How I Style My 'Lob' Haircut

Today I'm entering completely uncharted waters with a hair tutorial! So first, let's have a real talk shall we?

I am by no means a beauty expert and in fact, for the first time ever I've started actually feeling confident with my hair and makeup and like I kind of know what I'm doing. Do I hope to be as amazing as Amber of Barefoot Blonde someday? Duh. But for now you're getting little average jane me.

A) I would never have had the guts to put this together if I hadn't had several ladies ask me to do a tutorial post on how I style my new[ish] lob haircut. In fact, despite them asking me I have put it off for a few weeks because I had no freaking clue what I was doing. But, I'm glad they pushed me out of my comfort zone, and I'm so incredibly flattered that they asked!

B) I haven't really found a good spot for indoor photos in our new house yet, so you'll be stuck looking at a plain gray wall behind me and some not-so-amazing photos. The lighting wasn't super fantastic on the one day I had a chance to shoot these (I work full time so it's the occasional weekend day or nothing), and we don't have anything decorated or hung on the walls yet.

C) I have really fine hair and there's really not a ton of it. Hence why I've never had confidence when it comes to my hair. I also have a massive widow's peak cowlick in the middle of my forehead that's just a joy to work with. SO, to finally have found a cut and styling technique that I get compliments on and that I feel confident in has been amazing!! The point of telling you this is that if my hair can pull off this cut, virtually anyone can.

Let's begin...

    

This is my "before" look with air-dried and brushed hair.

 These are the products I use on a daily or every other day basis:

• Redken Extreme Anti-Snap (I buy at Ulta): I run a couple of pumps of this through the ends of my hair after I wash it (I wash my hair every other day) to help protect my ends from splitting and breaking. I've used it for over a year now and am only on my second bottle...and my ends are 10x better than they used to be.
• L'Oreal Color Vibrancy Dual Protect Spray: I am borderline obsessive about using a heat protectant before using any styling tools. My favorite I've every used is the Chi one, but I decided to try a cheaper one (Christmas is killing my budget) and I like it so far.
• TRESemme Fresh Start Renewing Dry Shampoo: I've only tried a few brands, but I've stuck with this one for a couple of years now and really like it. I use this in the roots of my second day hair.
• TRESemme Climate Control Hair Spray: They have several different versions and I like them all. It's the best drug store hair spray I've found!
• Kenra Platinum Texturizing Taffy: I bought this from my hair stylist the night I chopped off my hair because she used it and it was absolutely amazing. It will give your hair that awesome messy "I did my hair but barely had to try" kind of look and it smells so yummy (and is lavender).
• BaByliss PRO Nano Titanium Tapered Curling Wand (I have the 1"): I bought this last winter and haven't curled my hair any other way since! It's easy, fast, and gives the look I like (styled, but not too styled). 

1) This may be self-explanatory, but I do my hair in 4 different sections: lower half right and left, and upper half right and left.

2) This is one of the keys to how I do my hair: I curl some strands away from my face, and some toward. This mixture creates that messy look and keeps your hair from all falling into the same pattern (and curling in the same exact spot). For every two pieces I curl away from my face, I curl one toward my face (2:1 ratio). I curl all front pieces away from my face though (at least the 4 front-most pieces).

3) After I've curled everything (don't forget to check the back in a mirror), I brush the heck out of my hair to start loosening the curls. 

4) Then I use about a dime-sized amount of my texturizing taffy and push it up into my roots (I often do this upside down but the above right photo works too haha).

5) This typically makes my hair look giant and wild SO, I then comb through my hair again with a wide-tooth comb (this step isn't pictured, but I used an old Conair shower comb).

6) I finish up with hair spray, and then grab all my hair in the back (like I would to put it in a ponytail) to calm it down a bit more but also to mess it up!

 And that's it! This usually takes me about 15 minutes, but a lot of times my second day hair still has a lot of wave in it so I can get away with just touching up random pieces (cutting my time down to 5-8ish minutes).

I hope you all enjoyed this and found it helpful! Now that I have my first tutorial under my belt I can work on getting better at them for next time :) 

xo,

Jacy

 Here are all the products I used minus my curling wand: