Hi Friends! I’ve been lazy around here. But not lazy in real life!

Click here to check out a guest post with an easy little updo tutorial!

Hooray. I want pie.

It’s Halloween week! Yay!

I love Halloween, so much. I love to dress up and I love to spice up my hair/make up too. Last year, Jake and I were Sid and Nancy, and the costumes came out perfect! (in my humble opinion!)

Along with the right clothes, what really made these costumes work, was the way we did our hair! I rolled my wet hair, bangs included, in tiny perm rods (think white, gray and pink!) and let it dry by itself all day. After I took the rods out, I fluffed and sprayed so it would hold. It looked rad even the next day. I seriously considered perming my hair after wearing it like that for two days.

Nancy’s make up is just a very pale foundation, lots of blush and red lips….then all the black liner, mascara and fake eye lashes I own.

For my Sid, I flat ironed Jake’s hair, teased it so it was nice and spikey, then hair-sprayed it into a pokey punk look.

Topped off with some fake cigs (rolled up note paper!) and we were good to go.

These costumes were a huge success and we were recently featured in UsWeekly for best celeb Halloween costumes!

Fun fact: Jake is wearing my jeans.

Here is a quick little video with tips on how to blow dry your own bangs. I’m still not used to the video thing yet, and most of all, my voice is totally different from what it sounds like in my head. I always thought I had a southern accent! Who knew?

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Q by Stephanie: Currently I cannot afford to get my hair trimmed by my stylist. (My hair is suffering!)  This means that I’m finding heaps of split ends. (seriously suffering!)  is it bad to trim them off, one by one?

A by Reagan: Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie….Of course it’s bad. Question answered.

I have a hunch you’re going to do it anyway. Let’s talk about this a little bit.

You’re supposed to get your hair cut every 8-10 weeks, but I know getting your hair cut is expensive. Personally, I think it should be treated like a hospital procedure (importance-wise, not scary-wise). It’s like this, you’re supposed to get your teeth cleaned and examined every year, and that’s pretty important, right? Let’s say getting your hair cut is that important, except let’s switch every year for every 8-10 weeks (12 weeks if you are one of those gifted healthy hairies). Some of my over-achiever clients come like every 3 or 4 weeks, and they get gold stars after the cut. Gold stars=blow outs.

Anyway, my point is, to keep your hair healthy, you need to trim it regularly. And I guess if you refuse to do that (shame on you), it’s probably not the worst thing to snip away at your own split ends. Otherwise they are going to start breaking off higher and higher, until you’re like “what the what? my hair totally stopped growing!”. Which isn’t true, but it does appear to stop growing due to the consistant breaking off of damaged ends.

Dang, you guys are going to make me very hated with your stylists.

So, while I’m not exactly giving you my blessing on this one, I have been too poor for a haircut in my lifetime. Now I can be too poor for everything and still have my haircut, hooray. If you really can’t get in for a trim, go ahead and do some little snippies on your dry hair to tide you over. But when you sit in your stylists chair, and he/she screems out “My haircut, my beautiful haircut. What has this world come to?” you might want to find a new stylist, because yours is super dramatic.

But for reals. The worst thing that can happen if you cut your own hair, is that your haircut will lose it’s original shape or become uneven.

Don’t forget to blame someone else if your stylist gets mad. This is our secret, Stephanie.

(unless you’re my client. in that case HANDS OFF!)

Q from Newbie- so i am a hairdresser my self. but i am still a baby at it. and i love love love jennifer lopez’s color. i just can’t seem to understand how they get her all over color so light with lifting with color. i know she has foils but her natural is probably a level 3 or 4 and her all over looks like a 6 with blonde foils. i need someones elses imput. or how you think they acheive such a pretty color. thank you so much. it would be awesome to hear a response back from you.

A from Reagan: Dear Newbie, great question. I’m sure you are right about JLo’s natural color. There is no way she is anywhere near a 6 or 7 naturally*. One of my dearest friends from beauty school and I have a huge pet peeve of people trying to be blonde with only highlights when their base color is so dark. You have to lift your base first. If you don’t, my friend will call you calico hair. And she’ll have a right to. Because your roots will look like a coat pattern, or a scarf at best. Lift your base first!

Although I am not Jennifer Lopez’s colorist, I can tell that Jenny gets her base done. A lot of times, if you are just lifting one or two shades, you can still use 10 volume. But I would guess for J.L’s color, she uses a 20 volume developer. And most times when I have gotten my base done, they only leave it on 10ish minutes before rinsing.

After the base is lifted and the color is rinsed, THEN you throw in the foils.

The beauty of a two process color, is that you don’t always have to have highlights every time. Someone as dark as JLo, probably has to get their base done every few weeks, but only needs foils every 8-10 weeks.

This hair lingo might be foreign to everyone besides me and newbie.

Here is a translation for you hairclients on fire.

You: Help! I think I have calico hair. The coat kind!

Me: Not for long. (rubs evil hands together). Let’s start by lifting your hair to at least a level 6, but for you dirty blondes, lets go an 8 or a 9. If you already have highlights, you can just have the color applied to your roots. Since the color is touching your scalp and lifting slightly, it will probably tingle/burn a little bit. After rinsing the color, you might worry that you look like the singer, Vitamin C (you wont, I just think it’s a funny comparison), this is just because you aren’t used to having light roots!  Next, blow dry your roots and add the foils.

When you are all done cooking, you are going to be amazed, because for the first time in your life you will look like a natural blonde with subtle highlights. Most blonde celebrities do this, that is how they basically never have roots (except for when they’re doing Ombre!). Think Jessica Simpson, Reese Witherspoon, Gwennyth Paltrow… all those light blondies.

A base isn’t necessarily needed if you have light hair naturally. When I’m not getting my ombre on, and I’m foiling to the roots, I like to have a base done just to change the tone of my color since naturally I’m so ashy. I want to be flashy, not ashy. That was bad, don’t laugh at that.

A base is especially awesome if you have grey hair that needs to be covered. Something to think about ladies (and I guess maybe a man or two).

*Levels are how we describe how dark/light your hair is. Black is a level 1, Platinum blond is a level 12 (right? why am I not sure?).  My natural color is about a level 8. Is this helpful? Or confusing?

I’m easily all over the place with these hair answers, because I get really excited when I talk about hair. Super sorry. But you’ll have to like me the way I am, because I just can’t help the excitement. hooray.

I know I’m late posting Spring ’11 runway shows. But here are a few shots from various shows. Lot’s of up hair!

3.1 Philip Lim

Zac Posen

Chloe

Alexander Wang, not a fan of the hair, but love the whole outfit. (ps i really want that shimmer skin)

My favorite of all, Badgley Mischka (clothes=love. hair=love)

And one from Dolce & Gabbana

all images from Style.com

ps just in case it’s not obvious, i didn’t work on any of these shows.

Q by Emily: Can I dye my hair while pregnant? How dangerous is it? I’ve heard varying opinions and am interested to hear yours.

A by Reagan: Emily, I think you’re right to question this. There are many opinions out there and it’s hard to know where to side. In fact, I had a client who I thought was going to get into a screaming match with a pregnant woman who was touching up her highlights about a year ago. That was a the closest I ever came to having a heart attack at work. (and the closest I ever came to divorcing a client)

Here is my answer. I think it’s safe to color your hair while you’re pregnant. The truth is, haircolor used to be made with harmful ingredients, like lead. Lead, can you believe it? No wonder there is still so much confusion. I really don’t blame people for being afraid, or even for choosing not to color their pregnant strands. But really, you’ll be fine.

If you’re still too scared, but don’t want to stop coloring, here are a few tips to help you out.

~Avoid on the scalp processes. Anything with foils wont be touching the scalp, and so if you are worried about something seeping into your blood stream or pores, this is the way to go.
~Avoid coloring in the first trimester. Most pregnant women are sensitive to smells. Having color done might bother your snout. Get plenty of fresh air.

I know of some colorists who will not take pregnant clients, which I think is likely for legal precautions, so keep that in mind if you are turned away.  And as always, talk to your Dr. if you are having doubts. What is your opinion?

*This episode of “hair answers” is strictly HDOF’s opinion. Although I’ve done some research myself, and spoken with several colorists about the issue, I am not a scientist or a doctor and should not be used as a main source for health/pregnancy advice. Please don’t sue me is what I’m getting at.

A few months ago I did hair and make up for a bunch of Halloween videos with AOL’s Holidash website. I have been working with this team for about a year and I’ve loved it. The whole group is so clever and I love to see how they create everything. The halloween videos and working with the kids made it a fun change!

Here is a cute little Owl. Click image to watch video.

Here is a Highway. Click Image to watch video.

Here is a Gumball Machine. Click image to watch video.

That might be a wee bit dramatic, but seriously I’m sick. It’s not wonder that the word “sick” is so close to the word “suck”.

So that explains much of the silence around HDOF. Let’s have a party soon!

Love,
Reagan