All about the bronde. My new look!

If you follow my Instagram stories I apologize for all the new hair pictures, because your girl is obsessed! It's not exactly blonde, it's not exactly brunette. It's somewhere in between and I'm loving it! The combination of blonde and brown shades and balayage came out super flattering and this is the lightest I've ever gone.

It's my ashy shade of bronde dreams come true!

For the past 4 years I've been box dyeing my hair. For one, 6 days after moving to Boca (4 years ago), I found out I was expecting baby #4. Couple that with being in a new city and overwhelmed with 3 other children and a business, the color of my hair just wasn't top priority. Come to think of it. I probably didn't dye my hair more than once while I was pregnant. I'd say 2 years ago I just started using L'Oreal box dye in medium ash brown, and now with a lot more gray hairs popping out--thanks kids! I've been having to dye every 4-5 weeks. It was a picture I saw online recently of me at an  event with my husband that really pushed me to go back to a salon. My hair was looking so bad! 

I did have my eye on two salons that I felt could help me achieve my hair dreams, and in the end I chose Thay Oliveira. I'm so glad I went to go see her. She does amazing work with balayage and helping latin hair like my own transform! She specializes in blondes and has an adorable studio here in Boca Raton. You can see a ton of her work on her Instagram @thayoliveirahairartist.

I had my hair done this past Friday and this is what it looked like at home later. Not the best lighting, but I sure wish I could recreate salon blowouts at home. 

2 days later

Finally washed it today. 4 days later. I'm going to try my hardest to just wash it twice a week. It might be a little difficult once it gets hot outside and the fact that I exercise, but let's just hope dry shampoo helps--and a baseball cap. I bought all new hair care products, and I'll do another updated post with that and how the care is going another time. 

Have a great Tuesday! 

All about the bangs + my latest look

I always keep my hair long, but lately I'd say it's the longest it's ever been. I'm sort of just growing it as long as I can stand it. My hair grows fast, but not all my strands grow at the same pace. I have a lot of shorter hairs that haven't caught up to the longest strands and that definitely contributes to my ends not looking that full sometimes. Ideally I'd like to keep growing my hair until the shorter hairs catch up to the length of the longer hairs and then do a bigger cut and it should look fuller at the bottom. What also happens is that I have wavy hair but like only half of it is wavy. If I wear my hair straight inevitably some of the hairs will start curling at the nape and some won't. It's a little more time consuming, but my hair looks best when I curl/wave it. When I wear it straight it won't stay for very long.

So last year I wanted a change, but didn't want to cut any length minus a micro trim I did at home. I had been thinking about blunt bangs for awhile and waited till fall. I'd say I've had bangs since October now. It was only supposed to be for a month, but I've kept them longer because it really helps cut down on the time I spend on my hair and helps conceal my tired face from not sleeping--thanks to Ava. It's starting to get hot so I'm now for sure letting them grow out. Sweaty bangs matted to my forehead sounds not so fun.

I had my bangs cut at a salon, but I've been trimming them at home every 2 weeks. Here's a picture from when I had them first cut. She gave me a bit of a wispy look which I liked.

Once I started trimming them myself. H prefers them coming more up to my eye then shorter.

If you're thinking about getting bangs, I recommend it. With the right cut and style I think it looks good on just about everyone. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros

 Cuts down on the amount of time you spend on your hair. If you just fix your bangs, it automatically makes the rest of your hair look good. Throw it in a ponytail, or bun and you're good!

Makes you look younger.

You don't have to worry much about how your eyebrows look.

They look super chic no matter how you style them.

Cons

They make your forehead really oily....or is it just me.

They don't really stay styled for very long. 

Wind and rain are not your bang's best friend.

Inspo Pics if you are on the fence

Have a great Monday!

Recent hair products I'm loving

I've had 2 of these products for a couple months now and I've been meaning to review them, but you know how life gets. One thing after another and I wouldn't have it any other way. ;)

The first hair product I want to talk about is the Fekkai blowout primer. 

Designed to deliver a sleek blowout, this priming spray wraps hair in a protective shield to prevent heat damage and calm frizz. Now I'm not one to normally shell out much on hair products since my long locks tend to use a lot of product, but I couldn't resist this spray. It's about $20 at Target and completely worth it. I love the way it smells and after using it for a month, I do feel my hair feels better and it stays smelling better. We spend a lot of time at the beach and with the sun and blow drying after a shower I was looking for a product that would help the stress I've been putting on my hair and this product delivers. 

I've mentioned before that I love adding volume to my hair. The easiest and fastest way to do it is with Schwarzkopf  Osis hair dusting powder (get it here) but it does leave a type of residue and I save the dusting powder for special occasions. Lately I've been using L'Oreal's Boost it blow out heat spray. It's supposed to provide lasting volume and serves as a heat protector. This product also has a great smell. What I tend to do is just apply the blow out spray to my roots and then from the  middle of my hair down I apply the Fekkai blowout primer.

The most recent hair product I've bought is Garnier's full control anti-humidity hairspray. I normally use Tresemme hairspray but I saw Garnier products were on sale when I made a stop at CVS so I thought I'd try it. So far so good. It has good hold and smells nice. Even H commented on the smell. I will be buying this one again once I run out unless I decide to try something new. 

Have a great weekend!

Loving lately!

1. All the good smells - Since my nausea started in January, I can't stand anything that smells bad. I mean who can? But while pregnant my sense of smell is heightened and bad smells make me want to hurl fast. I like to keep the condo smelling nice so I normally use glade plug-ins and I found these Chesapeake Bay candles at Target. They smell so good! I also have a thing for luxury hand soaps and this English boutique hand soap was found at Home Goods.

2. Toddlers in cute pajamas - I picked this set up in Target last month and they are very soft and the girls love them. I got a size 4T and both of them were supposed to be for Layla, but Mariam helped herself to a pair--even though it's too big, and that was that. I still love woodland creatures on children's clothes.

{Fox pajama set}

3. L'il Critters vitamins - Another item I picked up at Target last month. It's a children's multivitamin and mineral formula with the pucker power of sour and formulated with naturally sourced flavors. The girls really enjoy taking one daily and sometimes I sneak one in too.

4. Neutrogena daily deep conditioner & L'Oreal volume filler thickening shampoo - I like this shampoo because it does make your hair a little thicker and it smells good. I love any products that make hair bigger. I picked up this conditioner recently and it works great. I'm not that easy on my hair as in I blow dry often and use a curling iron, so I know it's not the healthiest and this conditioner is great because it's light weight and makes your hair soft.

50 shades of brass

I have had an issue with my hair turning brassy since I started dyeing my hair in my 20's. In the beginning--when I didn't know any better I used to walk into a local hair salon asking for a light brown hair color and walk out with a head full of rust. Looking back I'm like "why didn't my parents say anything!" It was horrid. Or maybe it wasn't that bad, I mean my now husband fell in love with me around that time so I guess he dug it.

See I wasn't exaggerating.

 

I didn't know at the time that color doesn't lift color. It wasn't until I met Sami Arjorna of A Touch of Red Salon in Houston that taught me that and corrected and transformed my hair. She would use hi-lift and her balayage technique so I could finally achieve that lighter brown sun kissed look.

I saw her for a few years and then it just started to get too far for me to drive too and then Layla was born and I had less time to get away. I then started to see my high school friend Martha at Highland Salon in Katy. I've been seeing her for the past few years and I love going. Every time I leave I'm happy and have yet to be disappointed.



The last time I got my hair colored was in May and unfortunately, it seems like that one week at the beach really turned my hair super brassy. I did have to wash it almost daily so I know that had a lot to do with it as well.

You see how orangey it got? My hair hasn't grown that much to warrant another trip to the salon, so I thought I'd take matters into my own hands and try a toner from Sally's Beauty Supply. After reading several reviews and watching a few YouTube videos I decided to go with the brand Wella color charm in T18 light ash blonde. It seemed like most of the reviews were for blondes and I was a little nervous because I couldn't find that many on hair color like mine, but I went for it anyways.

Supplies needed:

 

*Hair toner

*20 developer

*Mixing bowl (You can buy one or use any bowl really)

* Squeeze bottle or color brush

*Rubber gloves

 

The firs thing I did was dampen my hair. There was mixed reviews on whether to use dry hair or wet hair, but the consensus was that you should do it on damp towel dried hair.

So once your hair is damp, go ahead and mix 1 part toner and 2 parts developer. So basically, dump the whole toner in there and then fill the toner bottle with developer 2 times and dump it in there as well. Give it a good mix. It's going to be milky white at first and then turn purple. I wasn't sure if I should have waited till it turned purple to apply because every where else I read, it said to put on the toner fairly quickly once you mix it. I'm going to go ahead and say that I don't think it matters if you wait for it to turn purple or not. Start at the bottom of your hair and work your way up.

On the box it says leave on for 20-30 minutes but don't go by that time. The toner can start working in as little as 5 minutes. So it can take anywhere from 5-30 minutes. You need to watch it. That statement I was confused by. I had no idea what to look for. It wasn't until 13 minutes had passed that I understood. I started to see the difference. The orange was going away and the ash was coming through.

I gave it a total of 20 minutes and then washed it out in the shower with lukewarm water. I used shimmer lights also from Sally's which is a blond/silver shampoo that you can use if you have brassy hair. My hair stylist recommended it.



Afterwards, I blow dried my hair and styled as usual and this was the end result.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the result and I would do it again. I was expecting a bit more ash I suppose, but it could be a matter of maybe not picking the right shade. It did make the highlighted strands blonder and while to me it may still seem a tad bit brassy, it's definitely not the orangey red it was when I got back from Florida.

 

I hope this tutorial helps if your hair tends to turn brassy like mine. Have a great Wednesday!





 



Beachin' It

I'm by no means an expert on living by the beach, but I thought I'd share what worked for us, We stayed in Florida for a week and thankfully nobody got a sunburn. With the girls we were diligent about applying Babyganics sunscreen 20 minutes before they got in the water and then reapplying after about 2-3 hours.

 

 

I bought both Layla and Mariam sunhats from Old Navy but I only got them to wear them for a little while before they would just tear them off.

 

As far as floaties, I was very happy with the puddle jumper arm floats we bought for Layla. It held her up really well and made her comfortable in the water. Most times she didn't even want us to hang onto her. We should have bought a set for Mariam. With her we used a speedo floatie and it just didn't work with keeping her balanced in the water. It floated fine but it would quickly flip her over. One other thing I highly recommend for taking little ones to the beach and bay are water shoes. You can find them for really cheap at Walmart.

 



I was also pretty diligent about wearing my sunhat and keeping my sunglasses on--hence why I ended up with my face much lighter than the rest of my body.

 

 

I also thought it would be fun to bring our collection of Ella+Mila nail polishes and we all had fun painting our nails one day. I wore the color "pool party". Oh, one thing that I wasn't crazy about that happened is my hair turned super brassy. I didn't even wet it that often, but just washing it daily and exposing it to the sun so long really did a number on it. I plan on buying some toner next week and seeing if I can fix it. I'll do a post about it if it comes out successfully.

 



Have a great weekend!



 

 



 



Sweet girls and new hair

I finally got some "me" time a week ago and was able to get my hair cut and colored. I usually only  see my hairstylist 2-3 times a year and touch up with L'Oreal Hi-lift Ash brown in between. This time I wanted to go a little bit lighter instead of what we normally do. She added in more highlighted pieces and I really like the way it came out. She also took about 2 inches off the bottom (it was so long!) and gave me a few layers for volume since I like to wear my hair wavy. Currently I'm growing my bangs out, but we'll see how long that lasts. You know I've always been tempted to try being blonde and I'm sort of inching my way there, but we'll see if I actually go through with it. Just one of those things I want to try once in my life. Sometimes I just want to do something drastic but still look like me--which probably makes no sense at all.

 



 

Oh. If you notice, Layla's bangs are a little short. That was a little "oops" on my end. I didn't mean to cut them so short, but it's really hard to trim her bangs because she moves. We tried taking her somewhere to let a professional do it but she just refused. Maybe next time she won't be scared.

 

Classic Mariam. :)

 

 

 

Have a great Monday! Can you believe we are in June already? I mean how did that happen?! It seems like every year just goes by faster and faster.

 

 





What happens when your mom cuts your hair

It comes out too short!

I also can't do too much with it. It's choppy and heavy at the bottom but I don't want to get it fixed because I refuse to lose anymore length. In fairness I've let her cut my hair a few times before and it's come out good. I'm really not too picky about a haircut because I always keep it long and I'm lucky in that I can get my hair to do what I want most of the time. However, I always get my hair colored professionally. 

It's probably a good thing that it's shorter than I'm used to right now because it's just been taking FOR-EVER to detangle and blow dry. Not too mention I've entered into that dreaded post partum hair loss stage. I'm shedding like crazy! I even found one of my hairs in Mariam's neck rolls the other day. Oops.

I want this hair back stat. I took this 2 and a half weeks after Mariam was born.

Here's a piece of advice for postpartum moms. Do not do anything drastic to your appearance the first few months after having a baby. In fact, don't change your appearance. You will go through many a hormonal rollcoaster and if it's cold outside, you'll probably be more pale than usual. If you are sleep deprived, you will probably have bigger under eye bags, or darker circles. Your stomach will be squishy and soft, and your complexion might be the worst it's ever been. In other words there will be times when you feel like a hot mess. I was feeling pretty good between 2-4 weeks postpartum but then my hormones took a nosedive and hurricane Mariam happened with her many tears and I am weathering this storm. As all things, this will pass and I know I'll come out better and stronger than ever.