CURLY WOOT!

Haven't had a haircut since July, so haven't had much to post. It's finally starting to grow out that awful asymmetrical cut that looked great for the first 5 minutes, and then looked like crap (I had that cut evened out the same week but forgot to post the pic)

Here's what the cut looked like evened out back at the end of July:

Here's what it looks like now, it can't be straightened anymore because it's too grown out, but I can rock it curly now:

All I did for the above hairstyle was take a shower the night before, put a liberal amount of curl-defining mousse in it, and sleep on it. The next morning, with a tiny bit of water in your hands, gently manipulate existing curls into place, and work with whatever style they're giving you that day. This day, my hair wanted the curls to go down the front on the right side...

Here's another shot of a different day, when the curls hung a little differently. Note that there is no right or wrong to this hairstyle, you just manipulate whatever curls developed overnight into a style and away you go.


I am tempted to get another haircut, but I feel like if I do my hair will NEVER grow! So I'm just going to live with it shaggy and all and find some creative ways to hide the awkward stages as much as I can until it's so unruly I HAVE to cut it, and even then it's only getting a trim. I have noticed since I started this journey a year ago, every hairstylist takes too much off and my hair remains short almost a year later. Not falling for that trick anymore. I will be very specific with the stylist about not cutting the length because I really want it to grow out quickly. It's wintertime anyway, so now I will simply rock a hat ;)

Haircut Number 3

Hello folks!

So I've finally bitten the bullet and got another haircut today, this time I went with something completely different than before... and actually got a shape put into it. As you can see from the picture of the back, he kept most of the length and just went super short on the bottom right to give a half shaved look. From the front, one side is shaved, with the other side longer to give a little play where the bangs are. All in all, a really funky, easy to style haircut which makes the growout process more manageable. I will take a curly hair photo soon when I style it that way.

Variety is the spice of life - Revlon Wigs

Hello all!

I bought a new wig this week, I found that the long hair wig (while pretty for going out on weekends) is not practical for day-to-day wear. I purchased a second wig (for about $350 CDN at Trade Secrets) to wear to work every day for days that I'm not feeling my growing-out look. I will warn you though, this wig is made by Revlon, and unlike the wig I purchased the first time (see post for details on where to buy) it's VERY itchy. I'm wondering if the materials used in the Trade Secrets wigs are not as great of quality as the one I purchased previously. Price was comparable, so if I buy another one I will be going back to the store in Cambridge (Wigs and Hair Studio) to get it.

Here's a pic:

As you can see, this wig has a totally different look and feel to it, it's asymmetrical with one side of the bob being longer than the other. I have received many complements on it, and no one has been able to tell that it's not natural hair. I've had people who KNOW that my hair is short ask me how my hair grew so fast!

So the review on Revlon wigs is.... doesn't tangle, looks natural, but cap is very itchy even with a wig cap underneath.

Natural Curl

Hey folks,

I realized that in my growing out a pixie blog for curly hair, I haven't actually posted any pics of my natural curl. Here I am today, wearing my curls full-out (which successfully helps to hide the jagged edges of a grown out crop). My hair is getting longer finally!

Growing, Growing, Growing.

Well, my hair has officially reached awkward stage number one. It's at that point where it looks less like a hairstyle and more like a mop on top of my head. The fact that my hair is naturally curly doesn't help the situation because it sticks up in every direction. Enter Headbands.... what I once used to hold back my bangs (which have now grown out into bangs finally) I now use to push up the unruly mess of wavy bits at the back. I'm finding it's working for me. Here's a pic...

As you can see, I flat ironed my bangs and curled them just a bit to give them flounce, then I blow dried the top half-straight (I thought pin straight would look funny, and curly looked funny too) but left the kinks in it, and then I put in a headband to push up the kinky hair at the back and leave the bangs out. Sounds complicated to describe, but it was actually rather easy to achieve with just a bit of pomade and my trusty blow drier. Took all of 5 minutes.

Haircut # 2

Hi All!

Got my second haircut into the growout process today. I kept the back super short and I'm working on the length of the bangs for now... what do you think?

Little by little it grows...

Hello All!

Well, I finally almost have bangs again. My hair has grown out quite a bit in the last 2 months, so I thought an updated pic with some progress would be good. I straightened the bangs and used Got 2 B brand styling wax to smooth it out at the front, I let the back do it's own thing.

No judgements, this is a no makeup selfie! LOL I hear those are big these days ;)

First Haircut

Hello all!

I decided that for my first haircut into this grow out process, I would get my sideburns and the back of my neck cut to clean it up and help it look even, while leaving the length everywhere else. I had to get dressed up for a job interview today, so I snapped a quick pic of the haircut, pulled back into a headband.

As you can see, although this length is hard to work with, adding a headband with a cute flower helps to create the illusion that the messy, unkempt top layers were cut that way on purpose. Adding big earrings is the perfect way to help a super cropped cut like this to look more feminine.

To style, I just put some curl defining mousse in my hair straight out of the shower, threw in a headband and tousled the top. It took mere moments to style, but I think the end result is pretty good.

Stay tuned for different styles as we go! 

Step one... buy a wig

OK, so I know this isn't what you want to hear... you want to hear that your hair is going to look great at every stage of the process... well it's not. There will be awkward times between haircuts when you just want to pull it all out, and although you can style it and make it look decent for day-to-day, you won't feel your best for a night out, or if family photos are happening.

I suggest buying a good-quality synthetic wig for those times when the awkward grow out just doesn't cut it. I purchased mine at the wigs and hair studio in Cambridge, Ontario. It was reasonably priced at just $300 for the wig, wig shampoo and wig conditioner (NO! You cannot use regular shampoo and conditioner, you'll ruin your wig!)

While I was there, I spent a good half hour with Suzanne, the owner, trying on all different kinds of wigs. I settled on a nice long, straight wig in a medium brown tone.

As you can see, a good quality wig will look completely natural and no one will know you're wearing one. I also recommend a good-quality wig comb. Wigs can be difficult to brush out as using a brush is too harsh for it and will pull the hairs out. I purchased my comb at Sally Beauty Supply store.

I bought this wig comb for about $4 CDN and it works great!

If you are in Ontario, Canada and have the option of going to the wigs and hair studio I highly recommend it. I searched high and low for a good-quality, reasonably priced wig and Suzanne is the best! You can visit her website here.

In the beginning....

In the summer of 2013, I decided to chop off all my hair into a super cute pixie cut with bangs.

I was loving my new 'do, and rocked it like this for about 6 months. In that time, I experimented with spiking it, slicking it back, playing with my natural curl, and lots of other fun little things with hair accessories and bobby pins. I also loved pinning it back with the pins to create a sort of up do (as shown here on New Year's Eve 2013)

all was right with the world... I have chopped all my hair off like this before, and grew it out gracefully by working with my natural curl and using the bangs as a sort of "buffer" to ensure it didn't lose shape while growing like this:

As you can see, the back was still quite cropped when I took this photo, but by allowing my side pieces to grow out and cutting my bangs, it turned into a really funky, curly, asymmetrical cut. From here, I just grew out the back over time, while maintaining the front until the back "caught up" and I had a really cute curly bob. Perfection!

Expecting this to happen again, I wasn't afraid when I chopped my hair off this summer because I knew that I could easily grow it out, having curly hair helps you to hide the messiness of the growing out stage, and allows you to look like you've done it on purpose. One of the perks of curly hair!

Unfortunately, my dreams of a good grow-out were dashed and my confidence destroyed with one bad haircut. I decided to go to the hairstyling school to get a haircut, knowing that they have experienced, licensed stylists on hand to help out if something goes awry. As you can see from the first picture in this post, the bangs were a little heavy on the right side, so I asked her to thin them out. She ended up hacking them to pieces.

When the senior stylist finally came over to help out, she took one look at what the girl had done and said "I'm sorry, but I can't save your bangs, when she tried to layer them she cut most of the pieces way too short and our only choice is to chop them off or you will have to walk around looking like this" I was crushed!!! "Not to worry" she said, I can give you a super short pixie cut, and we can bleach it platinum blonde, you'll look just like P!nk or Charlize Theron! Who could say no to that?

When she finally turned the chair around, I was expecting to see this:

Cute right? What I got was this:

Not only was my hair some weird strawberry blonde color that no one's ever seen before (more orange than anything) but they bleached me until my scalp bled and it still looked awful! The terrible color didn't hide the horrible, choppy cut that looked like I got in a fight with a lawn mower. Not to mention, I'm a winter complexion, which means my hair looks good super black, and super platinum, but anything with a muted shade (like this one) looks terrible on me! It was just unnatural and strange!

Needless to say, the cut is terrible... the color is terrible... and it's got to go!!!

So now I'm in the process of growing out this horrible pixie cut from hell, but as I've spent most of the night painstakingly googling how to grow this out without looking like a freak during the in-between stages, I discovered that there is very little to be found on the net about growing out a pixie from curly hair.

I can't be the only one with curly hair who was crazy enough to grow out a pixie, and I thought the grief stricken curly haired girls of the world could benefit from a little grow out advice.... and that's why I've started this blog. As I grow my hair out, I will post updates, pictures, and tips on what I've done to manage this awkward grow out process with my curly hair.

I will update this blog at least once a month (the bad cut happened January 27, so I will try and get pics up this week of where we're at so far) and anytime I do something new or creative to style it as we go, so check back for updates girls! :)