Lather, Rinse, Repeat

You want to know how I know I’m a grown-up?

photo from poundingtherock.com

Because I can’t afford to buy shampoo that I actually like.

When I was living at home my parents always bought whatever shampoo and conditioner we wanted, even if this meant buying three different types of hair products because we all had different tastes. I never realized how expensive that is until I moved in to my own apartment… that is, two and a half months ago.

In an effort to be environmentally and fiscally friendly, I decided to try a different type* of shampoo – a type that claims to be 94 percent biodegradable and also happened to be one of the cheapest ones on the shelf per fluid ounce. I’ve used this brand before and liked how it made my hair feel so I figured this would be fine.

I was wrong.

I feel a bit like this sloth (photo from memegenerator.net)

The first time I used it I noticed that my hair looked and felt dirty about half way through the day. I figured I didn’t rinse well enough.

The second, third and fourth times I used it, I noticed the same thing.

When I decided I didn’t want to use the shampoo anymore, I realized that I couldn’t just stop using it… I’d spent $4 on each of those bottles – that’s $8 of my hard earned money and there is no way I was going to just waste it!

Instead of wasting it, I had to figure out a way to make it work for me. I figured out that if I wash my hair with shampoo, then use conditioner and then use the shampoo again, it ends up faring pretty well. Plus, if I shampoo twice every day, the bottle will run out quicker.

How pathetic am I? Have you had any experiences like that – the type that really opens your eyes to the fact that you are a grown-up living on your own?

photo from animal-space.net

Some day I will be able to afford the kind of shampoo I like to use. Until then, I will continue to lather, rinse, condition, rinse, lather, rinse.

*I purposefully left out the brand of not only the brand I am using now, but also the brand I prefer. My hair is weird and gets oily really quickly which means I have to wash it every day. It also reacts weirdly to certain types of shampoo/conditioners as you can probably tell from this post. I don’t want to put anybody off of purchasing any type of shampoo because it didn’t work for me. I hope that the biodegradable shampoo works for somebody because I believe that sustainability and eco-friendly products are very important.

Photo-A-Day 2012: Weeks 12, 13 & 14

Happy Tuesday!!

Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion… wait, what?!

The big talk around the office within the past ten minutes has been that Facebook has purchased Instagram for $1 billion.

What?!

Yes, that’s right, Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement this morning… by posting it to his Facebook Timeline.

For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

…

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

That in itself is big news – the fact that a $1 billion acquisition was made is news, AND that it was announced on Facebook? That is unreal.

Seriously, when Kris saw that John Swartz posted about it on his Twitter, we were all incredulous.

FB plunked down $1 billion on Instagram.

— Jon Swartz (@jswartz) April 9, 2012

A $1 billion business deal? That’s crazy, no matter what the companies are!

This announcement comes on the heels of the April 3 announcement that Instagram was now available to Android users.

Now we are all wondering, what does this mean for Instagram? Why is this mobile app worth $1 billion? What plans does Facebook have for it moving forward?

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

And what does the way this news was broken mean for the future of tech company announcements… especially in the social media space?