New Year, New Look?

This post is difficult to write for me, because I always pride myself on trying to maintain my apperance to the best of my abilities, and I realized that an area where I totally failed is my hair.

Yes, that's right, I'm admitting it. A couple of posts ago, a few commenters mentioned that my hair was looking a little "bottom heavy" (I had never heard that expression before, but I knew what they meant.) One of them commented "maybe it's time for a change." Well, they were right, it is.

Typically, I take criticisms with a grain of salt, but this one really got to me because as much as I wanted to deny it, I knew it was true.

For the last few months, every time I've blown out my hair, I've noticed that my ends are pouffy, frizzy, frazzled. I have more split ends than I can count. My hair, despite all of my efforts just ends up "hanging there." It's long, it's heavy, it's blah. Sure, I wanted long hair, but the price I'm paying for it just doesn't seem worth it.

Now, before I delve further into this, I want to relay to my lovely readers that this isn't at all my hairdresser's fault. He is brilliant but I limit him when it comes to cutting because I am so afraid to lose my length that I've spent over three years growing (my hair is like the slowest growing hair ever.) My micro-trims just aren't cutting it anymore, no pun intended.

I still want to have long hair, but I need to do something...more layers, a little more of my ends snipped off, the front pieces cut shorter...I need SOMETHING that is going to get my hair out of this rut.

I'm going too wait until after my vacation to make the cut. I just feel like since I'll be exposing my hair to so much sun and salt water etc, that it probably isn't the best idea to do it before I leave for vacation.

So I have almost a month to find pictures of haircuts and styles I like.

Here are a few I like right now:

I love the way her hair is styled and how the front layers are shorter. I've tried side bangs before and they just don't work for me, but these just look like face-framing layers.

No matter how many times or which hairdresser I've ever been too, none can seem to cut my hair exactly like Carrie's (above), minus the bangs. I absolutely love how bouncy and shapely her hair looks.
I love Jennifer Garner's hair in this pic. It just looks really full and bouncy. I like the way it's parted too.Cheryl Cole is definitely one of my favorite hair inspirations. It looks like she's got a bunch of layers through her hair and some shorter face-framing layers. Like I said before, I grew my face framing layers out so long, that they don't really frame anymore, they just hang. Ugh.


Here's another one of Cheryl. I just like how full and bouncy her hair is and how much volume she has. I also like it when you can tell where layers start and end. I feel like my hair just all blends together into one big curtain right now.


No hair post is complete without a picture of VS model Alessandra Ambrosio. I love her soft curls here. You can tell she's got some pretty layers through her hair.


This look is a little more polished, but I like how much volume she has and how smooth her hair looks. I'd want to keep mine a bit longer than that though.

Sigh. Blake Lively. I love this pic from her Marie Claire photo shoot. Her hair just looks perfect and voluminous and has texture to it. Maybe I just don't have enough texture going on or I need to try different products. I would love it if I could make my hair look like this. Love.

Ladies, if you have any suggestions for me, I'm open. If you have any styles you think would suit me, please post a link in the comments below (nothing short though, I don't want to go into shock!)

My hair is definitely my security blanket...but it might be time to let go and just have an actual style to my hair. I also want to start styling it wavy again, I miss that sometimes.

I always feel bad because people tell me how much they like my hair...but trust me, it doesn't always look great! I've gotten lazy in maintaining it, and its lost its shape, luster and volume.

Thanks for listening to my rant. All thoughts and opinions welcome (unless they involve a serious chop!)

xoxo,

Veronika.

Mousse: If you're not using it, you should be

If you haven't used mousse in your hair since 1995, it's time to reconsider. I too stopped using mousse for several years and then found myself wondering why.

Mousse just might be the perfect hair styling product. It leaves no detectable residue, gives volume that lasts for days (if you do a good blowout, of course, nothing in life is free!) and overall doesn't give the hair the stiffness other products can.

Immediately after towel drying, I use a paddle brush to smooth tangles and brush out my entire head. Then, I apply about 2 golf ball sizes of mousse to my brush (you read that right, I apply it directly into the bristles of the brush) and starting from the center, then to each side, I work the mousse from my roots to the mid-shaft of my hair. Then, I apply Morrocanoil to my ends and blow out my hair with a round brush.

I set Velcro rollers into the front and crown sections of my hair, let them sit while I do my makeup (15 minutes or less), and then I used a flat iron (CHI ceramic 1 inch) to smooth the underneath parts of my hair (the parts not in rollers).

Once the rollers are removed, they give hair a great shape and perfect amount of volume. I don't use hairspray because I don't like the way it makes my hair feel the next day. I will only use hairspray if I have a special event.

The above technique makes my blowout last 3 days, and I will typically use dry shampoo on the 3rd day. The exception to this is if I've had a really intense workout, then I will wash sooner. Note that I do "touch up" my hair in the mornings after having slept on it.

IMO, mousse is the key ingredient to make a blowout last. I can't even remember the last time I didn't use mousse. I find it makes volume last really long, even when hair is slept on. I love Tresemme 24-hour Body Mousse, and Garnier Fructis XXL Volume Thickening Mousse. I have never tried "high-end" mousses, because I am not sure if they would be worth the money. I may invest in the Kerastase volumizing mousse because I tend to love all of the products from their various lines (I use the Nutri-Serum from the Oleo Relax line to smooth flyaways and split ends, and their "ciment thermique" as a heat protectant- though I've stopped using this since my love affair with Morrocanoil began).

The gorgeous Ashley Olsen-rocking a volumized hairstyle.

Hilary Swank's uber-voluminous do

Carrie Underwood's might be one of the prettiest blowouts I've seen

I hope these tips will give your locks a lift!

xoxo,
Veronika.