Thanks. :) That was the first day in a while that I thought it looked pretty good! The conditioner only thing has been working out well so far. I noticed yesterday that it was time for a wash, because it was starting to get dry and frizzing out--not what I would have expected before, at all.

It's gotten a lot better, but I'm still touchier than I'd like to be. Part of that, no doubt, came from nasty kids pointing to what they could easily spot as "strange" (easier to point out someone's nose than behavior patterns which struck them as weird), and a lot of it is from growing up in a strange environment (as I mentioned in LJ comments). One thing I forgot to throw in there is that I can well imagine, for some people, that if their academic careers have taken them to a third-rate university in what they consider the arse end of nowhere--maybe because they're unpleasant hacks in the first place--it's probably really handy if there's some ready group of people they can take out some of their frustrations on. Depressingly understandable, but that doesn't make it right. Recognizing what might be behind some of it makes it easier not to take things so personally, though!