It’s officially the silly season! Yule tide parties – work and otherwise, family get togethers, friends festivities, Christmas Day and of course, the party of the year – New Year’s Eve – all scream for a new outfit, new accessories, a coordinated make-up look AND the all important ‘look-at-her-hair’ special do! I’ve taken a few different inspirational hair look s and we’ll talk about how to master them so you can style-yourself-fabulous for your upcoming social engagements! Best of all they are quite easy to master and you can experiment with them and come up with your own version!
Look One: Effortlessly tousled loose curls…channel your inner indie goddess!
Tools needed: Blow dryer, curl enhancer or sea salt spray, curling tongs (if desired), hair spray.
Time needed: One hour (most of this is drying/setting time)
Who this look best suits: This is a great look for those of you who have naturally wavy or curly hair.
How to achieve this look: One way to achieve this look is to wash and lightly towel dry your hair. Comb it through and add a small amount of a product like a sea salt spray or a curl enhancer gel. Part the hair in the centre and wrap up into a bun quite high on the head. Do the same on the other side of your head, so you’ll end up with two Princess Leia style buns. As you’re busy doing other things; finding an outfit, doing your make-up etc, let your hair dry in the buns. When you are ready to finish styling the look, have your blow dryer at the ready. Let the buns out and lightly twist your fingers around the hair. Use the blow dryer on a low setting to set the curls, make sure you add some heat to the roots of your head so you don’t end up with flat-head-hair! If you have some tendrils that just won’t cooperate and you have a curling wand handy you can always add some tonged curls to frame your face. A light spritz of hair spray to set the look and you’re ready to rock!
Look Two: The sleek low bun … the height of stylish sophistication.
Tools needed: Blow dryer, smoothing serum, hair band, bobby pins, hair spray.
Time needed: Twenty minutes at most!
Who this look best suits: This is a great look for those of you who have naturally straight, thick hair, or hair that straightens easily.
How to achieve this look:
This is a great no-fuss super elegant look that would be best for more conservative parties (maybe the work function with your bosses, or your partners work function.) Taking a large, round bristle brush and your blow dryer, dry your hair straight, adding some height at the crown. You can always back comb the crown a little to add some more height. Taking a smoothing serum or a light weight mouse, smooth the hair back into a low pony tail. Taking a piece of hair about two inches thick, wind it around the hair tie and pin it underneath. Take the bottom of the pony tail and pin the hair up under the tie, at the nape of your neck. Here you can make the bun a full or small as you like. This look can be worn completely off the face, or you can have some loose tendrils or a fringe out to frame your face!
Look three: The undecided ‘Am I up or am I down?’ look
Tools needed: Comb, hair straightener, curling tongs (if desired), hair spray.
Time needed: Twenty minutes.
Who this look best suits: The best thing about this look is it suits most hair types. If you have curly hair, you can straighten your fringe, if you have straight hair, you can curl your ends!
How to achieve this look: This look is one for the friends christmas party with cocktails and canapes or the family do where you don’t need full on glamour but you want something a little different from the everyday pony! Here the super-styling Mrs Madden lets a full fringe fall to the side after it’s been flat ironed. There is a fair amount of back combing at the crown to give added depth and texture to the look. The rest of the hair has been pulled back into a mid height pony tail and the tendrils have been curled loosely with a wand. An alternative skew on this would be completely straight hair, no curls or waves. However, for those of us who live in the southern hemisphere, in the midst of summer, frizz is a factor here, so a slight curl will do us no damage! Just a note on where to place the side part – a good point of reference is parting your hair to align with the arc in your eyebrow. This way it gives the face symmetry and lets the face look a little longer, if you have a more round face.
I hope you have a lot of fun experimenting with some different looks for your upcoming festivities!
Sarah Louise xx
Filed under: Beautiful things, Inspiration
