11.30.2012

Friday Feature Fun!

Hello all! It's that time of the week again, yay!

This week I convinced my mummy to be my model and I did a variation on what TorrinPaige (youtube) calls the Seraphim Kiss based off of this lovely photo by Jaramatography on Deviantart.

I like her style because it works for really thick hair and she gets the volume in a really unique way.  Since my mom and I don't have hair that would put Rapunzel to shame, I decided to revamp it for our hair.

After that I decided to create a hairdo that was similar the Memoirs of a Geisha hairstyle that Hatsumomo wears the very first time we see her character.  I vouched not to add a lot of teasing and volume to the sides of the hair because I want to create a series of hairstyles that are applicable to everyday life.  I think the final result looks really good and would work great as a work or even night out style depending.

Enjoy!

11.22.2012

No Friday Feature for the Holidays

Hello all, just a quick post to let you know I have fallen behind slightly because of the holidays, so we will be back on track on Friday with another tutorial; I'm going to tackle Hatsumomo's updo, which after looking at it and looking at the Dance Recital updo, they are very similar, so we are going to group those into one interpretation.

And! I also want to tackle a hairstyle I saw TorrinPaige from Youtube do called the Seraphim Kiss, which is based off of the following photo. My version is going to be a little different as I interpret it differently, but I think that's the awesomeness of these tutorials; everyone will give you their version of something so you get a lot of different ideas and you can pick and choose which will work for you.

I will be doing all three of these hairstyles on my mummy, who is a longhair and has been kind enough to offer herself up as a model; after I asked because I love working with her hair and cause she's my favorite :).  So lot's of exciting hairstyles to introduce to you! I'm hoping to release these both next Friday, because on the 7th, we have a new Feature!

That's all for now, sorry again for falling behind, but I'm sure you can all relate with Turkey Day!  Have a wonderful rest of your week and I will write soon!

11.16.2012

Friday Feature Fun!

Hello all,

Well it's still technically Friday - sorry this is so late in getting out; editing took a little longer than I had meant and the first time that I tried to record this my camera stopped in the middle.  Blargh.

Well!  As promised, my first installment of hair tutorials.  These following two techniques are very similar, but they "wear" throughout the day very differently.  I apply these two techniques in three different ways; a full updo, half up and a variation of the updo.

I hope you enjoy!  Next week I'm starting my series of Memoirs of a Geisha hairstyles, hope you enjoy! *UPDATE* There might also be a bonus hairstyle depending on how I feel :) I've been inspired to do something rope braid and bohemian.





11.14.2012

Coming soon: hairstyle tutorials!

I'm tired of no pictures in this blog.  It's boring.  Therefore! I shall change it.

I've decided that I'm going to start adding hair tutorials to my blog, I don't really do a lot of braids because of my layers, but I am a black belt in hairsticks. :) So, below I'm going to post a number of hairstyles I'm going to feature in the coming weeks, and if you have a request you are welcome to message me and ask.  I may not be able to do all of them, but I have a plethora of youtubers I follow that I can refer you too if I'm not up for the challenge.

I'd like to start off with my go-to hairstyles:

  • Flipped half up Hairstyles  
  • Buns for people with layered hair
  • One stick only hairstyles

After that, I would like to start featuring some special styles from various movies that I love.  I'm going to start off with Memoirs of a Geisha: 

Other movies that will be included in my list will be:
  • Vanity Fair 
  • Sense and Sensibility 
  • Duches (maybe) 
  • Princess Bride
  • A Knight's Tale 
  • Ever After 
  • Tenant of Wildfell hall
  • Lord of the Rings 
  • Star Wars (maybe) 
I'm sure there are others that I have spaced/forgotten at this moment, but this is a good start up list.  I will not be doing any crazy, wacky, costume-day hairstyle.  My goal is to take the hairstyles in these movies and to create a version that is easy to do at home, hair-friendly and applicable to everyday style and life. 

Feel free to comment or request more, and I'll see what I can do! Like I said before, I am no expert with braids and some of these will require a model instead of working on it with my own hair; I'm more than happy to refer you to someone who can execute a request if I can not.  

11.09.2012

Adventures in Shea Butter!

Hello all,

Well I haven't talked a whole lot about this, but my mom and I are in the process of starting a new business.  I want to create a line of skin and hair care products that focus on healing qualities.  We still have a lot of planning, and creating and formulating to do, but I decided to go out on a whim and buy some unrefined shea butter and whip it up to see what would happen.  I didn't really have time to melt it down properly, but just did a quick mix.

I took 1 pound of raw shea butter, about 1/4 cup olive oil and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, made sure the shea butter was soft enough to mix, threw it into my food processor and mixed it for about 1 minute.  It came out a lot stiffer than I would like, but I was out of coconut oil and I didn't want anymore olive oil in my mixture.

The results, it was a very hearty butter than I was able to split among three people and they will have plenty to last until I get more shea butter.  Very moisturizing, but not a good hair oil; I tried using it an it's just too stiff for my hair, I'm going to stick with pure coconut oil.  There were tiny granules in it that I'm not sure were the results of not melting it or it nor being refined, I'm not sure, so I think I'll take the butter I have at home and remelt it and then whip it back up to see if that gets rid of them.  If not I'll purchase the refined shea butter and give it a shot.





11.02.2012

Friday Feature Fun!

Time for our Friday Feature!

Stephanie is awesome, I have never had the pleasure of meeting her in person, but I've looked on her site at her styles, and her general attitude has always been fun and pleasant and whenever I've bugged her about a hairstyle I'm curious about, she has always been kind and taken time out of her busy schedule to talk with me.  Also, I'm insanely jealous of her hair.  Enjoy! 


Name: Stephanie

Hair character/type: 2c or 3a/M/iii (note: loose curls, medium thickness strands, and a ton of it)


Natural hair color: Same as it is now, kind of indeterminate.  Brownish blonde?


Starting length (if growing): About 22” way back in the day


Current length:  58”


Are you currently growing your length or maintaining?  If growing, how long have you been growing your hair?  If maintaining, what is it about your current length that makes you happy?:  I started growing my hair out about 11 years ago, but for four years during college I mostly just maintained it.  My hair is definitely still growing (albeit slowly), but I’m not actively trying to grow it out anymore.  I’m considering cutting 10 inches or so off in a few months since it’s getting a bit much to manage, and classic length was my favorite.  I enjoy being able to do really extreme styles with this length, but classic was best for certain updos and was less annoying to wear down.


As a fellow hairaholic I find it very interesting to hear what exactly about hair it is that others find fascinating.  What started your interest/obsession with hair?: When I was 13, I saw Star Wars for the first time and was fascinated by Leia’s hair.  I thought, “Hey, I can do that.”  I think long hair is beautiful, I love how it feels, and I enjoy being able to do different things with it.  I also enjoy having long hair for one of the same reasons that I enjoy archery; both make me feel a little bit like a time-traveller, participating in something that is thousands of years old.  Long hair has a timeless, classic quality to it, andI enjoy history (particularly medieval times) very much.  Having long hair gives me a sense of kinship with another age.

As with any hobby, there is always something that irks us just a little bit. What are some of your frustrations/pet peeves as a person with a hair hobby, be your hair long or short? (i.e. nasty comments, getting stuck in doors, hard to take care of, styling, etc.etc.):  Long hair does get in the way if it’s down, there just isn't a way around it.  I’ve caught it on other people, doors, seat belts, you name it.  Probably the most irksome thing, though, is that people tend to treat long hair like public property.  I don’t mind if someone wants to talk about it, or even if they ask nicely if they can touch it, but I do NOT enjoy it when strangers walk up and just start playing with my hair.  I like my personal space!

If money, damage, social stigma, etc. where not a factor, what is the one thing you would love to to try out?:  I haven’t had straight hair since I was 12, so that would be nice to try, and it would be fun to dye it just for a day.  In general, though, I’m pretty content with my current state.


What do you love about your hair: Pretty much everything!  I like that it’s very thick and curly.


What do you hate about your hair:  I don’t really hate anything about it, but I guess it would be nice if the color made up its mind on whether it’s brown or blonde.


What’s something you like to do as a “treat” to your hair?: Can’t say that I really do anything special for it.


What are your favorite products?/What are you currently using?:  I use whatever shampoo and conditioner are on sale, for the most part.  I do like Naturelle Hypo-Allergenic Styling Gel (http://www.sallybeauty.com/allergenic-gel/SBS-623476,default,pd.html); several of my friends have severe allergies, so I make sure to use this if I’m going to be spending time with them.  Money is always an issue for me, so I don’t buy any expensive products.


What’s your hair care routine? (In a nutshell; I know most of us have pretty extensive hair care regimes): Mine is very simple.  I wash it every other night (sometimes every third night) with whatever’s in the shower.  I do use a LOT of conditioner.  Since my hair is so curly, I only detangle it in the shower, using a wide-toothed bone comb (http://hairsense.com/bone_combs.php), which is actually made out of resin despite the name.  The combs don’t have the rough seam that plastic combs do, so it doesn’t catch or tear the hair.  I let my hair dry overnight by draping off the end of the bed.

Many of us have one thing that we will never, ever do to our hair no matter what (i.e., bleach, curl, straighten, color) what is that one thing for you?: All of the above, honestly.  I’m a big fan of benign neglect: if I leave my hair alone, it behaves itself.


If you have a favorite hairstyle, what is it?:  Hard to choose, since I do so many!  I love braids of all kinds.  My go-to style for when I don’t want to spend time on my hair is a single braid, and it’ll hold up to just about anything.  I love experimenting with movie hairstyles, though I haven’t had the time for anything too elaborate lately.
                                                                                                                         

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received regarding taking care of hair?:  Don’t mess with it!  People feel like they have to be constantly altering their hair’s curl/straightness, color, style, etc., and all of that causes damage.  


Links to your blog/youtube/website: 
My website (pretty much never updated anymore, sadly) is: http://imaginary-styles.iwarp.com, and my blog (not hair-related) is: http://quoththegirl.wordpress.com.




Thank you again, Stephanie for your time and for sharing a little bit about yourself!  More to come on awesome people later! 

11.01.2012

Random Thoughts. Boring, Skip to end for interesting stuff.

Hello all!

Random thoughts part: (Skip this if you don't want to be bored with random hair thoughts.) I have been having a crazy difficult time with my hair lately; it's not been behaving correctly and I do recall that when I finally made it past waist length last time it did the same exact thing, but ended up cutting it all off because I was hating how it was acting.

NOT AGAIN!!   I decided to look at my routine and to compare and see what the issues were so I didn't do the same thing.  Back then, I was only washing once a week, which I will absolutely never do again, right now I was trying to stretch washes every 4-5 days.  So perhaps a little bit of oil buildup is causing issues. Before, I was using Giovanni, I am using Giovanni right now.  Of course, this time of year does cause quite a bit of static and such.

Not a whole lot of things happening right now that would cause my hair to misbehave other than perhaps I'm trying to baby it too much? I know that sounds weird, but I look online at all these amazing haired gurus on YouTube  and they wash their hair everyday, style it heat it and it looks great!  Which got me thinking...is the natural hype really worth it for my hair type?

Thinking about it, and looking on various blogs, there is tons of natural hair care information for people with curly hair and textured hair, but not so much for people with longer straight hair.  Now, I'm not talking just hair care, I'm talking SLS free natural hair care; that type of thing.  And there isn't a lot of information for people with long, straight hair.  I mean, there is, but not really...*sigh* okay this made so much more sense in my head!

Breaking my jarble brain down: 1. Hair is not behaving with natural regime. 2. Can't find a lot of people who have a natural hair care breakdown for straight hair. 3. Bottom line; I'm going back to my old routine.  Sort of.

Every single time I have ever gone crazy with my hair routine, my hair starts to freak out.  I tried the shampoo bars; just didn't work and very expensive.  Tried WEN only, and my hair got oily and staticky.  Tried to stretch washings with Giovanni, and it falls flat.  The reason I'm growing out my hair is to enjoy it down, not to keep it up and brag about how little I wash it and how little chemicals I put on it.  When you think about it, it's all chemical, it's just a matter of where your chemical comes from.  So, I am going to stop freaking out about it, because honestly, I used to have super long hair when I was younger and shampooed and washed everyday with cheapo Suave and it looked great.  If my baby long hair head could deal with it then, then it can certainly deal with it now!  Plus that, I just like having a schedule.  I really do; I am a list maker and having a list for what I'm going to do with my head keeps me from freaking out on it.

So I went back to my Suave Almond and Shea Butter.  I'm going to oil the night before I wash, and wash on specific days instead of whenever.  I also bought some raw Shea butter bulk and I'm going to whip it up and use that on my hair and skin too.  And yes, Suave has SLS, but I used it for years before I went crazy on my routine and it was fine, and my hair likes it.  I know I said I wouldn't go back, but seriously I have to do something or I'm going to cut off all my hair.

I know that this doesn't really matter to anyone but myself, but this is a hair blog, so darn it I'm going to write about hair!!

Interesting stuff: I came across a really cool blog yesterday; this blogger is what I wish I was; an actual scientific resource for people interested in hair information. The Natural haven Bloom has some really informative articles on the breakdown of hair care products and its impact on your hair health.  I highly recommend going to this website if you have any questions regarding pH balance of products, SLS breakdowns, hair health, etc. etc.

So yeah, that's the interesting stuff.  Sorry this is a random and probably very boring post, but I wanted to get it all out there more for my own benefit than anything.  It was about four years ago that I got fed up and quit and cut it all short and I just really don't want to do that again, so I'm trying to create a breadcrumb trail of improvement so I can track my progress.