Headband Curls

I am a far cry from a hair expert, and I pretty much never actually style my own hair, but I'm posting this tutorial because I don't think I've ever worn this hairstyle without someone asking me how I do it. I love this hairstyle because its a way to do my hair a little fancier for work or a special event and also happens to be the only way I can get my hair to curl. Plus, once you try it a couple of times its literally one of the easiest and fastest things to do with your hair. I myself, learned how to do this from another tutorial video I found on the Internet, so don't think I figured this out on my own. ;)

Start with slightly wet and brushed hair, then get a loose fitting headband and place it over the top of your hair hippie kid style. (that is a technical term) I found if the headband is too tight its uncomfortable and puts unfortunate kinks and whatnot in your hair.

Grab a section of hair.

Pull it up and around the headband. 

Tip: If your goal is curling your hair don't start wrapping your hair to close to your roots or you'll have one random curl up by your face.

Once you have pulled the hair down you can let it go and grab a new section of hair to repeat the process around your head.

Do this until you have your hair mostly wrapped around the headband on both sides.

When doing the back you have to keep moving the hair over so that you always have gap, I usually try to alternate between sides so it comes out more even and doesn't get all tangled.

Once you get to the last little bits of hair just tuck them into the rest of the hair behind the headband.

Once all the stray hairs have been tucked, grab the head band from across your forehead and move it back on top of your head to finish! 

When my hair is wet this style will stay all day as it drys, but I have noticed that when I try to do it when my hair is already dry it falls out a lot more.

After it is dry you can reverse the process and take the headband out for a mass of curls!

After I take the headband out, I brush the curls out and they will stay until the next time I wash it! 

Hope this made some amount of sense! It definitely takes some trial and error, if I wrap my hair too tight I'll really crazy 90's curls but of course you still want it to stay! So if you try and it fails don't get discouraged practice makes perfect! If you want here are a couple videos that I liked:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs-F--X24VY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgS5RX1utO8

Art-Phoenix

Sunday was our last day in Phoenix and since it was spent at coffee shops and walking around the city's art district it was easily my favorite day out of the trip. After recommendation from a friend and her sister who lives in the area, I managed to drag my wilderness loving spent-nine-years-in-Alaska-fishing-and-I-hate-the-city parents to a hipster filled coffee shop in the Roosevelt district for some quiche and a vanilla soy latte before I tried to convince to them that simply walking around the city to see the sights was a good idea. Yes, even if it was Sunday morning and nothing would be open. Yeah that didn't really happen, but we did end up driving around the area, and it was amazing. I was in heaven. The Roosevelt District is just crazy cool and everywhere you look are buildings and houses covered head to toe in beautiful bright weird art. 

After a few minutes of me freaking out from utter joy in the car and my parents commenting on where they went wrong with the kid who wants to walk around the slums of phoenix, I finally got my dad to pull over and let me out near a wall I particularly loved. Basically, I was frolicking around a public place taking photos while my parents laughed at me and my Dad smoked a cigar. We're a pretty great family. Along the way I found a big beautiful wall that just felt like it belonged with my outfit for the day, so here is just a tiny piece of what the day had to offer.

Something about the city always makes me want to dress a little nicer and wear something that just makes me feel pretty, so this was the day I decided to go for a skirt. The combination was a new one for me and very pastel. I never wear pastel. Usually I hate pastel, but there was something about the pairing that clicked. I love the whimsy of my whale shirt and the pop of my neon pink belt against the more muted colors. I also really enjoyed how all of the pink brought out the color in my hair. I kept the summer feels throughout the outfit by finishing with a collection of jewelry I got from various beaches and my nice sandals. I felt light and pretty in the outfit, and it definitely made me start to reconsider my opinions of the pastel color pallet.

The way my outfit matched this wall made me feel like I was one of the butterflies about to take off.

Whale tee: Anthropologie

Neon pink belt: Old Navy

Pink skirt: Tommy Hilfiger

Braclets: Hawaii and Cannon Beach boutiques

Sandals: A shoe store I don't remember the name of...

Spring Training-Phoenix

Day two of gallivanting around Phoenix was centered around why we were in Arizona in the first place. Baseball. We started out the day walking around a Japanese Garden enjoying the sunshine, and after a pit stop for some highly recommended cookies, we made our way to the Peoria Sports Complex for a Mariners game.  There are few places I am as comfortable as I am at a baseball stadium. So much of my childhood was spent sitting on the uncomfortable seats, reading scoreboards, singing songs and eating peanuts and cotton candy that its second nature.  I also happen to feel more American at a baseball game than anywhere else, there's baseball, there's beer, there's flags, there's an endless supply of classic rock mixed with an oddly large collection of Fall Out Boy songs, and it always feels a little bit like a giant BBQ with everyone in the stadium. Fashion however is not exactly important in when it comes to baseball. Nevertheless there are a few important things to always have.

1. Your team representation, see my crappy old mariners shirt I'm pretty sure came from Walmart.

2. Good old fashioned blue jeans. This may be a personal opinion, but its practical and makes sense.

3. Protection from the elements. In Seattle it was a good coat and a blanket, in Arizona at a midday game its sunscreen and a hat. This was a good chance for me to bond with my trucker hat, an old and trusted friend. 

4. Comfortable shoes. I decided to throw in a bit of sentiment and added my yellow converse. My mom hates these shoes, thinks they're old and ugly. This is probably true, but I am a firm believer that a torn up pair of converse is something you earn, and these puppies have been with me for a lot of years. I bought them with the money I earned from my first fashion "business" in my freshman year of high school, and I honestly don't know if I'm ever going to get rid of them. 

Note the happy hippie kid anklet with the bells on it. Yeah, left that in the hotel. I am gutted. 

I love trucker hats. They just speak to the beach girl in me that refuses to die since moving to Cannon Beach a couple years ago. I definitely consider them a part of my personal style, especially since I think they're something not everybody would think of as cute. ;)

I would also like to mention, I love my hair in this photo. 

Hermosa Beach trucker hat: Some surf shop I forget the name if in... wait for it... Hermosa Beach.

Mariners tee: I'm gonna say Walmart.

Boyfriend style jeans: New York & Company

Sleeping With Sirens wristbands: Hot Topic

Happy hippie kid anklet: Parrot, downtown Riverside, CA

Yellow Converse: Marshalls?