Volume Recipe

How do you get volume? I get this question a ton and I must say, I have a pretty darn good answer! Start by holding up sections of hair where you would like volume and spray the roots with a dry shampoo. I like to use Tresemme's Fresh Start Dry Shampoo, but use your favorite brand. Rub the dry shampoo into your roots, it will leave a white film on your hair but rubbing will help blend it in.

find it here

Now on to teasing. Take sections of hair where you sprayed and hold hair vertically with one hand. Take your teasing brush in the other and brush straight downwards to the root (got it? clear as mud?). You want a teasing brush made with boar bristle, those stiff bristles are essential for getting an amazing tease and then help smooth over the top.

 find it here

Lastly, you need to smooth over the teased hair so that you don't have any of your teasing underneath visible. So who knew, dry shampoo does more than just hold you over until your next wash! It gives you some incredible volume!

Poor Mans Product- Shampoo

 My all time favorite Shampoo is Redken's All Soft. Your hair feels AMAZING after you use it! It's great for all hair type's and leaves your hair soft and silky. Of course being a professional product it cost's an arm and a leg. A 300 ml. bottle runs from about $13-15 dollars! 

find at Redken

My poor man version? Tresemme Moisture Rich shampoo and conditioner. Tresemme's whole line of shampoo's and conditioner's are fantastic! They are the only non professional brand that I have felt measure up to the professional one's. My favorite is the moisture rich but they have several different type's and you can choose the one that matches your hair type and needs. And is definitely more budget friendly at $3-5 for about 900 ml.! 

find at Tresemme

So why should you use professional products? I have a few times when I really try to squeeze some professional shampoo into my budget

• If you just colored your hair darker. You just spent a lot of money getting your hair done so treat it well! Non professional products are harsher on your and you will see your color fade faster. If you can only afford one choose a good shampoo over a conditioner.
• I do like to try and use professional shampoo more in the winter time. My hair get's super dry and it's worth the extra money to buy it. However when I do buy it (especially when it's colder) I try to wash my hair only a few times a week. You are saving shampoo and your hair doesn't get as sweaty and dirty as it does in the summer. 
• If my hair is very damaged. If I just highlighted or damaged my hair in some way I will use professional shampoo. In this case a good repairing conditioner is more important than a shampoo, but I'll usually try to use both if it's extremely damaged. 

P.S.- Hope everybody has a very happy Thanksgiving!

Total Eclipse Of The Heart

I promise this is the last Twilight post! I finished the third movie, Eclipse, Sunday and went to see Breaking Dawn with my sister on Monday. I will say this much about Breaking Dawn.... I didn't think it was any worse than the previous 3. Take that statement as you will :)

Edward was looking pretty good in Eclipse hair wise, although his makeup and contacts were not very flattering some of the time. 

I really don't know what to think about Bella's hair. It looked to me like instead of a hair piece or extensions that blended with her natural hair color (or more like didn't blend) she just wore a full wig. It wasn't very bad most of the movie except the very beginning, she has her hair down but combed back showing her hairline and it looks like they either used makeup or some kind of editing trick to blend her hairline with the wig. It seriously drove me CRAZY! I don't know why things like that bug me but they totally do! 

Alice's hair style just gets better every movie, she looks adorable in this one. Jasper's hair looks horrible in this movie. His hair looked way better styled back with more volume!

I didn't really like the way Rosalie's hair was styled and Emmett just looks like he didn't brush his hair that day!

I thought Esme and Carlisle looked okay. Esme hair is a lot darker in this one, can vampire's even dye their hair? 

Jacob looked pretty great this movie. Let's just say after reading the books I was team Edward, but after watching the movie's I am leaning more towards team Jacob!

all photos were found at MTV

So there you have it! It's been a fun filled week of Twilighty goodness and I FINALLY got to see Breaking Dawn. It seems like I have been waiting forever for it to come out. Have any of you seen it yet? What did you think? My favorite part was the wedding! Everyone looked SO good. Perfect hair, flawless makeup. Alice's finger waves were dreamy!

New Moon, New Looks

I watched New Moon last night and in my opinion the movies get a little bit better with each new one. New Moon was a LOT better than Twilight. The acting was getting better and the looks were more polished. 

Let start with Bella. Her hair was much better this movie. It was styled better and her hair extensions weren't as noticeable. Although there are times when you can still see the poorly matched extensions underneath her natural hair. You can kind of see it in this pic, she has a lighter reddish brown natural hair color, then the darker extensions underneath. I felt like they weren't as distracting in this movie. Laurent also looks quite a bit better. His dreads are lightened at the ends and looks more like natural dreadlocks. 

I actually liked Edwards hair better in the first movie. It's a little bit shorter in this one and I think it looks better a little longer :(

I'm liking Alice's hair much more in this movie.It's a little bit longer and styled better. The makeup in this one is sometimes downright awful! They went WAY overboard with some of the characters white makeup and it looks really bad. Although some scenes (like Bella's birthday party) they looked great. 

Everyone else has pretty much the same look as Twilight, just a little more sleek and polished. I loved Esme's hair in the first movie, but it's fun to see her with a different straighter style. She looked great in this one!

Jacob looks about a billion times better in New Moon. His haircut looks amazing (among other things :))!

 Tonight is Eclipse night! I'm getting ready for Breaking Dawn which I'm going to see Monday. Have any of you guy's seen it yet? When are you going to see it? I decided to wait until after the weekend in hopes of avoiding most of the crowd.

Hello, my name is Marie and I'm a Twilightaholic!

I have a love hate/relationship with the Twilight movies. I read the books before the movie was even conceived and fell in love with them. They are a series that I can read over and over again. The problem I have is that before the movie was cast I had my own Twilight world created in my head. I knew what Bella and Edward looked like and acted like and let's just say the cast of the movie was NOT what I had imagined in my head. Actually just one of the cast, Bella. I just CANNOT see Kristen Stewart as Bella. I'm sure she is a lovely girl, she just isn't Bella to me. The rest of the cast is great, my personal favorite is actually  Billy Burke (Charlie). He was not AS big of a character in the book, but Billy Burke was so funny and lovable in the movies! 

So enough about my thought's/rant's about the movies, let's talk about the hair! I'm going to do a 3 part series about twi-hair and it's evolution throughout the 3 movies. I'm having a Twilight marathon before I go see Breaking Dawn next week!

Let's start with Bella. I did like her hair. I think it only helped Kristen Stewart better portray Bella. It's long and simple, and I love her headbands. The one thing that drove me batty (and maybe nobody else noticed this) but she obviously wore a hairpiece to make her hair longer. The problem is that the hairstylist didn't match the hair piece to her natural color very well, so she has reddish brown hair on top and black hair underneath. You really can't notice very often, just in certain lights, but it seriously made me crazy! :)

Now on to Edward! Obviously his look was a BIG hit since pretty much every female on the planet want's to now marry Robert Pattinson. His hair cut and color were perfection in this movie and totally made Edward officially swoon worthy!

 My little boy even rocked the Edward look for a while (minus the ice cream mustache) :)

Carlisle and Esme were just how imagined they would be. Carlisle with his blond neatly styled hair and Esme with a beautiful old fashioned but modern style. 

Rosalie AND Emmett are actually not how I pictured them in the book. I didn't like Emmett's buzzed hair at all. Nikki Reed is probably the last person I would have picked for Rosalie! She has naturally dark hair (anyone remember her from the O.C.?) and I think her dark hair suits her more. Her blond hair just doesn't look natural to me. But she is stunning and her hair is styled beautifully. 

Alice and Jasper are JUST like I imagined them! I really like Jasper's hair, although I wish it was highlighted less (I mean come on, he is supposed to be from Civil War era!). Ashley Greene is a PERFECT Alice. Her hair is cute but I like it the least in the first movie. That annoying little flipped lock at the bottom of her hairline drives me batty, I just wanna take my scissors and snip it off! 

Jacob... oh, Jacob. Long hair is just not for you! I know it's long in the book but this long wig even makes Taylor Lautner look not so hot! Luckily he ditched the wig in the next movie and he turns in to a hottie to rival Edward! 

 Wanna know my favorite hair in the first Twilight movie? Hands down, Victoria. Her hair is beautiful and EXACTLY how I imagined it in the books. The cut, color and style is perfection.

source: All photo's are from MTV

So what do you guy's think? Are there any other twihards out there? How do like the hair in the first movie? Any character's that didn't live up to your own imagination?

Mature Women

Do you ever think about what you will be like when your older? Will you be conservative? Will you sport the "classic grandma" short hair cut and perm (not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that)? When I think of myself I'd like to think I would be like my Great Aunt Dottie. She is in her 80's and a total fireball! She showed up to my wedding with bright red hair, a huge fur coat and lots of big beautiful jewelry. I'm cursing myself right now because I can't find a picture of her anywhere! She is amazing and totally what I want to be like at that age! 

What really got me thinking about this was an older lady that sat in front of me at church on Sunday. In a sea of short, permed old lady hair this woman had purple hair, PURPLE! She had a short, cute cut that was styled spiked out and looked amazing! I was so mad that I didn't have a camera or even my phone with me to take a picture. She was by far one of the coolest old lady's I had ever seen (except for my Aunt Dottie of course!).

Here are some more inspiring older woman with big personalities!

Patricia Field is 70 and a fabulous costume designer. She has styled the cast of Sex And The City, The Devil Wears Prada, Ugly Betty among many others.

source:styleite

Betsey Johnson is another awesome mature woman at the age of 69. She is an AMAZING fashion designer with a big personality, and is known to end her fashion shows by doing a cartwheel down the runway!

 source: the fashion informer, fashionindie

These ladies are so inspiring! Who says you can't still have fun with your look when you get older? What do you guy's think? Short and permed or spiked and purple! :)

Red Lips

The fall season is upon us and I'm starting to see more of my favorite fall makeup trend, red lips. I love red lips! Which is funny because my husband HATES them and makes an annoyed face every time I wear it. But I won't be discouraged and proudly wear my bright shades of lipstick anyways. I don't wear a red lip often but when I do I feel beautiful, even if I'm just sporting it with my pajama's while I do dishes. A bold lip is my absolute favorite beauty trend, and I think anyone can pull it off. Choosing the correct shade of red for your skin tone is SUPER important, it may cost more but purchasing your lipstick at a store like Sephora where you can try on different shades is worth the extra cost. However, Walgreen's and CVS both do returns on opened makeup, so if you get a shade that doesn't work for you just bring in your receipt and packaging and try again!

Here are some inspiring red lip photos:

source:sfgirlbybay

 source:InStyle

 source:makeup geek

 source:vanity fair

Would you like to know my perfect red lip formula? I have pretty fair skin (okay, think 1 step lighter than a white sheet!) and this has been my favorite red lip products. I start with Maybelline Color Sensational lip stain in cherry pop. I start by putting on a first layer and blotting with a tissue. Repeat until you get the desired intensity. 

 I finish with Covergirl Lipslicks in daring. I HATE the feel of lip gloss, but this gives a nice sheer color and gloss but doesn't feel sticky. It's actually very moisturizing and I often use different shades of this like a chap stick.  

So there you have it! What do you guy's think about bold lips? Do you love it or hate it? It can be a hard look to get used to if you have never done it because it's SO dramatic. But if you wear it confidently, you can look gorgeous!

Poor Man's Product

I LOVE product! Product is by far my favorite part of the hair industry. I have tried just about every hair product out there and love trying new things. I loved it so much that in beauty school I took the position of product rep. I took inventory of the school's product, and had to give a few presentation's, which were awful and nearly made me cry :) But every week I got payment in the form of a brand new, lovely product of my choice! But alas, my husband is a student and I am a stay at home mom which equals poor. However much I love all my professional products, it just isn't always possible to get them. So over the years I have tried nearly every store brand product on the market and have found a lot that closely compare to my favorite professional one's. So every week I'll do a poor man's product post and show you a cheaper version of my favorite professional product.

Since it's FREEZING (at least to all the Arizonian's) today it finally feels like fall! It's time to start fixing all those bleached ends from summertime. Here is my favorite professional deep conditioning treatment

Redken Extreme

I will still try and get this if my hair is seriously fried because nothing else beats it! After shampooing towel dry your hair and apply, leave on for 5-15 minutes. Sometimes I'll shampoo my hair in the sink and put this on with a shower cap. I'll leave it on while I watch a show or do some chores and rinse in the shower. Be prepared to be amazed by the condition of your hair afterwards! You can buy this on-line or at your local salon that carries the Redken product line. It costs about $18-25.

The poor man's version is actually a really great product, despite being more wallet friendly. 

Aussie 3 Minute Miracle

I usually use this about once a week. Just apply to towel dried hair and leave on for 3-5 minutes. It work's wonder's and I'll often use it on client's if we did anything with bleach. It is a GREAT product at a WAY lower price, $3-4! You can get this at Target, Walmart, and pretty much any store that has a hair care section. 

Do any of you use these products? Let us know how you like them!

Quick Hairstyles

So most day's my hair is lucky to get brushed let alone done in a style. But for day's where I want to look more human and less like a disheveled momma, I have some quick and easy hairstyles that only take a few minutes.

The Classic High Bun

source: out came the sun

 To jazz the bun up I like to twist a section of face framing hair on each side and pin it back with bobby pins. To get the bun higher I flip my head over to easily get the bun extra high. Secure hair into a pony tail, twist the hair from the pony tail into a bun and secure with pins. This is the easiest hairstyle short of a ponytail and is super trendy right now!

 Milk Maid Braids

source: asuyeta 

I call this the milk maid hairstyle because I totally feel like a milk maiden when I wear it, it's so cute AND easy! Separate hair into two sections like your doing pigtails. Braid each side and secure with clear elastic band. Bring first braid up over crown of head and secure with pins. Bring other braid up and secure with pins. Make sure the ends of braids are tucked in so they are not visible. Finish with hairspray to keep look all day!

Low Braids

source: Hair Romance

This is done a lot like the milk maid hairstyle. Start with two braided pigtails. Instead of bringing the braids over the top of your head your going to bring one side low across the bottom of your hairline. Secure with pins. Then bring the second braid across and over the first one. Secure with pins and make sure the ends of the braids are tucked in. Finish with hair spray!

 source: The Paper Momma

This one is a picture tutorial so there isn't need to explain much. Whenever I do this one I separate my hair into three vertical sections. I twist each section and secure with pin. I finish with hair spray. I think it looks better a little messy so I sort of haphazardly pin the sections. Doesn't this remind you of the hairstyles that were popular in the 90's? I totally rocked the twisted hair look, except I had twists all over my head! Anyways... this is a really easy hairstyle that can be used for long and short hair.

Thanks for the comments! To answer Katie's question I think that ombre looks great on both long and short hair in fact it was a pic of Shenae Grimes that inspired me to try ombre myself! My only advise is to try and get the darker color as close to your natural hair color as possible. Ombre is perfect if you don't want to have to worry about roots growing in! It does seem that people either love or hate this style. It does look like you haven't had a root touch up in a while and some people really just don't like that. For me that's the reason why I LOVE it, because I don't have to worry about my roots for a long time :)

ombre

Probably one of my favorite beauty trends of this last year has been ombre hair color. It can be seen on pretty much EVERY celebrity nowadays and I'm starting to see it out more in public. I even rocked this look for a LONG time, which is super unusual since I change my hair like a mad woman! The trend seemed to start out more dramatic with super dark at the roots and bleached blonde ends. I am loving the more natural, beachy, Victoria's Secret model look that it's turning in to. I mean who the heck doesn't want to look like a Victoria's Secret model (at least have awesome hair like them!)?  Here are some gorgeous pictures to drool over and make you wanna schedule a hair appointment asap!

Start Of Something Great

Hello everyone! I'm starting this blog mostly because of my love of hair. I wanted a place where I can talk about anything I want and hopefully someone else will find it interesting (since my husband isn't as thrilled as I am with the latest beauty trend :)) I also want to answer any questions that anyone might have. Clients ask me tons of questions and I LOVE answering them! If you might have any questions leave them in the comments section and I will do my best to answer.