The Magic Of A Straightener

Every morning when I get out of the shower, my hair is an absolute frizz-ball mess. It’s not fun having to go through the day with your hair sticking out every which way because it contains so much frizz. If you have this exact feeling every morning too then you are completely normal. The only way to help soothe some of these crazy ends in your hair is to apply some heat. When I say heat I don’t mean you should blow dry your hair. Blow drying is so bad for this cause because it just creates even more frizz for you to have to deal with in the end.

One of the easiest ways to begin your process of removing frizz is to let your hair air dry. I do this almost every time that I shower and it never fails. Some say it leaves their hair feeling snarly but if you brush it once before you get out of the shower and then pull back your bangs and let the rest of the hair hang, it dries so much faster. The less bulk you have in your hair, the easier and less time it will take.

After your hair is completely dry, you can apply your pre-straightening helper. This would be the heat protectant spray that helps prevent so much split end outcome from hair straightening everyday. Even if you don’t straighten everyday, it still helps and should be used thoroughly anytime you use a straightener. Back in the day, women didn’t have any kind of protection from their curlers or curling irons so take advantage of these kinds of sprays to keep your hair healthy.

This next step is where all the magic begins to transform your stringy, frizzy hair into a lovely and lengthened style. Turn your iron onto the according heat setting for your kind of hair and as you begin to straighten, pull the iron through the section of hair in a vertical motion. This helps prevent crease lines that show where the straightener began in your hair. As you pull it through the hair, notice the beauty it creates in your hair. The frizz seems to disappear and shine seems to stand out like never before.

It seems weird knowing that your hair can transform into a goddess style with just one pull-through of a straightener. It’s because of all the heat that your hair seems to tame itself and look more relaxed. Your last step should be to apply some kind of serum that will tame the frizz even more and also keep it from reappearing after being in humid air. Apply a dime sized amount to your hair and smooth it through to be sure and lock in the shine.

Give Up Boring Cuts

I grew up with a hairstylist whom my family was very devout to and also served as a second mom to me. I have never gotten a haircut from anyone other than my long-time stylist. I have mastered exactly how she works toward cutting hair and the exact tools she uses in the process. I have seen her in action so many times that sometimes I swear I could be her. But recently, I watched a friend perform a cut on a client and realized there are so many more tools available for stylists. It was like I came out of my sheltered styling life that I was living.

Although I’m not a hairstylist myself, Jeanette (my hairdresser) has always told me the exact tools that she uses on my hair and all the things I need to know about her process of styling. Since I have grown up watching her give cuts, I haven’t known there to be any other way to cut someone’s hair. It was amazing to me to see how much there is to offer in the world of hair salons and styling besides just hair scissors and hairspray.

My friend began her process with a fresh wash. She then moved over to her cutting station where she began her actual haircut with the professional shears. The shears she used were very high-profile and glided right through the client’s hair. This part of the process is the only part I’ve ever seen take place. The next part was the big surprise for me; my friend got out her “texturizing shears” and began creating layers upon layers of hair and removing excess bulk in the client’s hair. After she got all of the texturizing done, she moved on to the bangs. She styled this part of the hair but using a razor and running it through the ends of the bangs to take off split ends and excess bulk, once again.

I, of course, have heard of texturizing shears and a razor but I had never seen them in action, so I had never known the performance they gave. I was truly amazed by these two tools and all they had to offer. If you were in the same position as me and have never really had anything done to your hair other than a trim every time you visit your stylist, it’s time to get rid of the boring cuts. Next time you get a haircut, make it a cut, not just a trim, by asking your stylist to use her texturizing shears and razor to help blend some new layers and make your hair healthier and lighter on your shoulders.

How To Style Hair In Less Than Five Minutes

Waking up in the morning a half-hour too late is one of the biggest pains. Not only is it difficult to get yourself ready for the day, the fact that you wake up late also pretty much guarantees you a bad day. The worst part about having a bad morning is that you can’t make yourself look great, right? Wrong! In just a few tricks I’ll have you ready for a day your good looks will never forget and your face will thank you for.

Forget freshly showered hair that looks stringy all day; you need hair that you won’t regret styling and will look great all day. So even if you’ve waken up way too late to blow dry and straighten your hair, you can pull it all together with one simple look. The easiest way to do this is to start with a few tools that are handy right in your own home. Grab a brush, a teasing comb, hairspray and a few bobby pins.

First you’ll need to smooth the hair down with your brush to get all tangles out. When you sleep on a pillow that is made out of material other than silk, your hair gets ratty and messy from turning your head around all night. This means your brush is your best friend and will save the day. Once you’ve run the brush through the hair, use your teasing come to give a little oomph to the crown of your hair. Do this by taking sections at a time and lifting them straight up to the ceiling, spray the base of the section with hairspray and run the comb up and down for about 5 seconds. Next, let the sections fall and comb over them to leave a smooth overlay that will still give off a poofy look.

Next take your bobby pins and comb to part your hair with. Part the hair to the side and bring a section of hair (whether it be bangs or a loose section near the face) over to the side. Twist the section of hair to give a fun and cute edge to the style and pin it back with your bobby pin(s). To finish off this extremely easy look, tip your head to the ground and give it a quick hairspray refresher and then flip the hair back up to normal. You may need to run your hands through your hair to get rid of snarly parts, but this last step is the finishing touch to give your hair a boost of volume to look as if you just got done blow drying and styling for two hours. A style (which doesn’t even call for a hair straightener, might I add!) in less than five minutes can give you a look that will last you through the day.

Trashy Vs. Classy At Formal Events

Recently, my high school held a little event we like to call winter formal. This is just one of three of the craziest times of the year for high school students. Hallways are filled with conversations about spray tans, dresses, and most importantly the perfect hairstyle! For homecoming, simple styles with straight or loose waves are more common for girls’ hair. Winter formal and prom are two completely different stories from homecoming, though.

Dances like winter formal and prom aren’t just events for girls to show up wearing a ponytail; this is one day in the school year where a girl can actually get glammed up with lots of makeup and huge hair without being judged…unless someone brings out her inner trashy! Time for the fashion police to begin handing out some fines.

When you walk into the school (or wherever else your event may be held) you want eyes to be on you in a good way, not in a bad way. To find a hairstyle where you can avoid trashy, go with a celebrity-inspired style. One of my favorite go-to girls to find classy styles from is Jessica Alba; she has the prettiest low ballerina bun with a sweet twist like throwing in a braid. Nothing says sassy yet classy like a small (1-inch wide) braid, and let me tell you, this girl knows how to pull it off!

If you’re looking for even more ways to avoid trashy, I’d say to avoid leaving too much hair down. At my school, I saw lots of girls who liked to put only some of their hair up and leave giant strands down to hang in their face. This doesn’t let others see your beautiful face and makes you look self-conscious; be proud of your face and own your beauty! I would suggest maybe even using some hair shears and trimming the bangs off at an angle to give you a perfectly elegant look. When the bangs begin above the brow and go at a diagonal down to the ear, you create a swoopy look that is sure to highlight your best features!

The number one tip of keeping hairstyles classy for prom and winter formal season is to get it back! Get it up out of your face and prevent it from blocking your sparkling eyes and stunning cheekbones! Popular styles for school dances are french twists, curly messy buns, and poofy bouffants. There are plenty other ways to keep your style classy and not trashy. For example the way you wear your dress. Another story for another day; keep your look classy at your next school dance with these great tips for great hair.

 

A Tool That May Help With Updo’s

Winter time is the best time for formal events. Long and sleek dresses, beautiful diamond jewelry, and don’t forget the big hair. Most women stick with lustrous updo’s for formal events, which can require lots and lots of pins and hairspray. Some stylists even use curlers to give hair volume and bounce. What some people don’t know, though, is that a hair straightener can even help put things together when styling your hair in an updo.

Although it won’t help give much volume, you can use a hair straightener as a tool to help weave through your strands and get the perfect silky start before you perform an updo with your hair. Some straighteners are great for this because they remove some frizz and smooth over curls that may be winding through your hair. The best part about using a straightener to start, however, is that it gives your hair a fresh look that will last all through the night. Most women who have a shorter length of bangs use a flat iron to style after their hair is already in the updo, to give the hair a classier look. If a straightener can do that on bangs, imagine the kind of work it can perform on longer strands of hair!

To begin, spritz a root lifter and a small amount of heat protectant spray. You won’t need too much of the heat protectant spray because you won’t be using your straightener to completely go over your whole head of hair. The key to this process is to remember, you aren’t straightening all of your hair, you’re only going over a few areas to give a good polished look before beginning an updo. After spraying the product into your hair, you may want to finger through and find pieces that need to be straightened. Whether they look dry or curly, your best bet is to run the straightener through so your updo won’t look sloppy. The goal is to create a sexy hairstyle, not a bird’s nest on top of your head.

To get the best look in your strands, run your straightener through the hair at a diagonal angle. Most women press the plates through their hair at a horizontal angle, which will create a dented look in the hair. The dents may not be quite as evident in an updo since all of the hair will be pressed back, but it’s still a good idea to get a smoother look. As you begin straightening more and more, you may notice that other pieces of hair look sloppy compared the newly straightened pieces. This isn’t a big deal, as the straightened pieces will cover up the not so straight strands in the end. You may run through the others but it won’t make too much of a difference in the final look.

After you have used the straightener enough and have smoothed through the hair for elegance, you may begin to pin it back into your updo. As some clients of stylists have noticed, pieces that hang out of the updo look a bit flirtier if they are curly. However, since it is the season for sexy and sleek styled dresses, your hair should match your formal outfit by being just as soft and smooth as the dress you wear. The final look of an updo looks very polished and professional when it is straight.

How to Get Perfect Side Swept Bangs

Side swept bangs are not only a hot trend but are also a very flirty and sexy bang. To get the perfect side swept bang you see on stars like Reese Witherspoon follow these simple steps.

• Ask your stylist to cut your bangs so that they hit right between your eyelashes and eyebrows.
• Remember, when styling your side swept bangs, you want them to lay flat, not flip under like they did in the 80′s.
• Part your bangs at the side and using a medium sized flat brush, brush your bangs downwards as you blow dry.
• As you blow dry your bangs be sure to point your hair dryer downwards at your bangs, holding the dryer directly about your fringe.
• To help keep bangs in place spray an eyebrow brush with a light mist of hairspray and comb over bangs for a soft hold.

See what Reese Witherspoon’s hairstyles look like on you – Click Here

Curling Irons Sure Have Changed!

Probably one of the first hair styling tools you ever owned was a curling iron. In fact, if you went to high school in the early nineties, a curling iron was essential in order to create those sky high bangs that were so popular. Do you remember how you choose what curling iron you should use back then? Probably not, but I would bet that you didn’t choose your curling iron based on how good it would be for your hair. In fact, it hasn’t been until recently that hair styling tools have actually benefited hair. However, there are a few things that you should keep in mind when you are looking for a curling iron, because they have come along way since you first started using them.

If you are thinking about getting a curling iron, don’t make the mistake that they are only good for curling your bangs up to great heights. Curling irons are useful for so much more than that. If you have always wanted wavy, sexy curls, then a curling iron is the perfect tool for you. Or maybe it’s tight, spiral curls you’re looking for? A curling iron is also the tool of choice for you.

Be sure when you are looking for a curling iron to choose the barrel width that’s right for the style you want to achieve. Because curling irons come in a wide variety of barrel sizes, from ¾” up to 2” barrels. If you are looking for tight curls, choose the smaller curling iron barrel size. But if loose waves are your thing, you’ll want the larger barrel. It’s important to note that if you have short hair, you should not choose large barrel sizes, they are only useful on longer hair. Shorter hair does better with smaller barrel sizes as they are easier to negotiate on short hair. If you have medium length hair and want to have some versatility when you style, you may want to consider a 1” barrel size because they are the most versatile and you can create quite a bit of style with this size.

Another consideration when you are choosing a curling iron is the material of the barrel. Look for a ceramic curling iron because ceramic is an excellent material choice. Ceramic is known for conducting heat evenly and quickly so you do not need to worry about any hot spots developing on your iron which will burn your hair. Ceramic also smoothes your hair as it styles, so your hair will not look frizzy or over treated.

Other features to look for in a curling iron include ionic technology which actually locks in natural moisture and oils to make hair look healthier than before. Silver technology is also a great feature, because the silver kills bacteria and germs that may be in your hair or on your styling tool so that your hair can stay as healthy as possible.

Curling irons have come along way since your early styling days, so take the time to research a quality hair styling tool before you make the investment.

No More Uneven Bangs with the Right Shears

Have you ever decided to give yourself a little trim in between salon visits? Perhaps you thought you could trim your daughter’s bangs for her so you could avoid a visit to the hair stylist? If you have ever thought that you could cut your own hair, or anyone else’s hair, you are probably guilty of scissor misuse. Come on. Admit it – you’ve done it.

 

If you’re like most people who think that they can trim their own hair, you’ve probably grabbed any old pair of scissors that you have lying around to do the task. Oh sure, you may have grabbed a “good” pair of scissors, maybe a brand new pair, or a pair that you only use for cutting fabric. Using the logic that these scissors are sharper than any other ones. After all, you wouldn’t cut your hair with the same scissors that your kids use for craft projects right?

 

Stop! If you feel the need to cut or trim your own hair for any reason, you must have the right tools for the job. Just like any other job, you must prepare yourself with the right tools. After all, you wouldn’t use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail would you? Just like you shouldn’t use your kitchen scissors to cut your hair. Instead, invest in a quality pair of hair cutting scissors or shears.

 

So what’s the big deal? Why do you need special scissors? Well for starters, a proper pair of hair shears will cut your hair cleanly and smoothly. Ordinary scissors will tear, or pull your hair. They won’t result in a clean, smooth cut. You’ll end up with damaged and jagged ends. And even worse, your hair will be uneven. Have you ever seen someone who has really short bangs, and they’re still uneven? Sure you have. That girl didn’t use the proper scissors and kept trying to correct her mistake until she ended up with awful bangs. Don’t be that girl.

 

A proper pair of hair shears will make your simple trimming jobs easy and smooth. You will be able to comfortably and easily make slight adjustments to your hair, take care of any split ends or trim your daughter’s bangs. Of course you should still visit the hair salon for major cuts and styles, but little jobs can be done very well with the proper pair of shears.

 

Look for a student set of basic shears. You don’t need anything fancy, or any special scissors for thinning your hair, or texturing your hair. Keep it simple for your first set of shears. Look for the right set for your hand. If you are left handed there are scissors that have been designed with you in mind. Try them out if you can. Hold them and get a feel for them before you buy.

 

Once you have the right tool for the job, the easy trims will be simple and enjoyable and you won’t ever have to worry about being the girl with the uneven super short bangs.

A Simple Way To Change Your Hairstyle

If you are bored with your current hairstyle and yet you do not want to go so far as to do a major change in your appearance maybe you should consider adding bangs or changing your existing ones. The change that occurs in a hairstyle by just changing your bangs can actually be very dramatic. If you do not have any cut your hair so that you do or try styling the bangs you have differently. Use a hair straightening iron to remove the curl and wave of your bangs while you leave the rest of your hair naturally wavy. Really the possibilities are endless yet the drastic change that you would have to do your hair is minimal so give it a try.

Do They Make the Cut? The Case for Quality Shears

Most people go to a hair salon to get their hair cut or styled. But there are a few that like to do it themselves, or maybe just do the occasional bang trim or split end clean up without the hassle of a trip to the salon. If you even occasionally cut your own hair, trim your bangs or maybe take the scissors to your child’s hair – you should really invest in a pair of good quality hair scissors.

But my kitchen scissors do the job just fine. Why should I buy scissors just to cut hair?

The easy answer to this question is – why shouldn’t you? What do you use your kitchen scissors for? If you’re like most people, you probably use them for cutting wrapping paper, opening plastic bags and packages, and maybe even cutting plants. Do you really think that those will be the sharpest, best scissors for the job of hair cutting? No.

When it comes to your hair, you deserve to treat it right. After all, your hair and your appearance is one of the first things that people notice about you and if you present yourself to the world with shaggy, damaged hair that looks like it’s just been chopped with a pair of kitchen shears, what does that say about you?

Quality hair shears sport extremely sharp blades that give you precise, clean cut that won’t leave your hair looking damaged. Just using a pair of poor quality scissors once can give you split ends, tear your hair and give you an uneven cut, so even if you plan on only occasionally cutting your hair, you should invest in a pair of hair scissors so you no longer need to share with the kitchen drawer.

So what should you look for when it comes to quality scissors? Well, obviously price is an indication of a good pair of scissors, but it doesn’t have to be the only factor. If you only need hair shears for occasional use, you don’t need to break the bank. What you should look for is a sharp set of blades. An accurate cut depends on perfectly sharp blades. Generally for occasional trims, you won’t need any fancy blades such as beveled or convex blades; straight blades should be just fine.

You will want a comfortable handle and grip. This is especially important if you’re a lefty. There are specific hair shears designed for left handed people, so be sure that you find a pair that works for you. You aren’t doing yourself any favors if you cannot properly hold the tool. Thumb grips are largely a personal choice; many are removable and can be changed out.

Quality hair shears range in price anywhere from $60 to over $500, but you don’t have to go all out with your first pair. Starting with student shears is a great way to get a feel for what you need in a pair of scissors for a less expensive price. Also, if you are only using them occasionally – you likely don’t need the top of the line. However, remember not to sacrifice quality, even for occasional use. A quality pair of scissors will give you an even, precise cut without damaging your hair. Also, they will be comfortable and extremely durable. Quality is important, because your hair is worth more than the same pair of dirty scissors that you keep in your junk drawer!

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