DIY Salt Spray.

Hi there Folks,

So as someone who has hair in that awkward 'growing out of pixie crop' phase, coupled with the fact that although I have a lot a hair, it's quite fine, I find that I'm needing a little help to make it look how I want it to.

Now, before I was a student I used to buy Lee Stafford's 'I Hate My Hair The Day It's Washed' spray which is great. But at over £6 a bottle it's something that I'd rather not buy and use that money towards something else. So I make my own. Now the Lee Stafford spray isn't a salt spray, but it does take away that slippery, fly away texture of hair when it's washed and just gives it a bit of hold without making it greasy. And I find that the salt spray does virtually the same thing, plus it adds a bit more texture rather than my hair just being straight. 

So what I do to make it is take an empty spray bottle (this one cost 39p from Home Bargains). Add some sea salt to it, I personally use sea salt but I guess table salt would work just as well...it's the same thing after all! I then add a dollop of hair conditioner and also a dollop of hair gel just to add some extra hold and protection. Then fill your bottle up with warm tap water (not boiling...as I discovered the first time it may well just melt the bottle!) and give it a shake to dissolve the salt and mix the conditioner and gel in.

And there you have it, your very own salt spray to give you that lovely texture and hold if you have unruly hair.

Have any of you made your own salt spray before? Or have any other recipes for other hair goodies that I could try? Please share!

Ciao for now,

JB

Knit Knit Hooray!

Hi there Folks,

Today I'm feeling very pleased with myself, as this morning I finished off my first ever knitting project!! It may only be a super basic scarf, but I spent hours getting really annoyed trying to teach myself to knit not so long ago, so for me, this is an achievement.

Here's what the finished project looks like...

It's grey, it's super chunky and its long, just what I wanted for a nice, snuggly scarf to help me face the northern winter.

The pattern I used was really basic, literally two different rows repeated over and over (the original pattern can be found here). But I decided to jazz it up a bit once I'd finished by adding some fringing/tassles. I used 12mm plastic needles and James C. Brett 'Rustic' Mega Chunky wool in the colour CS2 (both needles and wool bought from here, although they don't have the actual wool I used on the website, sorry!)

I know there are plenty of tutorials for how to make tassles etc. on the web, but I thought I'd add onto here how I did them. It was a bit of a process as I'd initially not made them long enough and didn't like them so had to start all over. This means I have lots of lengths of wool that I really don't want to waste that I need to find a use for...I'm thinking pom poms?

Anyway, here's how I did it.

1. I wrapped the wool round a DVD box (in this case - Band of Brothers Bluray Boxset) until I had the right number of loops. I wanted 27 as I chose to do 9 tassles each using three lengths of wool.

2. I then cut the middle of the wrapped up wool and was left with all my ready made lengths.

3. Using an old, clean chopstick I folded the wool in half over the top of it and used this to push the strands through the gaps on the end of my scarf.

4. Finally I pulled through, evens the lengths out and then wrapped the top loop over the tail ends to create a slip knot. I pulled the lengths tight and voila! Was pretty speedy once I got my method down and I found that the box I used gave the perfect length for what I wanted.

And here is me looking all pleased and warm wearing my lovely new scarf :]

Ciao for now,

JB