Hair Update: Blonde Bob w/Roots

I enjoy the beauty school, but I guess I wanted something different and I observed a blonde woman's hair for a while and asked her who she goes to. (I asked a blonde person because I think blonde trickery is harder and the last brunette I asked sent me to a terrorist.)
My blonde lady-friend goes to someone who books a month in advance.
I made the appointment weeks ago and my appointment was very near but I am happy with my hair at the moment so I postponed until January.

I have been cutting my bangs myself. I guess I cut the sides and back too.



I did feel frustrated and diseased by having roots all the time but now I kind of like them. I'm Ok with them... for now...  and since we're going to try a popular person, we have no choice but to look like this til' January.

Hair Show & DIY Salt Spray

I'm going to be a hair show model in about ten days. I'm super excited because I love to get professional hair & make-up. I really love to learn about hair & beauty from professionals.

I'm going to be in this show for this salon:


Yes- after my sessions end, I am going to soak up the convention.

Viva on the Left, Kate on the right. This is my lock-up spot for this salon. I love the cafe balloons. VIP.


Yesterday, I got the message that the owner wanted to see me again and speak to me about the show.
My hair went on a job interview. The owner ratted the ends of my hair with his fingertips and I fell in love. I spent a lot of time at work today trying to re-create what he did.

Tonight I went and met the stylist in charge of me for the show and he gave me a thorough cut and talked about his plan for my hair for the show. I am definitely getting my hair cut twice and colored once and a conditioning treatment before the show, then I get completely done-up for the show both days... I think. It's unclear if I'll get styled exactly the same both days.

I loved tonight's cut. I love my blunt bangs. After he did them, he taught me how I can maintain them myself.


I am really happy how every hair person who's dealt with me lately, including these guys, and the lady who did my hair for the NYPost are very supportive of me cutting my own hair. They're really happy for me, and that makes me glad I cut it myself the past couple of months.

My guy tonight also confirmed that my DIY Salt Spray is Awesome. Never buy salt spray again, guys. Make that stuff at home. 

How to make it? Take a bunch of sea salt and mix the heck out of it in HOT water so the salt dissolves and then put a little leave-in conditioner in there and mix it some more. You could also smash the salt with a mortar & pestal if you're fancy. And add fresh lemon juice to make it a little sticky. 

He told me another more complex technique that we can get into if we hang out and you care. You need actual ocean water from the beach. Maybe after Memorial Day and I can visit the beach I'll do a blog post tutorial. 

He also taught me what I should do after I put in dry shampoo. I've been using dry shampoo incorrectly it seems. I just brush it out. You're supposed to blow dry your hair a little bit too. I'm excited to try it and find out but until that hair show, I don't think I'm going to do much to my hair myself at all.

YES! I absolutely ran into the bathroom to take pictures of this done hair...

My face was/is tired. This face has been on the go for 12 hours.

I had to smash it with my bike helmet. Safety before Beauty. 


Safety before Beauty!!! 

Hair: Tamed with bobby pins

I used some bobby pins to pull some of my hair back for my Friday night event.
And I sewed this new style for my Fundraiser-Online Shop. 


I'm trying to do this middle-part trend. It works on day 1, but on day two, I wake up with my old lefty part. I put a little mousse in this hair before I blew it dry.


This new peach color is added to the shop too.

Curling Irons and Pressed Powder

My blog is a little too bike-y lately. When dudes start commenting about serious bike mechanics, I know I need to throw them off with a seriously girly post. Let's talk curlin' irons!

I let my hair dry air-dry for President's day and it was big and wild, but pretty clean. I didn't want to do much for it Tuesday morning when I had to go to work. I dug out my old curling iron. I sprayed my hair lightly with some Ellnet and did a few curls. I really just corrected pieces that were really sharp at the ends.

I was very pleased. But gosh, I'm shiny.


Speaking of shiny... Here comes a sad story... I'm not kidding, it's sad.... 

Today is the 11th anniversary of my mom's funeral. She died on the 19th and her funeral was on the 21st of 2001.
Whitney Houston's recent death reminded me that one of my sorority sisters came and sang a Whitney song at the funeral. 

My Grandmother wanted some deacon at her church (puke and puke) to sing a song. I had heard him sing before and it was a horror story. I pretty much gave my friend no choice about singing. She had to do it. Luckily, you can't say no to your friend whose mom just died. I'm pretty sure it was her first funeral gig.

So Nakita came and sang "Count on Me" Whitney Houston style. I can't even think of YouTube linking it because I will fall apart if I hear that shit, so sorry, google it yourself if you're curious. Nakita was a sorority sister and almost my whole sorority attended and I am so grateful to them for doing that. Classes were skipped en masse.

Fast forward to recently, I don't know many smells in the world that remind me of my mom, but I know of one. If they ever change the formula, I don't know what I'll do, and this makes me understand people losing their minds over discontinued products. 

I can have a memory of the smell of my mother in Cover Girl Clean Pressed Powder. 

For the first time since she died, I stopped smelling it at the drug store and bought my own.

My Hair is Badass Right Now

My hair is in an amazing place right now and today was an especially good hair day.
I used a different/new shampoo & conditioner due to travel circumstances.

Today I washed my (3-days dirty, I think it matters how long you go in-between washes) hair with Bliss Super Shine Shampoo & Conditioner. I'm glad I stole them from the W hotel on Sunday!

My hair is super shine! Dang!


I get tons of blog traffic from people looking for Stephanie Szostak's hair from Dinner for Schmuck's. I realized my hair is kind of getting back to that place again, just less stringy.




I had to keep on wearing this t-shirt since my flight got canceled and I spent the night at that random but truly lovely hotel the airline assigned me to.

I had an email conversation with a lovely stranger about haircuts recently and I explained my 2-part bangs. There is a layer of baby, asymmetric bangs-


And the highlighted swath on top-


My eyes are red due to early morning times and lack of Pond's Cold Cream. I have to scrub the MAC Opulash and Liquid eyeliner off w/out Pond's. I thought I was going to get luxurious alone-in-a-hotel beauty sleeps, but that Obama/Bin Laden news came on and I started texting up a storm and watching the news!

Pink Puffer Bicycle Style Ridin' All the Miles...

I was able to safely and confidently commute today and it felt awesome!

I love my new Roxy puffer. It's so bright and cozy and I could feel the powerful electric pink repelling cars from driving too close to me.


Yep, Gold Reeboks!


I also had an amazing hair day. I got the vented brush Gwynne told me to get and I used the brush & blow-dry technique she just taught me.


It's like take a vented little brush and brush it to one side really drastic and then go the other way...and the back will look nice and smooth like this:


Often I use these benches as a tripod for my self-timer bicycle shots but they were still covered in snow-


Many things are still covered in snow, but the streets were quite clear - They re-enacted parking tickets and the laws about moving your car around, so people had to dig their cars out and this cleared that area where bicyclists ride. That factor and near 40º temps had me high on bicycle life.




I ended up removing the hood because it was distracting in my periferral vision. I still feel super-safe in this hot-ass pink puffer. -With lights at night on my way home of course!

Cut my hair - cried a little about something totally unrelated

I cut some of my hair today. I had to wash it today, it smelled bad. Then I put 2 and 2 together and I rode my bicycle about 9 miles on Sunday and today was Wednesday. Ok, time to wash it. Lots of bicycle miles makes me need to wash it more often.



I'm pointing to the place where I swear a rat-tail was starting. I'm not in the mood for a rat-tail. And yes, that's Ponds cold cream on the ledge. My grandmother has great skin so I'm going to go with her program.


Detail:

If someone wants to see a photo of my hair razor I'll show you. It's a $3 tool I've had for about 9 years.

My outfit photo is super-noisy *camera noise.





My eyes welled-up with tears and I almost cried because I couldn't get a taxi after work. I was carrying my sewing machine in both arms and had to walk many Avenues before I finally got one. It was so sad. It's a little embarrassing to cry over such, but in NYC you can cry on the sidewalk and no one will bother you. You can have a little bratty cry if you want and it's fine.

My Brown Self

I'm enjoying my brown-self. And I had a great hair day today.

I don't have ONE GIMPY Part of my body from that self-tanner. Great self-tan success! I slept in a drop-cloth, but I didn't really need it. Model Co "Tan in a Can" Is the SHIT! If you can find it. Neither Times Square Sephora had it - I had to get it at Bendel's.




I'm not wearing much make-up with this new super-tan, but that's OK because it covers my zits & veins.


I didn't have the balls to take a Bike_Wardrobe_Remix pic outside the front of Sotheby's, but I took a pic of my bike with this cool poster. I've got to make it to this exhibit this weekend despite my full social schedule.


My life is so hard sometimes! Ha ha ha!

MY outfit today was Summer-Fridays-Friday plain Jane. Just jeans and a black tank.

But I did put on a cardi and some heels at work. This was a day to mark on the calendar, because these jeans are size 27 (Citizens) and I did not have to do gymnastics to get them on.

Yesterday I wore this Billabong sundress from last summer with my wonderful "Summer of Cheap" Charlotte Russe wedges.


I ate some Twizzlers that matched the print.