The Curse of the Third Haircut.

Yay! Finally a hair post and it's like a Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys caper! (except I am unable to come up with a solution... Can you help me?)


I rarely get my hairs cut. I generally like my hair to be long so it gets cut about 3 times a year. and then it's just a trim..

My mom has had relatively short hair her entire adult life. This means she gets her hair cut about every four to six weeks, and she consistently experiences the phenomenon that we refer to as 'The Curse of the Third Haircut'..

My mom will go to a new stylist, get a good haircut from them, then six weeks later she will get another good haircut from them, then like clockwork,  the third haircut from this person who has previously given two great cuts is absolutely dreadful.
At which point she is forced to find a new stylist..

One of my theories is that the stylist starts to get comfortable and cocky once you've come back the third time so they feel like you're so familiar with each other it's a good idea to try different or new techniques.
Or maybe they get lazy and slack off?

I honestly don't know what happens between the second and third haircut, but whatever it is it's bad.

my mom has been growing out her layers for over a year from a 3rd haircut that caused her to have a super short layer in what should have been a pretty simple long bob style.. she somehow constantly kept having one side of her hair with one chunk of a super short 2 inch long layer.. .
Anyway, she grew that out pretty well, and had a very nice A-Line bob like mine by from the same lady that did mine two years ago (Kim), but Kim moved across the country after my mom got two good cuts, and then my mom got two good cuts from Kim's coworker and then that lady dropped off the face of the earth or something..
My mom had to find a new stylist again..
 One of her acquaintances does hair in a nice little salon near her work so she was a convenient choice with a good reputation. As usual the first two cuts were good, but during the third one, as I sat behind my mom, and watched this lady cut a random chunk from the bottom of the back of her hair (think of  a Tom and Jerry cartoon mouse hole in the baseboard but instead of a house it's the baseboards of her HAIR) while she was talking to my mom. then she flat ironed it out so it looked more acceptable, but my mom and I both noticed it.. Since it wasn't too bad, my mom sort of brushed it off and went  back to her last week... for a fourth cut..

BIG MISTAKE..




WHAT.




THE.




EFF?

 I was speechless..

I could not imagine how this was an acceptable haircut...

My mom believes that she had just been using the good style from before as a template.. This lady actually didn't know how to cut an A-line, but has been faking it for 6 months by trimming the grow out ..

I have no idea how to fix this Third haircut thing, but I think my mom should really either switch it up after two haircuts, or just grow her hair out..

If you are thinking that oh she's had two bad third haircut experiences.. boo hoo, that's not a curse... ok. let me list them..

Her hair was FRIED by one crazy stylist who left her with bleach processing for 45 minutes..

She's had a lady twist an inch of her hair and then take the shearsand ran them UP AND DOWN her super fine twisted lock of hair to "create layers". The result was horrid frizz and split ends from her roots to her ends..

She's had many many bad experiences with them using razors and thinning shears to make layers. she has the same type of hair as I do. it's super super fine, but there is a ton of it. any razor action doesn't make it texured, it makes it whispy and look like shit. --we are now not afraid to yell STOP! and NO! if they pull out anything that resembles a razor-

I am tempted to learn how to cut hair JUST so I can do my mom's hair for her.. even if i just learn this ONE cut...It would save her so much stress!


I mean.. seriously? this is an illustration that emphasizes the levels of the layers..

and one for fun:

"arrrgghh! Layermonster ate upper layer"

Leave a comment with a horrific experience you had at the hairdresser.
Have you experienced this certain number of haircuts curse?
Do you have any suggestions for how to solve this problem other than me going to beauty school ;)  ?


<3

Collecting Shoes (and Collecting dust)

I used to collect turtle figurines, and Beanie Babies.

I collect shoes and nail polish and recently Revlon Lip Butter.

I think the most important part of collecting things is displaying what you have. I want it to be like a museum. velvet roped off displays of pumps and flats, and 10 dollars admission to visit my shoes.. haha just kidding. but seriously, I would love to have my pretty shoes displayed on shelves in my dressing room like so...

Christina Aguilera's shoe collection

A girl can dream right?
I do not actually have enough space in my closet or room for a display like these.. maybe someday.

I recently realized that I haven't worn about 10 pairs of shoes I have purchased. Once in a while I clean out my closet, and give the shoes in good condition that I can bear to part with to friends, and the gross sneakers and worn out flats go in the trash can.  Last summer I bought six pairs of shoes from Beyond the Rack, as seen in this post . I have not worn a single pair of them yet.. I attempted to put on the crazy clog wedges this morning since the color is an exact match to the sweater I am wearing today, but I decided on this old faithful pair instead.

These shoes are well loved and almost worn out, I got them several years ago from Nordstrom Rack when I was on a quest for red shoes before they were easy to find. These are BCBGirls.

I actually have a rediculous excuse as to why much of my boot collection has never been worn. Boots are so pretty, but my big calves make it impossible to zip them up comfortably. I plan to somehow lose weight in my legs and be able to wear them in the future (with Liposuction of the calves?). I am envious of people who can tuck their jeans into their boots and have room to spare... I can only wear them sometimes with tights, but mostly they just sit in the bottom of my closet being pretty and patiently waiting for a miracle. but until that magical day, I collect the pairs I can't live without.
The only problem I face with being able to wear the other shoes is I have nothing to wear them with. I frequently buy shoes so I can build an outfit around them, instead of the other way around. Is this a normal girl thing?
the strappy shoes in the above linked blog were mostly just too good a deal to pass up.  I bought them because I couldn't not. I LOVE those shoes.They will get worn. They are all great quality, and since they are super strappy they are relatively comfortable. I am excited for summer and an event to show them off.

Back to the display part of my collection.
I have my shoes in two hanging shoe organizers next to some jackets and dresses in my unbelieveably small closet....

...and one hideously ugly mesh pocket orgnaizer for over the closet door. It has two pairs of shoes stuffed in each pocket.

and finally on the floor of my closet I have all of my boots lined up together in two neat little rows.

My shoe collection is a fair size. I am trying to figure out how I can fit another blue shoe organizer in there and also keep my clothes hanging up. I already have those metal As Seen On TV Wonder hangers

these, but the metal version, I tried the plastic ones first but they weren't strong enough.

These things save a ton of space, but they can be difficult to use, as to get clothes off you have to return the hanger to the horizontal position, and when you have three or four of these on your closet bar, there is barely room to even do that with one at a time. I will figure something out. :)




How do you display your shoes/collections? What do you collect? How did you start collecting?


<3 Whitney

Oxford Style Lady-Shoes



Oxfords are a pretty and preppy trend at the moment.  I am not terribly preppy, but I absolutely LOVE oxfords. I bought a pair of black oxfords by BC Footwear at Nordstrom Rack a couple months ago.

 I was infatuated the moment I saw them... 

 And a side view to display the little wooden wedge..

They came in this other pinky brown color too..

I had a terrible time deciding which color to go with..

I bought the black ones because I also fell in love with these shoes by MIA

and I couldn't justify get two pinkish shoes..
I really wanted to buy all three pairs, but I couldn't really afford to do that..


But I digress..

I got the following boots from Avenue, where I went to look for some boots that would fit my wide calves.. ( I don't know if I have ever mentioned this but I have calves that won't fit into any regular boots except rain boots.)

These were $19.99 at the time, and again.. I couldn't pass them up. they are cute and comfortable. =)

They aren't exactly Oxford, but they are lace up.. and kinda vintage looking... haha.

And then there were these that I found today on DSW.com and was so excited until I glanced below the picture, and noticed the price is just under $600. =( but I pinned them on Pinterest anyway.




Ralph Lauren Collection Peg Oxford Pumps also available in black

 

Last night I was looking at the Nordstrom catalog that came in the mail.. and there were two pairs that made me get online and see what they looked like in my virtual cart..

ZOMG..

 The BP. 'Paxton' Oxford Flat in White Coral and  DV by Dolce Vita 'Delice' Flat in Blue Suede


in Cognac




In Mushroom



In Taupe Suede




In Hot Pink Suede


 the BP Paxton is $59.95 and the DV by Dolce Vita is $78.95..
After looking at them online, I am more partial to the Paxton.. but shouldn't everyone have some blue suede shoes?

I don't think I am going to be purchasing either of them tho.. =/ I have to save up for my Star Wars Xbox bundle.


:)


I'll keep you updated on how I like that bundle in April..

In the meantime I hope to post quite a bit more about earrings, and possibly hair, and more shoes.
 I hope you enjoy!

<3 Whitney



Coolest Valentine.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

I saw this thing on xbox live preview about 4 months after I bought my very own xbox. I was soooooooooooo mad that I hadn't heard about it and waited on making my purchase! Then I saw the release date for this was Christmas time, then around Thanksgiving it was reset to like Christmastime of 2013. =( This is the coolest dorkiest thing, and I am going to sell my Xbox and get this spectacular Limited Edition Kinect Star Wars Bundle that is on presale for $449.90, and is set to come out THIS APRIL!!!

I can't even explain how excited I am about this bundle. I honestly don't even PLAY video games.. I just HAVE to have this for my Netflix machine.... er.. I mean.. yeah.

Obviously I love Star Wars. My boyfriend called me to let me know there was finally a set release date on it and also that he was going to help me get this as my Valentine present. :)

Sooooooooooo much better than flowers, candy, stuffed animals, balloons, dinner, etc. and such a serious surprise! :)

I am sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything.

I have a TON of blog topics in my head, and a dozen half started blogs, that are date specific topics, such as getting ready to go to Vegas, Coming back from Vegas, Christmas wishlists, and summer posts. I may save these until they are back in season, or rework them for present day.. I have few projects in the works that need to be finished before I can take pictures to post for you all..

I hope you all are having a good Valentine's day. To me it feels like just another day just with more flowers being brought in for the ladies in our office ;) which is adorable.

(Wow... Literally just as I finished typing that.. some flowers came for me from Bailey, my cat. HAHA)

I wish you all a happy day!

<3 Whitney

White teeth in 2 hours!

The last few weeks I started noticing my teeth were not as white as they used to be and my whitening pre brush rinse and whitening toothpaste aren't doing the job anymore. It was time to use some whitestrips.

Our company's Holiday party is on Friday, so I didnt want it to take a bunch of sessions to achieve results.

Last night I went to Rite Aid, found the toothpaste aisle, and took about five seconds deciding that I wanted the Crest 3D White Whitestrips Dental Whitening Kit, 2 Hour Express

They cost $54.99 and you get a year of treatments, four tops and four bottoms. You only use these once every 3 months.

One two hour treatment to get my teeth noticably whiter? Sounds great!

My only concern was that my teeth can be sensitive sometimes, so two hours wrapped in peroxide might make them hurt a little bit.

My teeth are pretty healthy and I don't drink coffee, but I do drink diet soda.
I decided to do this last night, while I watched several episodes of The Office on Netflix.
I applied them at 8:59pm and removed them at 11:00pm
My teeth felt fine right after I removed them. Then I went to sleep.


When I woke up, my bottom teeth were SORE. I think the results are worth the little bit of discomfort tho.

Before:


Before brushing.



After brushing before whitening

After:

After whitening.

in the after picture, I had Orajel on my lower teeth, because they were really sensitive. The Orajel didnt help much though and neither did Advil.  But it's bearable pain and I think it will go away after about a day. I will let you know if it lasts longer than that. I am happy with the whitening effects, and since I expected my teeth to be a little sore, it's not too upsetting.  

=) once my teeth stop hurting, I will be showing off my renewed smile ;)