Not everyday is a good hair day. Sometimes I have days where it just won’t co-operate no matter what I try, that’s when I wear headscarves!  But some days, small experiments turn into the best hair days too!  This was one such day. I’m often stopped for my hair, but this style got more than the usual reaction which meant that it actually took nearly two hours to get the groceries done as I had to keep stopping to talk with people!

I’m not the best at creating pomps (faux fringe or bangs), and find that they can look too heavy on my face, so I wanted to try something different.  I created a wide front roll, pinned in under and a little off centre.  The trick was in separating out the blond section and making sure to smooth it the right way to get the effect. Sadly, this won’t be nearly as impressive on single tone hair, but oh well.

Now the only thing that remains to be seen is… can I do it again?  If I can master it again and again, making sure to get the same result, I’ll then be able to create a tutorial.

And also, for all those who keep asking about my home, I decided to take these shots in the kitchen, just for something different. My place is a colourful, retro, kitsch kitty-tastic land!

In the meantime, please enjoy this happy accident with me.

Top – “Matelot” from Friends of Couture (includes the bow)

Earrings – Ages ago from Diva.

Bunny – from Harem on Brunswisk street

I’ve been asked many times how I tie my simple headscarf.  The one I wear when I’m setting my pin curls and still want to be able to go out on errands looking half way decent.  So today, I have a simple video tutorial for you, taking you through three simple and easy to achieve looks with a large square scarf.

There are so many I could show you, but don’t want to overload you by creating a whole two hour tutorial! So here are the first three ways that can be adapted to suit your own style.

This is in high definition, so remember you can click to make the image full screen for better detail.
Enjoy!

*For those of you viewing in IE, I’m experiencing a few technical glitches with the site at the moment. Please bare with me as we attempt to repair the damage.*

Image found via Tumblr- original source unknown

Last time we spoke all about the importance of hydrating and protecting your skin.   While these key steps form the foundation of great skin, there is more to the story should you wish to take your quest even further.  Just to reiterate, the tips I’m giving you here come from my own experience of what works for me.  They don’t constitute medical advice and neither am I going to list off a bunch of stuff that is ideal but I don’t really adhere to. You want the real story.

You are what you eat.

We all know this is true, but the chances of me adhering to a macrobiotic, purely organic or raw diet are non existent.   Sometimes I wish I could but it just isn’t in my nature.  However, having had years of not looking after myself in my early twenties, I know the difference between the good the bad and the achievable.

Here is the philosophy that works for me: “Eat less crap,(but still just a little cause its fun), and drink more water.”  It’s that old adage, everything in moderation, that works best of all.  So when it comes to food I aim to eat things that are the least processed versions of themselves. So for example I don’t make pasta with sauce from a bottle. Instead I make it myself with tomatoes and herbs boiled down on the stove.  It is easy, cheap and has far less salt, sugar and additives.  When I started applying these guidelines my skin improved markedly.  For all the money we spend on skin care, so many of us do far more damage with the money we spend on convenience food.

Hungry? Eat things like nuts, fruit, berries and skip the muffins.  If you want cake (yes that’s me), then make it yourself.  That way you know what is in it, (far less sugar and fat than the commercial versions) and if you have to go to all that effort for cake you are less likely to eat it so often!

Try to eat as many brightly coloured fruits and vegetables as you can fit into your day.  Keep your grain foods whole and unbleached and avoid prepackaged and frozen meals where possible.  If you work long hours and just don’t have the time to pull together gourmet meals each night (yep that’s me too) then a little forward planning goes a long way.  I like to make up huge batches of vegetable and barley soup to freeze in portions for later, and having both a rice cooker and slow cooker are life savers.  If the cupboards are bare, my fall back position is miso soup with things like bok choy, enoki mushrooms or lots of wakami thrown in. It takes all of about 5 minutes to put together and is just brilliant!

Supplements

I know that the jury is out on this one and people will forever argue about the effectiveness of various supplements, but I take a few that help me along.

Firstly, because I don’t always get the ideal intake of fruits and vegetables, I take a multi vitamin. Nothing fancy, just a basic supermarket kind.  Other than that there are two others that really help my skin along.

OMEGA 3 - Fish oil helps keep my skin soft supple and elastic. It is supposed to be good for my brain and makes up for the lack of regular fish in my diet.

Silica – There is a silica supplement on the market that is touted as improving skin tone, elasticity, hair health and growth as well.  I began taking it in conjunction with a few other things for joint problems, but it also showed in the health of my skin and hair so I’ve continued it.  I won’t say that it is the key to my good skin though, as my skin is very good without it too, but it does help the hair and nails for strength.

Water’s best friend – Tea

Many of you asked after the first skin care post, about whether or not tea counts towards my daily water intake. I drink loads of tea and it is the only thing that gets me through those cold Melbourne mornings.  However, I try to limit my intake of black tea (Earl Grey, Lady Grey, Breakfast tea etc..) and put black tea into the same category as coffee – that is – I don’t count it as “water”.  I drink loads of green, white and herbal teas which are the perfect winter solution. My favorites are- White Rose Tea, Gen Mai Sen Cha, Jasmine and Peppermint.

Not exactly the drinking kind, but another pretty way to enjoy roses and tea.

Sleep

We generally all need far more than we are getting and there is a lot to be said for a deep, restful beauty sleep.  As a Mum, sleep to me is all the more precious as the opportunities to sleep in or cat nap are very few and far between.  For a while there I was taking large doses of iron after being told by the Doctor that my tiredness was due to a lack of iron in my diet.  While that did help me somewhat you’ll never guess what fixed me right up? Yep, sleep! Whenever possible I try and get early night, turning in at the nana hour of 9.30 or even 8.30 on the odd occasion!  Given that I have to wake up about 5.30-6am, I’ve found that it is true that the sleep you get before midnight is the sleep that does you the best. Get yourself a sleep mask, and while your at it, if you have children get one for them too. My girls have them and are enjoying the novelty so much that bedtime is actually fun for them now!

I’d tried all manner of under eye creams for dark circles, different formulas and even spending up to $200 once! But after only four early nights in a row, that sleep wove a magic wand like no cream ever could.  I realise it isn’t always possible and sometimes those evening hours are the only ones we get to ourselves. But if you make it something special, taking yourself to bed early is an even more delicious treat that spending the evening with the boxed set of Mad Men!

Every week I get another email from someone wondering how I get the blonde streak in my hair. How is it achieved and which sections are dyed to create the rolls that I do.

So last time I went in to have a touch up, I asked my kindly hairdresser to take a few shots so I never have to try and describe this again!

My hair is naturally very dark so this has to be achieved with bleaching, but we are careful to take it easy as it does make the hair quite brittle and fragile.  This is another reason that I favour hairstyles that don’t require heat treating because if I did that all that time I’d have a bald patch in no time!

When I first started having my hair coloured this way a few years back, it took several sessions to get the blonde really light.  Initally it was more of a caramel colour, but I favour a really white tone – although in this shot I had a different rinse put in for the week which has since gone back to white.

It does take some maintenance to keep it healthy and the correct colour.  I use treatments both in the salon and at home on a regular basis.   I also use a ‘bluing’ conditioner every other week to stop it yellowing.

Here is how the hair is sectioned out before colouring:

It is two sections about an inch and a half wide that runs from my part down to my ear.

The bleach is applied in individual foils to the roots and eventaully worked through at the end.

They have to be very careful with the bleach application and making sure to clip it right up and out of the way, otherwise the bleach attacks the dark hair around it.

Yep, it’s sexy!

When it is all done and dry it looks like this! As I said, in this shot I had a pink / purple rinse in, (PVO9 for you hairdressers out there) but it washed back out to white for me a week later.

It really is a fairly simple process if somewhat time consuming ( I bring my laptop to work while it comes up), but it is very effective when styled in different ways.  A word of warning though – Unless you are VERY good with using bleach, DON’T try this at home or you could end up with a very big bald patch! I have even had in salon disasters with previous hairdressers who have melted most of this section off!  It requires commitment for the upkeep, but much less than some of the fully coloured hair I have had in the past.

I hope this answers all the questions on the mystery of the blonde streak!

I didn’t go out for dinner on Valentines Day. Instead I decided to share the holiday’s theme with one of my furry best friends.  Little Lola was due for a bit of a wash and a set so we decided to give her a Valentine’s hair do courtesy of a little food dye!  Rest assured, she was completely complient in the act (as much as a dog can be at bath time) as we took all measure of appropriate safety precautions.  Using a little Queens Rose Pink food colouring mixed with dog conditioner, I was able to apply it strategically without too much mess.  I left it on to soak in for about 8 minutes, then rinsed well and dried off.

A few dog treats and a bow later it was all cuddles from my Pink Doggy Valentine!

Love!