waterfall braid 画
Sorry for not keeping this blog consistently updated. I’m planing to make a whole bunch of hairstyle tutorials, largely based on movie characters, over the next few weeks so hopefully I get them edited and up on tumblr. I’ll mostly be doing sci-fi or medieval type movies but I’m happy to do requests from anywhere if people have them =) just shove a character and movie/picture/hairstyle name into my ask box and I’ll do my best to recreate it =)
I’ll probably start off with a victorian updo, cover Katniss’ signature hairstyle from the Hunger Games movie and then move onto Starwars if nobody gives me any requests =P
In the mean time, have a ‘Tip of the Day’ for your hair; sleeping on a satin or sateen weave pillowcase can drastically reduce breakage and split ends at night. For further protection, braid your hair or bun it up on top of your head.
(wow, I sound really cheesey =P)
One of the more creative styles I’ve seen with ribbons. I really like the colour of the ribbons and the hair together.
Morgana Pendragon from the TV series Merlin. She doesn’t have excessivelly long hair but it is really pretty and is done in so many interesting styles! Maybe I should start putting up some style tutes like I originally said I would.
Over the next few days I’ll hopefully fool around and get some Morgana inspired styles up here along with others of both my own creation and learnt from LHC =)
(Also I totally want her dress and cloak!! How cool are they!!)
Colouring Hair
If reading on Dashboard start here. (not sure why there’s all the extra text )
The other day I tried colouring a cut-off of my hair with turmeric. The end result was pretty dramatic. My hair which is a kind of mid-range blond turned a shade rather close to canary yellow. Well, not surprisingly, the closest true description of the colour is that of turmeric however it was less orange. (Having just opened google I can say that the yellow ‘o’ resembles the dyed colour quite nicely) I actually think I liked the colour but it was clearly fake. The texture now also appears to be more straw-y but I think this is more to do with the colour association than an actual change in texture.
The method I used was to take an amount of hair that was gathered in my hairbrush and soak it for 10 minutes in a water/turmeric paste. I then rinsed this out and let it air dry. I intend to shampoo it a couple of times to see how the colour fades but I’ve read it is about ten washes. I’d like to take a photo of it next to my natural hair first though for a comparison.
Whilst I think colouring hair with ‘natural products’ is fun, I do recommend researching into what they do to your hair. Many people claim that they are less damaging than the commercial products available but I’m not certain this is always the case. Using lemon juice to lighten hair involves redox reactions that break apart bonds in your hair and using honey and hot water results in a mild peroxide forming, essentially bleaching your hair anyway. I haven’t been able to find any information on whether or not turmeric damages hair but as far as I can tell it simply coats it with a residue of colour.
If anyone has coloured their hair normal or crazy shades feel free to message me about your experience and I’ll put it here for others to read. My hair being blond, fine and straight is of course not the same as everyone else’s so I’d be interested to see how different hair reacts.
Deep Condition
If you suspect you have dry hair, one treatment most find it usually responds really well to is a deep condition.
A basic deep condition is essentially an extended application of hair conditioner. I’ve read that certain conditioners achieve better results than others however through my own experimentation I’m pretty sure all conditioners work reasonably well for a deep condition. Homemade Hair Masks (see variations) are also often used for deep conditioning.
Basic Method
The basic method involves applying your usual conditioner to wet the ends, length or entire head of dampened/wet hair and leaving it for a minimum of 20 minutes before rinsing out or following with your usual washing method.
Variations
Most people agree that heat aids the process of deep conditioning however different writers will give you different information on how much heat is needed. As you can see there are a range of approaches:
- simply wrap hair in a towel and the heat from your own head is enough
- wrap hair in towel or place under shower cap and use a blow drier to apply heat
- wrap hair in towel and insert a heat pack under the towel to provide additional heat
I recommend just experimenting and going with whatever works best for you.
Another thing to experiment with is additional ingredients. Some people add other items such as avocado, milk, honey, olive (or other [coconut etc]) oil, mayonnaise, aloe-vera and so forth. Some add moisture, some protein and some, like chocolate, I swear are just to make it smell good =P Actually I lie, I have read the benefits of a chocolate mask but I’d rather eat the stuff!
Alternatively you could go for a homemade Hair Mask which is essentially combinations of the above items selected to treat specific symptoms such as dryness, dullness, breakage, dandruff etc.
Read up on what different ‘products’ do for your hair and experiment with what you think might work best for you.
The length of time you leave the deep conditioner in for is also personal preference although most people agree that a minimum of 20 minutes is necessary. I personally find it strange to walk around the house with my hair covered in conditioner so I usually prefer an overnight application. For this I either coat all my hair or selected parts (such as the ends) in conditioner, then cover the conditioned hair with a plastic bag so that I don’t end up with goop all over and soaked into my pillow. Then I wash my hair in the morning and nobody but me is any the wiser :) Except for the occasional observative comment about healthier looking hair! :P :D
