Super Sleek Hair is Back

Super Sleek Hair is Back

Super Sleek Hair is Back! 3 Easy Steps on How to Do It Without Over Doing It.

Image Source: Photo Source: Albert L. Ortega/PR Photos

For quite some time it’s been difficult to turn on the tube or hit the cinema without witnessing luxurious volume and big blown out waves, and these hairstyles have been heavily coveted, and not easily maintained by the average viewer. And though big volume and beautiful blow outs are well worth the effort, you may be happy to hear that when it comes to trends, gone are the days of the starlet blown out look, as today’s Tinseltown queens have been sporting sleek new locks that are straight and elegant. While this look is pretty, if you don’t have bone straight hair it can be tricky particularly in winter where one is much more prone to catch the wrong wind, precipitation, or get caught too long in a flurry or two. So how do you achieve this look, and maintain it all day once you’ve got it? Easy, just a few simple tools and steps and you are well on your way to a gorgeous sleek main.
Tools you will need: Flat iron, straightening balm, hair gel (just a smidge), and moisturizing cream. Yep, that’s right!
Step 1 – Use your flat iron to flatten your hair from root to tips. And yes, even if you have straight hair, use it.
Beauty Tip – If you DON’T have straight hair, keep the iron on your locks longer than normal. It will straighten, and if you DO have straight hair, you only need to sweep it down your hair like you would a brush. You don’t want too much heat on your hair if you don’t have to.
Step 2 – Use a straightening balm over your locks once they’ve had the iron once over. You only need to smooth it over your already straight hair. Rub a drop and smooth it over, that’s all you need for stay put style.
Step 3 – If you have really stubborn locks, you will need to go a step further and this is where the hair gel comes in. Just rub a smidge between your palms and smooth it over your straight hair. You can bring back the flat iron and lock in the gel for an all day hold.
Beauty Trick – Here’s where the moisturizer comes in, and you can use whatever brand you like. As the day progresses, if you find yourself stuck with some flyaways, rub a dab of moisturizer between your palms and smooth it over. Your locks will be sleek AND shiny all over again. Too much and you will look like you really need a shower!

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Vintage at Goodwood

Vintage at Goodwood

Vintage at Good wood: retro chic comes of age

Vintage has had a rocky ride to respectability. The Noughties saw the word become fashionable and then ubiquitous. Kate Moss paraded her Twenties flapper dresses, Topshop got in on the act, and vintage megastore Beyond Retro in east London became a hipster hangout. From T-shirts to tea sets, it became a watered-down label applied to anything second-hand. Now the pendulum has swung back: vintage is special again.

“Today, 'vintage’ is overground and it’s hard to find a town without a vintage clothes shop,” says Wayne Hemingway, designer and founder of Red or Dead, who has collected vintage since his youth. “But when I was growing up, wearing second-hand signified you were poor.”

To channel his passion, Hemingway, along with his wife Gerardine and their children, has created the UK’s first vintage festival, Vintage at Goodwood. A three-day celebration of fashion, music and culture, this weekend’s inaugural event will feature the largest gathering of vintage clothes stalls the country has ever seen. “Vintage fashion is a win-win. It’s about upcycling [converting old materials into a new product], recycling, thriftiness and great design. I felt this was the right time to celebrate it and show people how good vintage links music, fashion and film.”

Another long-term collector, Carmen Haid, gave vintage a respectable boost last year when she set up Atelier Mayer (atelier-mayer.com), an online emporium selling gems such as Halston from the Seventies and Nina Ricci from the Sixties. “I loved Net-a-Porter, but there was nothing like it for luxury vintage fashion. We have customers all over the world who buy our pieces because they want to look different, but want good service with it.” A shop opened to follow the website in Bayswater, west London, last summer.

Vintage at Goodwood and Atelier Mayer encapsulate the movement’s new image: polished, accessible and done with passion. They show that vintage can be relevant without being overhyped. But how do you class something as vintage?

“Strictly speaking, items have to be more than 25 years old,” says Haid. “We do take things up to the Nineties, but only if it is a fabulous piece.”

Hemingway sees the lines as more blurred: “I think it takes 20 years for something to look good. For me, it’s hard to class something from the Nineties as vintage. I personally wonder how anyone can be celebrating the Eighties again as, to me, it’s too recent, but it’s fresh to anyone under the age of 30. There’s nothing wrong with different generations interpreting vintage in their own way.”

Echoing New York’s established vintage scene, there’s a new breed of shops that offer well-chosen second-hand pieces at affordable prices, and with good shopping experiences. Wolf & Gypsy (wolfandgypsyvintage.co.uk), a new boutique in Brighton, offers an uncluttered selection in an airy, wood-floored shop. “Everything is hand-picked and I want customers to see that,” says Laura Pollard, Wolf & Gypsy’s co-founder. “I display the pieces to show off their character and charm, and the space makes for a pleasant shopping experience. These days, customers don’t want to visit a thrift shop that’s stacked to the ceiling.”

This appeals to the fashionable, time-conscious customer of today – and makes perfect sense. If you’re spending the same on a vintage dress as you would on the high street, you want the same level of comfort and service. These days, we don’t want to get our hands dirty finding bargains. Unearthing a forgotten gem is a hard task, which is why shops will often search on your behalf.

But for those who can’t stomach wearing cast-offs, however good a condition, vintage inspiration is never far away. Designer labels take endless cues from fashion that’s come before: just look at Chloé’s Seventies-esque trousers for autumn, Miu Miu’s Sixties-style minis or Louis Vuitton’s Fifties-look dresses.

Canny high-street brands, including Toast, Anthropologie and Fever, use vintage shapes each season. “We visit vintage shops and flea markets in New York, Los Angeles, Bangkok and Singapore for influences in both print and shape,” says Matt Barker, creative director of Fever (feverdesigns.co.uk). “A Forties dress can be inspirational, for instance, because they were cut on the bias to get the best shape possible. We might combine a Forties cut with a Seventies print, and end up with a dress that’s really interesting. Customers don’t always just want newness.”

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Easy Step of Hair

Easy Step of Hair

Sleek is Chic. Again. 4 Easy Steps To Get Your Hairstyle There

Image Source: Bob Charlotte / PR Photos

It seems that Hollywood can’t make up their mind with this trend. The super sleek look was hot about four years ago, and then got all tousled and mussy over the last little while, but award season has turned the tides yet again. Sleek is chic again and if you are looking for a new look, sleek, straight hair may be just what you need to change your look without making any drastic changes. Whether your hair is long or short, straight locks that are also uber glam are easy no matter HOW late you are waking up in the morning.
Tools You Will Need: clips or bobby pins, fine tooth comb, flat iron (ceramic is recommended), straightening serum, shine spray or mist

Step 1: Separate hair into sections (with your clips or pins) that are as wide as your flatiron.

Step 2: For each section, start at the root with your comb, and glide your flat iron down each section. If you don’t have one and are looking for one, you want to get a flat iron that is ceramic, and if you can afford it, from a salon. These will be the best for your hair as they are often ionized and easier on the hair shaft.

Step 3: Smooth some straightening serum over your palms and then run them through your hair. To lock in the straightening serum, just smooth the flatiron real quick over your hair one last time.

Step 4: If you are happy with the sleek as it is, but if you want to glam it up a bit, don’t be afraid to smooth or mist over some glossing serum.

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Antique Hair Comb

Antique Hair Comb

My Antique Hair Comb Collection

Introduction

Some of us are born collectors. We can’t help it; we see, we want, we collect. I own collections of collections—tiny boxes, cat figurines, jewelry, books, blues CDs, black shoes, crystals, and so on. I can’t help myself.

But some of my collectibles are more ornamental than others, especially my antique hair comb collection. I have them mounted on a long piece of celadon brocade, and display them as a wallhanging.

Comb #1

I’ve always loved long hair, but it doesn’t look good on me. Also, my hair is so coarse and thick that wearing it long here in hot and steamy Texas would probably cause my head to spontaneously combust. So I collect old hair combs, lovely in their individuality, and in admiration of the long hair they once held in place.

They are not always easy to find, and the fourteen I own have come from many different places. Most of them are made from tortoiseshell (which you cannot find now, and a good thing, too, for the poor turtles), and some are adorned with rhinestones and carvings.

From the top, #1, the largest one, curved with 21 remaining teeth, was found in a rummage basket at a small town flea market. It was clearly made for holding up heavy hair in the back, and it is a lovely deep honey-amber color. I think I paid something like $5 for it; I don’t think the woman who owned it recognized the treasure it was.

Comb #2 & Comb #4

The two tiny combs, #2 with clear rhinestones and #4 with bright green ones, were found as a set in an antique shop in Portland, Maine.

I was having one of those “I got to get away/I got to get awa-a-ay” days, and had taken off for the coast.

At the time, I had grown my hair out to chin-length, and wanted to try using combs to hold back the hair over my ears. Well, that look did nothing for me, but I loved the combs.

As the store was one of those fancy-shmancy ones, I paid about $45 for the pair of them. But it was love at first sight; what could I do?

Combs #3, 5 & 6

The center comb, #3, beautifully carved and set with blue brilliants, was found in a friend’s grandmother’s backroom in a box jumbled up with an assortment of oddments.

I pounced on it, and offered to pay my friend just about anything for it.

It ended up costing me nothing but a trip to the movies, popcorn, Cokes, and Milk Duds, my treat. The two round-top combs, #5 and #6, are set with rhinestones. These two, plus #11, cost me an afternoon of cleaning out my then boyfriend’s mother’s walk-in closet.

On that same day, she also gave me a pair of marble-sized pearl earrings (which turned out to be fakes), the most hideous zip front burnt-orange cardigan sweater I’ve ever seen before or since, and a huge Sombrero before 10:00am.

Oval Barrette #7 & Comb #9

The oval barrette, #7, and the tall carved comb, #9, shown to the side, came from my own grandmother.

She had gorgeous knee-length auburn hair when she was young, and I like to think of that lovely tortoiseshell comb with its intricate carving gracing that vibrant hair.

Note: Speaking about my grandmother’s long auburn hair, I have to insert one of my favorite stories about her. To say she was willful, stubborn, and opinionated is like saying that the ocean holds several bazillion cups of water.

Just before my grandparents were married, my grandfather used to like to watch her to brush out her hair. As he was enjoying the sight of that rippling titian mass, he said, “Phyllis, don’t you ever cut your hair!”

She snapped back, “NO ONE tells me what to do!” and with that, picked up the shears, cut it all off below her ears, and threw the shorn hair at his feet. He married her anyway. She knew he would.

Bow Shaped Barrette

The tiny bow-shaped barrette, #8, #12, a large barrette with the back broken off, and #13, with the curved rhinestone top, came from a church white elephant sale.

I paid about $15 for the three of them, and I remember the lady who sold them to me also made me take an unopened box of ladies linen hankies. I guess she thought that anyone buying hair combs would automatically be lady-like enough to appreciate hankies as well!

Bow Shaped Barrette #10

The little hourglass-shape barrette, #10, one of the lightest in color, belonged to a friend’s aunt.

Years ago, a dear sister of hers wore it constantly, and when the sister died tragically of pneumonia at age 11, the barrette was put away for good. I think it made my friend’s aunt glad to know that it would be out on display again.

Comb #14

My favorite, #14, was used to adorn a chignon. I’ve always loved its warm amber color, and as always I like to imagine who wore it and what their hair looked like.

This one came to me from a vintage clothing shop in Tamworth, NH, where I spent an unforgettable summer as an ingnue in summer stock. My own hair was never long enough to wear it, but I did own a genuine hair fall that I wore to play Jane in Jane Eyre. It certainly gave a better performance than I did!

So, there you have it—this is my collection to date. During a recent visit, my mother kindly re-arranged the combs on the brocade, some of which had come loose from random abuse from my cat, Blackie.

After giving Blackie a good talking-to (which did no good at all), Mom re-sewed the combs to the brocade, and we hung it a lot higher. They make a great conversation piece, and they are definitely unique.

Conclusion

If you are interested in collecting antique hair combs, you might want to check out this web site: http://www.antiquedress.blogspot.com/

You may also be able to scare some up at online auction sites: www.ebay.com and www.yahoo.com/auctions. Happy hunting!

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Boys Hair Styles

Boys Hair Styles

Mens SHORT Hair Style Pictures

Mens MEDIUM Hair Style Pictures

Mens LONG Hair Style Pictures

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