A party in my hair!

I love putting my hair up, and especially now since I am trying to grow it out. I like to hide the length for a few days at a time, and then when I wear it down I think 'wow my hair IS getting longer' I think its just a mental thing...(like in my head mental. Not like Im crazy mental....right?)

I go through phases with braids and poofs and hats even. My styles change like with my moods, or the weather, or my inspiration. (What inspires you?)

A client a couple of weeks ago brought in the coolest new hair "toy." Its called a Spin Pin! It is a spiral shaped pin and you twist in your hair to get it to stay there. You use these instead of bobby pins, and usually need less of these then a normal bobby pin. They look something like this:

You simply press them toy our head and spin them. Quite easy, and they hold fine hair as well as thick hair. Long and short hair. 

They are available at Target or Walmart. Ive seen them at both places. 

Let me know if you try them out! 

XoX

Big tease

Who doesn't like some volume in their hair?

I have another new best friend! The teasing brush! Its a limited edition item and I am selling out fast! They retail usually no more then $9.00.

The staggered bristles allow for maximum tease without multiple strokes. The handle is pointy, so that allows for parting the hair before teasing. 

This is a must-have! 

My wonderful client on her wedding day! 

Teasing brush used. 

XoX

My new best friend

You know when you use something over and over, it becomes old and boring..to you?  Then one day you open up your special drawer of 'tools' and discover that old thing you used over and over, and suddenly it is new again and exciting?

That's me with my hot rollers!! Welcome back big hair!

They are amazing. I can wake up with 'bed head', plug them in, get dressed and start my makeup, roll my hair up, finish my makeup, pack my lunch, eat breakfast pull them out, and I'm read to go! 

They are easy to put in, and depending on how you chose to roll them you will get different results for the curls. Play with all the sizes yours come in and see what you can do! Its easier then you think!

Here's what I came out with today:

Roll out!

XoX

Marathons and cobblers

This whole weekend had me up in knots all kinds in my tummy. It was a marathon-kind of weekend....no really. And those are the best, because they call for lots of celebrations and yummy desserts!

If any of you have run a marathon relay before...dont! Well you could, but if you have a anxious tummy like this here me, then I highly do not recommend it...to anyone! This is how it goes:

The first runner must wake up extremely early and be at a shuttle at an ungodly time of day (5:30am) to get to the destination-start line-to simply have to wait until the gun goes off (7:30am) The start of a lot of waiting. Now, if you were part of my team (the best team, of course) Then you were made super anxious, because your first runner up suddenly became ill the am of the race! (Imagine that) We believe her though because we witnessed the upchuck. :) yumm

So the rest of the participants (and their awesome friends/family) vehicle to the first hand off point. Hand off what? Did I not mention there are batons?! Oh yes, but there is! Spirit stick, some might have called it. Maybe not.

So the first runner (our fill in, who did so awesomely amazing!) hands off to the next runner who takes off among the full marathoners running the same course, and irate at us relay-ers who have fresh legs every so often and zoom past them huffing and puffing to keep going.

So now, here I am. I know I am next but I must wait. 1 hour and some odd minutes. And wait. We vehicle off to my pick up location and this one is sneaky because I get to watch my teammate pass me on an up hill, but wait some more, until he comes around and over the hill I am standing at the bottom of. More waiting! Can you just imagine my stomach at this point? Im getting crampy just writing this.

Once I am handed the baton, however, it is all ok. Although it becomes quite sweaty and slippery quickly. Who ever came up with the stupid idea to hold onto this stick and run!? Whatever. I finish quite happily and pass it off to our final runner, who did awesomely as well, and ran to the finish of her first ever race!

So here comes the best part! The food after! Especially after all that waiting around, we were famished! We stopped at one of mine and my husbands favorite restaurants that feeds people like him. (them glutens) Delish! Then went home and made one of the best desserts, I think ever!

Apple Blueberry cobbler

Sugar free, gluten free, dairy/egg free...I might add. 

So yes, the waiting was all worth it. The anxiousness calmed down thanks to the cobbler. Yummy!

XoX

Shampoo too much?

Should I wash my hair everyday? No.

I could leave it at that, but I won't.

Your hair/scalp produces natural oils that are good for your mane. When you shampoo your hair, you are washing those good oils away and down the drain. Then I get the question, "Why is my hair so dry?" When you wash your hair only every other day, or every 2 days, you are allowing those good oils to stay on your scalp and travel down the hair shaft and provide good moisture to your strands.

Some may argue their hair is too greasy to allow a couple days to shampoo. I say give it time! When you are shampooing everyday your poor oil glands are made to produce overtime to keep up with you. So be patient. Oil production will level out in time, but in between there are some tricks to learn.

Baby powder is a good trick. It will help soak up any excess your hair does not absorb, without washing it all away. Just apply some in your part line, with a blush makeup brush, or just sprinkle it on. Use a fine tooth comb or your fingers to comb it through or smudge it in. Its real simple. Start with less, use more if needed.

Also becoming more popular on the market is dry shampoo. It does the same thing baby powder does, absorb excess moisture.

I have found it helpful to wear my hair up the second or third day of not washing it. My style usually holds better with 'dirty' hair anyway. Also if you just have to wet your hair down to re style it, that is ok too. As long as you are not applying shampoo to your hair, that is what will wash the oils away.

Hope this is helpful, grease-heads :)

XoX

Static Panic!!!

Why is my hair so static-y?! What to do?!

This is a very popular question right now so I will answer that for you.

It is very dry right now in climate, this is what the winter brings to us. Add the fact you are probably wearing more sweaters (well not this week) and tights. Those type of fabrics add to the static problem.

What to do? Think of your hair as your skin. When you have dry, flakey skin what do you do? Put lotion on, moisturize. Your hair needs moisture too. It needs love!

Try a good in salon conditioning treatment, I  recommend this one. If you can't pop into the salon soon enough, while your hair is still damp add some leave in conditioner before drying it. If at all possible let your hair air dry, as using heat will continue to take the moisture out your poor strands need.

If your hair is dried already and you are experiencing static still, apply a serum  of some sort. Here's another excellent one to try. You can always do the nifty 'dryer sheet' trick, but I say this as a last resort because a dryer sheet is not made for this purpose, so with chemicals that are included, who knows what you are putting on your tresses. 

So just think of your hair as your skin, in that you need to constantly be adding moisture when the months prove dry. Buy some 'gifts' for your hair and pamper it daily, and you will quickly see the good results.

XoX

To razor or not to razor

I get asked a lot about 'Razor cutting'. Is it good, is it bad, what does it do?

Lets just say this, its not for everyone.

Razor cutting is a tricky sort of thing, and with the wrong, uneducated person behind a razor things can go wrong really fast! Heres why: A razor is used to do 2 main things:

 Give texture

 Thin out. 

Now if you add too much texture, then reason one is suddenly reason two. Scary. 

However, it shouldn't be all that scary, especially if you are someone that needs it. Most short cuts are 'made' with the razor, and mens cuts go from good to great with one. Front bangs (fringes) and face layers are also amazing with a little razor notching, and straight thick hair usually is begging for some razoring.

Curly hair is a iffy, some curl patterns can handle it, some not.

Heres a tip: Never never razor yourself. Like I said, you can go from texturing to thinning real quick. Even quicker if you can't see the overall look yourself (ie:in a mirror)

What do you think about the razor?

XoX

The man with the Cotton Candy toes

Standing behind my chair one seemingly normal Thursday-the only reason I remember it being a Thursday is that one of my favorite Texan accented guests only comes on Thursdays, and this was her day- I witnessed this scene:

A burly looking  manly  man entered the salon in the morning. He had eagerly called ahead the day before to book an appointment, to be sure to get all planned services done this day. Now upon calling the day before, we were absolutely sure he was booking an appointment for his wife, mom, sister, girlfriend, aunt, etc. and had given us his name to hold the said appointment. 

Now it is not uncommon to have a male come into a salon and get a manicure/pedicure. In fact quite a few men have standing (regular) appointments on the books. On this such day, however this man was quite different. 

He was definitely NOT here because he was a dentist and needed his hands regularly groomed, or a construction worker who needed some TLC. Actually, we really couldn't get out of him what he did for work, where he was from, or the reason for the salon visit. Only because he was "visiting a friend from out of town."..it was the week of Valentines Day. (hmmm)

Well after the manicure was finished, and his toes were trimmed, cuticles pushed back and surfaces buffed, the nail technician was all ready to send him to his hair technician, when he asked for  his toes to be polished as well. "With color?" she asked (very politely and no expression, she's one good for that) "yes" he replied (manly) "Go ahead and pick out a color" she said, pointing to the vast array of options gleaming on the wall. And now, my friends, can you guess why this post is entitled "The man with the Cotton Candy toes"?? This Cotton Candy definitely fit the name! Bright pink and all. 

So sitting in the chair next to mine, this man sat, after his toes were finished and dry. Now I wish I could say that is where all the weirdness ended... unfortunately not. He asked for a roller set. A old lady wet roller set, under the dryer! 

....which he was given, then requested it to be backcombed and styled. Until it ended up looking something like this...

(Not actual client)

Which is great and all...but he's a man with Cotton Candy toes. 

Needless to say my poor ultra conservative Texan client in my chair was appalled and still speaks of it today. 

We never found out his story. He never came back. We will never know. I will always wonder....But why?

Odd.

XoX