Posts Tagged ‘hair’

A CHIGNON FOR A FASCINATOR

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photos/post/design: Kristin Ess

Fascinators are becoming more and more popular in the US. Many of our most fashionable friends are building small collections of gorgeous headpieces and that’s reason enough to do a tutorial on a hairstyle that will accomodate them. This is a fairly easy hairstyle to execute and doesn’t require a ton of coordination. In fact, that’s one of the things I love the most about fascinators- they look their best when paired with a simple hair style. Of course you’re not going to wear a fascinator to work, but it’s such a great addition to an outfit when attending any sort of formal party. Okay, here we go!

  1. You’ll need a couple of larger bobby pins and a thin rubberband.
  2. You’ll want a side part for this because the fascinator is going to sit on the side with less hair. Create a section from your ear up to the part as you see in photo 2. Clip all that hair out of the way and save it for the end.
  3. On the side with less hair, twist everything back and over your ear.
  4. Clip it in place using a claw clip.
  5. Lightly tease the rest of your hair. You want to do this so that the bun you’re about to make will be a little fuller. If you have super thick hair you’re welcome to skip this step.
  6. The hair shouldn’t be agressively teased. It should look like picture 6.
  7. Remove the clip and keep twisting in an upward motion. Twist it right into a bun shape and secure using the thin rubberband. Go ahead and insert one of the large bobby pins for security.
  8. Take the section you had clipped up out of the clip. Lightly twist that in an upward direction and wrap it around the bun. Secure it using your other large bobby pin. If you have thicker hair and you need more pins, go for it!
  9. Once everthing is secured, lightly pull at the bun if you want to make it a little bigger. If you like the size of it, you can skip this step.
  10. Spray all over using a firm holding hairspray.

Each fascinator is different. Some come with clips, some with headbands, some with combs, and some vintage ones come with nothing. Attach the fascinator on the side with less hair. I usually recommend attaching it just slightly below the part. You can obviously wear this chignon without a fascinator if you want. Would be great for bridesmaids or any special event for that matter!

Here are my favorite places to score gorgeous fascinators, other than the flea market.

POST-BLOWOUT FRIZZ FIGHTER

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photos/post/design: Kristin Ess

One of the worst things I can think of is blowing out your entire head of hair only to find it getting puffy + frizzy by the time you’ve put your makeup on and gotten dressed. Obviously the curling iron or flat iron can help but sometimes you just want to wear a smooth, bouncy blowout. We get a lot of emails asking how to eliminate the puff. Here’s what works best.

  1. Blow your hair out as usual. Use a good serum to help you control your frizz.
  2. Once you’re done blowing your hair out split it into two sections. Twist both sections BACK (away from your face) starting up near your temples. Don’t laugh– tuck one side into your bra strap while you do the other side.
  3. Join the two sections together under your chin using a rubber band as you see in photo 3.
  4. Go apply your makeup and get dressed. I know you may look like a little wierdo, but WHO CARES! We’re fighting frizz!
  5. Once you’re dressed and ready to roll, take the rubber band out and put a drop or two of your favorite serum. We love THIS ONE and used it for this tutorial!
  6. Put a little serum where you need it and you’re good to go!

Have you ever tried this??

ROPE BRAID CHIGNON

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photography/post/graphics: Kristin Ess

You asked for it! Remember the hair flowers post from Valentine’s Day? We got a ton of emails asking if we could show how the hairstyle from that post was done. You’re going to need a few important things to get this look, so we’ve teamed up with Pantene Pro-V. For this tutorial, we’re using 3 products from the Pantene “Stylers” line which is endorsed by one of our favorite hair heroes, Pantene Celebrity Stylist Danilo! We’re using a heat protector, a soft texturizing wax and a shaping spray. Here we go!

  1. Blow your hair out all the way and put it on top of your head in a bun for about 10 minutes. That should help re-direct the hair so it doesn’t lay too flat.
  2. Grab a little pile of bobby pins in assorted sizes.
  3. Take a “pea-size” dab of Texturizing Sculpting Wax in your palm. Rub your hands together to warm + soften it up.
  4. Massage it into the root. This will give us the proper texture and will keep the hair appearing flat + limp. Remember– this wax is water-based so don’t be afraid.
  5. Grab your 1″ curling iron + your Heat Protection Spray.
  6. Spray a light veil of heat protector over your hair, wait for it to soak into the hair, then wrap curl your whole head for more texture.
  7. Do a rope/french braid on one side and pin it in place using a large supportive bobby pin.
  8. Then rope/french braid the other side.
  9. Lightly tease the hair in back. This will give volume to the bun portion of your chignon.
  10. Pull all of your hair to one side and twist it the same direction you’ve twisted the rope braid. In this case,  you can see she’s twisting it upward and toward her face.
  11. Pin it in place as you go.
  12. When you get to the ends, tuck and pin them as you see illustrated in picture 12.
  13. Gently tug at your rope braid to loosen up the look and make it a bit more romantic.
  14. At this point, you should pull out any small whispy pieces you’d like. You can see what it looks like with more pieces pulled out versus zero pieces pulled out in the Valentine’s Day post.
  15. Do a final veil of hairspray with something that will stay put but not look helmet-y. Obsessed with this Shaping Spray.

I made a quick video (not our regular style production), just so you could see how the rope braid is done! xo

Oh… and that cute little peach tulle dress is right here.

AT-HOME BANG TRIM (IF YOU MUST!)

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Obviously your first option for a bang trim should be to see your stylist and let him/her do it. However… sometimes life gets in the way– you’re busy, they’re busy, you’re in a rush or it’s too expensive. A lot of hairstylist offer complimentary bang trims, but if yours doesn’t or you simply can’t make it into the salon every couple weeks to clean up your fringe, here’s what I suggest (in serious detail).

Kitchen scissors, nail scissors and office scissors aren’t good for trimming bangs. Before you consider trimming your own bangs at home, search for a pair of cutting shears and pair of thinning shears. They don’t need to be crazy expensive or fancy. Just read reviews and find something in your price range. Go to a beauty supply if there’s one near you and ask what they recommend. There are so many kinds out there!

 

  1. DRY HAIR ONLY. Don’t do bang trims on wet or damp bangs. They’ll spring up once they’re dry and you’ll be in trouble. Start by sectioning off. Follow the outline your hairstylist made– don’t create your own! Easiest way to do that is to hold your hair in a loose high pony and shake your head while leaning foreword. Your bangs should all come right out and fall in front of your face. Clean up the section using a comb as you see in photo 1.
  2. Put the rest of your hair up in a bun so you don’t accidentally cut it.
  3. Smooth out your bangs or style them the way you normally would on a day-to-day basis.
  4. Check out how deep your bangs are so you can split them evenly into two sections, horizonally. You only want to work on the bottom half first. That way if you mess up the line a little, you have some room to make up for it.
  5. In photo 5 you can see how we split the bangs in half horizontally.
  6. Take a napkin or small piece of tissue and wrap it around the section before you clip it to avoid getting any dents or creases.
  7. It should look like this! Use a strong clip so pieces don’t fall out.
  8. You can see the guide drawn on the photo above #8. Stay just below the brow to be safe. Start “chipping” or point cutting into your bangs using your regular shears. Point cutting diffuses the line and gives you a little room for error. Blunt cutting (just chopping straight across) isn’t exactly the best idea when doing your own bangs at home.
  9. I like to take a quick break while I’m cutting to comb the bangs side to side. That will help you see them in a more natural state. Sometimes the repetitive combing downward while cutting can flatten them too much.
  10. Once they’re to a shorter/desired length, you can drop down the top section.
  11. Comb lightly so you can see the bottom section through the top section and use that as your guide.
  12. Now we’ll use the thinning shears. Pick up small pieces from the top section and gradually make them shorter using the thinning shears. Side note- using thinning shears is different than regular shears. They have small teeth so you have to make more cuts. Their main purpose is to blend. Some people will want to cut the top layer with scissors and then blend with the thinning shears after, which you can do but it takes a little more skill. If you’re not good at DIY bang trims just yet, go slow and use the thinning shears on the top section.
  13. You can see how it’s done in photos 12 + 13. Gradually the top section starts to blend into the bottom section without appearing overly blunt like a 1st grader. (No offense 1st graders!) Also, I typically suggest you leave the sides a little longer. Think of a half moon shape. Some people want straight across, which is fine, but gradually longer sides look good on the majority of people. Longer sides also help you play it safe so you don’t accidentally end up with wacky bangs.

Optionally, you can pull up the entire top section and chip into it a little if you feel like you need a little more blending. Do that with the thinning shears so you don’t mess up the overall shape. xo

photos/post/design: Kristin Ess