Ellen Von Unwerth is an incredible photographer. She takes mostly takes dreamlike photos of pretty women in their underwear. The colors, styling, make up and hair are all perfection. I could look through her portfolio for hours because I’m so inspired by the hair! It’s teasey and curly and sexy and everything else-y I love!

I am in love with this woman’s work. Here are some of my favorite photos. (in every size imaginable!)

Go here to see some more of her amazing work.

I’m doing a series of 3 tutorials over at Latest-Hairstyles. To me, they are three different looks that work for any occasion and they are all easy! This week’s tutorial is how to create my Party Bun!

Click here to see the tutorial!

Photo by Jacob Breinholt

I’ve been excited for this Louis Vuitton ad to come out for months! The blonde model in the ad spent almost a whole day at my salon getting the most perfect platinum hair for this campaign with one of the owners, Victoria. My bosses are both color masters, and I love watching the process of their work. If you could have seen the color in person, your jaw would drop at how flawless it is. Not a single spot. It is so evenly white, it looks like it’s her natural color. So beautiful!

Have you ever had platinum color? I am too scared of the possible damage and upkeep, but I’ve always been a little tempted to try it. It’s so striking!

I was recently introduced (well, my ears were) to Lana Del Rey by my friend Amanda Blair (you guys know her!)

Before I knew she had a pretty face and beautiful hair, I met her voice. She can sing so beautifully that all you can do is listen. I’ve been listening to her for about a month now, and have started to become interested in who this girl actually is. So, yes, she has amazing hair and a gorgeous face (and dude, pouty mouth!)…also, she calls herself a “gangsta Nancy Sinatra” which is important to me because These Boots Were Made For Walkin’ was the first song I ever memorized….But her flowery head pieces are the thing about her. They make me scream out loud and I want one in every color. And I want them to be made out of real flowers like hers.

See below.

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I’m always a little sad to find out that some musicians come from a lot of money. It seems like an unfair advantage in the art world. To me, musicians (or any artist) are supposed to struggle in the beginning, it makes their music more authentic. Lana came from millionaire parents who found the right people to create an image for her (her real name is elizabeth grant) including a good plastic surgeon, but at least the girl really can sing. It’s just a little weird to find out that someone who seems so mysterious and interesting is kind of a fake. Despite all the controversy over her, her music is worth checking out. Give Video Games and Blue Jeans a listen!

Also, it’s pretty safe to say that I’m basically in love with floral head pieces. I think I like the top one the best.

I did 12 heads of hair the day of Maggie’s wedding. In the weeks approaching the wedding, Maggie asked me a few times if I wanted her to find someone to help me with the hair. I knew I didn’t need one (plus, what if our work clashed?), because we had decided the look for the maids, would be braids.

Maggie gave me a few rules:
No Peasants or Pinheads (meaning, they need volume and don’t make them look like milkmaids!)
All updos, no tails.

Braids were a genius idea, because they are quick and you can do them on any hair type….and I worked with every hair type that day. Fine, processed, thick, silky smooth, curly, virgin hair…etc. Also, because I was doing 12 people, I could only allow about 30 minutes per girl. I started at 6:30 and finished around 2:30. The major time saver, was that I didn’t have to blow dry anyone. I brought lots of products, my kit and my cutting tools anyway, and just did touch ups when needed. (and two bang trims!)

Here are just a few pictures of some of the girls. (who are all my friends. it was so fun!)

And last but not least, an image of the maid of honor fishing the bouquet out of the chandelier. Have you ever seen the bouquet toss end up in the chandelier? It was glorious.

Braids were a beautiful way to have a theme, but avoid being too uniform. You can get so creative with braids. Once you get them down, they can take you anywhere. Just like Reading Rainbow!

Click here to see more about braids!

Thank you all for being so patient with this tutorial. So many people have asked about it, and I feel bad that it took so long!

I wanted to mention, that this style was 100% thought up by me. I’ve never seen this style before, nor anything like it. But the day after we filmed this video, another blogger (non hairstylist) posted a picture tutorial that is semi-similar to this one. I just wanted to clear that up since I had previously told you that I invented this for Jen on Tony night. Which is still true.

As always, send pictures!

On Saturday Jake had to run 20 miles for his marathon training. Sometimes I run marathons too, but right now I’m not feeling it at all. I let Jake have fun on his 3 hour run while Jen and I went to the Food Truck Festival in Southstreet Seaport. I love having a friend who eats all the same things I do, because that means that since we are sharing, we can try out double the food trucks, but split the calories/cost in half. Smarties we are. I’m sure no one on the face of the Earth has ever thought of sharing food before.

So, here we are with my first ever Lobster Roll. It was wonderful. Gourmet food trucks are kind of a trend right now in NYC (everywhere?) and I love it! This food truck ships their lobster fresh from Maine. Not a bad first LobRoll.

There were dozens and dozens of trucks, but it was hard to get a good shot. Here are a few!

I love to tie a scarf in a bow on my head during the summer. I do it now and then when the dirtiness of my hair isn’t fooling anyone.

So, while it might seem like my weekend achievement was downing a LobRoll, it was actually creating a beautiful 5 strand french braid on Jen. I plan on doing a tutorial for this, but keep in mind this is even harder to do than the Halo Braid….well, the french part. Once you are no longer frenching 5 strands, it’s quite doable. But the french part has me swearing and hushing anyone in the room who might be distracting my tangled fingers.

The 5 strander is really quite lovely though. I was pretty excited to run over to the blog to show all my hairies!

I asked Jake to take my picture when I got home from work tonight, because I felt like I had a good hair day today. It’s not that it was anything special, or that I did anything special with it..which is how it ended up feeling so nice. I felt like it looked good just being it’s own-natural but slightly enhanced with product-self, which doesn’t happen every day, am I right?

Before I went short last spring, I had thought about going short for a long time. At least over a year. The thing I worried about most was the awkward in between length I had heard such terrible things about. I knew I would want to grow out my long hair again soon after cutting it, so I felt really conflicted for a while.

One day I decided I was ready to cut my hair short. So what I did before the big chop, was have a little pow-wow with myself and my hair. This pow-wow was to decide the mood for the next year or two. I vowed with my hair and myself that day, that I was only going to cut it if I was going to like it. Not just like the short cut in the beginning, but like it at each length as it grew out. Liking it all along the way. Not complaining that it’s not long..not regretting the cut…and not letting the unknown in-between stage get me down.

I’m not sure if that pow-wow has worked, or if I just really have loved my hair over the last year. I loved it short, I loved it shoulder length and I’m sure I’d love it during the awkward in between stage if I knew when that was. I feel like it’s supposed to be now, but it can’t be, because I love it now too.

So, before you all think that I’m just bragging about how awesome and glorious my hair is, let me tell you this. The reason I like it, is because I do things to it. I cut it when it’s losing shape or the ends are getting dry, I color it when I’m bored of what’s going on, I play with it by braiding and bunning and fat twisting it, and I appreciate the fact that I have hair on my head at all.

So many times I think we get lazy with our hair. I meet people who say “I never do my hair because it is ____”, then I look up at the messy bun on top of their head and see healthy/lush hair that could literally do anything I tell it to, and I know that they’ve never even tried. There is always something you can do to make your hair look good. Which will always make you feel a little better and prettier in the end.

This is kind of a weird post, but I think what I’m trying to get across to you all, is that if you want to love your hair, you can. By deciding to like it and spending time (even a little!) on it despite what you find wrong with it..awkward lengths or frizziness)…you can eliminate one less thing in your life to stress about, and add one more thing to be happy about.

Let’s stop making excuses and just have awesome hair, ok? Yay!

I love you guys and your hair muy mucho.

(ps, this post was inspired by my friend Jana Mobley. who i found out is the first person I’ve ever known who likes the awkward in between length as much as I do!)

I feel like I’ve been talking about Sarah’s wedding for an eternity! Probably because it was definitely the highlight of my summer, and possibly even my year. It was an honor to be a part of Sarah and Matt’s day, and everything turned out perfect.

I wanted to show you all a few pictures of the day, because as in all weddings, hair was of major importance! Because I was Maid of Honor, I felt that I had to look awesome. The bride suggested that because our dresses were one shoulder, it would look nice to have our hair to the side in some way. This gave me a million options…you know how I love those low messy side buns! I decided to stick to the semi-Grecian theme of our gowns, and do some sort of goddess-y coil curls into a chignon. It was easy and stayed through the outside heat during the ceremony and the dancing. We all know I’m an animal on the dance floor, so that says a lot.

Just call me Haira. Get it? Like the Greek goddess Hera?

One of the best parts of the day, was spending the morning with Sarah getting ready. I did her hair Victoria’s secret style and we laughed and chatted with her mom. I think half the fun of a wedding is taking so much time to get all dressed up. I don’t think anyone can say that Sarah didn’t look perfect. There was never a more beautiful bride. Get me some tissues. (I just realized I need someone around that I can say things like “get me some tissues” to.)

Me, Sarah and Gigi. We all assisted together back in the day. If you’ve ever assisted at a big upscale salon you know what we went through together! Definitely a bond we share!

In case you were wondering, I cried like a little child. Being the Maid (Matron) of honor was one of the most special times of my life. Knowing someone like Sarah considers me her best friend means I have pretty much nothing in the world to complain about!

I love this girl and this photo and her dress and her hair. There is nothing wrong with wearing a see-through nightie in some sort of wheat field, guys. As long as you have a pretty pony tail! Let’s try it.

This is just a simple side pony, there is little or no teasing at the crown. The biggest thing that makes it so pretty is her layers that probably hit a little around her shoulders. And I can bet she has some kind of texturizing spray in there.

If that’s not working for you, did you know you can TEASE the pony part? I did it here.

I wish I remembered where I got this pic from. Sorry to not credit it!