Question of the Week: Are coffee wraps legit?

Hey, strangers.  It's been a while, huh? 

So, the blog kind of got away from me, basically for two reasons:

• The hypomanic high that propelled me through February and March and the first part of April gave way, as it inevitably had to, to some sluggish, lethargic, perpetually-exhausted unpleasantness.  Whereas I had been enjoying inordinate amounts of free time in the first few months–because I only needed to sleep 4 hours–suddenly most of my unaccounted-for moments were going to naps.
• I started helping mod the /r/HaircareScience board.  I noticed that some of the writing that I used to be doing for the blog was now being done as comments on the board.  Which got me thinking...why not pull some of my longer, more thoroughly-researched pieces back over here?  Which brings us to today: redditor /u/mrs_shrew kindly agreed to have her original question replicated here with my response.  You can click here to visit the entire thread on Reddit (consider joining us on the board!).  :I thought about rewriting just my response into more of an essay type thing, but I think the Q&A format is fun and easy to get into, plus...the May doldrums are still hovering around and I'm feeling lazy.  So!  Let's take a look at our question, shall we?

***

Mrs. Shrew has a question about the humble cuppa joe:

Has anyone tried a coffee hair wrap?

I read somewhere once that the caffeine stimulates growth...is there any truth to this? 

I thought I would try it so I made a cup of strong coffee (3spoons of instant in half a teacup) and soaked my hair for a couple of hours and it seemed to make it thicker or was that just the shafts being swollen?

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E6: A Golden Crown)

Trying to get back on my projected schedule after March went a bit off the rails!  Season 4 just started, and it's really hard not to jump the gun and start picking apart the first episode for costume details, however...since so much of this depends on tracking the changes over time, I'd only be able to tease out a fraction of what the new season's costumes have to tell.  Let's just keep chugging along, and we'll get to Season 4 in due course.

This episode is lots of fun.  It's one of the most action-packed ones we've seen so far, and its got plenty to discuss.  Let's go!

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E5: The Wolf and the Lion)

Sorry that I am so, so behind schedule!  Persistent migraines for the past two weeks or so really threw a wrench in the works, and then late-March/early-April is a really busy time of the year for social events.  I was really hoping to get more of these done before Season 4 kicked off and no-one cares about the previous seasons anymore, but...  Let's look on the bright side: halfway there for the first season!  This is a pretty fun episode from a story perspective, though a lot of the costumes are continuations of themes we've seen before, but in any case, after last week's endless Castle Black/Dothraki carosel, we're off to some new places!  Let's seen what we've got to work with.

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E4: Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things)

Apologies for being a little slow with this post: a massive migraine over the weekend meant that I made precisely zero progress.  Anyway, I was a little bit worried about this episode when I was re-watching it: after last episode's costume explosion, there are relatively few big changes in this one.  There's loads of backstory and several scenes set in Castle Black, a location which is not exactly a costume goldmine.  This episode also contains the first of the really flagrant "sexposition" scenes, which is, for obvious reasons, a bit light on the clothing front.

Thank the old gods and the new, then, for the second half!  The tourney of the hand yields some interesting pieces for discussion, as does another scene with Cersei.  Let's get stuck in.

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E3: Lord Snow)

I'm so glad that these costume analyses have been proving popular!  I love doing them, and it's nice to see that other people are interested.  I'm still working out the best way to do them: if there's anything you'd like to see more focus on, please do leave a comment and I'll take it on board!

This episode is an interesting one: it has some pretty pivotal scenes for a couple characters, the importance of which will be reflected in how their costumes start to change.  Let's dive in, shall we?

No Feels, Only Reals: Rye Flour on Trial

–Introduction–

Sometimes I start to feel like a bit of a buzzkill at the Haircare Science and No-Poo parties.  I'd love to be sharing supportive, U-go-gurl advice and flipping my hair in the sun like a shampoo commercial with everybody else, but instead I'm crouched in my corner with notebooks of crabbed little calculations and "Don't do that!" as my mantra.

When I originally posted my explanation of baking soda and why dilution with water doesn't have much effect on its pH, a lot of people naturally asked, "So, if baking soda's no good, what can we use?"  I was embarrassed to realize that I didn't really have an answer to that.

So! Clearly the only thing to do is to get experimental.  Based on other people's comments, I've got a short list of shampoo alternatives that I'm planning to test.  I will use each of them for a month (unless they become unfeasible) and catalog their pros and cons using the following criteria:

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E2: The Kingsroad)

Saddle up! This is a long one.  I was actually worried if I would find much to say about this episode (since most of the costumes are ones we've seen before) but...I really didn't need to be concerned.  Let's go!