Jake likes my hair the most when it’s long, blonde and bang-less. He seems to prefer it straight or with loose waves, rather than my natural wavy/curly business. Kind of Victoria’s Secret modelesque, which is a pretty common look for a guy to prefer I’m guessing.

I’m posting about this today, because it’s our 5 year wedding anniversary! We got married at a little chapel in Las Vegas where I wore my hair like a Victoria’s Secret bride might. It’s these special occasions that I want to look extra pretty for him, so I’m trying to decide how to wear my hair for our date tonight!  Down and wavy or down and straighty?

Does your love have a favorite hairstyle?

I have a few clients who literally have half curly/half straight hair. Meaning, the hair that grows from their crown is straight, and the hair that grows underneath is curly (or the other way around)…two completely different textures. It creates a problem with cutting and daily styling. After getting an email from a girl with this type of hair, I thought it would be a good idea to post about it here! She and the girls I know can’t be the only bi-texturals!

This can be caused by damage, or nothing at all! I know some people who after doing the Keratin treatment a few times experienced entire straight sections, I know people whose hair was damaged from bleach and lost wave, but I also know people with perfectly healthy/virgin hair that just likes to do its own crazy wonky thing! Silly hair!

First thing, make sure you find the right hair cut. This is very important. The first time I saw a girl with straight underneath and curly on top, I thought she had been given the most uneven haircut ever. It turned out it wasn’t uneven, it was just cut wet. Once the hair dried into it’s natural state, the curly hair shrunk up, leaving a huge gap inbetween the length and the layers. She had been unintentionally *shelfed! I undercut the length on this particular girl to make sure she is never shelfed again. So, make sure you explain very well to your stylist how your hair behaves naturally. Have a real discussion about how the hair cut may fix it (or at least enhance it). For example, using a razor to cut internal layers on the straight portion can encourage wave!

For styling, unfortunately you can’t just go natural (unless you like the bi-textural look). My suggestion is to use a curling iron to blend the straight parts with the curly parts. You don’t have to do every section, just the most troubled! Curl a few pieces from the curly section as well to blend those with the straighties. So it doesn’t look like the photo of me below!

*Shelfed [shelft]

1. A situation where a hairstylist has intentionally or unintentionally created a severely chunky layer not coordinating with the client’s length, simulating a shelf.

2. A person(s) who became victim to a stylist whose refusal to blend heavy layers ends up in an incredibly shelfy and unmanageable hairstyle.

“Have you seen Lisa’s new haircut? She’s been shelfed!”

I have recently realized that a lot of people share my same opinion about NYE…it’s not that cool. In fact, I’m not really going to do anything if it requires me leaving my apartment building or neighborhood. It’s cold, it’s packed with tourists and it’s hard to get a cab. So when Jen told me a few weeks ago that she wanted to throw a party, I was very excited because she is my neighbor just two floors down. Talk about “Friends” right?

After listing the reasons I hate NYE above, now I’ll list the reasons I love it:
Fancy hair, Fancy make up (I always wear fake eyelashes), Fancy clothes.

So after work, I came home to get fancy. Jen and AmandaBlair came up and I asked them if I could do their hair. I was feeling a half up theme for the night. I did a cute little “hair bow” flare on myself, which felt quite festive, then I did ABs and halfway through her hair I heard a Gwen Stefani song, so at the last second I did a little Gwen Stefani swirl in the back. It was mostly 1960s with just the slightest twinge of a 40s flare. For Jen I did a quickie half up fat twist but with a braid flare instead of a swirl flare. I love a little hair flare, hooray!

Since we are just a few steps away from each other, Jake and I set up a photobooth in our apartment for Joe and Jen’s party guests to come up and partake in. It was pretty fun. We put up tinsel and had props to play with. We had a great time getting our sills out! I even had fun cleaning up all the tinsel the next day.

One perk to being at home is that I was able to do an outfit/hairfit change halfway through the party. Do you every have the urge to do an outfit or hairfit change? I went from my fancy golden girl grandma vintage top, to my flapper princess dress.

How was your NYE?

Also, Ta Da!
Thank goodness my heel didn’t destroy my silk dress!

For our “Pins” segment, I’ll be covering a broader area than just pins. I’m including all the things I use to secure different styles. Before you get started, you want a pin case. This one below is great. I didn’t use my own picture because my pin case isn’t organized very well right now.
You can get this one here.

I like to bring a big clip to hold the hair while I’m blow drying/curling. This clip holds the thickest of the sections and never falls.

I make sure to always have lots of two prong clips for setting. Also, if you are doing a shoot or a show (or even a wedding) the make up artist will want to front of the hair pinned away so it doesn’t get in the way during the make up application. A lot of times I’ve used a piece of tissue between the hair and the clip to prevent a mark, but there are also special clips just for that purpose if you don’t want to deal with the tissue.

Bungees are the best way to get a smooth pony. They hold the hair tight tight tight! See my bungee tutorial here!

I go through these little bands like crazy. I use them mostly for securing braids and ponies. Make sure you have clear (pictured, but hard to see) for your blonde clients.

Japanese bobbies. I’ve written about these before. Normal bobbies don’t come near these guys. They are expensive, but one box comes with hundreds, and you non hairstylists will likely have a life supply by getting one. You hairstylists will likely have a few months supply. Let’s be real. We go through a lot of bobbies!

Last up is hair pins. I also like Japanese because they are easy to form without being too flexible. They are very comfortable to wear. The longer I do hair, the more I find myself using hairpins instead of bobbies. Go here for a quick hairpin tutorial!

Tomorrow I’ll choose a winner! Also, We have a new tutorial all edited and ready to go. I’ll probably post it Monday, but I just had to tell you!

All photos by Jacob Breinholt for Hairdresser On Fire. Except the top one.

Michelle Williams is a great example of my favorite kind of hair. She always has a great cut, and when it’s long, she keeps it healthy and beautiful with simple styles.

I love this photo of her soft blow dry. Just the right amount of volume, wave and texture. To get this look, you would blow dry with lots of volume at the roots. Once your hair is dry, take large sections and curl mid-shaft (like the messy waves tutorial) with a 1 inch curling iron. You are going for more of a bend than a curl, so you just need to turn the iron a little, maybe once or twice at the most.

Finish up with some Ocean Mist and shake it all about.

Congratulations, you are now my newest girl crush!

Does anyone know where this photo comes from? I’m sure it’s a legit shoot and I’d love to credit the magazine and photographer if anyone knows that source

I was recently interview along with a few other stylists for Tyra Banks’ website, Type F! I was asked a few questions about root lift for her beauty section.

Here is a link to the full article.

I have a strong belief that any hair can hold curl. A lot of clients swear that theirs is the hair that will never hold curl, and it is my true joy to prove them wrong.

All you need is products. Possibly handfuls upon handfuls, but that is all you need.

My very favorite foundation is mousse. I talk about mousse all the time, but I don’t know that I ever get much more specific than saying that it is great for volume. The truth is, mousse is the world’s greatest foundation product. Note: sometimes my clients are shocked to see that I might use two or three handfuls of mousse in their hair. That is when I don’t have time for nonsense (or misbehaving hair).

Here is what you’re going to do. Shower (or just shampoo/condition your hair). Towel dry. Put in several handfuls of mousse. Every inch of your hair will be moussed, root to tip. The key is to take the silky/softness out. Then you are going to comb through. Then you’re going to blow dry. Then you are going to curl your hair and possibly set it in pins (while it cools). And it is going to hold.

All day. Can you imagine?

It might not feel like real hair, but it will look beautiful and it will hold. Some people are lucky enough to have hair that does what you want it to with little effort and little to no product. The rest of us have to work a little harder!

Here are my favorite mousses.

Redken Full Frame

Sachajuan

Garnier

Go on now. Go get some curly hair!

Q by Heather: I’d like to get your take on “cowlicks”.  I have hair that looks very similar to yours, maybe a little thinner, and I have HUGE issues with the whorl at my crown.  It’s fine when I wear it curly, but when I go straight it seems that no matter how I blowdry or tease, after a very short time you can see my hair start to split in the back….it drives me nuts!  I end up having to wash my hair way more often than I’d like because it’s the only way I can get it under control after sleeping on it.  Any suggestions?

A by Reagan: Heather, you’re on the right track! There are a few tricks to dealing with cowlicks that I have found very helpful. The first trick is to leave the hair in that area a little longer. You don’t want to be cutting short layers or fringes where there are cowlicks. The extra length with help weigh down the hair, making it more manageable. My next tip is to comb and blow dry that area first, while the hair is still quite wet. Make sure you are blow drying against the grain of the hair, this will help to manipulate that little tuft to lay down a little more. My final tip, is instead of shampooing your whole head in the morning just spray down that area and start over. My favorite blow dryer is the Twin Turbo, give that a shot. They range from $90-$150 on Amazon. And for the millionth time, use a nozzle!!

Cowlicks are such needy little things, right? They love all the attention like that one girl from highschool! haha. Good luck!

On Monday Jake, our friend Tadd and I filmed this video. Tadd is a scientist and has this crazy camera that films 1,000 frames per second (or something. that’s what i overheard them saying), so you can see every little detail of the shot. Usually Tadd films bullets being shot under water so that he can study the fluid dynamics (also what i overheard) and sciency things of that sort, but we decided to focus on hair for the night!

Here is what we came up with!

Slow Hair from Jacob Breinholt on Vimeo.