How To: Style Your Hair @ Home

How to get salon styled hair at home. Tip # 1: don't Google "blow-out" while at work....

The Big Hair Cut

On how I USED to have long hair...lets discuss

The Round Up: June 7, 2013

Happy Friday!

We are only two weeks away from the first day of summer. Yippy! The only issue is, its freezing and rainy here in Toronto. So lets pretend I live somewhere warm like say....ANYWHERE ELSE, and make believe that I have to battle the affects of heat, humidity and sunshine.  

Sooo, here I am in sunny MIAMI, FLORIDA (that's better) and the weather is hot, hot, hot. Not to mention its super humid, ugh. I am quite concerned that my color treated hair is already suffering from all those trips to the beach on the weekends. Whats a girl to do?

My top 3 issues are 1. Frizz due to high levels of humidty 2. Damage from heat and sun 3. That uncomfortable feeling of hair sticking to the back of your neck on the super warm days

1. Fight frizz due to humidity: I previously lived in the UK, so please trust that I understand humidity and the affects it has on your hair. The key to preventing epic frizz failures is to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!  If your hair is not properly hydrated and you further torture it with a blow dryer, then step out into a humid climate, say bye bye to whatever style you had five min before.

My recommendation is simple, use a natural, high quality styling product before applying any hear to your tresses. I live for Phyto products so here I have shown you their Daily Ultra Nourishing Botanical Cream.

Available at Sephora, this particular product is so lightweight and you only need a teeny tiny bit to do the job. One tube lasts forever because a little goes a long way. I only use it when I am going to heat style my hair, it is not my daily leave in conditioner. 

2. Protect your color treated hair from sun and heat damage: Ojon products work well and smell oh so good. The Ojon secret is a combination of ginseng, lemongrass and honey, which earns bonus points for being a refreshing summer scent. Ojon Rare Blend Protecting Treatment 

I like this one because it doesn't make my hair greasy. Make sure to shake it well before use as it does tend to separate when left to settle. 

3. I just cut my hair last week (more on that later) but prior to that my hair was really bringing me down. My solution was to tie my hair up in a pony tail or messy bun day after day, after day. The only good thing that came from that was I discovered these super cute "ouchless" hair ties from Anthropologie. Not just important for people with gross split ends who haven't colored their hair in 10 months, these cute hair ties will keep your hair off your neck and out of your face in the heat : Cute hair ties from Anthropologie

How cute are they? I feel slightly less guilty tying my hair back when the colorful and sparkly tie peaks out around my pony tail. 

So, now that I shared my summer hair woes I would like to know what issues do you deal with when the temperature rises? 

As usual please share below. And make sure to have a fantastic weekend :) 

The Rookie Department Part 2

Happy Monday! The sun is shining here in Toronto and over the weekend walking through the city I noticed everyone has busted out their spring summer wardrobe; amaze-balls! While our short term forecast calls for sunny skies and a light breeze I know much better, here in Toronto we experience brutally humid summers! Brutal I tell you!

So what is a fashionista to do when she spends an hour drying then flat ironing her locks, only to step outside and experience frizz of epic proportions? 

My answer is to pull your hair back and suck it up. For those of us that abuse their pony tail privileges even when it’s not humid we may be looking for something a bit more interesting here.

With that said, as promised in my last DIY hair related post I tried out a few more styles, and below you will find a detailed account of my experiences. 

The Sock Bun: a reader of mine commented that the sock bun was fairly high on the difficulty scale, and I agree. Depending on your hair length it can be a really b*tch! My hair reaches my hip bones; therefore the sock bun is not only a neat way to pull my hair back, but also a great arm workout (try holding your arms above your head for ten min as you roll your hair down a damn sock).  My main issue is getting the hair smooth around the sock in the last step. Making a nice high poly tail, finding a sock, and securing with bobby pins once you’re done are all quite easy. Make sure you use a fair amount of hair spray at the end to keep fly away’s at bay, the style looks best if it is sleek rather than messy. Sleek = chic, Limp/frizzy = grandma 

I would rate this style as an 8 out of 10 on the chic scale. Mainly because EVERYONE seems to be sporting a sock bun these days.

Difficulty factor would be 4 out of 10 for medium length hair and a 6 out of 10 for long hair.

French Braid Bun: I spotted this step-by step a few months ago and tried it once myself, with beginners luck I managed to pull it off pretty effortlessly. But this past weekend when I had a helping hand i realized it really is a better hair style for those of us that have someone on hand to do the braiding. Bestie noticed me struggling with my braid as it reached the back of my head and decided to take over. Her tip was to keep the braids TIGHT! 

Check out her creation below, I think she did a pretty damn good job, and it looks a lot like the picture above. I finished it off with a shine hair spray to control fly always and make it more sleek at the front. 

I would rate this style an 8 out of 10 on the chic scale. 

Difficult rating would have to be at about an 8, while its not impossible to do on your own, the final product is much nicer if you have someone French braid your hair for you. 

Would you try out the French braid bun? If you have and want to share any tips or tricks then please do so in the comments below. 

I should mention I have two other styles that I have clipped and saved and will be trying out one this weekend. If you have any others that you would like me to try feel free to leave a link or picture also in the comments. I would love to be your guinea pig :) 

The Rookie Department

I've never been a pro when it comes to styling my hair, applying my make-up or doing my own nails. It’s not that I don’t try; but I'm just not great with these things, my one and only hair style is blow dried + curled with a large barrel curling iron to keep the frizz down and add volume, it’s my go-to hair style and has been for years, it has never let me down through many different hair lengths and styles.

But recently I wanted to step it up a notch.

Part of my recent success with hair styling is owed to the World Wide Web. Yes, surfing the net for endless hours has contributed to my life in a meaningful way; who knew? It was only though Pinterest that I discovered “The Beauty Department" .  With step by step pictures and written instructions even an idiot like me can pull off most of the looks they post (some are still a bit too difficult for me , baby steps, baby steps).  I also found this site, which happens to be a wedding site but has many cute hair and make-up ideas.  

Why didn't someone tell me about these sites sooner? I have been trying out many styles over the past few weeks and I wanted to share with you the results. Many of us “Pin” these pictures but never, ever attempt them…well here goes.

The photos you are about to see are my genuine, FIRST ATTEMPT at these styles. I hope you find this helpful, and if anything at least amusing :) 

The Bouncy High Pony Tail: Any idiot can pull off a high pony tail right? WRONG! There is more to it than just pulling your hair into an elastic band. For a recent event I decided that having my hair down for over ten hours probably wouldn't yield positive results, so I went for a high, bouncy ponytail. I styled my hair as usual, from wet, to blow dried, then curled as if I was going to be leaving it down. Then I teased the crown (it was my first time ever teasing my hair) and flipped my head upside down to get the pony tail high on top of my head. Now, I'm pretty sure flipping your head upside down is NOT the proper way to get your hair into a pony tail, but if thats what you gotta do then don't be ashamed. I needed assistance with wrapping a strand of hair around my pony tail to conceal the elastic because after 5 failed attempts I was ready to shave my head. NB: since then I have managed to figure this out and do it myself. My tip with this style is to make sure you curl your hair properly from the beginning  don’t be lazy and curl it once it’s up in the pony tail because it won’t have that same “bounce”.

So you know, I was going for this...

And I was able to produce this....not too bad, I would give it a B+ with room for improvement. 

The “Heidi” Braid Look. I tried this when I was in Milan last week. I managed to pull this together while my hubby was napping. It honestly didn't take very long and my only complaint is that my arms were KILLING from keeping them held up the entire time. So added bonus: its a hair style and a work out all in one! Without the ability to see the back of my own head (obviously) these were the best braids I could pull off, not bad eh? The front frizzed like mental, but it was a very humid, rainy day. I’d like to re-attempt this one when the weather is less extreme. It still looked pretty cute nonetheless.

The instructions and prof version looked like this...

The twisty way to keep hair from frizzing: Disclaimer* I did this one wrong..haha. 

So, after blow drying your hair you twist it back and away from your face it helps reduce frizz, and you can get dressed and do your make up while your hair sets. Sometimes I rush through things and often I don’t read instructions properly, this is obviously one of those times. I twisted my hair in the correct backwards motion, but tied my hair around the back which only made it more difficult, but I believe it still produced the same results. My hair was frizz free, and I think I will be trying this one again

And that's all Iv'e got for now, I have a list of other cute styles and one which I forgot to take pics of (sowwy) so I will likely be back with a Part II. In the meantime  does anybody know of other fantastic website with hair styles like these? Or do you have any style that you would like for me to attempt? If so please leave links or ideas in the comments below. Thanks :)