Adventures in haircare.

Jerry at Legends Hair Salon in Flemington, New Jersey has been cutting my hair since I was 5-years-old. I am not even over-exaggerating when I say that literally only 2 other people have cut my hair since then. Once was in Jersey—I was desperate, and Jerry was unavailable. The other was here in Maryland—I tried to start a new hair stylist relationship near my new home. It didn't go so well. 

Lately, I've been avoiding Jerry. I've had short to medium length hair for the majority of my life. I was never one for highlights or crazy colors; I've always tried to keep things pretty simple. I cut my bangs short and straight after college graduation, and since then, I've been on a mission to grow my hair out long. If I had to give a celebrity example of my desired hair style, I'd go with Zooey Deschanel.

However, trying to get my hair to grow past shoulder length has been a HUGE challenge. Admittedly, there's a few reasons for this: 1. I have naturally wavy hair, which sounds cool, but it's not. In order to go "au naturale" I have to load up on product.  2. I wash my hair every day. Sometimes twice a day.  3. I blow dry my hair almost every day. And then I use a flat iron to either curl it or straighten it.  4. I tend to buy really cheap, "drugstore" shampoo of the Garnier Fructis or Herbal Essences variety (the above mentioned Maryland hair stylist gave me a lot of crap when I told her I used Dove shampoo).

All of these things have led to build up, dryness, and damage. And damage always leads to one thing: getting a haircut. But for some reason, telling Jerry, "just a health trim, please!" gives him full liberty to cut off 4 inches. I end up right back where I started.

I'm at the point now where I can say my hair is probably the longest it ever has been, and I'm proud of that. However, the end of each strand looks like a rat chewed on it. Trying to find new ways to tame it every morning is exhausting. So, instead of going back for "just a trim," I'm trying some new, quasi-inexpensive, products and techniques:

1. A boar bristle brush. I purchased this one at Ulta for $11.99. The brand is called Wigo. It's 100% boar bristle, which prevents frizz and adds shine. I picked this one for its softness and ceramic barrel. 2. Redken All Soft shampoo and conditioner. My boyfriend worked for a haircare company for almost 5 years. He recommended Redken to me. I picked the All Soft line since it promotes "gentle haircare for dry, brittle hair." Seemed like a good match. The liters were on sale at Ulta for $14.99 each, and I got 2 free pumps. 3. Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum. While doing some research, I stumbled across this product and decided I had to try it. This serum smoothes hair strands, supposedly eliminating frizz and cutting down dry time. It also smells really nice! I picked up the small trial size from Ulta for only a few bucks. 

I'm hoping after two weeks, I will start notice a difference in my hair. Today was day one. Already, my hair feels much softer and lighter, but the ends are still very dry and brittle feeling. Hoping to avoid another health trim. Wish me luck!

Crafty.

Photo credit: my pal, Brody Rose.

Growing up, I had always wanted a sewing machine. I've just forever held the belief that a woman needed to go through life always having her trusted sewing machine handy. It's similar to the KitchenAid mixer complex. Finally, my grandmother gave me a wonderful little Brother sewing machine for my 24th birthday. And I have let it sit almost completely dormant since the day I received it—a shiny, new toy, kept in its box like a collector's item.

Back in February, I traveled to New Jersey for a girls weekend. As a fun activity, my sister planned an afternoon at a mega craft store way out in Pennsylvania called Hobby Lobby. Think if Michael's, Joann Fabrics, and Home Goods had a baby and pumped it full of steroids. You'd get Hobby Lobby. It was a little overwhelming. My mom suggested that I look for materials for a new sewing project. We probably spent about an hour sifting through pattern books until we found a very simple skirt. We chose a black and yellow floral patterned material to craft it from. When I got back home that Sunday, I liberated the sewing machine from its box, and placed it prominently on my desk for inspiration.

This past weekend, on a very gloomy Saturday, I finally sat down to sew my skirt. Overall, it was fairly easy, and didn't take much time. I still consider myself a novice sewer, and it took me about 6 hours total. The end result, which I am very happy with, is pictured above. As with most projects, I felt extremely accomplished and proud when I was done. I'm hoping to make another of this very simple skirt, hopefully just in time for summer. And I'll be keeping my sewing machine on my desk, for now.

Launch Party.

Lately, my Gmail inbox has been a little out of control. But I've noticed a growing trend in my selective email screening process: restaurants. I tend to open anything restaurant related. It's ironic, because about 4 years ago, I really didn't care much about food. Then, I graduated college, moved to Hoboken, and was surrounded by amazing restaurants. It suddenly became really difficult to not care about food.

DC now has a wonderful up-and-coming restaurant scene. As a self-acclaimed novice foodie, I try to stay tuned-in to it. It seems that every day, something new (and worth trying) is popping up nearby. My email subscriptions suddenly become alive with news about launch parties and soft openings. I've always thought what fun that must be, to go to a new restaurant before anyone else, like a true foodie. On Monday night, I finally got the chance to check this one off the bucket list.

I attended a launch party with my boss and a few coworkers at a new Potomac restaurant called Sugo Cicchetti. To anyone in the DC area who is familiar with the Cava restaurants and the Mama Lucia chain, this is a joint venture between the two. Sugo is a new and interesting concept—they serve Italian small plates, as well as wood-fired pizza. After a few glasses of yummy sangria, we were treated to octopus with macaroni, gnocchi with truffle cream, spinach and parmesan ravioli, meatball sliders, and classic margherita pizza. The food was pretty straight-forward, but also very authentic tasting, and good! The restaurant has an open kitchen, and a sort of industrial-meets-rustic type of feel.

Sugo joins the ranks of hard-to-find good Italian food in the DMV (a fact that was hard to come to terms with when moving from New Jersey), and I'm hoping it will become a new happy hour spot for our office. Also, did I mention that HZDG did all of the branding?!

By the numbers.

Two weeks ago today marked the one year anniversary of my moving into a little studio apartment on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC. The fact that I am still living there one year and two weeks later is quite an accomplishment in my book. In the past six years, I've lived in six different apartments. So it only made sense that when I moved to my current location, I never really let myself settle in. That is, until now.

I fell in love with this studio—all (supposedly) 425 sq. feet of it. It took some time, and maybe it didn't hit me full-on until I thought about the fact that my lease would soon be ending. But since I've decided to stay for a now indefinite period of time (tomorrow marks day one of being lease-free), I've also decided to make the absolute most of it.

With some simple sparks of creativity, a lot of help from Pinterest, and encouragement from family and friends, I've taken on a small series of projects to really make this place mine. I'll try to share them here as they happen (one of my favorite additions is above), along with my explorations of DC, and hopefully more.

So… any ideas for what I should do next? Some thoughts: Create a terrarium. Start a new sewing project. Design invitations for my grandmother's 90th birthday party.

Tonight: trying a new restaurant in Park Potomac called Sugo.