Weekend Window Shopping: More Fancy Sweatshirts!

I think the fancy sweatshirt is one of the best things to come out of the pandemic. I LOVE a fancy sweatshirt (as demonstrated earlier this week) and I'm always looking for my next one. Here are a few I wouldn't mind having:

Review: Dyson Airwrap for Short Hair.

As I mentioned recently, I managed to get my paws on a secondhand Dyson Airwrap styler which I was dying to try even though it's not really meant for my hair. I was pretty sure, in fact, that it would make me cry. My hair is legitimately short*, straight and fine and I don't generally do much to it aside from a quick blow-dry and some flat ironing of the ends. But, I recently got a haircut I didn't like, so I decided the Airwrap couldn't make things worse. I was right! 

The Dyson Airwrap seems advanced, but it's surprisingly easy and fun to use. Trust me, if I can use it without ending up having to cut it out of my hair, you can totally handle it. For hair as short as mine curls/waves aren't yet a thing (I'm growing it out because I'd love to achieve this look) but I can get crazy volume with it, something I was never able to achieve with a regular round brush/hair dryer. 

The set comes in an enormous fancy box with a handle and a bunch of attachments: a pre-styling dryer, a volumizing round brush, firm smoothing brush, soft smoothing brush, and two sets of curl barrels. 

If I'm in a rush I'll just dry it a bit and use the round brush attachment which gives me very good results. But, when I have a bit more time I pull out the barrels to get crazy volume and shine. Here's my process (please note that it's impossible to do mirror selfies without getting crazy eyes):

First, I spray a little B&B Tonic on my wet hair and then some product - lately I've been loving R&Co Rodeo Star mousse. I use the pre-styling dryer to get my hair mostly-but-not-quite dry. The dryer attachment is pretty powerful, though if you have a lot of hair, it probably isn't going to replace a regular hair dryer. (In my case it does because my beloved Super Solano finally died on me last week. RIP, Super Solano.)

Then I hit my bangs with the firm brush because they dry quickly and I want to avoid bang wonkiness.

Then I section off the bottom layer of my hair and and use the large barrel on it, section by section. The styler kind of sucks your hair onto the barrel which is scary at first and then it's fun. Also, hello crazy eyes.

Please note the insane curl action on the bottom! I then use the barrel on the top in sections and then repeat this process on the other side. I use the round brush attachment on the back because it's too short for the barrels. All of this seems complicated, but it takes less than 15 minutes. After the barrel action, I'm left with this:

This is...not great. I know. I KNOW. But please take a moment to notice how freaking shiny my hair is:

Still, that bubble bob is not it so I give my hair a few minutes to relax and then as a final step I use my flat iron and straighten the ends. Here's the final style in much more flattering light:

So good! So much more volume than I ever though I could achieve on my own. Here's the other side: 

I still have some growing out to do (all those stupid little layers!) before I can achieve some bouncy waves, but overall I'm really impressed with the Dyson Airwrap. It's fun and not hard to use. I honestly didn't think I'd keep it but now I don't know how I managed without it? This is dangerous. Anyway, if you have really short hair I am not saying you should go out and drop this kind of money on a styler but if you've been thinking about it for a while, maybe treat yo self. It's well-made and fancy af. (Plus, I don't know about you but I could use a little fun these days, even if it's from a weird hair tool.)

From what I can tell it's backordered (to ship in Feb) or sold out pretty much everywhere but I have seen them pop back up for sale a few times, so keep your eye out! Or, don't give in to this nonsense and keep doing what you're doing. You look great. 

*The Internet needs to understand what short hair is. Please, I beg you, stop calling your hair "short" if it's long enough to put in a ponytail. THAT IS NOT SHORT HAIR. What you have is MEDIUM LENGTH HAIR. I can't tell you how annoying it is to go looking for short hair Dyson Airwrap tutorials and finding folks with hair below their shoulders calling their hair "short." IT IS NOT. 

BUY THIS (So We Don't Have To): Madewell Secret Stock Sale.

I don't know how "secret" the stuff really is, but Madewell is giving an extra 40% off a whole lot of it and I feel compelled to tell you about it. Some of it is final sale and sizing is limited but y'all, there are some screaming deals to be had. Here's what I love:

Weekend Window Shopping: My Best Stuff, All (Mostly) On Sale.

I always keep an eye on my favorite things in case they go on sale because who doesn't love a bargain! I just found my little blue lapis Gorjana necklace on NR and I posted yesterday that my Varley pullover is on sale. Here's a bunch of other stuff that I own (or want to own) that's on sale right now:

Outfit of the Day: My WFH Secret. (Spoiler: It's Fancy Sweatshirts.)

I realized not long ago that my work-from-home outfits all had a similar lean: Sweatshirts. Heh. It's more like, let's be comfortable but also be able to answer the front door if someone knocks. It's all fun and games working in your pajamas until you have to sign for a package, you know? I also feel more like a human person if I make a tiny bit of effort every day, so I try to wear a little makeup, do my hair and wear a piece of jewelry. It makes me feel less like a home-bound swamp creature. Anyway, here are three recent work-from-home outfits featuring, um, pretty nice sweatshirts:

Y'all are familiar with my Madewell Boyjeans and my beloved Birkenstock clogs, so let's talk about my sweatshirt. It's the Vuori Halo Crew and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. SO MUCH. SO MUCH. I wear it all the time because it's just perfect - soft, slightly cropped (but not obnoxiously so), loose but not sloppy, comfy as hell and just kind of looks...nice? No matter what? I hate how expensive it is but it was worth every penny. 

My necklace is some dumb Capricorn pendant by Kendra Scott that I found at Nordstrom Rack a while back and felt compelled to buy. It's nicely chunky and came with a couple of jangly charms that I removed. I'm also wearing my Madewell freshwater pearl earrings that are now sold out (but I told you to buy them a while back, so don't yell.) They're surprisingly nice! They do still have this freshwater pearl style still in stock which I think are really cute. 

Hi! I am wearing my favorite basic sweatshirt from Quince (def a more traditional cut, but so cozy) and my Athleta Headlands Hybrid moto tights, both of which I've already talked about a lot. I was mostly excited to tell you about my Rothy's The Chelsea in Wildcat but they've already sold out. Jerks. I will admit that I was a fan of Rothy's flats for a minute but they stopped being comfortable (so sweaty!) so I sold them. 

Meanwhile, I had a bunch of credits just sitting (erm, my link will get you $20 off, I get credits, etc.) and discovered they had some items on sale after Christmas so I bought The Chelsea boots with my credits expecting to hate them. Um, I love them. The secret is, I can wear socks with them so my feet don't get gross. Naturally, that sale section completely vanished but you can definitely find them NIB on eBay or Posh. Or, you can buy this cute version by Ryka or these Dr Scholl's booties or these cuties by Dolce Vita. 

I'm wearing my Giles & Brother fish hook necklace that I've had for a million years. Still a favorite. 

Okay, this looks positively dressy by comparison! I know I've written about my Varley Cleon sweatshirt before (review here) but y'all, it's on sale! Also here! It's so, so good - really more of a heavy top than a sweatshirt and it looks really refined and dressy. I also love it in the lavender/grey color.  I'm wearing it with my Athleta Chelsea Cargo pants (I'm wearing the unlined version) and my Everlane Day Glove flats. 

Final necklace roundup: I'm wearing my tiny Gorjana gemstone necklace and my little bird skull pendant from Paxton Gate. That's it! Three outfits, three...sweatshirts. THEY ARE ALL TOTALLY DIFFERENT AND NICE. I mean, right? Humor me. 

Marianne Reviews: The Gymwrap

This is not exactly cute but I swear that 80% of my bodily sweating happens on my scalp. And yes, this is vain, but I don’t like to wash and dry my hair more than twice a week (my hair is really dry and this is the best thing I can do for it), so for literally years I have not exercised meaningfully because of my hair. If you follow me on instagram then you might already know that I’ve been really working on moving meaningfully every day. And I mean EVERY DAY, I’m now up to a 116 day streak closing all of my rings on my Apple Watch. 

I was swimming until the weather got too cold (I know people who love cold water swimming, but that’s not for me), and I perfected keeping my hair pretty dry and swimming is one of the least sweat-inducing exercises for me. Since the weather change I’ve been walking 3 miles a day at a brisk pace and steep incline (with my Bala Bands on, I will admit I love them). Great exercise, but ugh, the scalp sweating. 

I was ending up blow drying my hair most days or just wearing it up (and still looking soaking wet). I went on a mission to find a solution, and finally ordered the Gymwrap. The reviews were amazing and I love that it’s a small business owned by a Black woman. I ordered the original Gymwrap and the Bandi, which is lighter weight. 

Here I am in the classic one, at first I didn’t like the tie but now I love that you can truly adjust it to fit you. The Bandi wants to slide back on my head and has to be readjusted, but the classic stays put. Most importantly, IT WORKS. You put it on before your workout and leave it on for 30 minutes afterwards.

When you take it off, your hair looks kind of smushed, but it is pretty much bone sry and not oily at all. Is your hair 100% perfect, like you just styled it? No. But it is totally better than fine. 

I can’t recommend this enough if you are a scalp/hairline sweater. Truly a game changer! If you'd like to try the Gymwrap you can use my referral link for 25% off your first order! 

Best of...2021.

 Happy New Year, all! I took a break from the blog over the holidays but now I'm back with a few new ideas and hopefully some slightly more inspiring outfits. (Seriously, though, my style has reached new highs (lows?) when it comes to casual. Y'all are just lucky I'm not posting actual pajamas and bedhead, is all I'm saying.) 

2021 was an insane year for me - moving across the country in a pandemic, working remotely on EST, figuring out a whole new life. It was... a lot. I know my blog posting schedule has slowed down quite a bit, but I think we still gave some solid recommendations (and a few clunkers but that is a different post) so today I thought I'd revisit some of the best of 2021:

The Most Popular Fashion Purchase. 
A lot of you bought the J.Crew Lightweight Utility jacket (worn here) which is still a solid favorite of mine. Sadly it's sold out but fingers crossed they bring it back in the spring! I find it interesting that they have a totally different jacket with the same name, so maybe this is what we get. (It's cute, but not the same at all.) 

The Most Popular Gadget Purchase.
The best seller on the blog last year was this USB arc lighter, which was given to me last Christmas by Marianne. It's still one of my favorite gadgets of all time and I hope you love it too! A lot of you also bought my favorite scalp massager tool which I still use daily. It's one of those things you can't imagine being without once you start using it. 

The Most Popular Book Purchase.
The most-purchased book last year was Who's That Girl by Mhairi McFarlane, which is definitely my favorite of hers, and the runner up was In Five Years by Rebecca Searle, which Marianne and I both loved a lot. You can't go wrong with either one! (Original reviews here and here.)

The Best Thing I Read.
Looking back on all the books I talked about last year, I think my favorite, the one that stuck with me the most, is The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley. (Reviewed here.) I also really loved Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which was so much better than I was expecting and I find myself thinking about it even now, months later. (Reviewed here.)

The Outfit You Loved Best. 
This little black dress outfit got more attention on IG than anything I've ever posted. I love it too and can't wait for the weather to be nice enough to wear that dress again! It was a solid purchase. 

The Outfit I Loved Best. 
Of all the outfits I've posted this year, this one is my personal favorite. It just feels like me top to bottom and I love everything I'm wearing individually, which is rare. That AllSaints Dalby jacket, y'all. It's a good one. 

The Best Thing I Bought. 
Okay, this is always kind of tough but I decided my Hammitt VIP bag is absolutely my favorite purchase of 2021. It have carried it a ton and it's just so easy and so cute with the red zipper. The large is the perfect size for everyday and the rear cell phone slip pocket is perfection. (My Clare V bag comes in at a close second for pure cuteness alone.) 

That's it for today! What do you think? Did we do you right or lead you astray? What were your favorites from 2021?