Hey friends!
Okay, if you follow along over on my Instagram or Facebook, you’ll know we’ve been talking hair this week, so I rounded up all the tips and tricks I’ve been showing you on those two channels so we could have it all in one place!  I get lots and lots of questions about my hair cut and color that are kinda hard for me to answer/describe, so my sweet hair stylist/bestie was so kind to film some videos for you guys and walk us through her process (that’s at the end of this post!).  

First up though, I’ll run you through how I style my hair and the products I use!  I am by no means a pro beauty blogger (or pro blogger, for that matter…😂), nor am I a hair stylist….BUT!  I can show you what I do on days I fix my hurrr, and I hope it maybe gives you some inspo to try something new!  *Not a sponsored post, btw. Just what I do and love. 

Supplies (click links to shop!):
Big Sexy Root Boost
Pantene BB Creme
Aussie Headstrong Volume hair spray
Revlon blow dryer
1 and 1/4 inch curling iron (this is my fave, inexpensive brand)
Brush with vents and fine tooth comb

With damp hair, I spray the Big Sexy Root Boost at the roots around the crown of my head, keeping the bottle about 6-8 inches away from my hair and then rub it in to spread it around.  This is the only semi-expensive product that I keeping coming back to, because really….I think most of the cheapies do basically the same thing as the pricey products.  Just my opinion.  😉  I love this root booster, because it doesn’t weigh my hair down and it doesn’t cause all that much build up.

Next, I take about a dime size dollop of the Pantene BB Creme and rub it into my palms like lotion.  I like to scrunch this all through the midshaft and ends of my hair, avoiding the roots so as not to cause greasy hair.  I love this stuff, because it smells AMAZEBALLS, it is cheap, and it serves so many purposes: styling cream, shine cream, and it acts as a heat protectant.  I barely have time to squeeze in a shower some days, so I love any products that can do double duty and save me time.

After applying those two products, I dry my hair flipped upside down to give added volume to the roots.  There are lots of other techniques to attain extra volume, but those take too much time for my lifestyle right now, so this does the trick!  Double duty: dries my hair and adds volume.  🙌🏻  I use a vented plastic brush…nothing fancy.  And actually I like to use the brush to dry the pieces by my face before flipping over.  Makes them nice and smooth and helps frame my face.

Onward to styling!  First, I part my hair down the back into two sections, and then I part those two sections creating fourths.  (MATH. 😩😑😂)  As I move around my head with the curling iron, I split each fourth into a top, middle and bottom section…you’ll see why in a sec.

Before I do any curling, I like to smooth the ends of my hair with my  1 and 1/4 inch curling iron to smooth out the tips.  I don’t include the ends of my hair in my curls, so I don’t want to have a bunch of non-smooth frizz all around the bottom of my hair once finished.  

*Note: I curl only the midshaft of each section I speak about below, leaving one to two inches of hair uncurled.  This helps the finished product not look too “done” or Curly Sue-esque. 😉

Around my face:
I curl both of those front fourth sections AWAY from my face.  I break up each front fourth section into two or three small sections, but I curl all of them away from my face.

Around the back:
For the back fourth sections, I break each one up into a top, middle and bottom section.  I curl the top AWAY from my face, the middle TOWARDS my face, and the bottom AWAY.  Curling one section towards my face helps break up what could be just one big ol’ away-from-the-face wave by the end of the day, and all those mismatched and different direction curls bumping into each other creates a natural wave/tousled look.

This step is optional, but I’ll show you anyway!  

Once I finish curling all top, middle and bottoms of each fourth around my head, I like to take random and VERY thin sections of hair that run vertically from the top of my head to the bottom and curl these TOWARDS my face.  I do two or three of these per side, and it helps add even more texture and messy wave to the look.

To finish the style, I use Aussie Headstrong Volume hair spray in level three and a simple fine tooth comb.  I’ve used Aussie hair spray since high school, and honestly….it performs just as well as ALL of the other way more expensive brands I’ve tried.  And I’ve tried them all.  😳😬  Plus that smell.  Yum yum. 

I grab the hair at the crown of my head and flip it over onto the top of my head.  Taking about 1/2 inch thick sections, I very very lightly tease just at the root so as not to cause a bunch of breakage.  I lay the first teased section back down behind my head and continue upwards, building upon each teased section.  My kids love this part…Mommy looks like a dinosaur, they say. NEAT, kids. 😩

Once my lumpy dinosaur scales are in place (🙄), I gently tousle my hair and bring that crazy tease back down a notch.  I like it to look as natural as possible, even though I kinda fall into the camp of “the bigger the hair, the closer to God.”  I AM bordering Texas, you know.  We love our big hair in the south.  😉  However, I don’t like my tease to look SO BIG that you can tell I’ve done something to it.  Going for a natural vibe here, so I’ll work it back into control and then spray.

I usually spray the Aussie Headstrong stuff at the ends and midshaft of my hair, scrunching it a bit as I spray.  This adds a lot of texture without having to tack on ANOTHER step and ANOTHER product (texture cream), and it helps hold that tousled wave.  I’ll then give my whole head a good once-around with the hairspray, and then…done!

My cut is very angled towards the front of my face, because I still want to be able to pull it up in a messy bun…plus I like it framing my face that way.  Then it’s pretty stacked and textured in the back to give me that volume I want.  I have a lot of hair, so this cut might not be the best if you have thinner/less hair–my stylist explains why in the video linked below.  

(Also…my husband took these photos, and he kept being so lame and telling me to “work it, girlfriend” and so on.  You can see I’ve had it with his silliness in that last photo there…🙄😏  He’s a good sport, that one.  SO AM I. 😑)

There ya have it!  I know that’s probably the LEAST fancy hair tutorial with the lamest products in ALL of the blogosphere, but hey man.  I like simple.  I like easy.  I like uncomplicated.  That’s my vibe, and, if it’s yours too, maybe give this a try sometime! 🙌🏻  Specific cut and color info below!

What do you think, my buddies?  Any products I should try?  Do you also use the same stuff that you used in high school…? 🙋🏻  Any tips and tricks I should know?  Let me know in the comments below, and thank you very much for coming over to say hi!

💗Erin  

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Cut and Color info

My hair stylist bestie Melinda from A Mother Inspired filmed a super helpful (and short!) video of my hair and how she cuts it…click [HERE] to view her tips and tricks! 

👉🏼 HAIR CUT VIDEO TUTORIAL 👈🏼

For those asking about specific colors, see below!

Dark brown:
Joico Vero K-PAK in 3N and 2NA+
Mix equal parts of above color with 20 volume developer
Applied to roots and downward vertically instead of horizontally 

SOURCES: