Super Easy Beachy Waves with 1 Touch of a Button! From Sarah Potempa

I'm a big fan of celeb hairstylist (and Aussie's Celebrity Stylist) Sarah Potempa. I've already shared some great tips from her such as how to have a good hair day while in labor, new mommy at home hair tips and how to play with hair texture. Her tips always easy to follow and actually give results!

Sarah has an amazing event tomorrow. She's created a new curling iron. Oh, but not just any curling iron. This is a super easy way to do beachy waves super fast, and not mess them up.

This video really shows how easy it is to use.



I'm adding it to my "to buy" list, what about you?

The Beachwaver will be a QVC exclusive product. Watch Sarah on QVC tomorrow, Jan 21st from 2-3 pm and again 9-10 pm on their "Beauty Newsmakers" hour.

Beachwaver

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How to Use Dry Shampoo Without a White Mess

Wow, I can't believe it is Sunday already! Things have been a bit... crazy? Around my parts? There's a major family illness, my baby has the stomach flu, which she thoughtfully shared with Daddy.... yeah... Things are still ongoing.

In apologies for my absence, I have 2 things for you. First, head over to Pammy Blogs Beauty, because I've been obsessively revamping her blog this week, rather than posting over here. Things are still a bit of a work in progress (some buttons, that background, etc) but most of it is done.

Next, here is one of the 2 posts I had planned for Friday. Yes, 2 days ago Friday. I've been obsessed with dry shampoo since my daughter was born, and I'm finally posting about it! Tomorrow I'll share my favorite Dry Shampoo picks and maybe I'll manage to post a pic of my manicure! I have the new Zoyas and China Glazes- to die for!

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Clairol: What's Your Hair Color Alter Ego and How to Get Amazing Hair Color at Home!

A few weeks ago I had the chance to talk to Marie Robinson, a hair color expert for Clairol. She had some great tips for at how to get great at home hair color, plus we had a lot of fun with the Clairol Facebook page!

First, you'll want to head over to Clairol on FaceBook, where you can take a Hair Color Alter Ego quiz. It has fun questions such as your plan to spend a million dollars, and they translate that over to what your hair color should be! Probably no big surprise, but my answers gave me the Alter Ego of a brunette. I'm a "reliable brunette", which sounds horribly boring. But really, it is a good description. Would you want someone wild and crazy as your kid's ICU doctor? Probably not.

So, after figuring out that I'm a brunette, the next step is picking a color! Clariol has quite a few product lines. Semi-permanent, demi-permanent, permanent, foam.... sooo confusing! So, once again head over to Facebook for some help. On their page, Clairol has an amazing app to give expert hair color advice, and it is serious fun to play with! I found it best to upload a picture of myself looking straight at the camera. You answer a few questions such as how much gray you're trying to cover, pick a color range you're interested in, and the app will offer up suggestions and show you the results!

Based upon my Alter Ego, Marie picked out a color selection for me. You can see that this is just a little punch up in color, it warms up my complexion just a bit. I really like it!


Marie had a few great tips for at home color application.

Choosing the correct color/formula
• Marie suggests that you should first know what your skin tone is. My favorite test comes from The Girls in the Beauty Department. In general, cool tone girls have bluish undertones, look best in silver jewelry and wear colors like pink, blue, purple and other jewel tones. Gals with warm tones usually have gold jewelry, reddish undertones and look great in browns, tans and oranges. Think warm fall colors.
• Once you know your tone, you'll want to make sure you have a color that is in the same range. Yes, it is possible to be a warm or cool blonde!
• Stay within 2 shades of your natural color. If you mess something up it will be much easier to fix.
• If you have more than 25% grey Marie recommends using a permanent color. If you have less grey or are making less of a color change then a demi-permanent color should be fine.

Application
• Consider a swatch test! A small section of hair behind your ear is perfect to color an then pull over to hold against your skin to check results.
• Don't wash your hair the day of application. Day old hair will have natural oils to help protect your scalp.
• A layer of Vaseline around your hairline can help protect your skin from color.
• Divide your hair into 3 even sections prior to application. If you have particularly long or thick hair consider using even more sections.
• Marie says that Nice‘n Easy Color Blend Foam has quite a bit more hair color than the other products. If you have thick or long hair consider using the Color Blend Foam or buying 2 boxes. You should have enough to coat your hair evenly, without trying to scrimp.
• During application, apply to your roots (especially near your hair line and part) and then work hair color through the rest of your hair.

Keeping Your Color Fresh
• Clairol comes with a Color Seal Conditioner which makes your color last longer and maintain shine. Use it once a week to help prevent fading!
• Use shampoo/conditioner for colored hair. They are usually a bit gentler than other products and will help maintain your color.
• When roots are a bit obvious, try using a product such as Root Touch-Up every 3 weeks or so. Concentrate on your hair line and part, those are the most obvious areas when you need a touch up.


Clairol on FaceBook

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AG Hair and How To Create A Messy Bun

AG Hair makes some of my favorite products, and I just heard from them a few days ago about their new website. Definitely run over there to check it out, enter to win one of their most popular products, but especially make sure you check out their how-to videos! They have quite a few good ones. My favorite is the Messy Bun one above.

AG Hair

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Curling Iron Alternatives: You Curl and You Wrap and Wave from Conair

I fully admit to being intimidated by any hair styling tool more complicated than a curling iron. Or hot roller. Because I do actually really love me some hot rollers.

Anyways, you've probably noticed that over the past year or so, there have been a lot of new heated wandish things showing up in the hair tools area of your local salons and stores. Some of them look crazy. Seriously, how can some of these things create pretty hair? While they first seemed like a big investment (some of these double barreled things can easily run over $200), the good news is that they're pretty affordable now since Conair has started to release their versions as well. I thought we'd take a quick peek today at the You Curl and You Wrap and Wave, both from Conair.

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Easy Beachy Waves: A Tutorial

I have been really obsessed with Pinterest lately! I've found some of the beauty tutorials linked on there to be very inspiring. More from a photoshop perspective than anything actually. (I'm a bit shocked by how many people link eye tutorials that start with mascara and end with shadow. Do people really do that??)

So, today I played around with Photoshop. A lot. Here's the result!

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A Guaranteed Good Hair Day: Kerastase Shampoo & Conditioner

I can not believe that I haven't posted about this shampoo and conditioner duo yet. I feel like I've started this post so many times, didn't I finish and publish it once upon a time? Apparently, no, I did not.

This duo is the answer to an amazing hair day for me. If I use them, my hair with be shiny, it will cooperate with all styling and it will be perfect for at least 2 days. Yes, really. I've never experienced such amazing hair. I started using it when my daughter was only a few months old, and I posted a picture of us together on Facebook. Instead of oohing and aahhhing over the cute baby in the pic, friends from high school, work and all over my life started talking about how shiny my hair was. The power to distract from a cute baby??? Seriously???

So yes, I love this duo. They both have a light floral scent, though I can't pick it up on my hair later. The shampoo has a great lather and the conditioner is nice and thick. They both rinse out easily without the dreaded squeaky clean that means you've stripped your hair of all the oils.

I've been hoarding this duo for "good" days. I used up the last of it this morning. Maybe if I'm a good girl Santa will bring me more for Christmas!








Kerastase

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Pantene Breakage to Strength: Can Your Hair Suddenly Become Stronger?

Another day, another type of Pantene. Truly, I think this company makes products for pretty much every conceivable hair type/condition/problem. While I've tried out Pantene for Colored Hair in the past, I was recently asked to try out another form as well. I went for Medium-Thick, since that is my hair type. I was sent the Breakage to Strength products to try out.

The basic idea is that that fine hair likes to lie there aligned with itself, not really moving as much or rubbing. Medium/Thick hair is different. The cuticle is more likely to not be fully down, and then the hair shafts are also more prone to rubbing together with every little movement of your head. The end result isn't great: the damage to those little cuticle scales really can add up and the result is weaker hair that isn't as shiny and breaks much more easily.

To help combat this issue, Pantene created this duo. They contain "Anti-Breakage Complex to help moisturize and strengthen hair against damage from root to tip. The formula reduces the friction by smoothing out the cuticle edges. Hair is revitalized and left strong against future damage." So, basically there is something that coats your hair, protecting your cuticles from being damaged from all of this friction. Therefore, hair is protected, cuticles are actually present, hair breaks less and looks more healthy because it actually is more healthy. See how that works?

Overall, the experience of using this duo isn't all that different from other Pantene products that I've used. There's a good lather with the shampoo. Both products have a nice floral, perfume scent that I love in the shower but doesn't linger all day to mess up my perfume. They both rinse off easily without that squeeky clean thing that makes me cringe (I just imagine that my hair is turning to straw since everything has been stripped off, not a good feeling).

The end result is that my hair feels very hydrated. I have to be careful to only put the conditioner on the very ends of my hair, any higher than the distal 1/3 and everything is weighed down and flat. If I keep the conditioner to those bits, everything is soft, shiny and looks great! Styling my hair is easy and I have noticed few split ends. Is it the Pantene? I'm not sure, but it could be.

Pantene

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Playing with Texture: Hair Tips from Sarah Potempa

Sarah Potempa is the Aussie's Celebrity Stylist and her tips have been among my most popular posts. (Check her out with quick hair tips for new mommies and great hospital hair for childbirth.) Today she has some great tips for fast hair that lasts.

Sarah suggests playing with your hair's natural texture to create a day look.

Daytime Fun
This all starts with enhancing your natural waves and going with the weather. Start by taking a test day where you have a little free time...pull out your products and ¬play a little:
• Test your natural wave pattern by spritzing Aussie's Heat Protecting Shine Spray on damp hair and scrunching it up with a towel.
• Take the diffuser attachment of your blowdryer and lightly dry the ends to the roots by scooping large sections into the diffuser.
• Spritz a flexible hold hairspray on hair and allow to air dry as you do your makeup).
• Once you’re done and your hair has dried, you can always enhance this wave by making "C" shapes with your flat iron.

After your test day is over and you know your natural hair texture, this style turns into a quick 5-minute “scrunch and go” look that dries instantly in the summer heat, which is perfect for any mom! I also love to add braids on top or hidden ones on the side for a boho chic beach day.

Christine's Note: I followed Sarah's suggestions and you can see the results above. I especially loved the Shine Spray and have been incorporating that into my daily routine more often. I can't tell that it is in my hair and the shine is very natural, though definitely present. I've found that it is pretty hard to overdo it with this product, so if you've had problems with that in the past.


Nightime Chic
After you’ve mastered your natural texture, add a textured half-up section or a messy high bun with accessories to instantly glam up your style for the evening!

Textured Half-Up
Waves and volume combine to create the perfect, fun style.

• Start by teasing your roots with a large-toothed comb and spritz on a heat protecting shine spray on hair, and curl small sections with a ¾” curling iron.

• Pull the sides up and back and secure with a small elastic. Then take the top section and separate into 2 pieces.

• Take the pieces and tie them in a knot and secure them to the base of the half-up ponytail, leaving the volume throughout. Although this look is textured and fun, it doesn’t mean it needs to be dull-looking.


High Bun
Hair pulled into a knot on the top of the crown of the head is very trendy and cool (literally, when it comes to the summer, very cool!) This style can be done in under 5 minutes.

• Flip your head over and spritz Aussie’s NEW Spray Gloss all over. This new conditioning spray will add instant shine to your hair and allow for a polished look to a super easy style

• Secure hair in a high ponytail, twist hair to one direction and pin with large 2” bobby pins as you wrap into a bun. Allow little pieces to stick out, as this style is meant to be carefree and natural.

• Then add an accessory, like Collette Malouf's metallic headbands. They are sophisticated and dressy, and can add style to any outfit. I also love a double wrap headband to wear with a messy updo. Zipper headbands from gla.MAR.ous (shopglamarous.com…which has tons of amazing, cool hair accessories!) are unique, but much more casual.

Aussie

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Success! Heat Free Curls Despite Long Layers

Success!

So, apparently the 3rd 4th try post makes the charm. If you've been following along for the last few weeks, I've been attempting to curl my hair at night. I did not want to use curlers, even little foam ones. I feared ridicule from my hubby (he is a nice guy, but he would laugh since he finds my beauty antics amusing) and strange looks from a half asleep 8 month old at 3 am who may (or may not) recognize mommy.

(If you haven't been following along, first I was excited about sockbun curls, which kept falling out at night. I tried curling my hair with a head band, which worked but some areas were flat (too much hair, not enough band...) So I tried 2 headbands. In a nutshell, all of these attempts were foiled by my crazy thick hair (I have a ton of hair, enough for about 3 people), the length of my hair (it is past my shoulders but somehow too short for the sock bun to work well), or the long layers that I have (the shorter layers love to fall out and refuse to be in a sock bun).

So, via another video, I finally succumbed to using something more like a curler. Well. A rag curler.

Of course, like all things inspirational, this technique was via another Pinterest Pin, that led to a Babble blog post looking at life changing hair videos (OMG, the first 2 are the ones I've already watched... is the entire world on Pinterest??), and the third was this one from YaYa Lifestyle.


So, this isn't really so terribly different than any other tutorial or mention in a magazine telling you to wrap your hair around a ribbon or scrap of t-shirt to curl it. She uses socks, she shows you how she wraps her hair around it and then rolls the whole thing up.

I already have some socks that I was trying to use for my sock buns that weren't so stable. I cut those in half (so I have 4 scraps of material to wrap around my hair), wet my hair and got going!

I only wrapped my hair into 3 sections, though for smaller curls a smaller section would be better. I wanted bigger curls that would be easy to brush out into a mostly straight style. So, 3 sections.

I found that the hair I initially wrapped around the sock (before rolling the whole thing up) was pretty much the part that got curled. I think this is because I wound it around in a corkscrew, rather than the looser rolling. You can see this with the tighter (and higher up) curls that I had in the back. Those were wound tighter and higher up. Because of the way everything is wound and then tied, taking this down was way easier than the other techniques and left the curls intact.

Since this was second day hair I styled it with a dry shampoo. My current fave is by Oliver Ifergan, that stuff adds amazing volume, never makes my hair look dusty/white and the nozzle doesn't clog. I need to write an entire post about it. I sprayed the dry shampoo on my crown, tousled my hair with my fingers and then sprayed some hair spray on the whole thing. Quick and easy, it was about 3 minutes total styling time in the morning.

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New Info Graphics

Recently I've been sharing my plans for my theme days and how I'm covering different topics currently, and what my plans are for future coverage. I've gotten some great feed back via comments and a few emails, and I wanted to share something that you'll be seeing on new posts from this point forward. This is something that I had in the back of my mind as something that I should do, but a few people asked for it and that definitely tipped me over the edge!

So, these graphics will start appearing on the bottom of product reviews. Here's exactly what I mean by them:
The following statement is true.

The following statement is not true.


After the X or Check you'll see one of the graphics below:
This statement is a post in and of itself, I'll explain it a bit more in depth in a post tomorrow. Clicking this graphic will eventually take you back to that post.

Most likely this graphic will only appear on hair care and skin cleanser reviews. There will be a post coming up in the next few weeks about why you should (or shouldn't) care about Sulfates.

Again, skin care and hair care product posts. More info will be forth coming.

I've been threatening a parabens post for years, and I've even had one mostly done for quite a while. I personally don't care about parabens. Some people do. The literature isn't convincing. I'll go over it a little bit in a post and the graphic will link back to it. While I personally don't pay attention to parabens in my products at this time because the evidence currently hasn't convinced me, I fully support everyone that has decided that they want to avoid them. So, watch for parabens yes/no on the bottom of product reviews.

More evidence is coming out about pesticides and the neurologic development of children. In the past I haven't really cared about organic or not (whether in products or in my food), but things changed a bit last year when I became pregnant and had my daughter. That coincided with more evidence being released and I tried to be as organic as possible for my food and if my beauty products are organic then I'm even happier. I'll be putting this at the bottom of product reviews, but note I'll be taking the word of the company regarding organic status. As well, organic is hard regulate and some of it doesn't make much sense to me. (For example, water is not organic. Technically, it is a chemical. So, it doesn't count. Strange much?)

This is something that I've had readers ask about, but I've been reluctant to discuss given how nebulous this is. Do I take a company's word for it? Do I care about the company currently or in the past 50 years? Do I care about just this brand or the entire company? What do I say when a brand claims to be cruelty free, but someone on-line says otherwise? So, there was a lot to think about. I've decided to go the easy route. If that little cruelty-free bunny is on the product I'll say yes to this. Otherwise the answer is no.

I think this will only be on hair care reviews. I'm only now becoming aware of how this does/doesn't matter as I'm about to try out the Curly Girl no-poo program.


Did I forget anything that you want to see? Let me know in the comments!

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