Beauty: Styling a 60s does 20s Messy Bob

August 31, 2016August 31, 20164 Comments

Yes, I got a haircut…

I realized I forgot to mention that here! I did share my haircut (that I got a couple weeks ago, actually) on insta and snapchat (pushyspence), but not all of you may follow me there, so it was a bit silly of me not to share it here as well. Better late than never I guess.

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I thought today I would also share with you one of the ways I have been styling my bob. It’s funny, you’d think having short hair would be less maintenance, but actually, it’s been more maintenance, at least for me. I did very little to my long hair each day – I could always just get up and go – but now I have to do something to it or (like my boyfriend lovingly called it) it will look like “mom hair”. Prior to getting this haircut, I had pinned and looked at tons of images of gals with the cut I wanted so I would be able to reference that when styling it myself. Because really, you can ask for a haircut from an image, but you certainly cannot expect it to look that way unless you learn to style it. So this is one of the ways I have been styling it, which is a traditional 60s does 20s bob style, but a bit more messy because sleek hair scares me. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: Styling a 60s does 20s Bob Pre-style: Because I have pretty straight hair that doesn’t love to do anything (except the opposite of what I want it to do), I have to will it a bit to get that dishevelled look. To make my hair more malleable and tousled looking, I spray some salt water spray (well this one is actually a salt-infusion…whatever that means) evenly throughout my damp or dry hair. Salt water spray just helps to give you that kind of beachy feel and look to your hair. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: Styling a 60s does 20s Bob Styling: Parts of my hair do actually naturally curl into my face, but other parts don’t, and since I’m not all that good with a round brush/blow dryer combo and since I don’t wash my hair everyday, I’ve been using my flat iron to get my desired look. Sadly, my amazing flat iron that was given to me as a gift like 11 years ago (thanks Mel!) finally bit the dust last week (it was honestly so good! it lasted 11 years for goodness sakes!!), so I went out to the drugstore, doing very little research, and bought the Chi Air Expert – it has been working well so far, but I doubt it will be 11 years working well. Anyways! I seriously digress! Styling! Parting my hair and starting with the bottom layer, I take a section of hair, pull my iron down it and guide it towards my face at the bottom. I do this all around my head, pulling down a new section, until everything looks nice and curled into my face. I still style my fringe this way, so I won’t repeat that here. Tip! Make sure to only start turning your iron toward your face near the bottom, otherwise your going to have much too much of a mushroom look. Unless that’s what you want. It’s your life, of course. Do what you want! Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: Styling a 60s does 20s Bob Finishing touches: At this point my hair is pretty sleek looking (oOoOo scary!) since flat irons have a tendency to make everything look perfecto, which is both a curse and a blessing, really. So from there I’ve been using a matte hair wax (which is Zach’s and I don’t remember the name. Sorry!) or this Fructis matte cream (that is branded as surf hair, which I find annoying, but I still bought it, so you tell me!). I use a little of the wax or cream, rub it into my fingertips to warm it up and then twist parts of the end of my hair with it, tousling it here and there, all throughout my hair (like a Dr. Seuss rhyme, apparently)…this is where you can manipulate your hair the way you want to achieve your desired messy look. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: Styling a 60s does 20s Bob And, c’est fini! Surprisingly, this doesn’t take all that long. The other way I have been styling my hair (which I will share later) takes a little longer, so I’ve been doing this one more frequently.

Do you have a bob? Tell me the ways you have been styling it! Thinking of getting a bob? Tell me about that too, in the comments below, as always 🙂

Beauty / Simple Low Ponytail With Some Twists

August 12, 201511 Comments

Ponytails can be rather boring, can’t they? I honestly don’t wear my hair in one very often, mostly because I have great disdain for my ears (can one even have disdain for part of their body?!). But with my new desire to step out of my comfort zone, let my ears be free (sort of) and try new hairstyles, I decided to take a simple low ponytail and make it a little more interesting with some mini ponies and a bit of twisting (sounds so professional), to create a look that appears much fancier than it actually is. So let us learn how, shall we?
1. start by taking two sections of hair from either side of your head; much like the way you would do a half ponytail
2. tie your sections into a ponytail with a small clear elastic (or whatever you want, really)
3. take the end of your ponytail and guide it over top and through where the two sections of hair meet, to create a fun lil’ twisted effect
4. continue the first 3 steps as many or as little times as you like, and the same with your sections, they can be as big or as little as you like; i did 3 twisties and I took fairly small sections, but honestly, I think this look would be quite striking if you used more hair for your twists
5. tie the remaining loose hair into a ponytail
6. finish the look off with a cute bow (or whatever you have on hand)
That’s it! Told you it was easy peasy! Let me know if you give this hairstyle a try.

*you can view more of my tutorials and other beauty related things here.

Beauty / Simple Side Braid With A Twist (literally)

July 22, 20158 Comments

The simple side braid is a good friend of mine. I sleep with one in pretty often, which helps to keep my hair wavy baby throughout the day, but when it comes to wearing a side braid during the day, the back bit of hair, near the nape of my neck, has a tendency to kind of droop, which has a way of annoying me thoroughly. So, I came up with a way to have that back bit of hair stay off my neck and add some interest to a very simple hairstyle, and all it takes is a twist (pun very intended).
1. using both hands, roll the hair closest to the nape of your neck towards your head, starting from behind one ear, until you reach the other side of your head
2. hanging on to that twist – which will act as 1/3 of your braid – start parting the remaining hair into 2 even sections, just the way you do with a regular braid
3. braid! easy peasy!
4. pull out any hairs you would like to have framing your face and loosen the braid a bit by pulling it apart. I also curled the hair framing my face to add a romantic vibe to the look; if your roll is feeling a little loose, add some bobby pins and hairspray – that should do the trick! Easy as that! It should take you no more than a minute (unless you do some curling like me) and it adds a little extra something to a very simple, basic hairstyle. Below I will also show you 3 different ways you can add some interest to this look with hair accessories.

ACCESSORIZE THAT BRAID!
CUTE HAIR CLIPS: add some cute hairclips, like these sunglasses (that kind of look like goggles) to add a playful, yet subtle quality to your look. HEAD SCARF: add a headscarf (or in this case it’s a head band acting as a scarf) to add a little colour or pattern to your sweet little noggin.BOW: want to cover up that dreaded elastic? wrap a ribbon around it; both cute and functional

*like what you see? i’ve got more beauty posts for you here

Beauty / Two Quick Romantic Up-dos

June 17, 2015Leave a comment

I’ve always found up-dos to be a weird thing, mostly because they remind me of horrible 90s proms or something. But up-dos can actually be really pretty if done right, and most importantly, quick and easy. So I thought I’d share with you two styles – the first one is a nod to an Edwardian hairstyle and the second is a retro one I have seen a lot around the internet lately (Zoe, Colleen, Rebecca), so I thought I’d give it a go with my own twist.

Edwardian Inspired Up-do
-start by putting your hair into a loose bun/top knot atop your head with an elastic.
-flatten your bun out a bit and start pinning it into place; feel free to pull out pieces in the bun to get the look you desire.
-after your bun is secured in place, start adding volume to the rest of the hair by pulling it out from the bun and pin any unruly pieces in their desired place; we want to achieve a more voluminous, messy and lifted look.
-add some flowers or cute hair accessories wherever you like to finish off the look

Retro Rolled Up-do
-start by placing your elastic headband on top of your hair
-from there take a small section of hair close to your ear and roll it over top of the elastic
-continue this process using hair from both sides until you have covered the hairband
-if your hair is being annoying like mine was, then feel free to use bobby pins to secure any stray hairs in place
-if you have a nice headband from the get-go, then you are all done, but if you are like me and had a boring black one, feel free to add something on top to make it more exciting. I used a vintage headband to cover the one underneath

Dress: vintage
Headband: vintage via Victory Mills

Beauty / Styling My Fringe (Bangs)

March 26, 2015March 26, 20156 Comments

Today I’m going to share how I style my bangs/fringe, each and every day. I’m sure the way I style my fringe is not uncommon, but I do see a lot of people using a straightener to style a straight-across fringe, which I used to do ages ago and that works pretty well, but what I do now I find is longer lasting and gives the right amount of volume, in my opinion. Also, I’m in desperate need of a bang trim, so my fringe is a bit wonky, I apologize for that.
STEP ONE: To style my fringe, it is an absolute must that my fringe is wet. But since I normally wash my hair in the evening, I wake up with totally dry hair. What to do?! Well, I just run my comb under water and then comb through my fringe, getting all parts of it wet, not to a super sopping wet degree, but just enough that it is malleable and will agree with my blow dryer.
STEP TWO: Now the styling part! I split my fringe in 3 sections (left, centre and right) and using my round brush and blow dryer I place one section over the brush and dry that section by holding the brush near my hairline and then pulling out (that’s what she said) away from my face. The round brush will create a lovely lifted, round shape to the bangs, that is both bouncy and clean looking. Then I continue on to the rest of my sections, until all is even and dry. Since my fringe often has a mind of it’s own, I usually guide the outer sections in the correct direction so that my fringe covers all of my forehead. To give the whole look an extra lift, I’ll take little sections of hair from the top of my fringe and do the above process again. Side note: you may be thinking, why the heck are you not holding the handle part of your round brush? And the answer is, I’m not sure? It feels more comfortable for some reason.
And that’s it! Every so often I give my fringe a little spritz of hairspray after I’m done, but not always. I find this way of styling a straight-across fringe is great for holding on it’s own, with little or no product.