Living La Vida Loca
6 years ago by
One month and 14 days ago, I left NYC after eight great years and a lot of deliberation and some very real doubt that it was time for a change. I should mention I’m not the best with change and I completely forgot how weird it is to be new to a city and all of the feelings of being lost, physically, emotionally and mentally.
I’ve finally returned to the motherland, the great Golden State of California, the place of my birth. However, I’ve arrived in the sunnier southern half of the state and am going through what you could call a pretty serious adjustment.
I’m still working through all the feelings, but here are some funny things I’ve encountered since living in LA so far:
-I’ve seen three non-homeless people walk down the street barefoot. This would never happen in NYC.
-The LA hustle is just as a real as the NYC hustle, just less restaurant gigs, “I had a pop-up gallery, but I did real estate on the side and also did holistic healing.”
-A woman next to me at a cafe said she wanted her birthday party to be a scavenger hunt in her neighborhood. This would be the worst birthday party I can imagine attending.
-I was slightly surprised by the state of everyone’s hair in my neighborhood, like it was living up to the stereotype of the devil may care, hippie chic look of my LA dreams but I quickly realized it’s a direct result of the very hard water in LA and I’m now part of this unkempt looking club.
-I’ve aged exactly 4.5 years since arriving because the air is so dry.
I’ll keep you posted on how I’m coping out west, but I will take any and all suggestions of how to beat the desert dryness!
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Get a water softening machine for your house! It truly makes a difference. As for dryness… I relocated back to southern California a little over a year ago, and my body is still adjusting! Ive got dry scalp and have no clue how to help it, its gross and frustrating! I just made a concoction of coconut oil, aloe (directly from the plant), and tea tree oil blend, hoping this will provide some relief to my scalp.
Great post
https://thepinkpineappleblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/5-ways-to-dress-in-holidays_19.html
For the dryness, look for a body lotion that has urea in it : urea seals water into skin, and then over this lotion some oily preparation : oil alone does not hydrates.
Thanks, Emma! Will keep my eyes peeled for urea in the ingredients from now on!
Welcome to the best coast! I would say drink way more water than you think you should. I carry a Kleen Kanteen water bottle everywhere.
Put coconut oil on your hair and body BEFORE you take a shower or bath. This will help enormously. Even if you just do the ends of your hair.
Make sure there is a good water filter on your shower and if you take a bath, fill it with the filtered water.
Best lotion I’ve found is Comfrey Leaf Hand and Body Lotion (and I’ve tried dozens at all prices). Super Salve Company http://www.supersalve.com
Keep air moist. I’m a little suspicious of mold and problems with humidifiers. If you use one make sure you use filtered or distilled water. I just put a pot of filtered water on the stove at low heat (with rosemary if you have it in your yard). Also, a little water feature fountain you can buy at the drugstore is nice. Use distilled water or it will be white from the hardness very soon. Good luck!
So interesting! I will definitely try the coconut oil before shower trick. Thanks! x Carie
Just one word about coconut oil : just like argan oil it can make wonders to your hair OR completely dry them (organ oil does that to my hair : dry disaster), so just make a test on a strand of hair.
Apart from this caveat Mruth is 100 % right about the before, I do it for my hair before shampoo (I let sit 30 minutes to 1 hour) and I have great hair AND it does not flatten my curls, and they are not very strong.