Latest Trends: Feathers!!!

Finally! A fresh trend in hairdressing! Feather extensions are going to be the biggest thing for 2011. Sleek and shocking, it's a new twist on highlights . They add a hint of trendiness and edge to any color or length and have been showing up on celebs everywhere! The ones seen above, you can wash, heat style, or curl with your normal hair. They last about 3 months. They come in all different colors, so they can be subtle or bold. They will be perfect this summer for outdoor concerts, road trips, all those things that leave your hair blowing in the wind. I am learning how to do them for my portfolio, so practical application will come soon. By summer, they will be relatively affordable, and a great option for someone who wants to add some temporary zing to their look.

Up until now, feathers have been popular amongst hipsters and rockers, in a trend that I also see going mainstream for 2011, the braided accessories. Much like this:

This is a look that's easily achievable at home and I predict will be overused by teenagers everywhere :)
To get this look:
You will need:

• Feather
• Duckbill clips
• Dry Pomade
• Small braiding rubber bands

1. Take a  clean parted 1" section from underneath the round of the head
2. Clip down all the other hair underneath with a duckbill clip
3. With a small bit of dry pomade, smooth down any flyways or frizzes within your section
3. Braid the section down to wherever you would like the feathers to land (Play with different lengths within your cut!)
4. Arrange the feathers in your hand so that the feather bellies will wrap around the outside of the braid well. This is an important step in the overall look of your accessory.
5. Secure them at the base with the clear rubber band, wrapping around as many times as you can. The rubber band will grab the baby fuzz at the base of the feather and will keep it from slipping.

Voila'! Sexy rocker hair! To get that tousled, bed-heady look to go along with it, wrap strands of hair loosely around your curling iron in a spiral pattern (switching directions on each row) and spray with Paul Mitchell Texturizing Spray .

And to wrap up this post on the feather hair trend, a tutorial on one of my favorite braids by Janine from Shear Genius!

Mirepoix or model, this girl's good. Part I

Wow, what a week! I have been working hard the past few weeks coming up with ideas for my portfolio photo shoot, and all that work recently paid off! I spent two days doing hair in Murfreesboro and a good 4 or 5 hours on set, and I couldn't have asked for better results. I pushed my own limits and really learned a lot. I'm really still processing some of it, what a whirlwind! I am lucky, because I have beautiful and talented friends that make this all worthwhile, and together, we all make an amazing team! I'd like to focus on each model specifically, because the amount of change all three of them went through is worth it, and I learned so much from each one.

Today, I'd like to focus on Lauren. Shes' a beautiful girl and an amazing cook. Here's a link to her blog, Mirepoix.  She's been a friend of mine for a long time, she has GREAT hair,  and she is adventurous enough to let me do generally whatever I want to her hair, which makes her invaluable. Here's a great picture of her before I got hold of her mane. She'd already made a great color choice for her complexion. I love the medium auburn on her. So for her "makeover" I really wanted to brighten that and add some dimension. I had put some blonde in her hair before. Blonde highlights, no matter how bright, against any warm red just look astonishing, so I really wanted to play with dimension, brighten up her red,  and pull some thick blonde all throughout.
After studying Wella's color line, here's the red formula I went with:

6R + 7R + 042 / 20v

 This, I was not happy with. The red was not vibrant enough and the roots were hot. I have come to realize that I just don't like Wella's reds after this adventure, and that's okay. It's hard... SO HARD... to find a good red line out there. I'm sure my hands will fall off after putting this out into the blogosphere, but I (apologetically) don't even love Paul Mitchel the Color's reds. Other things I discovered; I added the gold in order to make the red pop, but I think the 042, which is wella's pure gold pigment, desaturated the red too much.

I WILL NOT forget about this blog!

I think I've probably started at least 20 blogs through my internet career and they've all fallen by the wayside when I loose interest/ get distracted. Not this one. A friend of mine finally saw it and encouraged me to actually keep it up so I am pushing myself extra hard to at least blog once a week. Here's to hoping it works.

Anyway, it's snowing here, and I'm all thera-flued up so today will be spent planning. I finally have a portfolio shoot! So soon, though... it's Thursday! I have to get my plans, sketches, and supplies by Wednesday and no one's going anywhere today. So planning it is.

I have been putting together ideas for different models in a slide show. For example, here's a link to Sarina's inspiration. Unfortunately, all those plans were long term and we just so happen to have been able to make plans for sooner, so i have a few models and 4 days. Hello reality show, anyone?

I'll be updating later with my progress...

Wish me luck!