i love style needs to get their hair did

So I finally got my hair did. No photos yet cos my blow-drying SUX compared to the salon's. Have determined I need a new blow-dryer with nozzle thingy, and a cooler setting than the one I have now (which is probably 5-8 years old). So I'm taking recommendations, gratefully, for your favorite model!

The salon blow-out was glass-smooth and had no kinks or bends, just a gradual bow all the way to the tips. She used Paul Mitchell's "Super Skinny," which I will try as soon as I have 15 disposable dollars, and a flat paddle brush, which I have, and a nozzle thing on the dryer (see above) which I think funnels the air down to a faster moving column all going in one direction. Is anyone here a blow-drying genius who can elaborate???

why does there have to be so much blow drying? i thought your hair was pretty straight?

I used to understand the whole round-brush-shaping-hair thing but styles have changed to something much straighter and less bouncy than when I last had a short haircut, plus my hair is different now too. HEELLLLP

xp because if it dries naturally I can't sit still like a buddha for the whole time it takes so it gets kinks in it from me absent-mindedly putting it behind one ear or something. And the ends don't all flip the same way.

huh i don't really have any advice for you, unfortunately.

i guess i have become an absolute sloth when it comes to my hair. it has been 8 mo since i cut it, it's long and stringy and i wear it up every day. someday i will get a haircut, but right now this is working for me. also don't want bangs til sweaty weather is over. i just don't care what it looks like because it always looks like crap. it's kinda sad, really.

Hey, I hadn't had it cut in 18 months and I haven't dried it in...maybe 2x in the last year. Or something. But I want to be PROFESSIONAL and SLEEK now. Secretly I liked having hair long enough to pile up on top of the head, but it was a casual look and born of laziness mostly. Never really went with my style in other areas.

i have to blowdry mine every day, too, but i'm TERRIBLE at it - and i never bother using a brush. i think the key to perfect blowdrying is basically being willing to spend 30mins max doing it, which i just don't want to do.

i really need a new dryer too - i bought a fantastic remington one just a few months before i left NZ but i couldn't bring it with me. i asked my husband to buy me a replacement for when i got here and he got me this crappy revlon one, which has a 'cool' setting that is really just 'low'.

All the instructions point to not even STARTING to blow-dry until the hair is 70-80% dry already. Which is ridic, I do not have time in the mornings to sit around drinking tea and smoking cigarettes while my hair air-dries.

But the Super Skinny product is a silicone one that apparently drives water out of the hair faster, which I'm all for. Also thinking of going with this blow-dryer for being fast even at medium heat, and quieter than the competition.

yeah, i would basically rather deal with kind of shit hair than miss out on an hour of sleeping in every morning.

Laurel, I have the T3 Evolution which is what some salons use and also that haircutting reality show i cant remember the name of now. It was $99 but worth it because of two critical reasons: 1. the heat is constant. A lot of hair dryers have heat bursts that you don't notice but they end up frying your hair. 2. It used to take me 20 minutes to dry my hair (thick!) but now its closer to 7 min and thats from straight out of the shower wet. I think the slower the drying the more the humidity you're creating by turning the water into steam ergo more frizz? Thats my theory anyway. Anyway, Im not sure why its faster because it doesn't seem hotter than any other hairdryer I've used. Maybe its the consistency of the heat.
Only downside is if you turn it off halfway through it sometimes doesn't turn on again until it cools down a little. I guess thats a safety feature but its annoying. FWIW it has never stopped while its been on.

Laurel was it the Super Skinny serum that she used on you? I was surprised to find there was a whole line of SS stuff - shampoo, conditioner, spray etc. I ended up buying the smallest size of the serum to try it out and like it so much I think I'm going to get the big one. It's great!

Yeah, I think it was the serum, E. Still haven't bought any, been counting pennies and air-drying my hair in the meanwhile. It's pretty much still too hot here for that shit anyway. My blow-drying and hair-speriments will really pick up with cooler weather.

ss, awesome recommendation on that blow-dryer! It sounds like magic.

I will put in a good word for the Super Solano, which is pricey and heavy but well made, lots of heat/airflow combos, just very reliable.

laurelita i would like a photo of your new hairs-do

i would also like a photo.

i got my hair cut at SUPERCUTS today (lol - $16 + tip) and it is actually pretty good!

I would take a photo if I liked it enough but I rarely do! It's still like 85 deg and 90% humidity here so just having hair is torture. Maybe this wkend I'll take the time to try blow-drying again.

Haven't cut my hair in 2.5 months and it keeps getting more and more manageable - how is this possible?
Think I need a deep condition, though. Also no dye since early april... I may just abandon color altogether!

Well, I never started to dye my hair, so....

My hair stopped growing about an inch below my shoulders. I wish it would grow longer, to the middle of my back, so I could do interesting things to it like French braids and the like.

I've been putting conditioner in my hair before I wash it, putting the shampoo in, and washing the whole thing out at the same time. Anyone else do this?

tza, mine is sooooo long now, longer than it's ever been in my life! I haven't gotten it cut for the same reason - it's actually more manageable. How come? itsamystery.jpg It's also gotten thicker since I stopped shampooing, still really fine but so much more of it.

Christine, you can French braid shorter hair, just in a different style. My go-to is to tuck the short, ungainly ponytail end up underneath the braid at the base of my neck and stick a few hairpins through it.

Also if you have bangs or front/side-pieces that fall out of 1 single braid, try parting yr hair down the center and making one braid along each side of head -- this makes the pieces not reach as far to stay in.

Also the conditioner then shampoo then rinse thing strikes me as a bad idea. Shampoo is to remove oil from your scalp and roots, and rinse it away. Then you add moisture back to the rest of the hair shaft, hopefully without getting too much on your actual scalp, and rinse it out only partially (to leave hair still softer than before).

If you mix them and rinse together, you can't control the amount of conditioner left behind, and you're stripping moisture away at the same time as putting it back, washing it away, putting it back. I don't know about my hair, but I'M confused.

I shampoo/condition every day in reg order. I think the key for me is keeping a comb in the shower and combing conditioner through after it's been there a few moments. Helps distribute and makes styling/blow drying easier.

Also towel drying/air drying for say 15 min before blow drying really help limit heat exposure and speeds up styling I think. But really, I haven't had to do too much at all in terms of styling other than dry with a round brush for 3-5 min. Maybe other ppl think my hair looks like shit, though, hah!

I've been trying to braid my hair lately but it's really tough for me to do on myself. Also, I still have some layers growing out that make it difficult. It's getting there though. I think I'm going to let it get it to my shoulders and then just do an all one length bob just below my chin which should still be long enough for me to do some things with.

i never got the hang of french braiding :(

also: i fucking love this $16 hair cut

I can only french B my own hair because it depends on the strands being held between designated sets of fingers and passed to the other hand very specifically when my hands are behind my head. Which means it's backwards for doing to anyone else.

me too! i taught myself how to do it on my own head, so i can't do it as well on someone else's head. in fact, i accidentally taught myself to create a giant cornrow at first, and then had to reverse it to make an internal french braid.

I have problems putting my hair in a ponytail, much less doing something that complicated. I'd have my husband do it.

The thing is, I have a few extra pounds and a small head. I need the extra bulk that long hair provides. I also have a job that requires me to have my hair pulled back. Furthermore, my hair is so thin and fine (I'm assuming it's because I was a hairpuller as a child) that most things (combs and chopsticks, for example) fall right out. So, anything that makes my hair too much shorter than it is is right out. I also try to use fancy hair toys to try to partially reverse the effects of the shorter hair.

i have a lot of hair but it's super fine too, so clips and pins and combs and stuff just don't stay in at all.

i feel like i have been having boring hair problems for years at this point and bitching about it on ilx, but i haven't had a real haircut in a while, just occasionally taking some scissors to it when it drives me crazy. i think before i start student teaching i should get a real haircut--what should i do? i was trying to grow it long enough to cut it in a chin-length angled bob but because of an unfortunate layered haircut i got a while back i'm not sure if all of it is long enough for that. i think i'm sort of afraid of the hairdresser's reaction to it and my random hackings of it at this point. i can't even believe how much i've just typed about my goddamn hair when did i become this person?

Ahahahahahah oh I <3 u.

Just got my hair dyed for only the second time - last time it was semi-permanent with highlights. This time wanted to make it permanent so asked the stylist if the permanent colour would be exactly the same, as I really liked it. She said yes. It isn't. It's a lot darker. I'm sure I'll get used to it but...

Maybe you could go back to the stylist and see if she could fix it in some way?

Yeah, I thought about that but I think it'd be difficult to lighten a permanent dye. I will google around to find out, but in the meantime I'll take a few days to get used to it and see whether I'm ok with it.

permanent dye does that and then fades to a lighter color in a week or so (depending on how much you wash your hair). I dye mine med-dark brown and it always looks black for the first 5 or so days then goes brown.

yeah permanent dye is really not that permanent - not in a good way ime.

Really? Great! That's reassuring!

If you had highlights before and didn't get them with the permanent dye, it would look darker too. If it doesn't lighten up enough in a week, you could have some highlights put in around your face.

I've had highlights in the past & then dyed my hair all one color...the bits w/highlights faded faster, resulting in sort-of-highlight.

Also - greetings stylish people, I'm trying to sort out what to do with my hair. It's longer than I've ever had it (below shoulders by maybe an inch), and I'm kind of enjoying that. Except, now I have to get a blow dryer and THINGS to put it up with. I bought these Hairagami things why b\c they look interesting. But they are unpredictable and seem dangerous, also heavy. I own 1 claw clip. Should I invest in bobby pins? I keep looking at vintage hair style books, but I don't think I'll ever be that put together.

I did get caramel-y highlights as well (same as last time) and they work fine with the darker colour. But I'd still prefer the underlying colour to lighten up a bit. Fingers crossed.

Just go wash your hair a bunch of times, that's what causes it to fade.

Will do.

Jaq, I wish I could help here. I have no clue how to put my hair up, especially when it's in a mid-length rather than long bob.

Also - greetings stylish people, I'm trying to sort out what to do with my hair. It's longer than I've ever had it (below shoulders by maybe an inch), and I'm kind of enjoying that. Except, now I have to get a blow dryer and THINGS to put it up with. I bought these Hairagami things why b\c they look interesting. But they are unpredictable and seem dangerous, also heavy. I own 1 claw clip. Should I invest in bobby pins? I keep looking at vintage hair style books, but I don't think I'll ever be that put together.

I wear a lot of nice hair toys while I'm at work. How thick is your hair?

It's fine, but it's fuller than I expected. Possibly because there are some growing-out layers in there. When I pull it back into a tail, it's maybe 1.25-1.5" diameter.

pro-tip - anti dandruff shampoo strips out some but not all permanent hair color (ie lightens the early darkness a little faster)