TIPS ON BLOW DRYING

I colored and cut my friends hair last night and wanted to give a few pointers on how to round brush and hair dry your hair straight.

Before you start to blow dry you need to put some product in your hair to help give it some control and texture. For curly hair I would use a mousse and curl enhancing creme. For straight hair I would use just mousse and for curly hair that you want to blow dry straight use mousse and as well as a straightening creme.
I love Extra volume mousse by Kenra and Ice whip by Joico.
I use bouncy creme by ISO for curly hair and Redkin also makes a good creme for curly hair.
For straightening your hair I love Purologys creme (not sure what the name is).

Before you ever use any sort of brush on your hair you want to make sure to get 80 percent of the moisture out of the hair first. The reason for this is when you use a brush on hair that is too wet it breaks off really easy. Also until your hair is almost dry the round brush is doing you no good.
1.blow dry your hair using your fingers to direct the hair the opposite way that it will fall.
*as you are doing this pull the hair tight as if your straightening it with your fingers.

* I usually do my bangs first. They usually dry the fastest and if I get to them last then they end up looking funky. scroll down to get directions on how to blow dry bangs.

2. When you have removed most of the moisture from the hair then you can start using your round brush. The easiest way to do this is to pull up the hair and blow it dry in sections starting with the hair down by your neck and ending at the top of your head.

*The most important thing is to make sure you are over directing your hair. (Drying and brushing the hair the opposite way that it will fall). This gives it so much more body and bounce at the root of your hair so that it doesn't stick to your head.

*how big the round brush is all depends on how long the hair is and how much curl you want in the hair afterwords. The smaller the round brush the tighter the curl.

*Make sure that the sections of hair you brush are no bigger then your round brush. Otherwise it will take forever to dry and wont give you a great end result.

3. When you feel like the section of hair is completely dry roll the hair up into your round brush and push your cool shot button, (the button that blows cool air) Hold it on the hair for a few seconds and this will cool down the hair, closing the cuticle and it will hold the curl much better!

These pictures should help show what it should look like when your round brushing your hair.


These are examples of the way you over direct the hair while your blowing it dry.

The bangs are the most important part and they finish of the hair making or breaking your style. For Alyssa's hair we decided to do a longer sweep bang which is best for her hair type.

This first picture shows me round brushing the hair in the opposite direction that it will fall. The second picture is me then blowing it down smooth and pulling it tight so that it isn't too bouncy.
*again make sure to use the cool shot button after its completely dry!!


4. After round brushing I usually take my flat iron and smooth pieces that might have a little to much bounce or are too frizzy.

5. Back combing is SOOO important and here is an example of the right way to do it.

1. Take a section of hair at the crown of your head and comb it up completely straight.
2. place the bristles of your comb into the hair completely. make sure it is atleast 3inches away from your head. Comb straight down towards your scalp. Repeat 2 or 3 times until you have a big poof at the base of your head.
3. Then spray the poof with hairspray.
4. After that take the bottle of hairspray and pull the hair over the bottle and hold it really tight for a few seconds. (this creates a bigger poof and compacts the hair so it doesn't look so ratty.
5. let down the hair and comb over the very top layer just to be sure that you don't see any of the back combing underneath.
6. Do this not only on the crown of the head but allover the top section of hair.

6. The last step before you are finished is to to use a finishing product. For Alyssa I used a smoothing serum which really helped smooth her hair out leaving it shiny.

This is the end result from the back.

BEFORE

AFTER

ON STRAIGHT HAIR

I wanted to post a picture of what the twisty hair head band looks like on straight, colored hair. As you can see it shows up a lot better with the color definition in the hair. I think it works great for little girls because it keeps their hair out of their eyes. I wear it like this myself too!

The only difference when I styled it this time is I didnt wet down the hair. I used some smoothing serum and massaged it into my hands so that as I twisted the hair it stayed nice and smooth. (no stray hairs)

Sorry this pictures a little blurry.

HAIR HEADBAND

This could work for any hair type and and it looks great on all ages.

Tools: Water bottle, comb, bobby pin, mouse or gel.

1. Spray the hair with water until its damp.
2. Put a small amount of mouse or gel in your hands and massage it throughout the hair.
3. comb the hair straight back.

4. With your comb, part the hair from one ear to the other ear.

*If the hair your working with is thicker then use a smaller section of hair. (Like for really thick, coarse, hair I would have parted it from the front of one ear to the front of the other ear).
5. take about an inch section (smaller for thicker hair) right about the ear.
6. begin to twist the hair towards the back.
7. After twisting the first piece of hair a few times, pick up another one inch section of hair and add it to the other section. Continue to twist the hair.

8. Continue adding more hair and twisting until you have made it all the way to the other ear.

* make sure the sections of hair you are adding to the twist are smooth and pull them tightly back to meet the twist.

* make sure as your twisting you keep it tight and keep your two fingers firm when your holding on to the hair.

9. To secure the hair you will need your bobby pin. Make sure both sides of the bobby pin straddle the twist, then push it towards the twist so that the bobby pin is secure and hidden.

When your finished with your twist style the back of the hair like you would normally. If your hair is straight it looks really cute flipped out, under or curled all over with a big curling iron.

NATURALLY CURLY HAIR

I wanted to do a post on how to style naturally curly, thin hair. This could also be used for someone with straight hair that wants it all curly or even someone with thick curly hair. In these cases you would just change just a few things depending on your type of hair.
I used my daughter to be my model because her hair is very curly and very fine. I will have to do another post on how to style curly hair starting off with it wet. This time I wanted to show how to style curly hair that has been either slept on or dried on its own without the use of hair products or a diffuser.
Brooklyn's hair is usually pretty curly on it's own but sometimes after a while she has a few strands that straighten out. The whole top part is not as curly as the bottom and underneath part and usually needs some help. I know a lot of people with naturally curly hair deal with this problem.


To start off you need the right tools: A comb, a clip to section off the hair, a curling iron with about a 1 1/2-2 inch barrel (the tighter your curl the smaller the barrel should be) and a smoothing cream or serum.

First: With a comb, part the hair on the top of the head in your desired location.


Second: With your clip pull all of the hair up except for 3 or 4 inch section on the bottom.


Third: pick up small piece of hair (no bigger then an inch) that has relaxed. Make sure to keep the sections small so that the end result looks natural. (the smaller you want the curl the smaller piece you pick up)

Fourth: curl all the relaxed pieces in the bottom section of hair. Keep in mind that you need to curl the hair in the direction that the hair naturally wants to curl. Make sure you keep the curling iron vertical with the head. Do this with the entire bottom section until all the pieces that were relaxed are now curly.
Example: the piece of hair in my fingers is curling to the left so when you curl that piece you want to make sure you curl that piece to the left.


This is what the section should look like after its curled:


Fifth: Bring down another 3or 4 inch section of hair. Repeat curling all the relaxed pieces of hair. Then continue this process until all the hair is curly.

Next section before

curling that section

Next section, before

And after

The last section is the top.

I worked my way from the back


To the right side of her head

Then finished on the left side of her head.

sixth: After everything is curly, take your smoothing cream and put about a dime size amount in your hand. Rub it into your hands. Then, what your going to do is take each curl and separate them while applying product.


*Seventh: After all the curls are separated apply the rest of the smoothing cream to the hair by scrunching the hair allover. This is the MOST IMPORTANT part in this whole process because if you don't put the finishing product on the hair the end result will be frizzy and dull looking. Smoothing cream will finish off the hair leaving the curls looking defined,shiny and bouncy.

Before and after

The end result should give you beautiful curls that blend in with all the natural curls. (and no frizzy straight pieces)
Good luck!