Hair...conditioner, cutting, coloring

I can't stand my hair most of the time.  Before I had children I had beautiful hair...thick, curly, beautiful hair.  Sometimes it was hard to find someone to cut it and hard to find hair thing-a-ma-bobs to go in it.  I loved it.  Then I had kids.

With child number one my hair started falling out.  Not tons but I lost a lot.  The texture changed.  The body changed.  No longer was it curly but it was still wavy.  Then boy #2 came along.  When I was pregnant with him, my hair fell out by the handful.  It wasn't even wavy anymore.  It was straight as a board and thin, thin, thin.  It didn't stop falling out until my young padawan was 5.  Sigh. 

Now it's thickened back up to about what it was after Number One.  It's also got about the same body.  I guess I can deal with that.  Most of the time.  I *have* decided I want to do smething different with my washing routine so I started reading on the 'net about different things.  I have friends who do a couple of different things.  Some I'm too afraid to try:  Using coconut oil in my hair, for example.  However, one of my online friends uses conditioner only to wash her hair.  No shampoo.  Ok.  I can try that.

Day number one of conditioner only went well.  It looked really good, in fact!  Not nearly as much static in my hair either.  I really liked that.  Since it went so well, I decided to press on to day two.  That's today.  I'm not diggin' it as much today.  It feels funky.  I can't pinpoint it though.  I'm going to say it's just a bad hair day all around though and keep pressing on.  I keep telling myself I need t commit to this for a month.  I don't know if I'll make it or not.

I've also been thinking of cutting it.  I just can't decide if I want to grow it out or cut it short for summer.  If I attempt to grow it, there's a chance it won't be long enough to put in a ponytail or braid for summer.  A huge chance.  If I cut it, I might regret it.  It takes a long time to grow.  One thing is certain, I have to decide something pretty soon.  Warm weather is coming and I'm super hot natured!  This hair simply cannot be on my neck or in my face out here on the prairie.

I took part recently in an online discussion about coloring gray.  I hate to admit it but I've got more gray than I think my mom had at my age.  I must be taking after my father.  Thanks, dad.  Anyway, I used to color my hair all the time before the gray hit.  Anyone who remembers me from jr. high and high school can attest that I've been bleach blonde, jet black and everything in between.  Through all this, I've always hated doing my roots.  I also hate looking like white trash with two inches of a different color popping out.  Bleck.  I guess this really doesn't have a point except to say that I have decided to grow old gracefully and not color my gray.  Eventually I'll be grayER than my mom and people will think I'm the mother and she's the daughter.  Oh. Wait.  I think people already think that.  Have you people SEEN my mother????  She is stunning!

So, I guess if anyone has pics of haircuts that you think will look good on me, send them to me.  All cuts will be considered.  If you have ideas on growing it out and staying cool, shoot me those too. 

I'll keep y'all posted on the no shampoo thing.