How To Curl Hair with a Flat Iron

Posted on January 1, 2009 · Filed Under tools, tutorials · 13 Comments

Happy New Year, everyone!

For the second week in a row, Hair Thursday has fallen on a holiday. (YAY FOR HOLIDAYS!) However, I promise to be back on schedule starting next week.

In the meantime, why don’t you resolve to try this new hairstyle in 2009? That is, if you can deal with watching me babble for 6 minutes. (Please try not to fixate on the gross oven burn on my arm - I made this video one week after a Thanksgiving Cooking Accident.)

If you have any questions about the video and/or hairstyle, please leave them in the comments and I’ll try my best to answer to the best of my knowledge.

How To Curl Hair with a Flat Iron from Hair Thursday on Vimeo.

New Year’s Eve!

Posted on December 30, 2008 · Filed Under celebrities, stylists, tutorials · 5 Comments

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and I have a sneaking suspicion many of you will be lighting up the town - dressed to the hilt with PERFECT hair and makeup, of course.

(My plans, however, will involve putting my toddler to bed and drinking half a bottle of Nyquil. We are a little sickly over here…)

However, I want to live vicariously through you! What are your plans? Where are you going? Most importantly, how are you wearing your hair?

For those of you who are hitting the town, I thought you might be interested in a video from Nikon’s newest how-to webisode series called Look Good in Pictures with Carson Kressley. Remember Carson from Queer Eye For The Straight Guy? I saw him once at a boutique hotel in Dallas and had to refrain from pinching his perfectly-dressed gay butt.

In this episode, Carson and special guest Steven Lake are showing viewers the best ways to do their hair and make-up for a big event that will involve a lot of photography. Steven is a celebrity stylist, doing hair and make-up for red carpet events, award shows and music videos. Um, the man knows what he’s talking about.

I had the chance to ask Steven some holiday-inspired hair questions, and here are his words of wisdom:

Besides wearing hair tight against the head, what are some other hair no-nos for photos?
A couple no-no’s for hair in pictures are using too much product, hat head and big hair! If you got a big mane try pushing one side back and leaving the other side in front leaving more room for you in the photo.

What are some of your favorite styling products for hair?
A couple of my favorite products are CHI Silk Infusion for moisture, shine and manageability. Also, Schwarzkopf Citre Shine/Shine Miracle.

Any suggestions for keeping hair protected from the winter elements (wind, snow, etc)?

To protect hair from winter keep it nourished and moisturized! Try a detangling spray or a light conditioning spray. You might even want to keep a Bounce sheet in your pocket for those static days!

What can a person with mid-length or short hair (e.g. chin-length bob) do to create a special look for holiday parties/photo ops?

For a special holiday look try going with you opposite texture! If you normally wear your hair straight go wavy or curly! If you are curly go wavy or even straight. You’ll make people look twice!

Thanks, Steven! For more ideas and tips, check out this video.

Hair Color Disasters

Posted on December 18, 2008 · Filed Under products · 11 Comments

Emily is 32 and lives in Boston with her funny boyfriend. She is a beauty school dropout who cannot stop cutting her own hair. She can be found obsessing about cheese and her cat at Pretty Crabby or talking about products endlessly at Tallulah Blue. She has not seen her real hair color since 1990.

Last week I was trying to decide what color I should dye my hair.

I have been brown for awhile (since I did what my friend Angela calls the Autumnal Dying of the Hair back in the fall) and it is okay but I have trouble keeping it the color I want for any length of time. I have tried using fillers and deep conditioning (like I suggested some other folks should try in my last post) but nothing seems to STICK for me for very long. The blond I have been doing for years and years always peeks through. My friend Suzanne calls this “trying to hold back the sunshine!”

All week I was thinking brown or blond, brown or blond? And I finally decided, okay I will go for something somewhere in the middle. This was my first mistake. I should know by now that no MIDDLE colors ever come out right. I think you have to go for something dark or something light. Don’t try to be wishy washy and be “somewhere in the middle”. It never works out.

I ended up choosing a color called something like “dark natural blond”. There is my second mistake. How can it be DARK and NATURAL BLOND?! I have never had blond hair which was either dark OR particularly natural. So my other tip for you is stay away from color names which don’t make any damn sense.

Dark Natural Blond on my head ended up looking something like Icky Weird Brown. It’s kind of reddish, kind of goth, way too dark. Not blond. Not natural. Ugh. One thing I did when I took the towel off my head (after I screamed that is) was to immediately wash my hair twice with dish soap. This is as unpleasant as it sounds but when your hair color comes out too dark it does help get rid of some of the extra dye right away. I think it saved me from looking too much like Evan Rachel Woods. At least I hope so.

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