From My Vanity

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a hairstyling tutorial with you all. Have you missed them? Well, today’s your day, because I’ve teamed up with Toni&Guy (through Birchbox) and Kiss (through Brandbackers) to bring you another easy hairstyle that incorporates both curls and braids (You know those are the hairstyles I LOVE!).

At the end I will also give you a short review on the products from both these companies. So let’s jump right in and have some fun!

Be forewarned, this post is very picture heavy. 🙂

Quick Side Braid & Curls Tutorial

Step 1: Brush Hair & Protect

It can be a nightmare if you try to curling your hair when you have knots. Always be sure to thoroughly brush through your hair before you begin. Also, since you’ll be using heat on your hair, make sure you use some type of hair protector so you don’t burn the ends of your hair. (That’s never fun!)

Step 2: Part Your Hair to the Side

Part your hair to the side. If you normally do a side part, I would recommend parting it a little deeper than usual. This will  giving you a more edgy, faux side shave look once we’re done. 🙂

Step 3: Apply Some Hair Wax

This is mainly to keep all those fine, baby hairs that are around your hairline from sticking up and giving your braid a ‘fuzzy’ look. (They drive me crazy!) The Toni & Guy’s Stick It Up Gum works perfectly for this.

Not only did it keep my fine hairs smoothed over, but it also gave my hair wigs a glossy finish. 🙂

Step 4: Dutch Braid till Past your Ear

If you don’t know what dutch braiding is, it’s exactly like french braid — except that instead of braiding the strands over each other, you braid them under each other. If you still are not sure what dutch braiding is, head over to Youtube and check out Kayley Melissa’s tutorial on how to do a dutch braid.

Once you know, all you’re going to do is dutch braid until just past your ear. Once you reach it, do a regular braid once or twice and now you’re ready for the next step. 🙂

Step 5: Secure with Bobby Pins

Use however many bobby pins you need to secure the braid at the back of your head. Make sure that you are pinning the braid underneath your hair, so that it will cover the bobby pins and make your braid look like it just disappears into your hair.

Step 6: Spray Braid with Hairspray

At this point I sprayed my braid with Toni&Guy Medium Hold Hairspray to keep it secure.

I didn’t want to go in with too strong a spray, just in case I needed to change things up. Always save the strong hairspray until you’re completely done and satisfied with your look.

Step 7: Curl Remaining Hair

Now comes the fun part! I got out my new InstaWave from Kiss. I’ve seen a few reviews on YouTube for it, and they were all very favorable, so my hopes were high. I set my wand on the ‘high’ setting, as my hair is usually very difficult to curl. Of course, if you don’t own this curling iron, then use whichever one you have available. 🙂

It took a few tries to figure it out, (You should have seen my puzzled look!) but once I did, I had a beautiful curl! And I like the fact that the wand wraps the hair around for you, so there’s less for your hands to do. 🙂 It also gives you a very natural, relaxed wave that I really liked.

Step 8: After Curling a Section, use a Texturizing Spray

This is a step that I like to include, because my hair can be very stubborn. After I’ve curled a section of hair, I give it a light misting of Toni&Guy’s Sea Salt Texturizing Spray and scrunch it up just a bit.

I’ve been doing this step for the past year or so, and have noticed a BIG difference in how much longer my curls last because of it. If you have easy-to-curl hair, than feel free to omit this step. 🙂

Step 9: Finish your Hairstyle with Hairspray

Once I finished curling all the sections of hair, I grabbed the Toni&Guy’s Strong Hold Hairspray and gave the curls — and my braid — a good misting to set the hairstyle.

And that’s all there is to your hairstyle! You’re all set — and looking fabulous! 😉

My Thoughts on the Toni&Guy Hair Products

Toni&Guy sent me several products from four of their lines: Classic, Casual, Creative, and Glamour. I was really thrilled that I found a hairstyle that would incorporate a product from each of the lines. That way I would get a really good feel for the brand as a whole. I loved how they color-coordinated the products with their different lines. 🙂

I love how all of the products smell! If you’re like me, how my hair products smell is an important factor when I’m shopping for hair supplies. All the products have a slightly sweet fragrance. Not too strong, though, which is also nice. (I don’t want to knock people out when I walk by!)

Toni&Guy is a high-end brand in the hair product world, so I was pleased to find that all the products feel luxurious and work better than the drugstore brands that I’ve tried in the past. This is a really important fact for me — I’m not just going to pay more money for the name, I want the product to be worth the price. And these are!

I think out of all the products, I loved the hairsprays the most. I hate buying drugstore firm hold hairsprays, because I just feel like it’s spitting glue into my hair. My hair feels gross and looks like it would snap off if I tried to bend the strands. But with Toni&Guy’s hairspray, it gave me a firm hold on my hairstyle, without the “cement” feel.

The texturizing spray, also, was exceptional. The nozzle just gives you a light misting and it isn’t as sticky as some of the sprays I’ve used in the pass. It does give your curls that slightly crunchy feel, but not overly crunch. Just enough to really grab onto the curls and help them hold throughout the day. This product would work well if you wanted to spruce up your curls partway through the day.

All in all, while you are going to pay a few more dollars than the regular drugstore hair products, they’re definitely worth it! The products won’t leave your hair feeling gross the next day (big plus!). Toni&Guy feels and smells luxurious and the results I get with their products outshine the other hairstyling products I currently have underneath my bathroom sink. Definitely worth the splurge!

My Thoughts on the Kiss InstaWave

After curling my whole head with this wand, I’ve been able to form a pretty definite opinion on this curling wand. Before I forget, it retails for $59.99 — which isn’t a bad or outrageous price for a hair tool, in my opinion.

I will admit it took my several tries before I finally figured out how to work it without getting my hair all tangled on the prongs. (Now, this might just be because I can be a bit clumsy at times!) After reading the directions carefully and doing several trial runs with the wand turned off, I finally figured it out. Once I got the hang of it, curling my hair went really quickly.

The Kiss InstaWave does make curling your hair easier, in my opinion. Not having to use both my hands to hold it in place really makes a difference. And while this tool isn’t super-light, I didn’t notice my arms getting tired at all. I also like to think that, since the hair is sitting lightly wrapped around the wand, it isn’t as damaging. 🙂

Because this curling iron has the prongs that help to keep the hair around the wand, it does also cause the hair around it to get caught up if you’re not careful. If you’re going to use this wand, you will definitely need to make sure you section off your hair and keep the hair separate from your curls. And even then, if I tried to rest the wand too close to my hair while twirling it, the curls I’d already done would start to get caught up around the wand! So, depending on the individual, this might be a con. For me, personally, I don’t mind it. I just have to keep it in mind when clicking the button to twirl it.

One thing that I considered a negative aspect of this wand is that it is very hard to get a close curl when doing the sections at the back of my head. Because you can’t see it (or maybe because I’m not very flexible) I found it impossible to get the wand close to my head and curl the strand without the prongs getting all caught up in my hair. So for me, I just brought the hair around my shoulder and curled it as far up the strand as I could go.

All in all, while this curling wand does have a few cons, I found that I really loved the curls that I was able to get with the Kiss InstaWave. They held up beautifully all day and still had a lot of curl left the next day. As I mentioned, I loved that the curl it gave was very loose and effortless. I don’t like ringlets when I curl my hair, but neither do I like fallen waves. This curling iron gave me the perfect curls. I think it will really come down to your own personal preference as to whether or not you will like this curling iron. If you love trying new and different hair tools, then you’re going to love this!

Y’all made it to the end! Bravo! I hope this post wasn’t too long winded. There was so much information to share with you all. 🙂

Question for My Readers: What do you think of the InstaWave? Do you like trying new curling wands? Or do you just like your tried-and-true curling iron? 🙂

I received one or more of the products mentioned above from either Brandbacker or Birchbox. I only share information that I
think will be useful for my readers and I only recommend products I have personally used. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.