Everyday Haircare
Any Fibro warrior will tell you that there are good days and bad days. On a good day if you are going out you may make some effort with your hairstyle (within reason which is why I had a big clear out of my hair accessories on Wednesday). On a bad day if you are lucky you might be able to run a brush through it. It is the simple act of brushing your hair that I began to have real problems with. I don’t mean simply the way it can hurt your arm because on a bad day Michael has to do it for me. I am talking about the fact that the hairbrush was actually hurting my head. I wasn’t using a cheap one it was a good quality reputable brand, the style of brush that has soft padding and silicone bobbles on the end of the spines and before Fibro Flare-ups arrived I enjoyed using it. It was hurting in two ways the actual contact of the brush on the scalp and also the pulling. Even when my hair was not very tangled it still felt like the brush was yanking its way through my hair.The Solution
I came by the solution almost by accident. I was looking through the Superdrug website when I spotted this Knots no More Long and Lovely Hairbrush. It is created by a team of mums and talks about removing the tears and tantrums when brushing through children’s hair after bathtime. So I figured if it is pain-free for children it might be worth a go.
Let me tell you I was not wrong (no pun intended) I actually went to the Superdrug website and left a review for the team I was so impressed. At the time I commented on my post that it was purple with butterflies on which is two of my favourite things. Looking at it afresh through purple and butterflies are both Fibromyalgia symbols so I think it was simply meant to be.
A year and a half later I am still loving using this brush, it is genuinely pain-free gliding through my hair. In a bad flare-up, I still need Michael to do it for me, or on a better day, I may need him to just do the back if I am struggling to reach.Hair Cuts
The second thing to consider is getting your hair cut. At the time of writing the original post, I was still working a 30 hour week and the simple fact was that because I was doing that there was no chance I could get out to go to the hairdressers. The situation is somewhat different now, I no longer have a day job working for someone else. Although I certainly take my blogging seriously and treat it as much as possible like a job. The big differences are that I have no commute, I do not have to deal with anything stressful and I can work on the days and time that I feel most able to. I am still not able to go out with any regularity but I do try and get out occasionally and this can include getting a professional haircut like I did yesterday.Discovering the Creaclip
While trying to come up with a solution to my quandary, I came across the Creaclip which you can see here on Amazon. I see that since the product was launched they now have some cheaper rip off’s of the original product. I can’t vouch for the cheaper ones but the Creaclip itself is really good.
There are two individual clips, the smaller one is for cutting fringes (or bangs for my American friends) and some children’s styles and the larger one is for the main body of your hair. There is a YouTube channel dedicated to the clip created by the creator of it who is a celebrity hairstylist. Watching some of the video tutorials we felt comfortable enough to get the clips and for Michael to cut my hair himself. I think he did a pretty good job!
A few months later we used the clip again and this time I was a bit adventurous and actually cut the front of my hair into an Asymmetrical bob which I had several compliments on – but no photograph to share with you…
Although I have been able to fit in a trip to the hairdressers this time and I needed the professional help because I wanted my hair thinning and some restyling we will certainly keep using the Creaclip at home to maintain the cut. So I still very much recommend it. If you have a simple style and just need to keep removing split ends etc you could probably save on all hairdresser costs.
Of course, you would lose out on all the pampering that goes along with a trip to a salon though, but you could save a lot of money and travel. Only you know if this would be a benefit for you or not.