Hair

Soooooo, this is what happens when you try to braid your own hair but can’t see what’s going on in the back of your head:

You take pics.

Then you look at those pics and wonder if your hair is too messy to wear out in public.

Then you post said pics on the interwebz.

Oh, and peep the gray hair! I’m coming up on the one-year anniversary of my endeavor to grow out my grays.

Y’all know I love messy ‘dos, but I think this might be a tad *too* disheveled. What do you think?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

I splurged on a blowout.

They aren’t something I do often, but when I do get one, I always feel like a million bucks, because when my hair looks good, I feel good!

This one’s by Robyn, a hair stylist and colorist at Elise Armeen Salon, which is located here in Novato.

If you’re local, go see her (check out her work on Instagram)! She’s super fast, really easy to talk to, and based on my hairdo, her blowouts are bomb.

While I was there, we got to chatting about what you can do to keep your blowout fresh and fly for days, because you know what? If you’re gonna throw down a pretty penny to get your hair did, you might as well eke out every last bit of that style. Am I right?

Here’s what Robyn suggested to keep your blowout looking its best:

1. Hands off

First things first: Don’t mess with the final do. Keep your fingers out of your hair, refrain from aggressive brushing, and if you do have to brush, gently use a wide-tooth comb or a paddle brush.

You want to minimize any disturbance to your blowout, so your hair can retain as much of its shape and volume as possible.

2. Keep your distance

This one’s for my girls with flyaways (otherwise known as “my people”). If you have cowlicks or pieces of hair that jut upward at odd angles, instead of using a wax or a hair pomade (products which can rob you of precious volume) to smooth them down, opt for a flexible hairspray, a spray wax or a spray oil.

Use quick bursts of the product applied from a distance — seriously, as far as you can hold your arm out! The farther the better. That way, you can prevent over-applying the product and weighing down your hair.

Do a few quick spritzes, and if you need to, use your fingers to gently smooth wayward flyaways, and then let the product completely dry. At that point, asses whether you need more (Robyn prefers to use as little product as possible when she does blowouts because she like hair with lots of movement). Repeat the process until you’re happy. ?

On my hair, Robyn used a mix of two products: First, she did a few quick mists of Vibrant Sexy Hair Rose Elixir, then followed that up with Moroccan Oil Luminous Hairspray.

3. Pump up the volume

If you’re going to keep your blowout for several days, Robyn suggests asking your stylist to maximize the volume, because as days go by, the volume will decrease, and if you start off on day one with a flatter style, by the next day, your hair will look even flatter.

Basically, you want some room for your hair to deflate.

To dial up the volume, Robyn started by shampooing and conditioning my hair. Then she scrunched a volume-enhancing mousse (Moroccan Oil Volumizing Mousse) into my roots, and sprayed a “memory” styling spray that retains the shape of blow-dried curls and straightened sections (Vibrant Sexy Hair Memory). She also applied a smoothing serum (Moroccan Oil Blow-Dry Concentrate) on my wet hair from the mid-shaft to the ends.

For added volume around my bangs, Robyn blew out a few sections of hair, rolled the sections into big curls, and fastened them into place with metal hair duck bill clips.

She then allowed those sections to cool, which sets the shape of the strands and increases the volume even more.

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