lot slower. Even if I were to stop when all I had left were white hairs, it would still be much easier to keep my face smooth compared to when I first started. It is hard to say if the one laser treatment on my underarms did anything. It has been 7 days since my appointment and my hair is still relatively short. We will see how it turns out.
Lately I have been wondering if my odd post titles are a good or bad thing so I decided to make a poll. Are they entertaining? Or do they make it a pain in the ass to find what you are looking for? Let me know!
Day 300 – THIS IS GINGAH!
I can’t believe it has already been 300 days since I started hormones, the time really flew by. I’ve been busy lately making major strides in my transition. Yesterday I went to the town hall and got a copy of my birth certificate to send in with my name change petition. Today I had 30 more minutes of electrolysis. We finally got started on the upper lip and surprisingly it didn’t hurt that bad on the outer edges. I did not know the appointment was only 30 minutes though, she didn’t tell me until I got there, a little annoying. I have new pictures to update my breast development timeline and I added a new set of measurements to my chart in the timeline section. Lastly I made an appointment to get my fist laser hair removal treatment tomorrow! 😀 I am getting my underarms treated.
I will be updating some of my charts and timelines soon so keep an eye out for them!
-Abbey
Q: What is your hair regimen? What do you do to get your hair all shiny and looking nice? =)
-Ashley
A: I use Rusk Most shampoo and Rusk Smoother conditioner. They are pretty expensive but I really like how well they work. The conditioner is a leave-in conditioner so you put it on when your hair is still damp, it makes my hair much softer than other conditioners I’ve tried! It still does get frizzy sometimes but it is minimal.
Other than that I don’t really use any products aside from the occasional hair spray or sculpting wax. When I wash it I run a comb through it in the shower to smooth out any snarls and then comb it straight after I towel dry it. If you are having trouble with unruly hair try some different products and see what works for you!
Day 298 – The Prince of Darkness
I updated the About Me page with a biography about my experienced growing up. It talks a little bit about my past as well as how I came to realized that I was transgender. I will be making a factual timeline detailing the different steps in my transition. I hope you enjoy this photo taken when I was 2 year old with Scooby-doo in Disney World. He was one of my absolute favorites.
Edit: Turns out the photo was taken in Universal Studios, NOT Disney. Silly me. x.x
-Abbey
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