DIY Hair Mask.

Wow, you guys... this week has been hectic! Sorry for neglecting my little blog. The holidays are rough this year with Pappy being in the hospital. I just hope he can come home soon. I miss sitting pulling up in his driveway and seeing him tinkering with some antique in his shop. So, again I apologize if my posts are sporadic.

My hair takes a lot of abuse. I mean a lot. My ends are pretty chewed up and I experience quite a bit of breakage. I am constantly using deep conditioners to try to keep my split ends from going into my good hair. As I stated in a recent post, I have been using coconut oil as a treatment and I have seen amazing results. Earlier tonight I was digging around in the refrigerator and came across an avocado that looked like it had seen better days. I decided that, since it probably would never be eaten, I would do the logical thing... which would be to smash it up and slap it on my head.

I then decided that my avocado needed a bit more oomph. I ran to my bathroom and grabbed my little bottle of jojoba oil (also.... I just started using this for acne. Great results! More on that later!) and my coconut oil. Bam! DIY hair mask!

The first thing I did was mix a bit of the jojoba oil and the coconut oil up in a bowl and I nuked it for 15 seconds to get it nice and warm. I slathered that on, focusing mainly on my ends, and then combed it through. The hot oil opens up your hair shaft, meaning that the mask will penetrate better. Next, I mashed up my avocado into the bowl... folks, you are going to really want to smash this. Just when you think it is good and mushy smash it some more. Take out all your aggression on the poor avocado. I did not listen to my own advice and it was way messier than it had to be. I will know better next time!

Next I poured a bit more oil on top of the avocado. I would say 2-3 tablespoons of each. I mixed it all together and applied it onto my dry hair and worked it through. Like I said, it is messy, so I did it over the bathroom sink. I threw my oily mess of hair into a bun on top of my head and wrapped my hair in a plastic bag. The plastic bag not only kept my hair mask from getting on the furniture, it helped trap the heat from my scalp in and made the mask work better.

I left the mask on for about an hour before shampooing out in cool water. I had to shampoo twice because, while I have a ton of hair, it is fine and tends to get oily quickly. If you have dry, coarse hair you may only have to shampoo once. I conditioned it like I normally would. Then something amazing happened...

I combed my hair out after. Usually my freshly washed hair is a rats nest, but the comb glided through with ease. I was happy, but I figured this meant my hair would be a grease ball after. Nope! I let it air dry most of the way and finished it with the hair dryer. My hair was amazingly soft and shiny. My split ends were smoothed down and barely noticeable. No expensive hair treatment I had used had ever given me such amazing results. This is now my go-to hair treatment!

Do you have any DIY hair treatments you do?

Hair Tutorial: Take your hair HIGHER!

What a week. First school, then awful face rash, and then my uncle had very serious surgery on his pancreas, and then I come out of the house the other day and my cousin's house is on fire (she lives down the street)... needless to say, I needed the four day break from the good old internet I decided to take. It was magical. I ate Cracker Barrel TWICE.

So, too apologize to those of you who follow my tiny blog, I giveth you a tutorial!

 It is no secret that I love big hair. However big I can get it before I start resembling a Jersey Shore reject is how I am going to wear it. My love for big hair has gotten to the point that, upon entering the bathroom and watching me style my hair, Zach says things like, "are you going to the grocery store, or auditioning for a White Snake video?"

So, here is a tutorial on how I get my hair BIGGER.

Supplies you will need:
Velcro rollers.
Heat protectant spray. 
Volumizing mousse.
An all-purpose comb, a rattail comb, or a teasing brush. Whichever you have. 
Hair spray.
Bobby pins.

Step one: Apply the mousse and the heat protectant spray. Blow-dry hair. I like to do this with my head bent forward or upside down for maximum volume. 

Step two: When hair is completely dry, carefully comb it out to make sure there are no tangles. Take a section of hair from the very top of your head and hold a roller up to it to make sure it is the right size. You do not want it to be wider than your roller!

Step three: Using the small side of your all-purpose comb, your rattail comb, or your teasing brush tease the section of hair you just took near the root. 

Step four: Mist the teased area with hair spray. 
 

Step five: Over-direct your hair for the most volume like I do above and carefully roll hair and then secure the roller with a bobby pin. Holding hair straight up will get you a bit less height if you want less volume.

Step six: Repeat the step above for each section you take until you have a nice mohawk like mine. If you haven't lost all your rollers like I have then feel free to roll your whole head. If you are like me and have lost every roller set you have ever bought proceed to step seven. 

Step seven: Smooth remaining hair with a flat iron to reduce frizzies.

Step eight: begin taking sections from the rest of your hair. Tease and spray like you did for the rollers and then... 
 

Step nine: Roll hair onto your hairspray can. This is also a great trick if you don't have time to deal with rollers. I usually hold it for 10 to 15 seconds to give the hair spray time to dry before I move on to my next section. 
 

Step ten: Carefully remove rollers and you're done! Enjoy your crazy cat lady hair!

JUST KIDDING. 

Step eleven: Play with your hair until you get it to your liking. Use your comb to lightly comb over the top to smooth it down. If it is too big then very carefully comb out some of the teased areas. This step is all about personal preference. 

 
 Enjoy your big sexy hair!

 

French Braided messy bun!

We are in the hair sculpting division at school meaning I am having to do a lot of weird 80's blowouts and teasing, but I am also getting to try updos! Today I tried and failed a Regency era inspired style, so we ended up playing around with her hair for the rest of the time. My friend Sierra (who is a much neater braider than me) and I did this look on Lindy. 
Looking back, I really wish I had done a more in-depth tutorial with pictures for this. Maybe even a video?  Fortunately, this is not a unique look. I am almost positive there are a bunch of reviews on youtube, and I know I have seen variations of this on Pinterest (that's where we got the idea!)

Here is a step-by-step, just in case.

• Apply a root lifting powder, a mousse, sea salt spray, or something along those lines to help your hair mold into the style you want. You can do this on second day hair as well. The reason I do not suggest doing this on squeaky clean hair is because it will be harder to maintain the style. For Lindy I used the root lifting powder put out by Big Sexy Hair, and shook it through her ends a bit. The powder adds a ton of volume to her very long, very straight hair and shaking it through the rest makes it a bit easier to manipulate. Next time I will probably use other products as well.
• French braid your hair all the way to the nape of your neck, then secure with an elastic.
• Take your fingers and lightly tug at the braid to loosen it. It is also a good idea to do this on wavy or second day curled hair for extra texture. 
• Curl the remaining hair at the bottom loosely. It does not have to be perfect! I grabbed random sections and hit them with the flat iron. 
• Take a teasing comb and tease the curls slightly. Not too much! You want to be able to section your hair. 
• Divide the hair into three sections. Twist each section and then either wrap them around each other and form a bun or make three separate buns and bobby pin to secure. There is really no right or wrong way to do this step. It is just whatever looks best to you! 
• Tuck in any loose ends and secure with bobby pins.
• Take down small pieces in the front to frame your face. You can either loosely curl these or leave them as they are.
• Hair spray. Lots of hairspray. 

I really hope that wasn't too terribly confusing! I have trouble explaining things like that in words and some things may have been worded awkwardly. Then again I am an awkward person. I just sent a picture of a cat toilet-training kit to my boyfriend.

So, what would you rather see next time? Pictures or video?