To celebrate 2,500 likes on facebook, I’m giving away my favorite curling iron! It’s a one inch Hot Tools Marcel Iron.
It’s a real good iron y’all.
Leave a comment to win and maybe you’ll win! I’ll choose a winner and notify them by email on Friday.
(PS giveaway to celebrate 3,000 likes on Friday!)
After talking about bi-texturals, I thought I would talk a little about shape shifting hair!
I’ve heard that a woman’s hair changes every 7 years. It can become thicker, thinner, more brittle, curlier, less curly, etc. For me, that is definitely true. When I was a little girl, I had really loose wavy hair, then in middle school it was on the straighter side with tiny ringlets around my face (in the Southern humidity). Since high school, my hair has traded off being wavy-curly-wavy-straighty and thicker or thinner depending on the year.
Our texture can change for many reasons, but most of all it can be blamed plain and simply on hormones. But if you have had a baby, a surgery, an illness, a weight gain/loss, change of diet or any major change in atmosphere, you can expect that your hair might have a slight fit over it.
Has your hair changed over the years?
PS this picture is an example of how I would like my texture to shift next. I set it in tiny rollers for this permed look but don’t have the patients to do this every day!
And here is a funny/ugly photo of Jake forcing me to smile.
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
My bangs have grown out for the most part and are at the point where they are hanging in my face all the time. I can’t decide if I want them short again, or grown out! I saw a girl on the subway New Year’s eve with curly bangs, and she just looked so feminine and pretty. I really love the look, it’s a bit late 70s.
What do you think?
I’m basically obsessed with these messy, but tight curls. It’s polished enough for a holiday party if you ask me! Especially with a punch of eye or lip color. Maybe tucked behind one ear and pinned with a little ribbon clip or something like that…nice right?
This is a pretty easy look to achieve. You want to start with some mousse after towel drying, then blow dry all messy-like with your head upside down for volume. Part your hair (not a clean party though, all rough and ragged). Wrap small sections of hair around a 3/4 or 1 inch curling iron, shake it out a little and call it good! I’m excited to have long hair again!
(ps I love that blog)
Q by Ashley: You mentioned that perms are most always a no-no. What about body waves? I have small hair and something that will make it look bigger (I totes want GINORMOUS hair) is really tempting to do. So I guess my question is do body waves even look good? Will not doing as much heat styling kind of cancel out the damage from a body wave?
A by Reagan: Ashley, I know you want to look like the picture above, so march right on over to your local beauty parlor this very second! Hehehe. (When someone calls it a beauty parlor, the only thing that I can picture is a bunch of women with tight roller sets and perms. And FUMES from perms!)
In all seriousness, a lot of people have asked this question. Ashley asked it most recently, so I just copy/pasted her Q for the post. I’m afraid to say ladies, loose, wavy perms do not really exist. They don’t. If you insist on getting a perm (don’ say I didn’t warn you), the closest thing you could get to wave, is bigger rods with very small sections, or small rods with bigger sections of hair. The chances of it coming out the way you want it are very slim, and the chances of it coming out damaged are very high. Especially if you have color treated, or long hair.
Honestly, I rarely do perms. But the fundamental rules for perms haven’t really changed….the bigger the rod, the less likely the curl will take. But you are still putting a very powerful chemical on your hair, so whether or not the curl takes, that damage will be there. Another honest opinion, I like perms. I like perm-perms. Perms that look like this…
I can tell Halle’s style is done with a curling iron, but it is similar to how a normal perm with normal white or purple rods would look like. And I like it. I almost did it with my own hair, but seeing as how my hair is brittle, and I knew I’d grow it out again, I opted to keep my natural instead.
Back to your Q…a body wave will give you some damage (that you might actually need), and make your hair a little bigger. But it wont make it ginormous, and it wont make it wavy. I think you should get a small curling iron, wrap big sections around it, and shake it out furiously. That will give you ginormous hair.
Ashley (and others), I think you shouldn’t do it. But if your heart is saying perm it, follow your heart. (don’t come chase me down when you look like the first picture!)
Q by Michelle: I have a 9 year old daughter with very curly hair that is just above her shoulder. When she is active within 5 minutes her head/hair begins to smell like little boys dirty socks. The smell is horrible and only goes away if she shampoos. She is starting PE this year in school and she really does not want to smell in school. Any tips on any products that might help. Thanks
A by Reagan: Ok michelle, I’m wondering if she shampoos her own hair, or if you help her. Because the first (and most simple) reason I thought of for this, is that maybe her hair isn’t being properly shampooed. It’s likely since her hair is very curly, she probably has a lot of volume and it’s easy to feel like your getting a really good, squeaky clean lather when in reality the shampoo might not even be getting to her scalp! The build-up and dirt that isn’t getting cleaned will be the cause of odor. Again, this is the most simple cause I can think of, but I wont be surprised at all if it is the culprit. Have your daughter (or help her) shampoo her hair like this:
1~make sure hair is totally wet before putting in shampoo
2~put shampoo in your hands and rub together
3~scrub, scrub, scrub scalp and hair. Really make sure you are getting underneath her hair and touching the scalp. Did you know you aren’t even supposed to get much of a lather with the first shampoo? if you do, then you didn’t let your hair get very dirty, or you are using too much shampoo.
4~rinse repeat. the second shampoo is supposed to lather a lot. that means the hair is clean!
5~condition ends and rinse
You can try a variety of shampoos if you haven’t already, and you might try sending her to school with a dry shampoo in her backpack to spray after gym. They have a nice fragrance similar to regular shampoo and they soak up odor.
I hope these suggestions help, but if they don’t, you might want to take your daughter to a dermatologist. Just in case. Good luck!
I have a client who texts me with all kinds of code words. I’ll get one randomly and laugh so hard. Here is an example of what one might say….
“Hey curlypants! Do you think you have time for scissorhands and a full monty this afternoon?”
Translation:
Curlypants=Reagan’s nickname
Scissorhands=Haircut
Full Monty=Blow out, Curling iron and set in pins (she takes them out later)
It makes me laugh and it also makes me feel like a secret agent doing super spy hairstyling.
I can’t believe you guys like my hair! I’ve gotten more than a few emails asking for my hair’s step by step. I guess I can’t feel too cool, because apparently I have a very common hair texture, and it can take a little bit of time to figure it out. I flat ironed my hair every single day for probably 5 years before one day I accidentally air dried it and someone gave me a huge compliment. My head then immediately communicated to my hair the following conversation…
Brain- “Hey hair, what do you say we take it easy on the damage and 45 minute daily styling?”
Hair-”I thought you’d never ask.”
…And I (we) never looked back.
Here is my hair’s step by step:
Step 1~Shower. Maybe. I’m only going to say this once (except I think I’ve said this more than once) I usually shampoo once every 4-5 days. Please like me anyway.
Step 2~Towel dry.
Step 3~Apply product. I use all or some of the following: Redken Outshine (A cream), Redken Full frame (a mousse), Garnier Wonder Waves (a miracle spray of beachiness), It’s a ten (detangler and leave in treatment), L’Oreal Proffessionel Architexture (a wax) and Redken Anti snap. I genuinely use all (and others on occasion) of these products. I’ll start out with a cream after I towel dry, then wonder waves spray or a mousse, then I continue to scrunch until the cows come home or until my hair is dry, then I rub some wax in my hands and scrunch again!
Step 4~Scrunch more. Just do it and stop complaining.
Step 5~Maybe blow dry my fringe (bangs) if I feel like it or need to. I’m going to do a bang/fringe tutorial soon
Step 6~Dance.
Step 7~Wear for 4 or 5 days with no regrets. And maybe use a little hairspray.
*guys, this was really hard (I swear I accidentally wrote “haird” when I meant hard) for me. I guess it’s because I do my hair different every day! Sometimes I leave the house with nothing in my hair, sometimes I use everything on this list. I guess I don’t like to be chained to anything, but these products I’ve suggested really are what have been consistantly great for me. I hope it helps and that you have all the hair success you always dreamed of. And if you don’t then I think you should repeat step 6.
Love,
Reagan
Also, please forgive the picture. I had a hard time finding a decent picture that wasn’t the side of my head.
