My 29th birthday was on Monday (February 4th). Yay! If you are interested, I’d love to share how I celebrated!

I had a plan to go to Verameat in the East Village and pick out a piece of jewelry for a present to myself with my friend Anna, but then we ended up going early because they had a huge sale on January 31st! I felt so lucky that Anna noticed the sale and told me about it. I was able to pick out a few pieces that I wouldn’t have splurged on otherwise. Like this spine duster and feather ring. I also bought a “little teeny” (as I call it) ring that goes inbetween my knuckles. Those rings have always reminded me of my mama, who wears more rings than anyone I know. My siblings and I joke that when she’s late for something, it’s because she’s still putting on rings.

On the day of, I celebrated pretty casually, but still had a beautiful dinner with some of my best girlfriends at a great restaurant downtown. We went to Freeman’s on the Lower East Side, where I had a white bean soup with a side of roasted brussles sprouts. My friends were so sweet to treat me to dinner and fancy drinks, which made me feel even more special considering it was nice enough of them to come out on such a cold night (which might be the worst part of a winter birthday!).

Jen, Me, Kristen, Karrie and Anna.

Even though it was a cozy and casual event, which is really just the way I like it, I still wanted to feel a little special. Lately, my “special” hair secret weapon is a row or two of clip in extensions! My friend Lacy has her own hair extensions company, and recently came out with a new line of ombre clip-ins. I trimmed them to my own length, and had my colorist ,Carla, gloss them to match my hair exactly. They blend perfectly, and just thicken up my hair a little more on the ends, which actually makes it look much longer! It’s perfect for someone like me, who likes almost no daily fuss or maintenance when it comes to my hair, but really likes to go all out once in a while. Plus, I have a drawer of hair in my bedroom which literally makes me laugh out loud every time I open it.

If you have a special occasion (or not!) coming up, and want fancy hair, please check out Laced Hair Extensions!

And I’ll be doing a tutorial on how to put in your clip-ins soon!

After mentioning extensions just briefly in this post, I decided I wanted to talk about them more.

When I said extensions weren’t for me, I only meant for my hair type and styling routine. I actually love the way they look. When I look at pictures of me with them, my hair is full and lustrous like a mermaid. And achieving mermaid status has been my ultimate goal since I was 5 years old.

Extensions are the best for thinnies, finies and shorties looking for length. I use clip ins on several of my clients, especially for TV work, and have even worn them myself when I’m going for serious thickness. Honestly, if your hair is thin/fine, you could really benefit from the length and extra volume. Some people wear them solely for fullness and don’t get them any longer than their natural.

I know from reading the comments throughout the blog, several of you have extensions. I want to hear how you like them! Are they for thickness? Length?

I have a friend who is an extensions ninja. Her name is Lacy (the gorgeous gal pictured) and she is actually an extensions distributor with her own line of hair. She knows everything there is to know about them. Go become a fan of her facebook page!

forgive me for the not so nice post I am about to write…

I don’t understand it. The first thing it seems you do to prepare for being the new “bachelorette” is to get some really bad extensions. Now, I don’t watch the Bachelor/ette, but the show is unavoidable with it’s commercials, media coveriage and the fact that my favorite show is “the soup”. It seems like everywhere I turn, Alli’s yellow-y, straw-like extensions are staring me down. In Alli’s defense, it was probably the show’s idea as part of the dolling up phase, and they were probably provided for her. They also probably had all the budget in the world to spend on them, so why so straw-like? Why such poor blending?

And I know this image has nothing to do with the rest of the post. I even think this is when she still had her real hair…I just can’t handle the styling of this picture. Why is she wearing dirty Chuck Taylors? Why is she wearing such an ill-fitting wedding dress? Why is there a velvet-y curtain behind her? I saw this photo in several magazines promoting the show. I don’t get it….

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