I work at the salon Tuesday through Friday, but I did some extracurricular hair yesterday just for fun! Jen, my good friend who is now my neighbor, had a birthday yesterday, so I told her to come upstairs to the 5th floor for some birthday hair presents. She said she was about to have a day of celebrating with her boyfriend, so I wanted to do something that would be out of her way and easy for daytime, but also pretty for nighttime.

We did a little braid swooping from the back to the side. I didn’t invent this guy, I’ve seen it around and done it on myself a few times. It looked great on Jen. She has amazing hair!

After Jen, I went to Long Island to do a wedding hair trial for my best friend, Sarah. I obviously can’t show pictures of that (yet), but she looked stunning. We then went to a gown fitting for both of us (I’m the maid of honor!). It was so great to be able to see the gown with the hair, in fact, it’s really pretty important to know what the gown looks like, so that the hair can be balanced. If you are getting married and doing a hair trial, try to bring your stylist a photo of your gown or at least of one similar!

Anyway, the wedding is July 9th! I can’t wait. Now I just need to figure out how I’ll do my own hair! For sure up in that July heat!

(this is what happens when I take my own pictures. horrible!)

Here is the long awaited halo braid tutorial. It is the easiest thing ever, just not on yourself! I feel like I’m upside down with tangled arms and confused fingers when I do it on myself. But with two mirrors and tired arms I can get it done pretty nicely! Maybe practice on your roommates, friends, wives and children before you start on yourself! Have fun and as always, send me pictures!

We’re taking a break from the volume series for a pretty little tutorial.

Can you believe it? Back to back Tuts (pronounced “toots”.)! Thanks again to my good friend Jen for filming these with us. I think she is my braid muse. I am coming up with some great ideas for next time, if she’ll let me of course. Hooray!

Here is the inspiration for the toot! haha, fine..the tutorial (boring voice).

And if you haven’t seen “Harold and Maude”, it really is one of my favorite movies. I’ve seen it a dozen times. You should watch it! I want to be Maude when I’m in my 80s. But I’ll still be with Jake of course.

Thanks so much to my friend and model Jen for coming over and doing this fun little video with us! I hope to use her more, because she has perfect hair! Thanks for all of your tutorial suggestions, and please keep them coming!

as always, email me your tutorial suggestions to hello@hdofblog.com!

Have a great weekend, my little hairies!

Q by Mikaela: I have long (as in mid/lower back length), fine, VERY straight strawberry blonde hair. I love that it always looks smooth, sleek, and shiny, but I feel like I can’t do much with it. It doesn’t really stay curled or braided, and I feel like I’ve exhausted the option of headbands and such. Can you give me any advice about hair styles I can try, or maybe some products I could use that would help? I suppose I’m just getting tired of wearing my hair pretty much the same way all the time.

A by Reagan: My first thought after reading this question is that I’m wondering why you can’t braid your hair. The only thing I can think of is that maybe it is too slick and slicks it’s way right on out of that braid. The best advice I can give you, is to use product like crazy. Got it? Like crazy, Mikaela! I’m talkin’ root lifters, mousses, waxes and texturizing sprays. Your hair is too soft and silky (who would have thought that is a bad thing? It’s not, but we need change sometimes!) to hold styles, so you need it to be dirty and grippy.

I would start out with a root lifter and/or a mousse. This should be done on towel dried hair. Then spray a texturizing (like the Garnier wonder waves I talked about a few posts back) all over. If you are doing this on dirty hair, nix the mousse and just use a texturizing spray and root lifter then mush around with your fingers (make sure you are getting it in evenly and not over dosing on product. Once your hair is dry, rub a small amount of wax together in your hands and run through your hair. By now, your hair should have a good amount of grip. Braid away, my love!

And if a regular braid still isn’t holding, try what I call a “mermaid braid”. See below. I often do this braid in many variations. I’ll do identical to the picture, or I’ll do a center part and braid both sides. There is absolutely no reason your hair shouldn’t hold this. Especially if it’s secured at the bottom with some heavy duty criss-crossed bobby pins.

Next thing, when using a curling iron, use a much smaller barrel than what you’re going for. Maybe that is a 3/4 inch just to get loose waves! Try wrapping the hair around the iron instead of clamping it. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, and it creates a really beautiful curl/wave. Do this after you’ve used all the above products (minus the wax). Go get ‘em Mikaela!