So folks if you have followed this blog you will know I have had long hair the entire time I’ve had this blog. In fact, I haven’t had short hair since I lived in California in 1998. How crazy is that?
Well one thing I have always wanted to do is donate hair to a worthy organization for those in need but I have never had the guts. I have also had a hard time finding a stylist that I trusted and cared for here in Draper, so I put off cutting my hair. In fact, I hadn’t had a trim of any kind in at least 2 years. Well, we decided to do a photo shoot for Hallmarkies podcast with my friend Kristi Linton and so I felt it was time to get my hair cut.
I went to the Rooted Aveda salon in Draper and had a stylist named Britney. She said it was her first day at the salon but luckily she had been doing hair for over 15 years. This place is expensive but especially for such an epic cut it is well worth it.
After much hemming and hawing I finally mustered up the courage to cut my hair and donate it! I actually have to send it in so I am looking into what organization is the best, so if you have any insight I would love to hear it. But look at all that hair!
I had Britney curl my hair because that is my favorite styling and what I wanted for the photo shoot and it is going to take some getting used to but I think it looks cute!
It feels like there is something missing when I move my head but it is kind of liberating to try a new style after all these years of doing long curly hair. Everyone has been so nice with their praise and kind words about the new style. Thanks!
So there you go. I am now Ms Short Hair (but I can still put it in a ponytail which was a requirement). I’m excited for this new change!
Hey guys! So today I must admit I felt beautiful. My whole look came together in a way that doesn’t always happen. I got a lot of positive feedback so I thought it would be fun to dissect the look so that you could try it out. This is something new for the blog so let me know what you think.
The whole look is based on starting out with straight hair. Some of the rules for straightening hair as curly and as long as mine is
1. It must be completely dry. Any rain or moisture will make it curl up quickly.
2. Have at least an hour (I don’t do it very often because it takes a long time and to be honest my arm gets sore holding up the hair and flat ironing it.)
3. Make sure to use an iron guard to protect your hair from getting too fried.
So let’s start with the flat iron. I have several but when I am straightening all my hair and it’s as long as it currently is (haven’t cut it since September) I use my full size iron. These are hard to find and I couldn’t find a great link for you.
I like to start with dry hair. I usually shower the night before and then do the treatment in the morning. It wouldn’t make a huge difference but saves you from having to blow dry your hair and given the beating it’s going to take that is a good thing.
Make sure to get the back of your hair and the underneath layers (that’s the part that takes the longest). I also have it on the highest setting because my hair is so curly that’s what it takes which is why…
You must use some protecting treatment on your hair. My 2 favorites are:
CHI Iron Guard- I’ve had this bottle for years so it is $14 well spent. It protects your hair from the heat and helps it look silky and smooth. It looks like hair spray but it’s not. You can’t feel it after it is applied and then your flat iron is used, and I put it on quite liberally. http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod4730015
and VO5 Make It Straight Gel with Heat Protection. A little of this goes a long way, but I couldn’t even tell you how long I’ve had this bottle. This is also hard to find but here’s a link but they are out of stock. http://www.medshopexpress.com/095863.html
There are several different variations now of V05 straightening products but the reviews aren’t as good so I don’t know whether to recommend them.
Then I literally spend an hour taking each section spraying iron guard and then flat ironing it. Once I’m finished a section I use a high quality hair spray to set the area.
Once you’ve applied the chalk set with hairspray again. Also use a little bit of rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab to get rid of any chalk on your face. This wears down after a few hours so I wouldn’t recommend it for an all-day affair like a wedding unless you have blonde hair but for an evening out or afternoon it’s a lot of fun.
Another good thing about the hair chalk is that it is just subtle enough to surprise people without being garish or over-the-top. I love it.
So that was my hair. Now for my makeup, which I think turned out great too.
For lips I used a Lip Do from Model and Co, which is one of my favorite brands of late. A birchbox favorite I actually got this duo in my recent Popsugar Must Have box and I really like both the lipstick and lip gloss. The feel is really good. It lasts a long time and doesn’t dry out my lips.
Next I used Covergirl Bombshell Shine Shadow Ice Queen as the eye shadow above the liner. This is a sample I got in my Birchbox Finds box which featured products from your local pharmacy such as Wallgreens. It’s a really good shadow and not overly glittery or clumpy (I crease really bad with my eye shadow) http://www.target.com/p/covergirl-bombshell-shine-shadow-eye-shadow/-/A-15013236I think that is everything. Let me know what you think of this concept. Is this something you’d like to see more of?
Some of the photography I will try to do better next time. The samples are small that the camera struggles to, but I enjoyed experimenting with it.
Have any of you used any of these products or companies? Do you flat iron your hair? What do you think of the look? I really felt beautiful and that’s of course more important than anything else.
Before starting this entry I want to put in a plug for my youtube channel. I have just organized my videos by category- swim, faith, boxing, singing, health, food subscriptions, makeup subscriptions and lifestyle subscriptions.
Even if you don’t go on youtube much I would really appreciate it if you could subscribe to my channel, maybe like a few of my videos. I’d love to make the videos more professional, create an intro, maybe review some movies. I have lots of ideas, so if you feel so inclined head over to http://www.youtube.com/smilingldsgirl
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Ok. So back to the real story. Growing up my Mother made it very clear if either my sister and I got a tattoo or dyed our hair we would be in big trouble (more for the tattoo but still). At least that was the impression I had.
I also thought my mother didn’t want me to wear make up which wasn’t true so who knows what her real stance was? Anyway, she at the least discouraged it but I think part of that is she always loved my natural color of hair, as do I.
That said, I did always wonder what it would be like to have blonde hair or black, something different. Now mind you I have had basically the same hair style since I was 15 years old (past shoulder, usually curly/wavy with long layers). This is me at 17 and it’s pretty much never changed:
I had one ill advised attempt at short hair in college which I thankfully do not have a photo of and I vowed to never go short again, especially really short. My feeling is that once you have short pixie cut you can never go back because the growing out process is so awkward most give up.
A short bob that I had at one point made me look like a poodle because the curls were very pronounced at that length. Anyway, I’ve always had the same hair and liked it.
However…
On my mission I didn’t get my hair cut one time because I didn’t trust anyone and didn’t want to use precious break time to do it (I was always hoping for a comp who was a stylist but no luck) . This is me in the last month of my mission.
You can see how long and scraggly it got but I still kind of like it. My mission was like a pressure cooker of stress, emotion, panic and exaltation and I noticed the within the first 6 months I noticed a gray hair and then another and more.
By the time I went home I had a lot and it was honestly quite upsetting. I had enough things going against me with my weight and general awkwardness, gray hairs seemed unfair!
I go in spurts where I like to color my own hair but I never cut it by myself
So, it wasn’t soon after I got home that I started coloring my hair. Not because I don’t like my color but because I didn’t want the increasingly prominent grays to show. I have one spot on the left side of my head that is almost entirely gray roots if I did not color it and I’m just not ready for that. As the divine Nora Ephron said:
“There’s a reason why forty, fifty, and sixty don’t look the way they used to, and it’s not because of feminism, or better living through exercise. It’s because of hair dye. In the 1950’s only 7 percent of American women dyed their hair; today there are parts of Manhattan and Los Angeles where there are no gray-haired women at all.”
Well said. Once I had given into the idea of hair dye I wondered what sort of colors I should pick. Most of the time I go with something fairly similar to my natural color because that’s what I like but occasionally I’ve added tints of red, black, and even auburn. I tend to shy away from highlights because they are so hard and expensive to maintain (plus they don’t really help with the gray problem).
This is me after my last cut and color. I have colored it once by myself since then.
Nevertheless, I still wanted to try something bolder but never had the guts. Blonde, maybe a streak of pink, green or purple would be so much fun, but it’s such a big risk and it’s my hair, my beautiful hair. 😉 So I kept it the relatively the same.
Then the other day I was at Wallgreen’s and I always stop by the ‘as seen on tv’ section usually for a good laugh but I saw these:
HAIR CHALK! I had never heard of such a thing! The package is $15.95 for 4 colors (about 2 treatments per palate) and it washes away in one shampoo (more for blonde hair). I brought it home and gave the purple a try and here’s what it looked like
It looks like I have short hair in this picture but I don’t.
I must say I was kind of stunned with how good it looked. It made me feel happy to see my face in the mirror. Something about the purple is energizing and alive. Dont you agree? Everyone I have talked to loves the purple hair. I got tons of positive feedback today at church, and my social networking friends on instagram, facebook and twitter have been resoundingly positive.
I have to admit that it has made me wonder. Should I go purple? What do you guys think? Is it too out there for everyday?
I mean I think I could give Katy Perry a run for her money…
I would have to find someone to do it that I really trusted which has been tough lately. I wouldn’t let just anyone dye my hair purple. Thoughts?
The other day I was having a conversation with a girl on twitter and she said she ‘would never dye her hair’ and that she ‘preferred to age gracefully’. I told her to wait until she was sprouting gray hairs at 25 and we’ll talk. At 32 I’m not exactly looking to ‘age gracefully’. Especially being unmarried gray hairs are one more thing that says ‘old maid’ to potential companions. I’ve already got enough of those signs to deal with, let me keep a few pretty things about myself a little longer.
It would be one thing if I had to have plastic surgery or inject botox into my body to look younger. That I would never do but a package of hair dye doesn’t seem so bad. Most people don’t even know that I have colored my hair because I keep it pretty natural. People don’t think I’m strange for altering my complexion through makeup and mascara. I don’t think hair dye is all that different. It doesn’t last forever and is a beauty treat that makes me feel good.
Usually I go to a salon to color my hair but I’ve been having a hard time finding a new one since my stylist moved to Chili. This isn’t my first time dyeing my own hair ( I would NEVER cut my own hair) and 1/1 on success rate. 1 I liked, 1 not so much. Hopefully this will make 2 out of 3.
Either way, I like to feel pretty, not because its my inherent worth but because I think I’m beautiful and I feel more beautiful without gray hair. Is that really such a crime? We all do things to help us feel more beautiful and happy but they aren’t the base of our happiness. I am happy because I’m a daughter of God and I have His Gospel. I just feel a little perk of pleasure when I look nice and feel beautiful.
Now I just have to find a guy who likes my version of beautiful. Maybe there is a hair color he will like? JK. Who knows? Life is crazy but I think I’m going to like my new hair.
What do you do to feel more beautiful? What are your favorite health and beauty products, treatments?
Phew! What a day! I’m exhausted but it has been tons of fun. Here it is in pictures.
First of all I had book club in the morning and made these pies
Blackberry Crumb Pie
Ingredients
1 Pie Crust, refrigerated or from scratch
For the Filling:
3 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
¼ – ½ cup sugar
¾ teaspoons cinnamon
For the Crumble Topping
2/3 cup sugar
1 ½ cups flour
12 tablespoons butter
Instructions
For the Filling:
Toss the berries with the sugar and the cinnamon.
For the Crumble Topping:
Whisk together the flour and the sugar.
Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or fork until mixture is crumbly.
Assemble:
Press the pie crust into a pie dish.
Pour in the berry filling.
Cover with the crumble topping.
Bake at 400° for 1 hour (The recipe only called for 35 minutes but it just wasn’t done)
Book club was neat. I figured out it was our 30th book! Not too shabby. We read Rebecca by Daphne DuMarier and we all enjoyed it immensely. While we were talking about the book I had my light fixture and art installed in my room. I kind of love it!
Isn’t it pretty? I just love it.
Then I met my trainer for a quick session and went to 2 Wallgreens to get an awesome collage poster done for my lesson. I’m teaching about friendship and so I made a poster of my friends. Then I came home and had another mini bookclub session with my friend Melissa who couldn’t come earlier but wanted to talk about the book. So fun!
Next, I had to work on my lesson for a bit and do the program for tomorrow’s relief society. Then it was time to get my hair cut and colored by my friend Rachel. It’s very similar to what I always get but I like it.
New hair. Or the same hair again. What do you think?
Then Taylor and Becca came over and we did another of our cooking lessons. This time I taught them how to make chili and cornbread. Everything turned out great especially the chili and it was so much fun to teach them and gab together. They are such fun friends.
I think they had fun? 🙂I’d say it was one of the best chili’s I’ve made. Yum
Chili
1 yellow onion diced
3 red, orange, yellow peppers diced
2 jalapenos seeded, pulp removed, finely diced (less if you don’t want it to be spicy)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef
3 cans diced tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp smashed garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp honey
4 cups chicken broth
2 cans black beans (or any kind of beans)
Heat olive oil add diced onion, garlic, peppers. Sweat vegetables until clear. Add ground beef until heated through. Add spices. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken broth, black beans, add honey to taste. Come to a boil and then simmer and it will get thicker. Top with cilantro, green onion, greek yogurt etc. Serve with cornbread.
Taylor learning to cookMe and TayorBecca stirring some chili
So is that not a super full day? Tomorrow I have to teach my lesson and pick my Dad up from the airport and then its back to work. Busy, busy, busy but happy. Life is good. Wish me luck on my lesson. A little nervous about it because its a little unorthodox but in a good way. Right now I’m too tired to give it much thought. What fun day!
Now for the last 2 weeks I have felt less than beautiful with my bright red eyes, swollen eyelids, general fatigue and make up restrictions. I am not the girliest of girls but I’m not a tom boy either. I’ve had times in my life where I was actually quite fashionable. When I used to work as a receptionist I was always the cutest and trendiest girl in the office (not saying much in that office but still). Since I work alone now I am afraid my wardrobe is often sweats, wet hair and I may still have my swimsuit on underneath it all.
I do like feeling pretty and if I had time I would do myself up beautiful every day but that seems kind of silly when it will all be messed up at the gym. I almost always wear at least a little foundation, eye makeup and lip gloss. I also wash my hair and gel for air dry curls. That’s the plan.
However, lately I have not been able to wear make up especially near my eye. Like I said I’m not a crazy make up person but it does feel weird when you aren’t wearing it when you are used to wearing it. I always feel like my face is very red and I need powder and foundation to lessen that reddening. So at church on Sunday with a red face, red eyes I felt like some kind of devil woman! Everyone else said they didn’t even notice but I noticed.
So, anyway, this week I have been thinking about ways to relax. I do a lot of fun, hard, interesting, exciting things but not many that are relaxing. Sometimes I wonder if I lack the capability to relax. There is so much to be done. I have hard time turning my brain off of the important stuff. That’s why I’m an insomniac.
Well, today I had a free night and I have been needing to color my hair but am trying to save money before the purchase of my new home (frame went up today!). So, I colored my own hair. I have done this twice before with mixed results. First time great, second time too dark. Still, neither was a total bomb.
So I went at it!
Here I am dye in my hair. Pretty nervous at this point! Hope it doesn’t turn green!
Eventually I rinsed it out, dried it and then went to work with all of my baskets of products (I try one curl product and give up on it and then another and one more). I call my vanity my curl product graveyard! Anyway I tried everything and worked my magic!
Love this hair! Did you know I love big hair? So great!Love this photo and this hair! May be my new favorite LOOK AT ALL THE CURLS!
After I finished and looked beautiful in the mirror I felt great! And you know what? After a week of thinking of things to help me relax, I relaxed! I felt refreshed, calm, happy, and beautiful. What a great thing!
Although this could be bad. How many times can I dye my hair in one year!
Isn’t it great when such a small thing can make you feel real joy.
Now I just wish I had a man I could take this gorgeous hair out with. Sigh… One dream fulfilled at a time! 🙂
Rachel's Musings 