TRYING NEW THINGS

One of my resolutions this year was to learn how to do my hair and make up beyond my basic routine. I’m not totally incapable, but the learning process is really slow for me. I am trying though, and I’m sharing it here because I know I’m not the only one who struggles with this stuff. Read on if you’d like to learn from my mistakes, or offer up any advice (I can always use it!).

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I’ve mentioned using The Small Things Blog before, and I turned there again this time for a braided ponytail look. Kate’s hair is a lot shorter than mine, but her tutorials are a lot easier to follow than others I’ve seen of women with longer hair, so it’s a trade off. For the updo’s, length matters and I had some difficulty with one for a Christmas party, but I was able to make it work. This particular tutorial was super easy, probably easier even, with my long hair. The only annoying part was the wrapping and wrapping and wrapping of hair around the elastic, but it wasn’t difficult. It actually came out really cute, and more practice will make it better (I fixed the spread out hairs as I was running out the door after that picture). If I could change one thing, I would recommend girls with longer hair split and braid one side at a time, keeping the other in a loose elastic. Everything below the clip fell into my eyes while I was trying to focus on my second-ever-in-my-life dutch braid.

I also tried a new make up tutorial. I’m really not well armed at school in terms of beauty supplies. I needed a more pink copper color, but all I had was brown. I actually used all the colors I normally use. It darkened the look, and I ended up using a little brown eyeliner to make it look more intentionally deep, but not as dark as black. I also don’t have a thin angled brush here, but I do have a little lip gloss brush. I used a drop of water in the top of the compact to help deepen the brown and make the brush create a sharper line. I proceeded to spend nearly the rest of the day looking for more ideas. I have to say, it’s really hard to find simple make up ideas. I was able to find tons of cool hairstyles, but if you have any great make up ideas, send me the links!

Finally.. Wait, take a second to enjoy that yummy, shine-inducing fluorescent lighting….. Okay. I believe in the importance of not washing hair daily, natural oils keep everything really healthy and I notice a huge difference in the amount of breakage based on how often I wash. So as I’m looking up ideas, I’m looking for styles that don’t require washing. After wearing the Double Braided Ponytail on Saturday and taking it down that night, Sunday I pulled it to the side and tied two big chunks in a knot and banded it with a clear elastic in a side pony. I added decorative elastic with a big green button that my dad got for me in South Korea, because why not? The crimped pieces from the braids added texture which fought the look of any grease. I’ve seen this knotted look done in multiple places, I need to try to look it up again because mine didn’t come out quite like I remember seeing it, but it still looked nice so I was happy.