Length hairstory - 2010

You can find an abridged version of my hair journey from 2010 in the 'My hairstory' page. This is the first of a series of individual posts that's basically about a bit more detail about my hair growing over the years, plus a pic spam of length shots xD

I've always had the intention of growing my hair long, but up to 2010 I went through a few years of benign-to-not-so-benign neglect. I let it grow, and it did keep growing, but I didn't do seasonal trims to even out the hemline, and didn't disentangle correctly or as often as I needed to :S I never used heat or chemical dyes or anything, but my hair being fine-textured and pretty delicate, this resulted in my hair losing quite a bit of density and sustaining more breakage and shedding that was necessary :/ It kept growing, though - even though it's so fine-textured my hair is apparently stronger than it looks xD - But I wasn't happy with the overall state of it, of course.

By 2010 I was a bit past tailbone and going towards classic length (the longer parts of my hemline were already practically at classic) - But my hemline was uneven and thinned out.

In December 2010 I joined the Long Hair Community (LHC) and finally began to take more interest in haircare. I began to detangle my hair in a hair-friendly way and as often as it needed to be detangled :S xD, and slowly I regained the density I had lost. I planned to even out the hemline as soon as I hit classic length, which I did in August 2011. As you can see in the pics below, some parts of my hemline were longer than others; I was planning to let the shorter parts grow until they reached classic and then even it all out.

These pics are from late 2010, from when I had started to take interest in taking care of my hair again. The uneven fairytailed hemline is still there and I was slowly regaining the lost thickness (my hair has never looked as voluminous as I'd like, speaking about the ponytail circumference here):

 

Btw, I personally think fairytale ends (when one doesn't trim the hair to even out or shape the hemline) are really pretty on many people, and definitely not "worse" than blunt ends (that's a toxic issue in the long hair world, I think :S). But on me I definitely prefer a straight, blunt hemline because I favour a more voluminous look and that's the hemline that achieves it the most for my hair. Also, my 2010 fairytale ends had quite a lot of breakage, and were very uneven - it was a look that in my opinion didn't look good at all. But even when not especially uneven, fairytale ends and me don't really go along, and I prefer to cut back to a straight hemline when my ends start to fairytale appreciably. That of course doesn't mean I may think fairytale ends mean 'damage' or 'bad hair', because that's not the case, that's actually a myth. My fairytale ends back in 2010 *were* damaged, but many people maintain a fairytale end look that's 100% healthy. It's all a matter of personal preference, really.

This is from Summer 2010 (I do like that colour ^^ - It's natural highlights combined with the remaining henna sheen from my first henna'ing, which faded out):

And another pic from Winter 2010:

 

Bonus (not blurry!) close-up of the half-up style:

 

Next stop - 2011 and classic!

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Hairstyles - The Rose bun / Updos with rope braids

Today's hairstyle tutorial is the Rose bun, or Rope bun, a fairly quick and simple hairstyle involving rope braids. I've seen this style usually referenced as 'Rose bun' when worn as a half-up. I'm not sure if other kind of rope buns would be called 'Rose buns' when they don't look much like flowers/roses :S xD (my rope-braided buns with parandas, or the more elongated rope-braided Chinese buns definitely don't look like a rose xD). I usually just call these rope-braided buns.

• For these styles, I used:

-An elastic without metal for the initial ponytail (if you're going to make an starting ponytail, you can also rope-braid without tying your hair in an initial ponytail).

-Small elastics for the ends (can be removed later on)

-Hairtoys with which to secure the style: Small clips, barrettes, open pins, larger bun pins, hairsticks, etc

-Optional: A paranda (info about making parandas and braiding them into hair here). 

• Steps: 

-Half-up version:

This half-up rose-bun with the rest of the hair in a cinnamon bun:

1. Put part of your top hair into a half-up and secure it with an elastic (the half-up can be higher or lower, involving the whole top half part of your hair or smaller sections). You don't need to tie the hair with an elastic to form a half-up, though - I you don't like elastics, you can directly braid these sections of hair into a rope braid (step 2.). I use both methods, depending on the day.

2. Divide this section of hair into into two parts and rope-braid it. The tighter the rope braid is, the rose effect will be smaller and more intricate; a looser rope-braid will give a bigger, simpler 'rose'.

Rope-braiding tutorials:

-No paranda

-With paranda

The rope braid is, in my opinion, one of the simplest braids alongside the three-strand braid. When you add a paranda, the method is similar: First of all, instead of three sections you want the paranda to have two, given that this braid only has two sections. I do this by dividing the middle strand of the paranda equally between the left and right one. Then you add one section to each section of hair and twist the two combined hair+paranda strands to form a rope braid in the usual fashion. Be extra careful not to let the paranda slide down when you start twisting!

When you finish the braid, secure the end with a small elastic so that the coils don't unravel! You can use a transparent elastic, a small elastic in your hair colour, or just any colour (you can remove it just before securing the bun, or hide it).

3. Now you have a rope-braided half-up, to form the rose bun you start wrapping the braid in a coil - You can start coiling the end of the braid until you get to the elastic/braid base (I think this is the usual method, as seen in other tutorials), or alternatively start at the base and coil the rest over it.

4. Secure the bun with the hairtoys of your choice - If you don't want any hairtoys to show, I'd go with open bun pins, bobby pins and/or spin pins. Small clips at the sides don't hide the rose shape and provide the necessary hold, too. If you want additional decoration, go for a hairstick, a flexi-8, a barrette,...For a larger 'rose', pull genty at the coils to make it looser and larger.

-Variations: For these 'flower-shaped' braided half-ups, you can actually use other braid types, such as three-strand braids or fishtail braids. You can also make not just one, but two or more braids and combine them.

-Full bun version: Repeat the same steps above, but this time you pull all your hair into a ponytail (as high or low as you want). Like before, either secure it with an elastic or just hold it in position in order to braid it without an elastic base. Create a rope-braid as before, and coil it in order to form the rose shape.

• Other rope-braided buns: These don't have the 'rose shape', so I just call them 'rope-braided buns'. The pics I have are all of one-coil Chinese braided buns:

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

If you copy-and-paste this post and/or alter it without any permission, credit or link, you're stealing my content. In that case, please stop. Please ask before using my work, or at least share it properly, giving credit to me and my blog.

Hairtoy collection: Rest

*EDITED from time to time to update my collection*

This general Hairtoy Collection part features elastics, scrunchies, bobby pins, spin pins, claw clips, parandas, hair donuts, alligator clips, barrettes, a buncage and small decorative hair stuff. Picture overload ahead!

1. Parandas, hair donuts, elastics, scrunchies, claw-clips and bobby pins.

From  left to right: A handmade paranda (Posts about parandas here), a hair donut (recently bought a larger one, not in the pic), examples of spin pins and metal-free elastics, and a couple of scrunchies.

 

From left to right: Metal-free elastics, spin pins, claw clips and some other plastic hair stuff, and bobby pins (both open and closed). 

 

2020 update of this section: elastics on top, claw clips below, bobby pins, open pins and spin pins on the right, and parandas and scrunchies in the background:

More parandas:

 

 

2020 update: More elastics, claw clips, open pins, donuts, and a grey paranda from a 2019 LHC Winter swap: 

Action shots:

-Braided bun with a paranda, secured with claw clips (I also use claw clips daily to secure many updos with a hairstick/fork base, such as the flipped bun):

 

-Lots of paranda pics in the paranda label

-Donuts:

 

2. Hairbands and circlets

Practically the only hairband I own! I'm not a very headband person - Now, circlets are another thing :D!

                             

                               

-A PreciousPlunder (on Etsy) Celtic silver-and-amber crystals circlet

 

-An Elvish circlet from the Effeyl shop:

And another circlet from Etsy:

Both of them:

This leafy one I got from an LHC Winter swap:

3. Alligator clips

The purple one is the one that I use the most, especially for flipped and seashell buns. I also got these two as part of an LHC Winter swap:

 

All of them:

-Action shots: Large Ficcaré-style metal clip

 Half-up with a smaller clip.

 4. Barrettes

 

 

These large barrettes usually don't work for me in half-ups or as a ponytail holder because my hair is so fine-textured and slippery, but I can get them to work as accents in updos and braids:

5. A buncage

I hardly ever use it because it's rather cumbersome, but still: Pretty! :)

6. Decorative pins, small barrettes, etc.

Small decorative hair stuff such as clips, barrettes, pins and leaf ribbons.

-Action shots:  

The dragonfly small clip as an accent to a beribboned braid:

A star pin I got in Vienna in a one-coil Chinese bun with an accent braid:

A German silver leaf clip in an Elvish half-up:

 Amethyst pin in a crown-style Elven updo:

Harry Potter books bobby pins:

Small barrette:

Small flower clip:

Leaf ribbons and fake flowers for Elven styles:

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

If you copy-and-paste this post and/or alter it without any permission, credit or link, you're stealing my content. In that case, please stop. Please ask before using my work, or at least share it properly, giving credit to me and my blog.