Saturday, 1 October 2016

Haircare - Brushes, combs and finger detangling

During my trip in London this past week I finally got a Tangle Teezer (thanks to the Long Hair Community xD), so I thought, why not make a short post about my brushes and combs?

These are the brushes and combs that I currently own and use. From left to right: Backcombing and texturizing (I recently caved in and realized I needed this for sporadical cosplay and historical hairstyles xD), the Tangle Teezer (so far it works great for detangling the backcombing at the roots), wide-tooth wood combs (for sporadical length detangling and oil spreading at the ends), smoothing baby brush (my day-to-day brush after finger-detangling) and the plastic comb I use to put my hair up in ponytails and updos.


-Essentials:
  • Finger detangling: Finger-combing is my main detangling method. I finger-detangle routinely in the morning and at night (also if I've been wearing my hair loose/in a half-up and it needs detangling during the day). My hair is very delicate and very fine in texture, and so I find most plastic and hard bristle brushes to be pretty damaging. When finger detangling, I cause minor breakage (if any), because I'm in total control of the pressure applied to the knots and can stop before ripping through them like most brushes and combs tend to do. Also, detangling my ends and length with a comb or detangling brush (such as the Tangle Teezer) causes a lot of static in my hair, so I stick to finger-combing when it comes to the length and ends. 
  • Baby brush:  One of the main essentials in my haircare routine. Soft baby brushes are are the only kind of brushes that don't hurt my hair, and I use them to smooth and spread natural oils after finger-combing, never to detangle. 
  • Plastic shell comb:  A snag-free hard plastic shell comb that I use when putting my hair up in ponytails and updos, never to detangle. 
  • Tangle Teezer: It works wonders in order to detangle backcombing in the root area, and it's also the gentlest detangling brush I've ever tried. But I still don't like using brushes in order to detangle my lower length and ends, and this brush seems to cause too much static in that area, so just using it for the root and upper length areas. Still, I'd call it an essential because it gets rid of any tangles in the root area with no damage.
-For leave-in treatments:
  • Wide-tooth wooden comb: Snag-free wide-tooth combs that I use in order to spread leave-ins, such as oils, aloe vera gel or Nightblooming Panacea, into my ends and lower length, usually after washing my hair. 
-Cosplay and historical recreation:
  • Backcombing and texturizing comb: Like I said above, I recently caved in and realized that sporadical backcombing for cosplay and historical recreation purposes was necessary (combined with synthetic hair rats and donuts for more volume), so I got this backcombing and texturizing comb, which does its work pretty well. And, as long as it's not done too often or too harshly (or in the length and ends!), I think that sporadical backcombing in the roots is not the most damaging thing you can do to your hair. After all, Missy is worth it xD
And she knows it xD
  • Tangle Teezer: The Tangle Teezer is well worth its money when it comes to detangling the backcombed roots easily and painlessly.

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Monday, 19 September 2016

Length pics update: March-September 2016

Hairwise, these past months have been pretty much about benign (I hope!) neglect, to tell the truth xD. I've been maintaining at roughly knee (and did a bigger trim this month in order to even out my hemline), partly because right now I don't want my har to be longer, and also with the aim of thickening up the hemline, which has been a little bit thinner than I'd like to lately. Let us hope it slowly regains a bit more thickness, like it did when I hit classic length! 

Shampoo-wise, they kind of changed the formulation of Klorane's Sweet Almond shampoo, originally intended for fine-textured static-prone hair, a shampoo which had been working well for me for quite a long time - Thanks to this change, instead of less tangly, less static-y and a bit fuller, my hair actually looked less full and was way more static-y and tangle-prone, somehow. So I started trying the Klorane Flax shampoo (also intended for fine-textured hair with little volume), alongside the orange D'Shila shampoo (a strengthening shampoo with hardly any unnecessary synthetics which I love), and I believe it's feeling better now. It's a bit less static-y, a bit less tangly, and maybe a little fuller.  But yeah, my main concern right now is working on my hemline xD

So here are some monthly LHC-regulated (xD) length shots from March to September 2016. I also have some Elven cosplay length shots from the end of July 2016, which I'll be uploading soon in a separate post.

And a teaser of the Elven cosplay length shots:

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Friday, 19 August 2016

Hairstyles - The Chinese bun

Today's hairstyle post is about the Chinese bun, the first updo I tried when I learned about hairsticks on the Long Hair Community (LHC) back in 2010. Back then I used to wear the 'classical' variation of this bun, but it isn't the most secure bun for my slippery hair, so I usually go for a variation which I personally call the 'one-coil' Chinese bun
 
✨For the braided variation of this bun, go here.
  • Video tutorial:

And pics:
  • Classical variation:

As you can see, I don't have many pics of this variation xD!
  • One-coil variation:








Variation with an accent braid:



SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Monday, 25 July 2016

Couple of cinnamon buns

A Jedi cinnamon bun from yesterday :D :

And a random cinnabun that I hadn't uploaded yet:

                                      SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Friday, 15 July 2016

Braids - Dutch braids, parandas

Today's post is about braids  - Most pics are belated braid pics from a  few years ago that I haven't uploaded here yet, and one is fairly recent, and the one who prompted this post :)


  • Dutch braids: I'm either better at French braids or it's simply that I've practised those more, but I generally find Dutch braids to be more challenging fo rme, at least at the moment (some people think the opposite). I should definitely practise them more, because I really like how they look.
Pretty much the only Dutch braid pics I have, one of them with a paranda (as you may already know, I use paranda routinely in order to get more hold and volume in my braids):

  • Three-strand braid with paranda - This is the recent pic :) Lately I've been wearing 3-strands with an initial half-up and a flexi-8 at the nape for more hold:

  • Multi-braided style with paranda: For my Elven ranger cosplay back in 2013. As I recall it's two side braids and a French braid with paranda at the back, with the side braids coiled around the base of the French braid and around it:
                                       
                                        SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Friday, 10 June 2016

LHC meet and May length pic

I met with a fellow LHC'er last May, and that meet of course included the compulsory LHC-length-shot :D (me on the right):

My ends are looking better (last year, when we met for the first time, they were way thinner), but they still need some work in the thickening-up department :S Still, I guess they're not looking so bad considering I'm in the knee territory with ii/ii BUT non-voluminous and fine-textured hair...:)

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es    
     
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Friday, 13 May 2016

Hairstyles of the week - Donut buns

Yesterday and today's donut buns:

-Thursday: Donut bun with the small foam donut and the rest of the hair in a rope-braid with a paranda. The central part is a bit lopsided xD

-Today: Simple donut bun with a larger foam donut

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Hairstyles - Noldorin Elf cosplay crown braided updo

Today's cosplay related post features a crown braided style for my Noldorin Rivendell Elf OC (Original Character).  worn last weekend during a Tolkien convention:


And front view (click on pics or open in new tab for larger size):
                             

                                   

I favour braided updos for this outfit (crown-style, mostly, and with parandas or ribbons). Both my personal headcanon and some Tolkien references describe Noldorin ladies as wearing braided updos (crown braids or other), and bejewelled hairnets, snoods and tressures. I particularly like the headcanon of Noldorin women favouring hairstyles ressembling Italian Renaissance updos (hair taping and the like). The hair taping-inspired variation of this crown braided updo can be found here.
  • For this style, I used:

-An elastic without metal for the initial ponytail.
-Two parandas (info about making parandas and braiding them into hair here). Parandas are optional, but a nice addition if you want added volume and colour. You could also use ribbons or (metallic) cord.
-Bobby pins (closed and open). Lots of them in my case xD

  • Steps (video tutorial planned!):
The steps I followed for this 'Noldorin updo' are similar to the 'Noldorin' hair taping variation, with some differences (3-strand braids vs rope-braids, no hairstick, and, of course, no taping):

1. Pull your hair into a high ponytail (or a low one, I went with a high one) and secure it with a hair-friendly elastic without metal.
2. Divide your hair into two parts. Braid each section (standard three-strand braid), adding a paranda.
3. Pin each braid around your head with closed bobby pins. I pinned one braid first until I reached the elastic at the back of the head (and left the rest hanging), and then pinned the other in front of the first one. You can also criss-cross them (I think I ended up criss-crossing the braids at one side and leaving them paralell in front and at the other side). 

4. Wrap and pin the remaining length of both braids around and over the elastic at the back, hiding it and creating a bun.

Bigger pics of both sides and the back:



                                SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es


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Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Haircare video - Night routine

   Not very good lighting or framing for this one, but here's a video about my detangling + brushing + braiding night routine :)  I always finger-detangle instead of using combs or brushes (at night and in the morning), and then smooth the hair out with a gentle baby-brush. Sleeping with loose hair means tnagled and hazard xD, so I always wear a loose three-strand braid, which for me is comfy and hair-friendly.

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Friday, 11 March 2016

Just a couple of cosplay hair pics

Uploaded these Noldorin Elf cosplay shots to Tumblr yesterday, and they're hair pics as well as cosplay pics, so here they are as well :) :



SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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