Lili (Guest Post!): Summer Hair, Just Behave Already.

Hi LGFTB readers. I'm Lili, a friend of Marianne's and beauty and fashion obsessed lady. While she's off helping Hugo get better (#GoHugo!), I've volunteered to help Adrien out here when she needs it. Hope you don't mind a visitor. And now for my first guest post:

As a person of indiscriminate hair texture (Surprise! Today you have straight hair. New Surprise! Big waves today for no good reason!) I find summertime in New York City truly vexing. Once we're past mid-June, betting folks bet on hot, humid days for the rest eternity. Or until October when we will have 3 nice days followed by never-ending winter. Approximately.

This weather of ours means I will generally try to let my hair air dry as wavy as it wants to be. I don't fight anything but my bangs - which need to be coaxed into their correct form and bribed with a nice dinner out twice a week. I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older, or because I just got a haircut, or maybe it's the new shampoo? But, my hair texture is changing and needs more control this summer.

Here I am desperately trying to create a sense of order over my hair with a million bobby pins at a recent outdoor wedding. In the humidity, sigh. Oh, and that's my handsome boy with me. I luff him.

So many hairs wanting to escape!

I don't want to invest any more time than I do, nor do I want to fight the hair that I've got, so here's what I'm trying right now in order to exert a little control but not be too domineering. (I swear this is my hair we're talking about):

Curl Conscious Holding Foam

The Curl Conscious is supposed to, "Keep curls together regardless of heat or humidity." Clearly they were talking to me. But so far it's just ok. I've been putting it in wet and just twirling my hair around my fingers to let it air dry into soft waves. Allegedly. The first day I used too much, and the next too little. I've yet to find just the right amount.

This Kevin Murphy Beach Texturizer smells divine and doesn't dry your hair like a lot of these "beachy waves" products can. But still, there's not quite enough predictability about what my hair will end up looking like if I just use this. You will smell like a Hawaiian vacation, though, and there's no knockin' that. 

Use this for maximum vacation delusions.

I've thought about using the Moroccanoil Frizz Control that my stylists have used on my straightened hair, but I have a hard time spending money to make my hair oily. I don't even know if it's supposed to be used on non-straightened hair. Am I crazy? Has anyone tried it?  

Moroccanoil Frizz Control

I've got no magical results so far, but I think I'm on the right path with the Curl Conscious. If I find just the right process for this weather, I'll be sure to share it.

Marianne: Cheap Jeans (and a Ouidad followup!)

A couple of weeks ago I swallowed my pride and ordered 4 pairs of jeans from Old Navy. (I also ordered this dress and no. Just no.) Two different styles in two different sizes. I was...not optimistic. But surprise! I ended up loving these Rockstar Mid-Rise jeans in French Grey (on sale now, with an additional 25% off!):

The top is from Daniel Rainn, a brand I've never heard of. I found it for $15 at TJMaxx and it comes in a lot of prints (I kind of want this floral version as well).

Anyway, the jeans. They are very stretchy, but don't have that thin, cheap, you-can-see-your-underwear-line thing going on that is a problem with cheap jeans sometimes. At first I thought the wash was too light and thought about dyeing them, but it's growing on me. Best of all, they come all the way up to my belly button, holding in my post-partum pooch, and the talls are nice and long. For $30, I'm a fan!

(sandals are the Dolce Vita Archer, my favorite shoe this summer, btw)

Now, on to my hair! You guys had a lot of questions on my last post, so I thought I would follow up. As you saw yesterday, I bought a hairdryer and diffuser and I've been trying to recreate the salon look. I think I came pretty close (but it also looks good air-dried, I'll make sure and get a pic of that as well):

Okay, Q&A time! Y'all without curly hair can skip this part unless you're bored.

tehamy and Jen Kanable asked: I'm impressed that you only have to wash your hair twice a week! What do you do the other days? Your curls look ok after you sleep?

My hair often looks better after I sleep on it! Sometimes I freshen the curls with a spritz of Ouidad Botanical Boost spray. My hair tends to be really dry so if I wash it too much it starts to get frizzy and dull. Sometimes I'll extend my style with a little dry shampoo at the crown and temples.

anonymous asked: when your hairdresser did all the "curl forming"- what did she do, and do you have to reproduce it every time? Because I know that I can finger-twirl my hair and it makes a big difference, but I don't always have the patience (and it doesn't always stay- but that's lack of product, I imagine)

This is kind of tough to explain, but there are some videos on the Ouidad site that help. She let the curls fall into their natural pattern and then loosely twirled them with product on her hands. And yes, product is key and a lot of it! I have fine hair, but a lot of it, though. Sometimes I don't bother forming every curl and just focus on the parts around my face, but it really does look best if I take th time to do it all.

  

Also from anonymous: I do a lot of sports/dance (pretty much every day) and I wear my hair in a sock bun; I don't wash it every time; I can't, my hair would dry out too much, but I wash "the edges" (everything that frames my face). Would that kind of wear and tear work with the sort of hair regime you have, do you think?

I don't have a good answer for this, either! I'm really sorry. I guess it would depend on your hair. Water does me no favors so I try to go as long as I can stand it without washing. You might like the dry shampoo I mentioned above! 

Marianne: The Ouidad Haircut - is it worth it?

Y'all know my hair has been driving me nuts lately, I was constantly bouncing between products and ended up wearing it up most of the time. The biggest issue was I hadn't had it cut since...February. I know. So anyway, when I found out a nearby salon (Belleza for you local folks) had a Ouidad trained stylist, I had to try it. And YOU GUYS LOOK AT MY HAIR LOOK AT IT:

I am not exaggerating when I say my curls have never looked this good. Ever. Now, this was the most expensive haircut I've ever gotten in my life, twice as much as I'm used to paying, but she recommended I only get it cut 4x a year and I am SOLD. I am just beyond happy. Not only did she spend two hours meticulously shaping each individual curl, she showed me exactly what products to use and how to style it. And honestly, after having a baby and struggling with losing the baby weight, it's nice to have great looking hair and feel a little bit pampered.

Gabrielle, the stylist, used a diffuser, so my curls are extra bouncy and perfect. I let them air dry and they still look good, though. Want to know what products she used? First she washed with the Clear & Gentle shampoo. It is a low lather shampoo and she thought it would take care of my sensitive scalp, and she's right. For conditioner she used the Curl Quencher Conditioner. I loved her reasoning: it's the most concentrated so you use less, but it's the same price as the lighter conditioners. More for your money! I love her. She also recommended I deep condition once a month with the 12 Minute Deep Conditioning Treatment.

Now on to products. She started with a generous portion of Ouidad Whipped Curls Daily Conditioner and Styling Primer. This stuff smells amazing and felt great in my hair. Then she combed in some Heat & Humidity Gel, a product I already use and adore. This is a magic gel that somehow isn't crunchy and holds down frizz. While she was styling the curls (which was kind of an amazing process), she stopped regularly to spray on some Styling Mist Setting & Holding Spray. This might be my favorite new product, it holds the defined curls, adds shine, and helps your hair dry a little faster.

And that's it! Okay, it's a lot but the whole process only adds about 10 minutes to my haircare routine and I only wash my hair twice a week. It stays looking great into the fourth day and my curls have never looked so great, even in the summer humidity. Clearly I am back on the Ouidad train hardcore and I've already booked my next appointment for November. Have any of my curly friends had an Ouidad cut before?