No-Heat Hair Tips & Tutorials

Yup, back again. Not really been anywhere to be honest - hence lack of blog posts! Being of the same measurements as Mr Greedy and having to do a wee every fifteen seconds does not make for exciting around-town journeys.

With it being summer (well, hopefully it will hang on a few more weeks!) one thing that a lot of us have in common is wanting easy, low-fuss hair - often a bit more natural and tousled than in the winter months. I dye my hair red which is notorious for dulling with heat, so am always on the look out for no-heat curls and other easy overnight styles. Here are a few of my most recent online finds...

A time my no-heat curls worked and did not get rained
on. A rarity in Britain.

Dying Hair With Spices... Dare I?

I have been considering giving my hair a break from harsh permanent dyes recently. Mainly because it's crispy fried and dry, good if it was fried seaweed from the local takeaway, bad for hair. Not sexy. However I am not prepared to forgo dye altogether - I'm one of those people who (up until a few weeks ago) couldn't tell you what my natural hair looks like. Well, I let some roots grow a few weeks back and I was like 'NOOOO' ... I don't want to see my natural colour. It's brown - not lustrous rich brown but cool, dull crap brown, and where there used to be streaks of red and blonde there are now streaks of grey. Ugh. So, what were my options?

The first, from Superdrug, is simply wash-in-wash-out 'Effects' dye. The stuff you used as a teenager in the 90s! It's pretty quick, easy and cheap, but I have to apply the dye and wait 15 min (to get a good colour) every other time I wash my hair, which is a hassle. I don't mind once a week - or preferably once a month if I can get away with it. So I'm looking at other natural alternatives. At first, I was primed to pop off to Westfield and pick up some henna from Lush (only buy henna from reputable sources m'kay - as a West London girl I've seen the allergies and scars using adulterated, cheap - especially black- henna can cause). But then I got wind of a thriftier, home-made alternative from Youtube; spice dying.

As anyone who has got haldi (turmeric) on their clothes will attest, it's a pretty strong natural dye. The same goes for paprika, cloves, coffee and saffron. See how they can be used on these Youtube clips:

So, shall I try it? Do you want to see if my plain brown roots turn a nice chestnut? Or, which will probably be more entertaining, do you want to see me with an orange scalp and no decipherable change to my hair?

I even have some old bags of spices I forgot to unpack when I moved... lacking in flavour but perfectly OK for DIY dye...

Review: LA Colors: Nude Shades

I do like a bit of cheap slap. Not nasty cheap, just 'doesn't matter if I don't use it everyday because it cost under a fiver' cheap. This is mainly down to my adoration of all things glittery (my friend from work bought me a set of glitter eyeliners for Christmas, as apparently I am never to be seen without some glitter). There are just too many shades to be limited. My make-up case is now a large Ikea storage box. However, sometimes from my favourite party brands, I find more sensible purchases...

LA Colors, as the name might suggest, is a Drugstore (i.e. Chemist-shop) brand from America. I have been buying the nail polishes from Beauty Base (a London chain of cut price perfume shops) for some years now. Costing a princely 99p a pop, they're generously sized, last several days and come in an eye popping range of glittery colours. As do the eyeshadows. But as I mentioned before, the products I'm looking at today are a bit more sedate. Their mineral pressed powder in 'fair', lipstick in 'nude' and lip gloss in 'beige delight'.

Microwave Rollers? From 99p Stores?

Ah, I hear you say, that's why she hasn't blogged much; she's blown her house sky-high by using microwave hair rollers bought at 99p Stores in West Ealing. Fortunately my house is intact, but my health wasn't so great for a while (I won't bore/ick you with why) hence yet more blogging neglect.

Project Perfect

There's been a lot of talk about the language we use to describe ourselves (and others, in some cases, unfortunately) out there in blogland recently. Who knows why, with LFW, the annual January health kicks, the 'gap' trend and so forth... it's been in focus. Which is a good thing; the online community need to find a way to use language to describe things as they are, but bearing others' (and our own) emotions in mind. I'm never one for sugar coating things, but I hate unkindness. Treating people kindly and fairly, through deed, representation and language is trickier than it seems - and treating ourselves kindly and fairly can be even harder.
It happens at an early age and it isn't just with looks - when my kids (the ones I work with, I don't have 25 kids) are reviewing their work, they have to write down three things that went well, and three things to improve. Guess which three they struggle the most with? Even the brightest and most diligent - well, usually, especially the most diligent. Perhaps we confuse hard-earned pride with arrogance, I don't know.

Flaws And All has started a new type of blog post - Project Perfect - to get a bit of this no-nonsense positivity out there into blogland. I think it's a great idea. She basically asks us to post a picture of ourselves we really like. Then, three things we're not so happy with about ourselves but with a twist, how might other people like that feature? And then the tricky part: three things we do like about ourselves. Right, best get on it.

So here is a picture of myself that I like. I like it because of the colours and the style - it reflects the kind of look I enjoy wearing. My hair is perfectly balanced between natural and styled, and falling over one half of my face (which I like) and as a consequence I don't look like The Moon off The Mighty Boosh.

Right- now three things I don't like:

1) I have a round, fat, gormless face no matter how skinny I get. I even have a double chin. On the upside, it does seem like this trait means that I still get asked for ID in Tescos sometimes. Other people might think I'm friendly and approachable (like the opposite of a posh model face) I suppose.

2) My knees look like baby knees, ugh, and they bend backwards a bit. I want knobbly knees. But as I tend to wear maxis and trousers, no-one's the wiser. To be honest I don't think other people would even notice my knees. They are quite good for scaring small kids at parties when they bend backwards!

3) I have hideous dark shadows under my (hooded) eyes and look terrible without make up. The only possible use these have is that if they look really bad, my husband and my mum tend to make me tea and look after me as it means I'm a bit run down. And I'm pretty good at recommending make-up skills and products to friends, which is useful for them.

Now three liked things:

1) I have an ample bosom, but not so big they're unmanageable. Yeah I am that shallow.

2) My eyes change colour depending on how rested and hydrated I am. I come with a free lightshow, how cool is that?

3) My hands are long and elegant and my nails grow easily. Gels or acrylics, you say? Pah. These are all natural baby.

Excuse the messy varnish.

If you'd like to join in with Project Perfect, pop along to Flaws and All to find out more!

ZOMG! A More Exciting-Than-Usual Monday...

Mondays eh? What to do... scrape the ice of the car (if you have a car), get to work, drink bad coffee, work, coffee, bang head on desk, meeting, home, spag bol, TV, brush teeth, zzzz.

But this Monday was different. This Monday was glitzy. Thanks to ReeRee of Rockalily Lipsticks and ZoZo of The London Lipgloss. I eschewed my spag bol and TV for a tube uptown, glamour, meeting lovely bloggers and three cheeky glasses of Merlot.

Hair!

I love 'how-tos' on Youtube and while away many an hour planning make-up, nail and hair looks online. I find the videos easier to follow than books or magazines and the variety endless. Styles vary from the homespun to the really advanced, and it's good to see that industry professionals are recognising this trend and putting useful tutorials online - sometimes, when I buy a new product, I really do need a 'how to' to use it. At other times, I might be stuck in a styling rut and different angles on a favourite style are what I crave.

Quiff = recent tutorial find.

Avon Little Red Dress Lipstick

Before Christmas, I was browsing through the Avon catalogue in search of stocking fillers when I came across a new lipstick; Little Red Dress. I wish I could say something clever about style or outfit planning went through my head, actually I just thought 'oooh money off' and ordered it on the introductory price of £5.

Jingle Belles

I was gonna call this 'silver belles' but I thought it might imply these ladies need their roots touched up. I doubt any of these belles have roots, never mind grey ones. Instead of photos from fashion mags past and present, I am offering you up some links about how I like to dress this season. Like the Gok of Blogs. Give me some mulled wine and I'll start shouting about 'bangers' and being physically inappropriate too. Actually, what I would like to see as an Christmas special on the tellybox is NHJ and Gok V Trinny and Suzanna. It would be like a heroes and villains wrestling match. But enough of my sick mind, here are my top five seasonal style ideas, as robbed off other people who are cleverer than me at this kind of thing.

Soap And Glory 'Show Good Face' Review

Warning: this post contains a picture of me without any make up on.

When I found out via The Vintage Mafia and Retrochick that Soap and Glory had started to produce cosmetics, I was super excited. I have always rated their bath and beauty products as straddling perfectly the good value/high performance divide, not to mention the kitsch and comic packaging.

Why hello, 'Bob'.

Ah, what's a Thursday morning without an 80s sitcom reference? A reference which to this day makes it hard to say, or indeed write, the name of a certain haircut without a chuckle.

I am on the horns of a dilemma. Those of you who know me off here, know I have long red hair - but this is actually a recent development, borne of my desire to have a Chinese knot bun at my wedding. However, I am not a naturally long-hair person; my hair is fine and tricky to style, naturally brittle (made even worse with the red dye), I suffered from Trich when I was younger and my hair roots are weak, and I still pull absentmindedly in traffic to this day (something much easier to do on long hair) - and then I dry out my hair trying to curl, blow or product some life into the straggly mess! Not to mention the laziness factor. I had a bob for almost 15 years; I can get it straight, flicked, curled under or bouffey in 10 minutes flat. Long hair means more washing, treating, rolling, straightening- bleh. I'll spend time on my nails - my hair, nah.

So I am strongly considering a nice, chin length cut. What do people think? Shall I go for the chop?



From My New Hair

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I haven't been up to much this weekend - which is probably a good thing, as I'm completely knackered from work and the end-of-term-germs are out in full force!

Instead of my usual social whirl (you know, going round some charity shops then to the pub) I plumped for a pop into Matalan on the way back from work followed by 48 hours of sitting around eating olives and drinking tea and/or cider. So yes, a trip to Matalan was my big day out of the last few days. Ah, the back to school displays, the overheard tantrums and mothers tell daughters they don't care if it's a holiday, they aint getting a t-shirt with that slogan on it at their age... the multipacks of tights and pants. Overwhelming sophistication.

You'd Be Surprised How Much It Costs To Look This Cheap

Nah, it doesn't cost very much at all. As several lovely bloggettes have been posting about their 'top 10 make up and beauty faves' I thought I would give it a go. Mostly because my life is a tragic mire of spreadsheets, house hunting and so forth right now and I can't find any 'pursuits' interesting enough to blog about (I.e. content would read approximately "Vintage fans, did you know that pre-computer, spreadsheets were often called 'ledgers' and the adding up was done on a calculator the size of Belgium..?').

So I give you my (current) top 10 beauty bargains. All of them are dirt cheap, because I'm worth it ('it' being the wine, cakes and tat I buy with the money I save on beauty products):