Lovely Flower Crown Inspiration

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Did you all have a happy Valentine's Day? Are you waiting until the weekend to go out with your honey? With your girls? Lounge around at home? It doesn't matter, you can still get prettified by putting some flowers in your hair!

The Beauty Department has a step by step photo tutorial on how to pin flowers in your hair so that they will stay. Just use hair pins to push through the middle of the flower!
 

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To make a gorgeous flower crown, you can use florist's tape to hold them together using long stems or a wire. An excellent step by step tutorial can be found here on A Practical Wedding.

I love this simple, understated look. Beautiful for a wedding, Renaissance fair, special event, or just for fun. It sits back on the head so as to not overwhelm the face.

But if you are going for an all out look, Style Noted has some excellent ideas on how to wear flower crowns. Hair that has a soft, natural texture really tends to compliment this lovely accessory. Have you ever worn a flower crown, or would you ever? I would love to hear about it! I plan on wearing a lovely pink rose this weekend :)

Personal Style: Strawberry Skirt

Woah, I haven't done one of these outfit posts since my belly shot round-up! So, this is my 4 months after having my baby girl! I like this skirt/belt combo b/c it does a fairly decent job of camouflaging baby gut.

So, the Goodwill back in Watauga/ Fort Worth that I totally miss has this 'retro' section, where they put all the good, collectable stuff. I got this skirt in that section, it's a reversible, wrap skirt and it's awesome. I taught a lesson to the teens at church this Sunday about healthy living, so strawberries seemed like a good choice. One of the girls told me I looked like a strawberry :) And since cold times are approaching, this summery skirt won't be 'in season' for long.

I made this necklace, and have the last one for sale in my shop. A huge, vintage glass jewel on vintage 1960's brass chain. I love it and got tons of compliments on it!

 I love this belt, a fun, vintage thrift store find that closes with velcro. Awesome.

Seriously, I am a hairstylist. Why did I allow my hair to get this bad?! Maybe childbirth, a month of pneumonia, severe eye infections, painful foot stuff, school starting, moving and all that had somethin' to do with it. HuhIdontknow. I used a mix of 7/7, 7/03 and 6/0 in ColorTouch and 1.9 developer to make this semi-permanent heathery brunette. I only left it on the ends for a few minutes for a light coverage there, so it left a bit of an ombre effect on the highlights. Just what I was going for, perfect for fall and not too different from my natural color. And yes, I do put it on my eyebrows. Gotta match, you know!

 *la camera caught me in a rare mom moment of finger shaking and gentle scolding*
outfit post details on smashion

Personal Style: Stripes, Pencil Skirt and a Haircut

I love the loose, blousy, boxy, off the shoulder striped thing going on, but those styles don't seem to work on me, and the ones that do, are a little too pricey. So, I went for the blue and white classic vneck that I love, and this cute, pale gray pencil skirt. Earlier, I paired this top with some thrifted, jcrew, light linen city trousers, but I didn't get pics of that day. I guess I really like this top in light colored, unexpected pairings.

As for the haircut, I was giving length advice to another mom who asked, "Does anyone ever really regret cutting their hair?" As a hairstylist, I have seen grown women cry over getting 1/4th an inch cut off. Another woman chimed in, "My hairstylist said that if you spend 50% of the time with your hair in a ponytail, it's time for a new style."  Bingo, that did it for me, and besides, my ends were looking shot and needed to go. I went, grabbed some scissors and cut at my shortest layer for a completely straight and unlayered look. I added an angled bang and bam, was done. A few days went by and it felt heavy still though. I know I can layer my own hair, it has an odd texture and wave pattern that i trust with no one but myself... but I decided on a whim to walk into a salon and have some choppy layers added. I have a love/hate relationship with them now. You will find out why and see the new-new haircut in the next outfit post.

(yes, it was very windy while taking these pictures)

shirt: abercrombie
skirt: banana republic, thrifted
belt: calvin klein, thrifted
watch: fossil
shoes: thrifted
necklace: made by me

Easy and Simple Hair Style Tutorials

Messy low side ponytail tutorial via A Cup of Jo

As a hairstylist, you may find it amazing that I only blow dry my hair about 10 times a year.  I usually pull it up, or let it air dry in loose waves. I do apply product and help sculpt those waves, but my hair is much healthier without the constant heat damage. Since it's already getting so hot here in Texas, and frizz season is upon us, I found it fitting to post some of my favorite casual hair styles that can be pulled off the face from fashion bloggers, that are easy and stylish. Ponytails are so blah, so make it a bit more fun!

I used a thick strip of lace to accent this bun.

I made a loose ponytail, then pulled out the front crown area, twisted it and pined it in.

I did the same thing here, just with a bun. Pulling the front and twisting it gives a little more style and volume.

Braided top bun tutorial via Cup of Jo

The perfectly messy french bun  tutorial via Experience Parisienne

Three cinnamon buns three buns hair tutorial via Cup of Jo

Triple bun can be seen here on Ashley too.

 Ashely from I Believe in Unicorns has amazing long hair style. 

 This ponytail roll is so cute.. looks very easy to do as well. After you secure your ponytail, take a thin section of hair and wrap it around the elastic and pin in place. Then, take your tail and roll it under, also pinning it in place.  If you do a bit of backcombing prior to doing the ponytail, your pins will stay more secure.

 Her loose side updo is perfectly unperfect.

  

 Love Ashley's hair bow. I don't think I have long enough hair to attempt it.

 Love Kristine's hapahazard bun. It's clipped back at the bangs and loosely pulled back low on the side.

 Kristine's floral headscarf is tied in a knot over this loose bun.

Kristine's high side bun is unusual in that it's tight, but it's so cute on her.

 Kristine's low, side ponytail is loosely wrapped under the elastic for a full effect. 

It looks like she has a twist going on near her side part as well..

 Sydney has a simple braid one one side of the hairline, and pulled into a low, side wavy ponytail.

 Sydney's famous bun that sparked her Bun turorial video.

Also, Elaine from Clothes Much has a super cute crown braid tutorial here.

Personal Style: Clown to Beachy Waves in a Single Day

I changed about 100 times on Saturday. I had on a 'professional' outfit for a facepainting gig in the morning. Came home, changed to go to my son's soccer game. Came home, went through a billion steps to get into clown for another little party doing face painting and balloons. Came home. Got ready to go out to the movies with friends and the family. Came home. Put on my comfy work out clothes. Passed out after listening to The Gregory Brothers for like hours. (And I'm seeing them on my birthday this week... weee!)

I'm looking a little tired.

 
My hair was majorly kinky from pinning my hair up to wear under my wig. So, I decided to basically tease the junk out of it and loosely pin a small section back on one side. I suppose I could have put it in a bun or ponytail, but it feels like that's all I've been doing lately. So, for me, these beachy type waves worked in my schedule.

 

(No matter how hard I scrubbed, I couldn't get all the redness off from around my mouth. And even though cooking oil is suggested for cleaning off pro clown make-up... I just can't bring myself to do it. So, I just embraced the hot pinkness. I'm looking a bit like a crazy person here.)

Yes, this is the back of my head... I'm including it to illustrate those semi- loose knotted twists can turn into somewhat pretty kinky waves after a few hours of setting in dry hair... especially if you have embraced the asymmetrical mismatched layers like I have.

To do them, just twist your hair into sections, being careful to maintain your natural part, like I did in the photos. Twist and twist until they form little twisty balls and pin them against your head, criss crossing bobby pins help them hold. I don't even have them that tight. I had them in for about 4--5 hours, and got fairly loose kinky waves. If you do them very tight and leave them in all day, you will get a more crazy and pronounced wave.

For more classic curls, be sure you tuck the ends in and you do a snail shell like and uniform pattern while twisting. Mine are more haphazardly done, some are much smaller and tighter, while others are larger and looser than others. This helps create more movement and texture in the end wave. Now, I could go on and on about doing wet styling or classic old Hollywood glamour finger waves, or pin curls but that's a little advanced for this messy look I'm doing. You can see plenty of video tutorials online however.

Sometimes, they are cute worn alone too. If you decide to try these twists, I'd love to see how they turn out!

How to Wear: Lovely, Casual Braids

Model and actress Farris Patton is certainly stunning. I don't know if it's due to her features, the clothing styling or her flaxen hair, but doesn't her ability to pull off a hint of a loose, non-constricting braid look stunning?

As a hairstylist, I would hope I had the ability to pull it off. Surely, I would look more like a Pippy Longstocking though. But today, I'm going to give it a shot. I think that keeping it low, slightly disheveled, yet smooth is the key point, while keeping the rest of your hair carefree.

For a top part braid like in the first pic, lots of ideas here and instructions here. The skinny tight braid is old news, keep it low and loose, work it into a smooth, but messy side bun. Tons of ideas online.

This is a fishtail braid. Fergie has one here with pretty good instructions on how to do it.

Remember to keep it somewhat tight when braiding, but pull pieces apart when done.

The hidden braid. You don't even need to tie it off for a natural look. Just add a hint of gel or wax to your hands when you braid and then twist a bit of wax over the braid once you are done. Happy experimenting!