Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for.

Here are a couple of things that I am thankful for.

Harles

Chop Chop

JP, my hubby

Margo, my sister

Georgia

My Parents

I am so lucky to have so many things to be thankful for, that I couldn't even list them all here.

<3 Andi

The Ball Has Started Rolling...

     Picture me as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the huge round stone barreling behind me. The stone is the impending move that is coming whether I am ready or not, and it is rolling faster and faster. Maybe it's not this dramatic, but this is how I feel. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. It is just very hard for me to comprehend all of this at once.
     This is my crazy schedule for the next couple weeks. This coming Saturday I am driving down to Miami to see JP's family. Right after Turkey Day we fly out of Miami, leaving unassuming Georgie with my in-laws, to go to Germany. We will be there for one week, trying to find an apartment. This will be my first trip outside of North America. Then we fly back to Miami, pick Georgia up, and drive back to Atlanta. Then I have two weeks to finish everything I need to get done, packing things, donating things, selling things, throwing things away. Next we drive up to Michigan to see my family for Christmas and then it is back to Miami again to turn in JP's car to the dealership. Back to Atlanta, one more time, the movers will come the first week of January. Finally we will be in Germany for JP to start work January 11th! I feel like I held my breath the whole time I was writing that.
     The next couple of weeks will obviously be very busy for me. I originally was going to end my blog contest at the end of November but I am going to end it tomorrow night, November 18th, at midnight. That way I can send out the prizes before I leave for my house hunting trip. Anyone who still wants to get in on the contest should do so now or forever hold your peace.
     This won't be my last post of the year, (I hope) but I wanted to wish everyone a great Holiday Season! I can't believe how fast it has snuck up on us.

Saturday Night in the City

     Lately we have been spending Saturday nights at home, watching a movie and cooking in. This weekend we were invited by a couple in our building to go to dinner, we'll call them Mark and Angela. 

     Now I am going to be very honest, these aren't our favorite people. We met them over the summer, and between now and then we have gone to dinner with them a couple of times but every time has been just ok. No real connection to these people. Every time we see these two there is always just something strange about them, especially Mark.

     So you are probably asking yourself, why would we even choose to go out with them? After weeks of just sitting at home, I jumped at the opportunity to get my husband to take me into the city. Not only that, they suggested to go to our favorite restaurant. So I figured, why not? Well I will tell you why we shouldn't have in a minute. 

     First let me get to my "Look" for the night. I decided to do something totally different than what I normally do with my make up and I curled my hair. 

     To curl my hair like this, I parted my hair in one inch vertical sections from the parting at the top to the bottom hairline. Then I took these large sections and wrapped them around the curling iron, away from my face, without opening the clamp. I did both sides and then the back. If there were shorter layers that  didn't curl as well I went back over them, again, away from my face. At the very end I brushed my hair out with a paddle brush, and then took my hands, flat, one on the bottom of my hair, one on the top and smoothed the hair back down. That last step is hard for me to explain, hopefully you understand what I mean.

     For my eye makeup, I used MAC. Parfait Amour and Vibrant Grape on the lid, Graphology in the crease and Phloof as a highlight. It is a little more complicated than that so I will go through step by step. 

     After applying my foundation, concealer and powder, I applied Beige-ing Shade Stick to my entire lid and a little above. Then I blend it in with my finger. This makes a good base for the colors to stick to and makes them more vibrant. Then I took MAC brush 224 and did a nice coat of Parfait Amour all over my lid. Then next step is eyeliner. MAC Pearlglide in Molasses very close to the lash line from the center of the lid to the outside. Then I take MAC Brush 228 and smudge that all the way out so it doesn't look like a line anymore. This then acts in the same way as the Shade Stick to help the next color to show up better. Then I used MAC 266, a small angled brush and the Vibrant Grape along the lash line and blended up and in the outer V. In the outer V, I used MAC Brush 272 to blend. Then I did another coat of the liner and went over that with the Graphology and the 266 Brush, and went up into the crease with the 272. Then finally I used Phloof as the highlight and applied it with MAC Brush 219, right below my brow and to the inner corner of the eye.

     Back to the story. We got a call from the Mark saying that the restaurant we had originally planned on going to was closed for a private party that night, the whole reason I had agreed to go in the first place. Oh well, they said they were going to a different restaurant and we met them there. They had chosen to sit right next to the band. We hadn't seen these people in months and we sat there silently, all dinner, because in order to talk we had to scream. There was a whole other section of the restaurant where you could still hear the band but not as loudly. Then, any talking they did was to complain about the band.... Why did they sit there?

    Another weird thing was that they kept leaving the table to go to the bathroom, not together but at different times. Mark was acting very different after the first time and after the last time Mark got back, he just started putting on his coat without saying anything. The band had just taken a break so speech at this time was possible. JP, my husband, said, "Where are you going?" Mark said, "Getting the eff out of here." (He didn't say eff) Angela finally said that they were going to a bar down the road where she knew someone. We decided to go with them, even after the awkward dinner. I guess I figured we had come all the way into the city we might as well stay out for a little bit.  

     We get to the bar and Mark makes a big deal about being a Firefighter when they make us pay to get in. JP and I just pay for everyone to end the scene. When we get in, they leave us to go find the friend in VIP. JP and I figure we just paid to get in here so we are going to have a fun time and we start dancing. I am secretly hoping they never come back and find us... Unfortunately, they did. They had obviously been fighting she was trying to hide that she was crying, he was trying to make small talk with JP. They finally went off to talk somewhere privately. We waited probably about 10 minutes and took that as our cue to leave. 

     We almost ran to our car. It had been such an awkward night... At least I looked cute. LOL

Two Reds Don't Make it Right... and new hair for me too!

     Last night at the CMAs, two beautiful ladies unexpectedly (to me) showed up with red locks. Kellie Pickler and Nicole Kidman both took a page out of Reba's book and warmed up their blonde hues. I think that it is no secret that I love me some red hair, but that doesn't mean that I love it on everyone.

Kellie Pickler

vs.

Nicole Kidman

 

Who wore it better, hair edition.

     I think that a lot of blondes, whether they are natural blondes or bottle blondes, associate themselves with being blondes. This has nothing to do with your natural color and everything to do with the way you feel about yourself, and your personality. I am not talking about dumb blonde stereotypes either. There are many serious and very intellectual blondes, and they still consider themselves a blonde. Kellie is not one of those by any means.

     As a hairstylist, I get plenty of blondes who want to color their hair for the fall and winter to a deeper shade. It is my job to talk them out of coloring their hair all over and into doing lowlights. Why? Because a blonde will always be a blonde, and more often than not, I will see that same person in less than a month asking for highlights again. That is traumatic for your hair. Even more so, if the person has decided to go red. Red is that hardest shade to keep in the hair, but also the hardest to get out.

   

      While Nicole and Kellie both looked beautiful last night as redheads, I think there is one clear winner. Nicole. Not only is she comfortable being a redhead, she didn't change that drastically from what she had before. She is still a very light strawberry blonde. Even if she wanted to go back to blonde the process wouldn't be quite so hard. Kellie, on the other hand, went very dark compared to her old look, and I predict that the next time we see her she will be back to her usual self. I don't think she will last very long at all.  Sorry Kellie. I blame the person that did this to you.

Last and very least, is me.  I made a color change about a month ago but I never posted a picture , except for my profile picture. Now that I've had my hair cut too, I figured I should share. This is, after all, my Hair Blog. I figure now was an appropriate time, introducing two new redheads, and one who stepped away from red for now.... I will always consider myself a redhead, and it won't happen in a month, but I will always be back.

 
I am still running the contest in the post 2 below this one. You have until the end of November to enter!

Have a great hair day!
<3 Andi

Katie Holmes on the Cover of Elle

Ok, enough people have asked, and, honestly, I am getting tired of typing the same instructions to individual people.  Not that I don't love you all! I will just put it in one place for everyone to reference...

Obviously, I am talking about Katie Holmes hair on the her Elle cover. It is a beautiful picture, and her hair looks gorgeous, but how does one achieve that style at home? I am going to be honest, she has someone fluffing her hair every 10 shots to look like this.....but a girl can dream.

Still I will break it down, step by step, how to come as physically possible to this flawless look as possible.

Visual Inspiration

Besides your blow dryer, you will need,



 A large round brush

 A mousse

 A flat iron













Start with wet hair and apply some volumizing mousse. I like Aveda's Phomollient, shown above.

Focus your attention with the dryer first to the bangs if you have them, just to be sure they don't dry funky.

Then, tip your head upside down, and blow the roots dry. Pulling them away from the head with your other hand.

Once, the roots are dry, get the ends mostly dry as well, with just the dryer.

When the hair looks dry but still feels damp, start using a round brush. I clip the hair up from about the ear, all the way around to the other ear, up with a clip.

When you are drying with a brush always make sure you are using tension and blowing the hair down the hair shaft. This helps close the cuticle and make the hair smooth and shiny.

Do the entire section that is not in the clip, just slightly under. If it isn't perfect don't worry.

Next run a flat iron over this section quickly, focusing on the ends to take most of the curl out. You don't want it stick straight, but slightly angled in towards the face. To do this hold your flat iron with a slight angle inward. This also helps to tuck under fly aways.

Let the clipped up section down, and again section away the crown area. From the crown to the front hairline and about 3 inches wide. Clip that mohawk section back up.

This section I would also blow slightly under but with this section as you are releasing the hair from the brush, sweep it to the back of the head instead of just straight down.

Now for the third section. This is the most important section. When I am doing this section of my own head I literally turn off the blow dryer and set it down in between each small subsection that I do. Then I take the next small sub section and get it positioned in the brush before I turn the dryer on to it.

Start this section in the crown and take horizontal sections all the way across the 3 inch section and only 1 inch thick. Then clip the rest of the section forward so you don't pick up extra hair in the brush.

Repeat the same as above, moving forward toward the hair line.

Once you get to the front, take the bangs and blow then back as well.

Now, run your fingers through your hair to finish the style. Rearranging the hair how you like it to fall.

If any pieces are too tucked under, quickly go over them with the flat iron to lessen the curl.

I am sure they also used some kind of texturizing product on the ends to make it more piecey, which you can do if you would like. I just hate the way those products feel in my hair.

I hope this helps!

Don't forget to enter my blog contest in the post below this one!

Have a good hair day!
<3 Andi

Contest!

BLOG CONTEST ENDING NOVEMBER 18TH AT MIDNIGHT!!!

     Many things can cause your hair to accumulate build up, products, hard water, chlorine, etc. There are many ways to keep this under control.
     For the ladies who don't color their hair I suggest using a clarifying shampoo. Depending on your unique conditions you could use this anywhere from once a week to once a month. If you swim in a pool, have hard water, use a lot of waxy products or use a drugstore brand shampoo, you should use it once a week followed by a deep conditioner, preferably a salon brand that won't just start building back up on your hair.
     For those of us who do color our hair, and this is probably most of us, a clarifying shampoo can strip your color or cause it to fade too quickly. Using it a couple of times just before you color your hair is better than nothing, but it may not be enough. A better solution is to do a Malibu Wellness treatment on your hair no more than 3 days before your next coloring. They actually make different treatments for different situations, swimmers, blondes and dull hair just to name a few. This helps to remove build up that may inhibit the color from processing correctly, this enhances the vibrancy of the color and provides a more true to color result, among doing other things for the hair.

Here is the link to the Malibu Wellness site.

     I have three of the Malibu Wellness Color Prepare treatments to give away. To enter this contest all you have to do is become a follower of my blog and comment on this post. If you are already a follower just leave a comment. Don't forget to include your email address in the comment so I can let you know if you win! The winner will be chosen randomly. The deadline to enter is Monday, November 30th at midnight. NOVEMBER 18TH AT MIDNIGHT!