4 posts tagged “style”

As I mentioned a few times before getting my hair cut & colored - I really wanted to get a perm. I'm so sick of my flat hair sometimes that it just drives me to want to shave it all off. However, after getting it colored and curled a bit I realized it doesn't have to be permed to look nice, and so I went on a mission to find the best curling method for me.

First stop? Target. While getting my hair done my stylist suggested these curlers everyone had been using recently - and as she described them I realized they were basically modern rag curlers with a bit of sponge and some wire for easy use. So I picked some of those up along with a curling iron and went home to try it all out.

Sunday night I washed & let my hair dry a bit and then sat down with the rag curlers. It took me a bit - but not nearly as long as I thought it would. In the end I had eight curlers in - and I did as my stylist suggested which was to twist the section of hair before wrapping it in the rag curler. The next day I woke - took them out and was amazed at my nest of hair. The curlers had worked all right! However it was too much, much too much. Not only were the curls too much but I hadn't placed them right on my head in relation to my cut so my short layers were practically standing straight up.

I admit - I felt a bit disillusioned. But I wasn't willing to stop my experiments. Tuesday morning I washed and dried and pulled out my new curling iron and though I did exactly as she showed me - it didn't work very well. I think maybe my curling iron wasn't the hottest it could get - which she said was very important.

That night on my way home I stopped at Target again and picked up a hot roller set I'd been eyeing recently. I've never even considered buying a hot roller set because I thought, "If a curling iron wont do it - how will these?" However - the ones I'd been eyeing were different in the fact that they had heated clips that closed over the curler once your hair was in place. So I bought them and tried them out and while the curls are very nice - it was an ordeal. For one thing, the curlers are very hot while you're trying to put them in your hair. I don't do well with hot - ever since burning my arm horribly a month before my wedding. Second, the curls did not last - just like with the curling iron. So I'm going to take those back.

That same night - I washed my hair and sat down again to try the rag curlers. This time I left my hair a bit more wet, I used only half of the curlers (4 instead of 8), and I also positioned them down lower so that my shortest layer would not be so twisted and curled. I woke up the next morning and I noticed that my hair didn't dry completely - but either way it worked! The nest was gone because I'd used less curlers and the hair actually relaxed a bit as it dried completely.

SUCCESS! Now, to just do it more than once will be the true test :)

Putting an effort into my appearance is hard - and expensive. Ever since I got my hair done I've realized how very little I do to enhance my appearance. I don't style my hair, I don't wear makeup, I don't care about my skin - none of it. The extent I go to is to make sure my clothes are wrinkle free, I'm showered, I'm wearing deodorant and occasionally I'll put on a bit of perfume. But I've decided to make an effort. I do own makeup - a good amount for someone who doesn't wear makeup in face - and so I started there. So far so good. Next was my hair - that's where it started to get pricey. I have a hair dryer and a round brush - but that is it. So I bought some leave-in curlers my hair stylist suggested ($8.99), a large curling iron ($19.99), spray wax ($12.99), & mousse ($4.99). Plus, to preserve my hair color I got some special shampoo & conditioner (a total of $30). Since I'm not used to doing this yet - its taking me a good hour just to do my hair and makeup - which is a good 45 minutes more than I'm used to spending on getting ready.

I'm having fun though :)

I'm a red head! I wanted to take pictures but I really didn't look that flattering last night and also by the time we were done it was dark outside and it looks best under natural light. I would have taken it this morning - but since I've never had my hair colored before I didn't know I wouldn't be able to wash it for 24 hours so it's a bit messy because of the product she put in last night when styling it. So, I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it :)

I really love it - really!

When I got there at five, she made me wait until five-thirty which I was a bit upset about because I rushed to get there on time and skipped on eating. If I'd known that five-thirty would work better than I would have just taken my time. But that's neither here or there. She did a phenomenal job - just perfect. I didn't have enough money to do the entire idea she had - but we were able to do a color block using two tones and since my hair already had a lot of natural highlights everything came out wonderfully. We chose a "true red" and so it looks natural instead of the bright, orangey, red I was worried about. I gave her the pictures below, and between them all I think I got an excellent interpretation. In fact, my hair cut is identical to hers as well - so I wonder if she was going off of that for the cut...

Hair Inspiration

It was funny though, and not the first time, that when we started going over my idea for coloring my hair she tried to talk me out of it. She was telling me that people spend thousands of dollars to get their hair to look like mine - the perfect blonde she said. I would have been worried too - except I have dyed my hair before and it grew back just as beautiful.

It took much longer than I would have thought - and in the end I really didn't change my cut much. After mulling it over some more I've realized I really do want to go shorter so I'm just going to go back or have my girlfriend cut it for me. I think the hair stylist was picking up on the fact that I had no clue what I wanted and so that's why she didn't cut off that much. Also, the cut was free with this promotion - and she'd just spent three hours coloring it so maybe that was the issue. I'm so happy with the color though that I don't even care.

All I know is I'm going back to her. She went above and beyond (she also colored my eyebrows, waxed them, and showed me how to style my hair - at no charge) and that's exactly what I need in a hair stylist because I have no idea what I'm doing ALL the time when it comes to my hair!

I'm sad to realize that I haven't answered the QotD or participated in one VoxHunt for ages. They just don't interest me anymore which is really the sad part. That used to be my favorite part! I find that I'm getting lazier and lazier with my blogging. I don't blog as much, they're boring and scatter-brained and I haven't even begun to post about Scotland. I find I go through these phases - I just hope I get out of this one quick.

The season finale of America's Next Top Model was good! I was so happy with it - the last few cycles I haven't been agreeing with the winner much so it was a nice change. I really like Anya (even though I liked Whitney more) and I wonder a bit if they chose Whitney because she was plus sized - just like I think they chose Jasline because she was Hispanic. Either way I'm happy :)

Next Wednesday I'm going to go get my hair done. I have no idea what I'm going to do and this morning I thought I had an idea, but then I asked around and now I'm not sure. I have healthy, fine, naturally blonde hair. I'm sick of it always being flat & limp as a noodle so I thought I'd do what I've never done before - get a perm. I wasn't thinking sausage curls or anything - more of a wave. One top of my flat hair though I'm also sick of the color - which I've mentioned in a previous post - so I'm thinking of dying it. I've heard that doing both is not a good idea though - and either way I'd have to wait at least two weeks after perming it before dyeing it. So do I perm it or dye it? If I dye it I don't want to go to a salon because I've had great results with having Jane do it in the past and that would ensure consistency when I want to touch-up the color. If I perm it then I don't get the discount that's offered by the salon I'm going to which is free cut with color. In essence: I have no idea what I'm doing but I have to decide by Tuesday.