let me clear my . . . head

recently had my locks cut into a very pleasing configuration of hair.

finally.

i have long suffered from a lack of an enviable hairstyle since wearing a ponytail every single day may not in any way be construed as a hairstyle. sure, when one goes to the gym or perhaps a cute pony high on the crown but not day in, day out, people.

flash to me sitting in the stylist's chair with one of those fashionable black capes draped over my shoulders in an attempt to catch and deflect stray, cut hairs to the ground.

upon closer inspection of my strands, the stylist at large blithely asks: "do you condition your hair?"

why yes, almost every day, i answer. focusing mostly on the dry-as-the-sahara ends, i add in brightly.

"do you rinse the conditioner out?" she asks.

um yes, of course, says me with confidence.

"with hot, cold or warm water?" she shoots back faster than quickdraw mcgraw.

with probably hot or warm, depending on the temp outside, i weakly offer.

apparently, all my fervent conditioning to battle what i thought was an ends frizz issue then rinsing with hot/warm water was causing the conditioner to "bake" onto my hair strands, leaving behind a dulling, white film. and though i was only applying to my ends, the conditioner had managed to shimmy it's way up all the way to my roots, making my hair look a tad greasy. awesome. no wonder i can't do anything with my hair but put it in a ponytail.

the stylist, let's call her alina, quickly suggests what she calls "sunday shampoo". alina, being a brit, has cute and astute little britishisms for everything. so dear long weekend style reader, let me translate: sunday shampoo on the other side of the pond=clarifying shampoo stateside. so when your everyday shampoo has lost it's spunk and no longer leaves your strands in squeaky clean condtion, you need to call in the heavy artillery: a clarifying shampoo.

clarifying shampoo has the distinct job of being a shampoo, with ahem, "extras". wink-wink, nudge-nudge. those extras being the ability to rinse away grime, product build-up and all around hair yuckiness in one fell swoop. making your roots feel fluffy and super clean thus rendering your regular everyday shampoo back in business.

it's recommended to start by washing with the clarifying shampoo perhaps 2-3 days in a row in order to rid hair of any and all buildup before switching back to the everyday stuff. then just use the clarifying once weekly to get the gunk out. hence the name "sunday shampoo" as i am guessing this is the day of the week that the brits instituted using said clarifying in their hair washing shedule. yes, i type correctly, shedule, with no "c". because that's how they do it across the pond, folks.

2 recommended brands: neutrogena clarifying shampoo. $4.99 for 12oz. also pantene makes what seems like a jumbo-sized bottle for $3.99. both brands available at drugstores and online retailers as well as health and beauty store nationwide.