From My Vanity

I hope everyone is enjoying the “Hairstyling with NuMe” series so far! Today we have another fun hairstyle tutorial — the waterfall braid! 🙂 It’s been a lot of fun to do these hairstyles on myself and my siblings, and the NuMe Titan3 Curling Wand Set has made creating curls so easy and effortless! And they stay so well, too! For those who follow me on Instagram, you saw the picture of my hair for my bridal shower — and those curls looked great all night. 🙂

Don’t Forget! NuMe is having a sale for their MegaStar flat iron (their most popular flat iron and the one I bought recently. I LOVE it!!). If you use the coupon code “MEGASPRING” when you check out, you can get this amazing flat iron for only $79! That’s a saving of $120, which is awesome! I highly recommend this flat iron — it’s really important to invest in a good flat iron and this one is definitely worth the money!

Okay, let’s dive right into today’s hairstyle — which is curls with a waterfall braid!

Step 1: Curl

Curl your hair, however works best for you. I’m using the NuMe Titan3 Curling Wand set with the middle sized barrel. For those who have my type of hair (long, thick, heavy, stubborn hair), check out my first post where I show you, step by step, how to curl your hair. 🙂

I used the middle curling wand on my sister, but if I was to do it again, I would use the smallest curling wand. Tight curls look really cute on little girls, in my opinion. 🙂

Step 2: Add hair to the first strand, closest to the top of the head

Take a chunk of hair near your front hairline and split it into 3 sections. Start doing a normal french braid — incorporating a new chunk of hair from the top of the hair.

Step 3: Drop the third strand (farthest from the top of the head) and pick up a new one

When you go to add a new chunk of hair from the third strand (the strand farthest from the top of the head), drop the strand and pick up a new strand from right next to it. This is what will give your braid that ‘waterfall’ effect.

Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3

Continue to add hair to the first strand, and pick up a new strand every time you go to braid the third strand over.

By the way, I am assuming that everyone knows how to braid and french braid. If you don’t know how, either let me know (so I can consider doing a tutorial on both of those for you) or do a searching on YouTube. A lot of great beauty guru’s do a step-by-step video explaining how to do both a regular braid and a french braid. 🙂

Step 5: When you reach the back of your head, finish with a regular braid

After you’ve braided almost all the way down your strand of hair, use a little black elastic band and tie your braid. This is only a temporary fix, so don’t worry if the tie doesn’t look nice or you didn’t tie it particularly nice — it won’t be on there for long. 🙂

Step 6: Loosen the braids (if desired) and spray it with hairspray

The first part of this step is optional. I like it when a hairstyle has a really loose, effortless look to it, so I just pulled on her braid a tad to make the braid look larger and also give it a soft, natural look. Then a sprayed the braid and the curls with hairspray to help hold the hairstyle (I am using an older version of the Kenra Platinum Finishing Spray 26).

Step 7: Repeat the steps on the other side

Repeat steps 2 to 6 on the other side of your hair. Once your done the two braids should meet in the middle at the back of your head. But go ahead and braid it regularly for a while before tying it off.

Step 8: Gather the two braids together at the back

Pull the two braids together at the back and secure it with some type of clip. I used a Flexi Clip, as it really decorates the hairstyle and is super easy to use, too! (which is a huge plus and something I appreciate!)

Step 9: Remove the hair ties

Remove both ties from the braids and undo the braids up to your clip, so your hair hands free.

And now that the two braids are joined, you can loosen or tighten the braid as much as you like. Because you have some strands of the hair hanging out (the ‘waterfall’ part of the braid), it makes it really easy to either tighten or loosen the braids. So however you like to wear your hair, go for it. 🙂

Step 10: If needed, recurl strands

If you notice that any of your curls have kind of fallen because of running your fingers through it (when you were braiding), just take your curling wand and recurl those areas. It doesn’t take long — just hold it for a few seconds and your curls will be good to go. Don’t touch your curls when you finish until they’ve cooled. Use hairspray once you are done!

AND YOU’RE DONE!!!!

Once all the curls look the way you want them to…you’re finished!

After I finished my sister’s hair, she went and put on her dress-up gown and play high-heels and pretended she was a princess. 🙂 I thought she looked sooooo grown up and pretty with her curly hair!

REMEMBER: NuMe is sponsoring a giveaway on From My Vanity! If you didn’t see my original post where I did a tutorial on curling your hair, make sure you take a look and see how you could win a NuMe Curl Jam set to try out on yourself! (worth over $200!)

Question to my Readers: Do you enjoy braiding your hair? Do you like a regular braid, french braid, inverted braid, fishtail braid? Tell me what braid you enjoy doing the most! 🙂

Good Friday morning, everyone! It’s here — the second installment to my new series, Hairstyling with NuMe! Today I’m going to take curls to the next level with this fun half-up-do type of style. It would be perfect for a night out or even for a prom date!

By the way, my little sisters got so excited when they heard I was doing this series on my blog, and they all eagerly volunteered to be my ‘models’ for this series. So today I’m featuring one of my younger sister’s as my model for this easy — but fancy-looking — hairstyle. 🙂

Step 1: Curl

Since I already did a detailed blog post on how to curl your hair, I’m just going to refer you there to refresh your memory on how I curl my hair. For my sister, I only had to do two sections, since she has finer, thinner hair than I do. 🙂

And, just like last time, I will be using the NuMe Titan3 curling wands to curl her hair — and I’ll be using the medium-sized curling wand. 🙂 Make sure, if you’re interested in purchasing this set, that you use the code “NUMESPRING50” to get 50% off your order and free shipping on the NuMe website! Because who doesn’t like to save some money?! 🙂

Okay, so curls are all done. NuMe’s curling wands curl so well and make your hair super glossy and shiny! You could totally go out of the house like this and look fabulous! But for today, I wanted to show you a really quick and easy way to take it up another notch. 🙂

Step 2: Twist a section back & pin

Take about a 1 or 2 inch section at the front hairline, drape it around the forehead so it looks nice, and twist it lightly against the head before pinning into place. (If you would like tips on how to pin properly so that they’ll stay in for hours, let me know and I’ll be happy to go into detail!)

Step 3: Repeat once more on same side

Just like in the previous step, take the next section (the rest of the hair right around the ear) and twist it back. Take one or two pins and secure it in place. Very easy and quick — if you’re doing it on someone else or if you’re doing it on yourself!

Step 4: Spritz with hairspray

Secure those twists with a good spritz of hairspray both to smooth down any fly aways and to help the style hold up and last longer. (here I am using an older version of Kenra’s Platinum Finishing Spray 26 🙂

Step 5: Switch to the other side. Take a section near the hairline and twist

Now that you’re on the other side, you’re going to do the same steps on this side. Starting with that first section right at the front, take a one or two inch chunk and twist it against the head and pin into place.

Step 6: Repeat steps until you reach the other side

Keep twisting and pinning your hair, taking one section at a time, until you have almost reached where you twisted that side. (I left about a 2 inch gape there). Pin it in place as you go. Once you’re done pinning, check your work and see if you need to reinforce the hairstyle with more pins (it’s okay to use a bunch of pins! 🙂

Step 7: Decorate (if desired)

Now, if you’re me, you’ve gotta add a little something to finish the look off. So I dressed up my sister’s hairstyle with this pretty black flower piece that just clipped right in.

Step 8: Revive any curls if needed

Sometimes as you work in sectioning the hair and twisting pieces back, you can get some curls that go kind of wonky. Simply take your Titan3 wand and re-curl them very quickly.

Step 9: Finish with hairspray!

Take your favorite, strong-hold hairspray and give the whole hairstyle — pinned pieces and curls — a really good spray. That’s all! Presto — your hairstyle is done!

There you go! After you curl your hair, it just takes 5 or 10 extra minutes to get an elegant and easy hairstyle that will really glam up your look! And it will look like you had to spend  a lot longer on it then you really did, which is a big plus. 😉

REMEMBER: NuMe is sponsoring a giveaway on From My Vanity! If you didn’t see last week’s post where I did a tutorial on curling, make sure you go take a look…and check out the end of the post to see how YOU could win a curling set from NuMe! (Worth over $200!!! :-D)

Question to my Readers: Do you like to amp-up your hairstyle with a few quick twists or tucks? Let me know your go-to quick-and-easy ways to take your hair up a notch! 🙂