Smoke and Mirrors

Have you ever seen a celebrity updo and thought to yourself -WOW I didn't think she had that much hair. Well you are probably right, she doesn't. Hairstylist have many tricks up their sleeves to make an updo look, which sometimes requires some smoke and mirrors! Here is a chignon I did on myself using hair extensions aka fake hair. I know the color is a little off, but I did that so you can see where the fake hair is. Of course if you do it you want hair the same color as yours.

Back view of finished Chignon

Side view

I started with curled hair. Nothing fancy just quickly done in large sections

It's then pulled back into a ponytail

Take a weft of fake hair and fold the ends to meet each other
This hair isn't anything fancy just some from Sally's Beauty Supply

Wrap the weft around your ponytail and secure the end with a few bobby pins

Make a "bungee" cord with a rubber band and 2 bobby pins

Fold the ponytail up and use your bungee cord to secure it. Push the pin on one side. Then, holding the other pin, pull the rubber band across the underside of the ponytail and secure the pin on the other side

Now your ponytail should look like this

Take another weft and create a hair pad with it-this will give the the chignon a really full look You can also use a hair rat (awful name I know) close to your hair color to get the same effect

Roll up the weft to make the hair pad

Pin the hair pad to the underside of the ponytail

Use several pins to secure the hair pad into place

Fold the ponytail back over the hair pad and fan out to cover it

Pin around the chignon to hold its shape

Here are a few different celebrity versions

Taylor Swift with a soft side part version

Anne Hathaway with a tight side part version

Reese Witherspoon with a loose deconstructed version

Now go give it a whirl and let me know how it turns out!

The Red, The White & The Blue

Here are some shots from my first solo photo shoot. I came up with the concept, cast the models and photographer. I also did all the hair (including color) and make up. I will never do both hair and make up on a photo shoot again, unless it's just one model. It was way too much work for just one person! I spent 6 hours coloring the blonde and black haired models the day before, then over 2 hours creating the red wig. The day of the shoot I spent hours just doing the hair and make up and then we still had to shoot it-I lost my voice from all the stress! Lesson learned: For a shoot with more than one model do the hair OR the make up. It was a very good learning experience to say the least. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Would I change a few things? Absolutely, but overall I'm happy with it. And now for the pictures:




The concept behind this was a hair-centered shoot with a twist on red, white and blue by doing red hair, blonde hair and blue black hair (black haired model does have blue streaks in the sides it's just not visible in all the pictures). It is all about the color and texture of the hair. Still trying to decide if I should enter into NAHA for 2010. What do you think?

Foundations of Updos

With wedding season in full swing I felt it would be a good time to talk about the foundations of updos. Updos fall into 3 categories: ponytail, French twist and free form.

Here are some examples of the ponytail base

All of these styles were created by first pulling the hair into a ponytaill. The updo was then created off of that ponytail base.

Here are some examples of a French Twist base:

All of these styles began with a simple French twist in the back. The rest of the style was built off of that French twist base.

Here are two examples of free form hairstyles:
Free from is where the style was not started with either a pony tail or a french twist

Sew it UP

I did this beauty shoot for my portfolio a couple of weeks ago. I sewed the models hair into an updo rather than using a million pins. After I sewed it up (using a blunt plastic needle and extension thread) I did use a few pins (like 4 or 5) to make it the shape I wanted. Added the cute headband from Urban Outfitters and BAM-super easy updo!

Crazy Curly

I found this picture of Talyor Swift in my Allure last month and now I'm dying to do it for a photo shoot. I'm trying to hook it up so stay tuned......

Crimpin Some Hair!

This past Friday night we did a show at Suite 200, a club here in Denver. It was a white party.

This is my model before we started (I didn't do the make-up)

After I crimped her hair-yes crimped!

Me and my model-she is in heels and I'm in flats :)

Charlie with the 2 of models he styled

Charlie with another model and yes that is all her hair!

Hanging out after having some fun

Angelina Jolie at Cannes

I'm not a huge fan of the Angelina Jolie, but WOW she looks stunning here! She looks so great with the loose waves-beachy yet a little glam. Loving the red lips with her signature black winged liner.
To get her hairstyle you need to use the no clamp method of curling.
-Take large sections of hair and wrap around curling iron leaving the clamp closed
-Let the curls cool
-Then, comb out curls using a wide tooth comb

-Tuck one side behind ear and spray front with a little hairspray
-Pull the rest of the hair over to the opposite side

Now go rock it and let me know how it works out.