Successful completion of the week-long Master Cleanse!
*pats self on back*
Things I learned:
You can survive, more or less, on less than 500 calories a day, meaning we (I) totally overeat ALL the time.
The power of self control. Tempted on endless occasions. Didn’t cheat even once!
The hardest part was not the hunger, which I rarely felt, but the action of eating. It just showed how much mindless eating I do out of habit and boredom.
I also missed the social aspect of eating, which I can’t ever give up. Nothing better than good food, good friends, and good conversation!
Being more conscious of what you put in your body. I’m not saying I’m going to give up red meat, refined sugar, and processed food – but I’ll be more conscious of what I’m going to eat before stuffing it in my face.
Grade B maple syrup is DA BOMB.
I did this cleanse mostly as an exercise of discipline and self-control. Secondarily as a detox. I don’t encourage crash diets, but I will say that I lost about 6 pounds in a week. Don’t worry, I assure you that I will gain it all back (and then some) after we FEAST later this week!
Oh, and then inspired by Issa, I got a digital perm:
Day 1 and 2 are pretty poodle-like. Anxiously awaiting for beachy waves in the future!
Since several of my friends have gotten married as of late, I’ve been hearing a lot about the anxiety that comes along with trying out hairstyles and makeup for The Big Day.
I’ve never been a big fan of up-dos. Maybe because I’ve never seen a good up-do in real life? Or probably because I have a large head that is round. SRSLY, having all my hair up does me no favors.
But I’ve been seeing this trend of loosely coiled side-buns lately and it looks pretty good! You can keep the side bangs and face-framing layers of a longer hairstyle, but still have it off your neck.
Pretty good!
Also, a red lip on your wedding day? LOVE IT.
In other news, I randomly went to an Il Divo concert last night. One of my girlfriends is obsessed (OBSESSED) with them and her boyfriend got tickets to their show for her. He had 2 extras so …. why not?
If you don’t know, they are a Britain-based “pop opera” group comprising of 4 men in their 30’s-early 40’s. I had not heard any of their songs before last night. It was … tolerable. Haha.
This was probably my 2nd most random concert I have ever gone to, the 1st being Peter Cetera of Chicago.
My 2nd tutorial! This method takes significantly longer than 10-min curl tutorial, but you achieve a mane-full of voluminous waves. It takes me about 20-30 minutes, depending on how much hair you have.
The main difference in this method is that instead of curling from the ends up to the roots, you curl starting at the roots down to the ends. This gives you more volume at the roots, and thus BIGGER HAIR. And BIGGER HAIR = GOOD.
I have to credit my friend Ann, who always has perfectly-styled hair, for showing me the technique.
- Before the hairspray sets, rake your fingers through your hair up and towards the back.
- Coax the curls into big waves.
- Finish with another blast (again with the face).
- NOW you are finished!
My first tutorial, guys!
This will show how I usually curl my hair, as shown in the recent
Athlete and
Nerd entries. The curling portion only takes about 10 minutes and it’s how I normally wear my hair on a daily basis. I’ll make another tutorial later on showing how to achieve the tighter (more time-consuming) curls, as worn in
this entry.
Oh, and click to enlarge the pics.
The Tools:
- Hair dryer
- Curling iron (1.5 inch barrel)
- Brush
- Mousse
- Wax
- Hairspray
- Apply mousse to freshly washed hair.
- Work into the roots.
- Blowdry hair.
- THIS IS IMPORTANT: When drying your bangs, blowdry them DOWNWARDS…
- …Then blowdry them TO THE SIDE.
- This will make them “sweep” as opposed to just parting to the side, which will be important later on when you curl your bangs.
- Split your hair down the middle.
- Gather the entire splitted half of your hair from one side and curl from the bottom.
- As you roll your hair up with the iron, you will notice that the shorter layers will fall out.
- As you wait for the hair to curl (5-10 seconds), gather those loose shorter layers with one hand.
- Unclamp your iron from the now-curled-hair, and curl that section of loose hair that you were previously holding.
- Repeat working up the side of your head, as the layers get shorter and shorter.
How many times you will repeat this process varies with how long and layered your hair is. I usually repeat 4-5 times.
- Repeat this method on the other side of your head, rolling from the bottom…
- …then curling the loose layers.
- Gather sections from the back of your hair
- Curl.
I don’t really do the curl-and-hold-the-loose-layers method on the back of my head b/c it’s too hard…I just curl random sections since most of the back will already be curled anyways. This is mostly for touching up any missed parts.
- To curl the top layers, gather a section of the shortest layers from the back of your head and pull forward.
- Curl it rolling from the front.
- Gather another section closer to the front of your head.
- Curl it rolling from the front
I usually repeat this 3-4 times, gathering smaller sections and/or shorter layers to achieve more volume.
