hair

I'm not done feeling weird with all this blathering on about all my grooming...but I do get lots of questions/comments/emails about my hair. Okay then here we go...

I have very thick, naturally wavy hair. It isn't straight. It isn't curly. Just wavy. Which means that I have to do something with it or the frizz just overtakes me and it's bad. I am, unfortunately, not a "wash and go" kind of girl. In fact, when I tell Carl that "I just need to wash my hair and dry it real quick before we go anywhere" he rolls his eyes with impatience knowing that I'll be at least another 45 minutes. "At least" (he just repeated when I read this out loud to him).

My hair is cut in long layers so that I can easily go from curly to straight. I also have to have it thinned. A lot. By the time I'm done with a haircut there is usually a huge pile of hair on the floor.  I've cut bangs a couple of times...but I'm such a "tucker" (behind my ear) that they tend to drive me nuts. Naturally I'm a dark blonde. Right now I have quite a bit of red in it. I'm really loving the red. I'm keeping it for a while.

I love experimenting with different shampoos. Right now I'm using Redken Color Extend. It's nice but I'm not married to it.

Whether I plan to straighten it or encourage curls,  I always use some kind of serum on my towel dried damp hair. This is working, I've also really liked Fekkai. I know it looks expensive, but a little goes a long way. It lasts forever.

Here's where I make a decision. Curly? or Straight?

For curly I slather it with at least a quarter sized dollop of gel. It seems like the cheaper ones work better. I'm using Pantene now.

After getting the gel evenly on my hair, I twist it into thick sections around my finger then scrunch.  I let it mostly air dry.

The trick to drying it the rest of the way comes with a diffuser.

You have to have one of these bad boys. I don't even attempt curly hair without it. Gotta have it. I bend over and dry my hair upside down with it.

To touch up any frizzy spots I use a wand. There is a slight learning curve with these, but once you get it, it's easy. I think that a wand makes curls look so much more natural than an iron. 

When I want my hair straight, I also let it mostly dry. Then I flip over and blow dry upside down again and use a flat metal brush to pull it straight. Then I stand back up and use a round metal brush to add volume in the crown and flip the ends. Occasionally I'll use a flat iron, but the brushes usually do the trick. I use a bit more serum to smooth it out and then spray it a bit with hairspray. Again, nothing expensive. 

Once styled I can usually go 2-3 days without washing it again. It's coarse enough to really resist getting too greasy. I guess that's one thing I have going for me.

That's all.  I love this blog for great hairstyle ideas.

Okay answering more questions soon (hopefully) about how I've lost 20lbs since Jan 1. Warning: there are no gimmicks-- maybe even a little blood, sweat, and tears.