Hair sticks recreate new/old charm!

Hair sticks are great for recreating hair designs based on the old tradition of pinning up hair. AND, hair sticks have a new twist being made with beads, semi-precious stones, metals and more.

My first memory of seeing hair sticks was on the beautiful Japanese Geisha women in Madame Butterfly. I was as baffled then as I am now at how just a hair stick or two is able to hold together all that hair! Seeing these elegantly coiffed Geisha women, with their long heavy hair in these glamorous updos, only held together with a couple of hair sticks . . . was puzzling.

Hair sticks- only as limited as your imagination!

Shaun Bazner, owner of Mei Fa Hair Styx, created her trademarked shapes and styles of hair sticks in 1978 after she became tired of the headaches and hair breakage she got with other hair clips and hair accessories. She was an African and Jazz dancer with long hair and needed to find a way to keep her hair out-of-the-way.

Shaun reintroduced me to hair sticks. I have thick, long slightly layered hair which I wear in updos often. But, I admit I’ve been stuck in a rut using hair clips, barrettes and elastics to get my hair off my neck. (Need to add here, they all give me headaches eventually.) I actually had some plain hair sticks in my hair accessories arsenal, but with wearing short hairstyles, and medium length hairstyles, I put them away, back where alligators go to die . . . and forgot about them! (By the way, hair sticks can be worn in medium short hair to create half-updos.)

So, I tried some of Shaun’s hair sticks and I’m loving them! I don’t get headaches wearing them and they don’t damage the hair. They are made from maple wood and are topped with beads, semi-precious stones and metals.

Two hair sticks, sometimes only one, is all that is needed to hold chignons, French braids, French twists, ponytails, ballerina buns or any updo you can come up with! And, the hair sticks allow the hair to loosen comfortably and fall gracefully into a soft, feminine updo!

Hair sticks are designed specifically not to break or damage hair. Your hair sticks can even add body and waves to the hair when hair is put up slightly damp. There is a small learning curve to putting the hair sticks in correctly. But you only need a little patience to get it right and its time well spent. If you give yourself a little practice time, believe me, you’ll love the results!

Check out, Mei Fa Hairstyx for easy how-to videos and lots of beautiful hair sticks designs to choose from.

Hair Sticks

Hair Sticks

Hair Sticks

Hair Sticks

For further discussion on hair accessories you might want to check out these other articles:

• Hair Accessories
• Accessories for Hair Make Easy Wedding Updos
• Fall’s Hottest Hair Accessories
• Hair accessories — scarves, barrettes and other hair thingies
• Hair Accessories are Big
• Hair Headbands and More Sparkle this Season!
• Want Affordable Holiday Hair Accessories?

Barb Quinn on Google+  

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Ponytail Hair Styles

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Ponytail hair styles make life easier!

All you long haired ladies should be happy ponytail hair styles are staying so chic!  There appears to be an endless variety of ponytail hair styles to choose from;  the side ponytail, the braided ponytail, high ponytails, low ponytails  . . . doesn’t look like we’ll run short of ideas for ponytail hair styles anytime soon here!

With just a little bit of practice, you can get so many looks and all you need do is keep an eye on hairstyle-blog. As long as hairdressers keep coming up with new ways of creating these updos, we’ll keep bringing them to you. We promise to bring you the newest, coolest, most unique and sometimes quirkiest looks in hair styles, updos and hair color trends so keep posted!

Ponytail Hair Styles

This ponytail hair style is from the Sado show, a spring and summer collection 2011, how simple, soft and feminine! To get the look, simply twist the ponytail back onto itself and pin into place.

Pontail Hair Styles with a Twist

This classy and sophisticated ponytail hair style is simple and elegant! This style comes to us from the folks at PureOlogy and has been prepared with their products to give it its highly polished look. PureOlogy hair products have won the ‘best shampoo, conditioner and more at the ‘hairdressers Choice Awards” the last few years as well as the “Professionals Choice Awards,” which is always a great acknowledgment!

Healthy hair makes for beautiful styles and great conditioning and shine products help to create a healthy, sleek and shiny look.  Products used to create this look were;  Hydrate Shampoo and Conditioner;  Essential Repair ColourMax;  Essential Repair Instant Repair;  Power Dressing; Hydrate ShineMax; Nanoworks ShineLuxe

• Leave hair damp
• Put shine products into hair and comb through or brush through using a boar bristle brush for smoothest results
• Split hair into two sections at the nape.
• Tightly twist each end individually section with even tension, smoothing as you twist and secure with an elastic.
• Twist the two ponytails evenly around each other and secure into one elastic.

Side Ponytail with a fishtail braid

This side ponytail hair style with a fishtail braid is so quick and easy, you will love it!  Don’t let the finished look fool you, the fishtail braid ranks at the top for ease as well as prettiness.  If you haven’t tried it check out this how-to fishtail braid video that will show you just how easy this side ponytail hair style is to do!

• Blow-dry hair with round brush for volume on top
• Tease top for height
• With off-center part, brush hair back into long side ponytail separating out bang area and some face framing layers.
• Fishtail braid over the shoulder. For a more casual look, don’t use elastic to bind your ponytail at the nape.
• Use a curling iron to curl face framing layers, pinning some pieces up for a casual messy effect.

Jessica Alba Twisted Side Ponytail Braids

This one is simple and easy and gets a modern twist by creating height on top.

• Lightly backcomb top of hair and smooth over
• Brush hair into a low ponytail and secure
• Wrap some hair around elastic and pin for a finished look
• Mist ponytail with a thermal spray
• Comb through ponytail. Using a curling iron ,curl tightly with one big curl

Barb Quinn on Google+  

Got a question, war story or comment about this topic? Click on the "Leave Your Comments" link at the very bottom of this article. Some of my best ideas for future articles come from reading reader comments. I'd love to hear from you!

• Ponytails: 5 Great Looks
• Accessories for Hair Make Easy Wedding Updos
• Easy Updos for the Holidays
• Long Hair Updos
• Kristen Stewart Bella Updo
• Emmy Hair Style – The Chignon
• Ponytail Hairstyles Hot for All

Hair Product Review

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Top Hair Product Choices Professional Prefer!

Ever find a hair product that has become the top hair product you just can’t live without? Lucky you! But, even when you think you have found the magic hair elixir, next year you’ll be up against some new top hair product that promises to do an even better job!

Every year we have so many new hair products to choose from it becomes overwhelming to simply find a shampoo, conditioner or styling product that suits us best. If you have a cupboard full of hair product you don’t use because it was too sticky, too heavy, too whatever, this ‘top hair product‘ list might help you from throwing your money down the drain and making the same mistake over and over again.

If you are in search of professional hair products, why not try what the professionals have found, by consensus, to be their favorites? They see and feel the results of these hair products daily and come to have their favorite top hair products for different hair concerns.

Check out these lists from the “hairdressers Choice Awards” annual tally of votes of past years favorite top hair products. I’ve found a number of these ‘top hair products’ are voted in year after year. Does that tell you anything? I know, there are plenty of other good hair products that don’t make this list, but this might help in managing your losses.

This list below is from American Salon Magazine, who recently published these top hair product winners. This is the first year I’ve seen a poll come from their readership and I was unable to find the number of hairdressers who participated in this poll. But this poll reflects some of the same top hair products as those from the “hairdressers Choice Awards.” Hope to see more of these ‘top hair product’ lists in the future!

Professional Top Hair Product Results

• Top Hair Product – Best Shampoo – PureOlogy Hydrate

• Top Hair Product – Best Conditioner – Aveda Damage Remedy Restructuring Conditioner

• Top Hair Product – Best Styling Product – Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum

• Top Hair Product – Best Oil Treatment – Moroccanoil Hair Treatment

• Top Hair Product – Best Men’s Line – American Crew

• Top Hair Product – Best Smoothing and Straightening – Brazilian Blowout

• Top Hair Product – Best Texturizing – TIGI Bed Head Manipulator

• Top Hair Product – Best Hair Extensions – Great Lengths

• Top Hair Product – Best Hair Color – Redken Shades EQ

• Top Hair Product – Best Shine Enhancer – Redken Outshine 01

• Top Hair Product – Best Hairspray – Sebastian Re-Shaper

• Top Hair Product – Best Flat Iron- Farouk Chi Iron

• Top Hair Product – Best Hair hair dryer– Solano Super Solano Original

For further discussion on saving money on your hair products purchase.
Barb Quinn on Google+