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!

 

How I clean my brushes!

Wow.... I am a truly terrible blogger. It is now Monday and I haven't posted a single thing since Wednesday. I fully intend to one day have a decent blog schedule down, but as of right now so many things are happening at once and I am finding myself too tired to muster up the desire to post.

That sounds terrible, doesn't it?

Don't get me wrong, I love my little corner of the internet. I am very thankful for all 157 of you that have viewed my blog so far. I want to have readers that come back more than once. I am a baby in the blogging universe, but that's okay. I have a lot of faith in this thing. Words can't describe how excited it makes me to watch my blog grow little by little. I can't wait to get comments and start connecting with people. I think that is one of the reasons I started this. I want to connect with people who are like me. I have been lurking different blogs for years now, and I love the sense of community they seem to have.

Anyways, on to today's post!

My brushes get gross. I maybe do a full face of makeup once a week, so my foundation brush tends to just sit there with week old foundation hanging out on it. Also, my friend Ana tends to stay the night several nights a week in order to carpool to school and she loves to use my eyeshadow brushes in all kinds of crazy color combinations and NEVER wipes them off. Never. I want to strangle her... I mean, what?... I have found that, for me, the best way to clean my brushes is with things found in my kitchen.

WARNING: IF YOUR BRUSHES ARE SUPER GRIMY THIS WON'T CUT IT. BE SURE TO CLEANSE THEM WITH A GOOD CLARIFYING SHAMPOO ONCE/TWICE A MONTH DEPENDING ON HOW MUCH YOU USE THEM.

You only need three things!

• A lemon
• Apple cider vinegar
• Olive Oil

 First I take a large coffee mug and fill the bottom with the apple cider vinegar. I do not measure it exactly, so use your best judgement. I then take my lemon and squeeze some of the juice into the cup. It helps to roll the lemon around on the counter beforehand to loosen it up a bit. I normally just use the rest of the lemon on my face later to help with my acne scarring, so I just stick the remainder of it back in the fridge. Lemon has natural antibacterial properties, so I also cut off a slice and put it into the mixture. I use a knife to break it up a bit. Then I fill the cup up a little over half full with hot water and allow my brushes to soak in it for 10 to 15 minutes.

Next I put a bit of olive oil onto a paper towel or a cotton round. I take my brushes out of the apple cider mixture and gently squeeze to get some of the water out. Then I gently rub them around in the olive oil and begin wiping them on the clean areas of the paper towel. The olive oil really softens your brushes and helps loosen the product stuck to them. For my rounder brushes, such as my beautifully dirty foundation brush above, I swirl it around on the paper towel.  For my eyeshadow brushes and other flatter brushes I sweep back and forth as if I am painting.

Lovely, isn't it?

After the olive oil I set my brushes back in the apple cider vinegar and let them soak for a few minutes, before thoroughly rinsing them in cool water. I have found that the olive oil works wonderfully for some brushes, but for others it can make them feel greasy. Synthetic brushes are usually the worst about this, mainly my E.L.F. brushes, so you may also want to shampoo some of them in a mild baby shampoo as well. I do not recommend the olive oil more than once a month because it will make your other brushes feel too greasy as well. 

Also, the apple cider vinegar smell does linger on your brushes. Personally, it does not bother me, but if you are sensitive to that particular scent you might want to stick to good old baby shampoo.


How do you cleanse your brushes?

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?