The first thing you can do to gain a greater understanding of yourself is to get some objective assessment. Of course, you can ask people you know, but their experience of you will lead them to the same biases that you have. Getting some objective opinions will give you a more accurate picture and lead you to consider some things you might not even have thought of. There are a number of established tests that you can take to learn about the different aspects of yourself (and more than a few less-reputable ones):   The Myers-Briggs Personality type theory says that all people have 1 of 16 different basic personalities. These personalities can predict how you interact with people, the kinds of interpersonal problems and strengths that you have, and what kind of environment you live and work in best. A basic version of this test can be found online, if you want to find out what you can learn from better understanding your personality. If you're struggling to understand what makes you happy and what you should do with your life, consider taking a career test. These types of tests can help you decide what you might find the most satisfying, usually based on your personality and what you do for fun. There are lots of different ones available online, usually for free, but if you're in school you can probably get a more reputable one administered by your career counselor. There is a theory that every person learns and processes their experience of the world in one of a number of different ways. This is called your “learning style”. Knowing what learning style you have will help you even once you're out of school and can help you to understand why you struggle with some activities and excel at others. As with the others, there are a number of free tests that you can take online. Just be aware that this is a disputed science, with many theories about how many learning styles exist, and you may get different results depending on which test you take. You can also find lots of other tests covering many subjects at Psychology Today. When writers go to write a book, they will often do writing exercises which help them to better understand the characters that they're writing about. You can do these same exercises to get a better understanding of yourself and many can be found online for free. These exercises may not have anything official to say about you, often relying on you to draw your own conclusions about what your answers say about you, but they may lead you to think about things you never thought about before. Try answering the following questions to get an idea of what this is like:   How would you describe yourself in one sentence? What is your purpose in your life's story? What is the most important thing that has ever happened to you? How did it change you? How are you different than the people around you? You can come to a better understanding of who you are and what is most important to you by thinking about your strengths and weaknesses. Importantly, you’ll want to compare your perception with your strengths and weaknesses to the strengths and weaknesses identified by your friends, family, and coworkers. The things that they see that you don’t can tell you a lot about yourself and how you see yourself.   Examples of strengths include determination, devotion, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, decisiveness, patience, diplomacy, communication skills, and imagination or creativity. Examples of weaknesses include close-mindedness, self-centeredness, difficulty perceiving reality, judgement of others, and issues with control. What you think is most important in life and in your day-to-day interactions can tell you a lot about yourself. Think about your priorities, compare them to the priorities of other people you respect, and think what your conclusions say about you. Of course, you need to be open to the idea that you might not have your priorities in the best order (many people don’t), which can also teach you a lot about yourself.   If your house were burning down, what would you do? What would you save? It’s amazing how fire exposes our priorities. Even if you’d save something practical, like your tax records, that still says something about you (probably that you prefer to be prepared and not meet resistance in life). Another way to tell what your priorities are is to imagine that someone you love was being openly criticized for something that you don’t support (let’s say, they’re gay but you don’t agree with the lifestyle). Do you support them? Protect them? How? What would you say? Our actions in the face of peer criticism and possible ostracization can reveal our priorities. Some examples of priorities that people often have include: money, family, sex, respect, security, stability, material possessions, and comfort. Look at your past and think about how what has happened to you over your lifetime has affected how you act and think today. Looking at how you’ve changed as a person can reveal a lot about why you act the way that you do, because our current behaviors are built on our past experiences.  For example, maybe you tend to get really defensive around shoplifters and are very harsh to people you perceive as stealing. When you think about it, you might remember stealing a candy from a store as a child and your parents punishing you very harshly, which would explain your stronger than normal reaction to that behavior now.
++++++++++
One-sentence summary -- Get an objective assessment. Do character writing exercises. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Examine your priorities. Look at how you've changed.


Square scarves can also be worn around your wrist as a sweatband.  To do this, lay it flat out and fold it into a triangle. Grasp the middle point of the triangular scarf and fold it into the middle, so that the scarf looks like a narrow trapezium shape. Use your thumb and forefinger to keep hold of the end.  Use the fingers on the hand you are tying it to to hold it in place. Hold it tight around your wrist when wrapping it around. When you are done, let go of the end with your thumb and tuck both ends inside the wrapped scarf.
++++++++++
One-sentence summary -- Create a sweatband. Place your wrist at one end of the scarf. Grasp the opposite end of the scarf and wrap it snugly around your wrist.


You don’t actually need to locate split ends to tell if your hair is damaged. It will feel dry and tangled if it is. However, if you want to find the split ends, closely examine your hair with the help of a mirror and good lighting. Split ends occur most often at the tip but can show up anywhere in your hair. Split ends and related damage can occur in several different forms. If you find any of the following, you may want to remove them:  Hair tips splitting into two or more strands White dots at the end of your hair Single strand knots (more common in dry, curly hair) A hairdresser can always trim off split ends, but will usually remove about 1⁄4 to 1 inch (0.6 to 2.5 cm) of your hair along with them. Eventually, all hair will wear out enough to require this treatment. How long you wait between haircuts depends on your hair type, hair health, and how much time you're willing to spend hunting down your own split ends. This can be anywhere from 4 weeks to 3 months. If you aren't trimming split ends yourself, avoiding the hairdresser will not save your long hair. Neglected split ends will become weaker and weaker, eventually breaking off. If trimming off split ends are affecting your hair length goals, consider having your hair cut into layers. Ask the hairdresser to trim damaged hair in the surface layer, while leaving lower layers — and length intact. If you have afro-textured hair, a mild texturizer can achieve a similar effect, allowing you to manipulate your hair more easily and avoid trimming healthy hair. There are conditioners and other commercial treatments that claim to "heal" split ends. These seal the split ends shut to hide them from view, but the damage is still there. You can use these as a temporary fix, but relying on them long-term may dry out your hair and lead to worse damage.
++++++++++
One-sentence summary --
Check for damaged hair. Cut your hair regularly. Take steps to save hair length. Treat hair repair products with caution.