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Oct 26, 2012

Virus vs Willpower: Virus Wins

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Saying “I hate getting sick” is a ridiculous statement. I don’t know a person who LIKES to be sick. Well, maybe kids trying to get out of an exam, but that’s about it.

Most illnesses I fight off quickly and get back to business. Anything involving vomiting will keep me down for a few days, but other than that? I’m usually able to push past it and keep going. If I’m out for a day, I worry everything will fall down around me, because I’m always juggling so many items so very carefully.

But I’m sick. There’s no denying it. Two weeks ago I felt the start of a cold and beat it into submission with vitamins, sleep and spicy foods. That weekend the cold vanished and I gave a sigh of relief that it wasn’t going to get in my way.

Then last Tuesday, while on an Ohio Dairy Adventure trip (more on that later), I started to feel the stuffiness in my nose and a slight sore throat. By Wednesday the congestion had completely overtaken my sinuses. Daaaaaaaaaamn. Still, it was just a cold. Take some decongestants, vitamins and some strong coffee to keep me going and I’d be fine.

By Wednesday night, though, my voice was completely gone. Just a whisper. That’s fine, I’m still feeling OK other than no voice and general cold symptoms. My voice came back over the weekend and the cold seemed to go away. No cold is getting in my way.

But then then cough started. Oh my goodness, this may be the worst cough I’ve ever had. I’m on a steady diet of cough suppressants (including honey) and ibuprofen, but I cough day and night, my head and muscles ache from the coughing, and I’m utterly exhausted. No other symptoms – just a hard, dry cough that won’t stop and leaves me gasping for air at times.

I’m so frustrated because I have no energy or breath to get everything done. It’s maddening to see my to-do list keep growing and not be able to check off items fast enough. 

Next week I hope to bet better or at least have more energy, because I have SO much to write about. Cordy’s IEP meeting happened, and as a result big changes have been going on with her at school. And I want to tell you all about what I learned from meeting these gals last week:

Filed Under: me me me, plague ·


Oct 19, 2012

We Might Belong On The Gluten-Free Bandwagon

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Gluten-free seems to be the new big thing in food lately. Some say that switching to a gluten-free diet will cure nearly anything bothering you. While that’s certainly not the case, there is a growing body of evidence that many people might be sensitive to gluten, even if they’re not completely unable to eat it. And for those who truly need to be on a gluten-free diet, the influx of new products in the grocery and restaurants with labeled gluten-free menu items has made it a lot easier for them to find foods that comply with their dietary needs.

I’ve wondered if my family would see any benefit from going gluten-free. I have no digestive problems, but I do have a constant battle with low energy, especially after eating. Aaron, on the other hand, has a long history of stomach aches, cramping, and other digestive problems. But I’ll admit I also feel like gluten-free is the new fad that, while necessary for a small percentage of people, is being adopted by some for no reason other than being trendy.

While at BlogHer in August, Udi’s Gluten Free Foods was there as a sponsor and suggested I try going gluten-free for 14 days to see if there was any benefit to it. I expressed interest, and they sent me a sampler of some of their products to get me started.

I’ll confess: I did the challenge more for Aaron than myself. He’s never talked with his doctor about his digestion issues, and I suspected something in his diet was probably the culprit. If he was willing to try it with me, then maybe we’d have a clue to his stomach issues, or at least be able to cross one potential cause off the list. (Note: we didn’t have the kids go gluten-free. I didn’t feel the need to stress them out with a sudden shift in their diets for such a short period of time.)

We started on October 1 and stayed gluten-free for 14 days. The Udi’s bread, cookies and muffins were great to help with our craving for baked goods, but we didn’t limit ourselves to those items. I found a gluten-free pasta at the grocery made from corn and quinoa that was just as delicious as any wheat-based spaghetti.

It was HARD to go out to eat. Everything had to be carefully scrutinized, ingredients checked, restaurants vetted over the internet before we made a choice, etc. And even then we still ran into problems. We carefully checked before going to a local pizza shop for dinner one night. They advertised their gluten-free pizza crusts – too bad they were all out of gluten-free pizza crusts at the time. I had a salad and some baked gluten-free fries for my dinner that night.

I also found that gluten is in nearly everything. Sauces were a big hidden source of gluten, especially soy sauce. Even some lunch meats have gluten.

But there were also several foods we already were eating that were still safe to eat. My ham sandwiches were fine as long as they were on gluten-free bread. Pirate’s Booty cheese puffs and hard cheeses were still OK. Our Indian dinners we make at home were also naturally gluten-free. Some McDonald’s entree salads were still fine, too. And Nutella? Still gluten free. (Yay!!)

While we did have to be more careful and switch some of our usual products to gluten-free versions of the same food, it wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. I didn’t feel deprived of any food. And the gluten-free foods tasted really good, too. Udi’s whole grain bread has a lot more flavor and texture than the bread I had been using. The bagels and cookies are also delicious. They were moist and had plenty of flavor, erasing my worries of food that tasted bland or had a hard texture.

At the end of 14 days, it was time to return to gluten. To make it even more of a gamble, it was the same day I was leaving for a three-day trip to Cleveland. I hoped that nothing horrible would happen to me.

The results: I do not appear to have any gluten sensitivity. While I enjoyed the foods, and did notice that I wasn’t quite as foggy-headed after eating, I didn’t notice any significant differences overall.

Aaron, on the other hand, was a different story. Throughout the challenge, he said he didn’t feel all that different. I started to doubt that gluten was a problem for him. But then he went back to his usual diet and, well, Monday was a rough day for his insides. Not to get into too much detail, but he felt pretty lousy from the stomach cramping and intestinal upset. He’s already returned to eating gluten-free to see if it will calm his digestive system down again, and will be seeing his doctor to get more information.

(If he’s willing to call the doctor and talk about this, then I know it must be pretty severe. He hates going to the doctor and hates discussing this topic even more.)

The next step will be deciding if we’ll try going gluten-free with the kids. Mira’s pediatrician has said it would be worth a try since she had a blood test for allergies that resulted in no actual allergies but an elevated IgE level, meaning she was having an inflammatory response to something. And if one or two members of our household are gluten-free, then there’s a good chance most of the food the other members eat will be gluten-free, too, just for ease of food preparation.

I’m not exactly thrilled with the idea of having family members who need to be gluten-free. It is a little more expensive – or a lot more if you buy mostly convenience items – and requires more thought and planning to eat outside of the home. But if it’s needed for the health of my husband and/or my kids, of course I’ll suck it up and do it. At least it’s easier to find products and support for it now.

Big thanks to Udi’s for giving us the push with the 14-day gluten-free challenge! It helped us think more carefully about what we eat and may have even uncovered a clue to Aaron’s health.

Full disclosure: Udi’s sent us product samples and coupons to help start the 14-day gluten-free challenge, but we still supplemented beyond that. And while most beer has gluten, I can happily report that most vodka is gluten-free.

Filed Under: Aaron, daily life, healthy living, me me me, reviews ·


Sep 27, 2012

Health Insurance Hoop Jumping

By ·

I was thrilled to find out earlier this week that a health insurance claim that had been pending for nearly a year was finally being processed.

Yes, eleven months and a week to process one claim. Crazy, right?

The claim was for a test I had done last October after my doctor was concerned with some odd symptoms I had recently experienced. She recommended an abdominal ultrasound to rule out ovarian cancer. (Spoiler: everything was normal, other than a slightly out-of-position ovary. Yay!) Trusting my doctor, of course I had the test done.

At that time we had only recently obtained health insurance. Since we were uninsured before that, we had a one year waiting period for any “pre-existing conditions” and when we signed up for insurance had to provide the names of any health provider we had visited in the last year so they could obtain our medical records to determine what pre-existing conditions we might have.

Since I had never experienced anything like this before, I wasn’t too worried. Our insurance sent a letter shortly after the test stating they needed me to sign another permission slip to obtain my records before they could process the claim. I authorized all of it again and considered it done.

Then I began getting letters from the outpatient center at the hospital where I had the test done, asking me to follow up with my insurance because the claim still hadn’t been settled. When I checked with my insurance, they told me they were waiting on my records from a grocery store clinic where I was treated for strep throat once. I again authorized them to send another request for my records, and also pointed out that these grocery store clinics couldn’t diagnose anything that would be relevant to the test I had done.

This entire scenario repeated two more times. Maybe three. I lost count.

Over the summer, I then received a bill from the hospital, telling me they had received three denials from insurance due to missing information and so would start the billing clock against me. I owed $2,097 for an ultrasound, and please pay within 30 days.

A flurry of calls to the insurance company started again, asking why this still hasn’t been processed. They told me they were still waiting on my records from my strep throat visit before they could declare that I wasn’t trying to get coverage for a pre-existing condition. I was so upset at this point. What did I have to hide? I signed away all of my rights so the insurance company could dig up any medical info on me that they wanted to – how was it my fault that the clinic wasn’t complying with their request?

I was angry and scared at this point. Angry that the processing of a claim could be held up due to a strep throat visit and angry that I even had to deal with a pre-existing conditions clause when we pay a large premium every month just to then have a $1000 deductible per person. (Well, it was $1000. It’s $2500 now.) And I was scared that the insurance company would continue to hold up the process and refuse to pay, which would leave us in the position of accepting the entire bill or possibly going into collections and hurting our credit score while we continued to wait.

The customer service reps at the insurance company were very understanding, I will admit. They agreed it was ridiculous and wanted to help however they could. Finally, last month one rep looked through the history of this claim and said, “You know what? I’m going to send this on to claims processing again, and I’ll put a note on it pointing out that the grocery clinic can only handle minor illnesses anyway. Let’s see if we can get them to forget this and get it processed.”

It took nearly a month, but then I looked at my online account and saw it had FINALLY been processed.

It’s not a perfect happy ending, of course. Insurance declared that the “allowable” part of the bill was only $964.62 and so that became the new total. Of that total, they paid $111.78 and left me with a bill for $852.84, the remainder of my deductible from that year. We’ll still have to set up payments with the hospital for that amount, but at least it isn’t as bad as $2,097.

What really drives me crazy is the new bill after the insurance processed it. Because I had insurance, the hospital is accepting $964.62 as the total bill for the procedure. But had I not been insured, I would have been responsible for more than twice that amount.

So those unable to get insurance are not only afraid of ever getting sick or hurt because they have no safety net in place to help cover those bills, but when they do need care they’re hit with a bill that is much larger than what the provider will get from someone with insurance.

I’m so glad that my tests were normal. I can’t imagine how much worse this would be had I been sick and needed treatment, all while trying to fight for coverage. And that’s WITH insurance. My experience is completely how the old system works – the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) provisions that relate to this story have yet to go into effect, although I can’t wait until they do. Our daughters are already seeing the benefits from it, and I’m looking forward to those same benefits and protections.

I know there are good people who do good work at health insurance companies. But I still believe that a health insurance company cannot provide effective medical coverage of their members when they have profits to make each year and shareholders to please. It’s an unpopular belief to many, but I don’t believe health insurance should be a for-profit industry.

While I’d prefer universal health care, I’m willing to accept the idea of private, universally non-profit health insurance companies, where any profits beyond operating costs are rolled back into health education and research, programs providing new ways to encourage preventative care, decreased premiums and incentives for proper maintenance of health conditions. (This would be the nurse in me speaking.)

I know health care is a hot button topic during this election year, but I believe it’s far more than a talking point. Whether you’re a fan of the Affordable Care Act or not, I think we can all agree the old system is not effective and needs reform. I’m not 100% happy with the new system being rolled out, but I’m ready to give it a chance over dealing with the current one.

Filed Under: big issues, me me me, money, politics ·


Sep 8, 2012

When Your Political Tweet Is Retweeted Astray

By ·

This may be my longest post ever. Hang in there, it’s worth it. I hope.

Look, I dislike talking politics on my blog. This is where I write about my family and my personal thoughts on all sorts of topics from parenting to special needs to finding long enough shorts for girls to OMG did you see what Lady Gaga wore at that award show! to my own experiences growing up.

I know I have readers who feel differently than I do regarding politics and for many things I’m willing to accept our differences. Many of you know my political views, and either share them or are kind enough to quietly agree to disagree and focus on what we have in common instead. (And in return, I don’t go to anyone else’s blog and tell them they’re wrong, either. It’s just kinda rude.)

In the social media spheres of Twitter and Facebook, though, I’ve often been more forward with my beliefs. As opposed to a blog, which is also public but more of a “this is my home” space, I feel that Twitter and Facebook are more like being out in the community at large. You’ve got lots of ideas and thoughts all converging in one public area, with no single person in control of them (other than the handy block button), and so it’s a space to indulge in our differences as well as our commonalities. It’s fun, and I even learn a few things from time to time.

Usually any political tweets I write are sent out into my small group of followers. I may get a few retweets or responses, and even occasionally a negative response, but usually they don’t get a lot of notice.

I didn’t expect more than that as I tweeted along while watching the Republican National Convention last week. I watched because I believe it’s important to know the views and plans of everyone running for office, even if I disagree with their beliefs.

And during that time, I wrote several tweets that might have angered my more conservative friends, although in criticizing the candidates I made efforts to not lump all who may vote for them in the same criticism. We’re a country with millions of different beliefs when you look at all issues combined, and I recognize that no single candidate represents the exact beliefs of any single person other than the candidate. We’re pretty little snowflakes in our beliefs: all unique.

I was upset by many things said in those speeches, though. And on the last night, with the whole week culminating with Mr. Romney’s acceptance speech, I had reached my “enough” point and decided I didn’t just want to voice my opinion, I wanted to do something else about it, too.

This resulted in my lesson in (insert booming announcer voice here)…

How to start a troll-storm on Twitter without intending to do so:

Step 1: Tweet you’re donating money to Obama after watching Romney’s RNC speech.

Step 2: Um, that’s it. Sit back and watch the hate roll in.

Yeah, not my most brilliantly written tweet. Had I known this tweet would go wild, I’d have changed a few words. Or at least switched to my fashion model profile pic.

Let me point out, I wrote things that some people could have interpreted to be FAR more offensive in the tweets immediately before that one. I have no idea why that one was singled out. If I knew, I’d have a far more well-read blog because I’d have unlocked the secrets to social media SEO.

A few retweets of that tweet began, then a few more, then my Twitter stream blew up in a jumble of retweets, replies of praise, and a whole lot of mean.

Following the trail of retweets didn’t help me find how I ended up in the tweet cross-hairs of so many who were determined to unleash their venom on me. It might have been a journalist of a liberal magazine (I don’t know it, but clearly a lot of others do) who retweeted my statement, which somehow got it onto the screens of a bunch of people who don’t feel the same as me.

I was in shock as I saw all of the replies and mentions rolling across my Tweetdeck, most filled with negative assumptions about my intelligence, my financial status, my employment status, and just simply a lot of name calling. So much bitterness and contempt, all because I said I really didn’t like Romney’s speech and decided to donate a small amount to Obama?

And then…I decided to reply to nearly every single one.

Why?

Some friends noticed and warned me not to go down that path, for that way lies madness. But here’s the thing: I seriously dislike random hostility on the Internet. The disassociation between a username and a human being on the other side of that username is a problem for many people in this society, and sometimes they just need to be reminded of it.

Would you be talking with friends at a large party, hear a stranger nearby say what I wrote in my tweet (not directly to you), and then turn around and immediately yell insults at that person? Probably not.

So why would you launch into a similar attack online, unless you either get a thrill of arguing where you can safely hide behind the anonymity of the Internet (very possible, although probably a mental disorder in need of therapy, too) or you’ve become so polarized that you forget there is another person, another American if you want to get patriotic, on the other side of that username.

What happened?

So I responded, with the best kindergarten manners I could muster. I was civil in response, courteous even. The worst thing I wrote to anyone was “Well, that’s not a very nice way to say hello to someone for the first time.” Because – let’s face it – it’s not. I don’t generally start a conversation with a stranger by insulting them.

Some immediately assumed that we were living on government assistance or abusing “their” money by donating to a political campaign. That was an easy response: we’re employed. In the private sector, even. All of our money is earned through our work. A few then asked if I thought President Obama was responsible for our jobs. The best reply I had there was, “Well, I sincerely doubt he personally phoned in the favor, but our companies are doing well enough to hire us.”

For those who suggested I was “poor” because of Obama’s policies, I simply responded that in 2008 we were unemployed. We now have jobs we enjoy, we have a house and cars, we can pay our bills, and we even have a little extra for entertainment and to help others. I’d call that a huge improvement over 2008.

If they suggested we’re still not well off because of the president, I countered with the point that we’re content with our lives and asked them if we needed to be incredibly wealthy in order to be consider successful? Can’t success also be defined as a job well done and a happy family? I also reminded a few that if having a house, two cars, and the ability to pay our bills – even if we don’t have a lot of extra money – is considered poor to them, then they might want to re-evaluate their definition of poor. There are so many who are far more in need of help.

A couple of people then accused me of being dishonest in my tweet, trying to make it sound like we were more poor than we were. We had paychecks coming the next day. True, but I think I precisely proved the point that nuance is lost in soundbites.

Side note: Am I right? I hate this culture of soundbites. People need to be given all of the information and allowed to make their own conclusions. Dumbing down politics results in important topics being condensed into 2-3 sentence summaries that end up sounding little like the original, complex idea.

Sometimes a topic can’t be summarized that easily. Theories of astrophysics are complicated. That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with them or they’re trying to hide something or they’re wrong; it means they’re complex topics that need more than a few sentences to be fully considered. Same goes for economics. Or health care. Or any other number of topics.

Some people then tried to engage me in political debate. I wasn’t looking to debate those who had no intention of considering other points of view and were simply looking for weaknesses to call out. Besides, 140 characters is no way to conduct a debate over political theory. So for them I politely declined, stated neither of us were likely to change our positions and Twitter was a lousy forum for debate, and asked that we agree to disagree.

And then there were those who responded only with name calling or off-topic insults. I did block them without a response. If you can’t stay on topic, then you don’t get to play. 

The Results

These nasty responses continued through the overnight hours, all day long on Friday, and then slowly tapered off through the weekend. 205 people made that tweet a favorite. I received 1,065 retweets (so far), many kind responses, and well over a hundred negative responses as well. I never took the time to tally them all, but there may have even been 150 or 200. I responded to nearly a hundred. (And blocked several.)

Amusingly, I discovered many of the people who lashed out over my tweet later blocked me. Was it something I said?

Not surprisingly, few people replied to my first response to them. I guess they got their “slam” out, felt better, and proceeded to move on to the next victim.

Several did respond, though, and if they were intelligent responses (whether I agreed with them or not) I usually replied again. A few even apologized after I pointed out their tweet wasn’t a very nice way to say hello. Kindergarten manners for the WIN!

Some people changed their tone with me after their assumptions about my family taking “handouts” were corrected. Suddenly I was an “ok person” because I held a job and paid my bills. I didn’t feel like pointing out that we survived on unemployment, food stamps and WIC for nearly a year when our state government decided to cut Aaron’s job. Without that public assistance, we probably would have lost our home and cars, defaulted on our debt, had our children go hungry, and had a much more difficult time getting back on our feet again.

Should these people have encountered me back in 2008, would I no longer be an “ok person” to them? I’m saddened by their snap judgments.

 I have NO idea what happened here. 
(Name/face poorly removed out of courtesy.)

A few replied with more rhetoric from their beliefs, and when it was clear we simply held different opinions that neither of us would budge on, I asked that we agree to disagree, vote for who we believe, and hope for the best for everyone in our country. Some were willing to agree. Others tried to debate, which then led to the “twitter is not a good forum for debate” response I mentioned above.

There were a handful that stated they were donating to Romney’s campaign in response to my choice to donate to Obama’s campaign. I’m not sure if they were trying to hurt me somehow by doing so? I congratulated them on their freedom to spend their money how they thought best. Besides, I had WAY more people respond to me saying that I had inspired them to donate to Obama, so it’s possible I came out ahead in that one.

And then a teensy-tiny portion of the meanies? They turned into nice people when I defused them with politeness. We had a respectful, short discussion and wished each other well. I would happily interact with them again, despite our differences in politics.

Unexpected swerve here. But hey, we CAN find common ground: you don’t insult my choice to support a particular candidate, and I won’t assume you’re racist because you support the other guy. I think that’s entirely reasonable! (Name/face again poorly removed out of courtesy.)

Of course, there were plenty of replies of support and good will, and I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful for every one of them. (I’m grateful. Very grateful. They kept me going even when I had the urge to throw mud back at some people. My nose? Is NOT horrifying.) My friends and even the new-to-me Twitter folks who tweeted support and love back to me are some pretty great people.

So what did I learn?

I had it reaffirmed that human beings are both amazing and frightening creatures. They can reach the greatest heights of humanity and tolerance or the lowest pits of malevolence in a semi-anonymous forum. I can’t say I’m willing to judge a person entirely on how that person behaves towards someone else in a semi-anonymous forum, and I also would hope to never have my entire character based on one thought. We’re human, we do speak in anger sometimes. 

I refused to attack any of the people who chose to berate me personally in tweets. (Unless my saying they’re not very nice for starting a conversation with an attack is seen as an attack?) These folks thought that a tweet I wrote, stating that I was strongly against Romney’s platform and choosing to donate money to Obama in response to his speech, was worthy of a personal attack on me.

They were mean, even though I had done nothing to insult them personally. I’ve seen plenty of insults hurled at Obama on Twitter – some of which made me very angry – but none that made me want to hurl personal insults back at someone I know nothing about.

The lack of civility among some people when confronted with someone who doesn’t share their set of beliefs is disturbing, and a trend I’d like to see reversed in society.

Do I regret my tweet? No, I don’t. I could have phrased it a little more nicely, I’ll admit, but I don’t regret posting it and I don’t regret my donation. The response that happened gave me a fantastic view of others and helped me evaluate how I respond to others as well.

Do I regret responding to all of these people? Not at all. It was exhausting, for sure, but as I kept sending out the same message of positivity and reassuring these folks that it’s OK to be content with what you have and enjoy a job that doesn’t make you rich, I started to feel even more happy with my life.

It’s funny, because the truth is we don’t have a lot and there are months when we struggle a little to get by. I’m not always happy. Aaron’s job was cut to part-time at the start of June. We can still pay our bills, but the budget is extra lean at the moment. We did have only $50 left in our account last Thursday night, and I spent part of that evening scheduling bills for the next month based on when paychecks would arrive so we’d stay in the positive.

Would I like more money? Well yeah, of course. Do I need more money? Eh, that depends on what you consider a need. A year ago at this time, Aaron worked full time and I had a different job that payed more than I’d ever made before. We had more money. Were we happier? Not really. We went out to eat more, spent more on entertainment, saved some, gave to charity more…but our lives weren’t significantly better as a result. I saw my family a lot less.

Now I have more stress about making ends meet, but those ends are meeting most of the time and I can appreciate it as I pick my daughters up from school or have dinner with my family.

We have so much more than we did in 2008. Are we better off now than we were four years ago? You bet. Even more than money and jobs, though, I’m happy because I can be a person who, when faced with an onslaught of hate and vitriol from people who don’t know me, but choose to define me by 140 characters, I can respond to them with civility, tolerance, and kindness.

If I have those qualities, and can inspire the same in even a few other people, I’m MUCH better off.

Should you want to know my opinion on politics this year, I can sum up a lot of it based on my experience in the last week: we need to focus less on how much money we can keep tightly clutched in our own fists, and focus more on how we can work together to help and support each other, with benevolence and compassion, so we can all succeed.

This is me placing a daisy in the barrel of the Twitter trolls’ rifle.

Filed Under: big issues, clearly insane, me me me, politics, pop culture ·


Sep 5, 2012

Dove Conditioner vs. Fried Purple Hair (& Giveaway!)

By ·

This has been a rough summer on my hair. Beyond the usual hot, humid Ohio weather – which has been hotter that normal, though not quite as humid – I’ve also found new and creative ways to damage my hair. I’m letting it grow again, and the longer it gets the more I have to deal with split ends and damage. I also color my hair which, no matter what the box tells you, is not gentle on long hair.

But then in July I decided on a whim to color my hair in a more creative way. I had an overall color applied, but then I also decided to dye the lower 3-4″ purple, with a single purple streak near my face, too. Hey, why not? To obtain this unusual color, though, the portion of hair to be dyed must first be bleached. There are few things as damaging to hair as bleaching it.

The color came out pretty well, but my stylist warned me that my hair would need a lot of extra TLC. It wasn’t until the next day when I understood exactly what she meant. The ends of my hair felt like straw. My stylist had recommended any product with oils in it designed to nourish and repair my hair. She wasn’t kidding – over a month later and my hair still needs all the help it can get.

Blurry pic right after it was colored – it’s a frizzy mess.

I recently had the chance to try out the new Dove Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner on my frizzy, dry hair. Dove’s conditioners have a patented Micromoisture Serum that targets damage, repairing the surface of hair by sealing lifted cuticles. The bottle advertises weightless Nutri-oils that are rapidly absorbed and non-greasy.

A conditioner that is heavy on oils worried me at first. In the summer, my hair gets greasy quickly – wouldn’t oils make it worse? But hey, when your hair is like straw, oils are welcome if they’ll make my hair shiny, smooth and frizz-free.

The first thing I noticed was the Dove conditioner smelled awesome. It has a great sweet almond oil scent to it that reminded me of my favorite body lotion from many years ago. It has a thick consistency, too. Surprisingly, there were no instructions on the bottle regarding how long to leave it on. I was worried about leaving it in too long, so I rinsed it out after about a minute.

The result? My hair was so smooth. I was surprised at how easily my comb went through my hair. It wasn’t greasy at all, and even those straw-like ends felt softer. Not perfect, but softer.

Since I’ve started using the Dove Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner on my hair, it’s felt healthier and has slowly regained the softness it used to have. While Ohio weather will never permit my hair to be 100% frizz-free, it’s so much better now. After all of the abuse I’ve put my hair through, I’m thankful for products like this to help keep it healthy. For more on Dove’s entire line of conditioners, visit dovehair.com.

And for reading all of this, I’m giving you the chance to win a very cool giveaway.

Answer this question for me: what’s the worst thing you’ve done to your hair? Click the link below, let me know your answer on the form and you could be pampering not only your hair but also your face, nails and whole body with a $1,000 Spafinder gift certificate.

(NOTE: You must click the link below and answer the question there in order to enter. But please feel free to copy/paste it here in the comments, too, just so we can all share in the hair abuse we’ve committed!)

Giveaway Details!

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You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that Tweet.

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that post.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize, or an alternative winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 9/4/2012 – 9/30/2012

Be sure to visit Dove®Hair.com to get a coupon for $1.50 off Dove Hair Therapy products.

 

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