Winter

Being a Canadian we have to suffer with the problems winter causes. A lot of people have multiple complaints about winter but my 3 main complaints are dry skin and hair, chapped lips and hat hair. The air is so dry in winter it is almost impossible to avoid having crackling hands and lips, not to mention that dry hair causes more breakage. It is so cold most of the time that I can't stand not being all bundled up and this includes a hat but that gets super annoying if you want nice hair. OH, and I'm totally forgetting about static. Staticy hair is sooooooo annoying.
I recommend carrying around a few essential supplies during the winter with you at all times if you want to avoid these problems. First of all you always have to have chapstick. Who wants crusty dried up unkissable lips? Whenever you feel it is necessary apply the chapstick. I would also recommend investing in a lip stick that also has moisturizing components to it if you avidly wear lipstick. Most lip balms are good for this as they usually have a colour and flavour and they moisturize. Before you put on your make up you should use chap stick and apply it regularly through out the day. Try not to lick your lips as this just makes the problem even worse. The next thing you should carry is a small tube of hand cream. Pretty self explanatory here but your hands get so dry that they probably need to be quenched a few times throughout the day. I would recommend moisturizing your whole body after you shower as the hot steamy water will also just add to the problem. You can also buy body wash with moisturizing agents which would probably be a really good idea if you regularly have dry skin. Go to the dollar store and get one of those spritzing bottles. Fill it with water and carry that around with you too. Hold the bottle 2 inches from your hair and spray but try to not to soak it with water. The water will stop the static. Brush through with a dry hair brush because you don't want your hair to be actually wet, just spritzed a tiny bit. Hairspray is also a life saver for static. Hairspray your hair after you have spritzed it with water to stop this problem from coming back and probably before you leave the house too.
I would start using a leave in conditioner and a hair mask if your hair is getting really dry and breaking off due to lack of moisture. The other problem is bundling usually involves a scarf and when your hair rubs up against it tends to either knot up like a rat's nest or rub agaisnt it and become weak and break off. It really is best to wear your hair to avoid that but I know that isn't always possible. Just take extra good care of your hair's moisture levels and you should be fine.
Now, if you want to stay bundled but not get hat hair there is a tip you can try. If you have a side part like myself, you need to part your hair on the other side and flip all of your hair over to the side it normally does not go to. Then when you take your hat off you can flip your hair back to normal and it should still have volume and look normal. If you have a middle part just flip all of your hair over to one side and it should work just same. This works really well with straight hair but I'm not too sure how it would work if you just spent an hour curling your hair. If you are nervous about ruining I would invest in a cute pair of ear muffs or a head band as they won't flatten your hair at all. My main problem is the cold makes my ears ache for hours. I always feel warmer when they are covered too. Anyways, I hope this helps you. It's all pretty straight forward but these are definitely things you need to start paying attention to and taking extra care of during these dreadful months. Stay Beautiful! :)

Waterfall Braid

I've recently been practicing the waterfall braid and I have prepared a video for the tutorial as it is a little bit hard to show this with pictures. I love the waterfall braid because it is so elegant looking. It works best to middle part your hair. Since, I have bangs my hair looks a little silly middle parted so I started off my french braiding my bangs as it would fall out and look dumb if I started with the waterfall braid in my bangs. The first thing you want to do is start with 3 pieces of hair just like a normal braid. If you don't have bangs you will want to braid it over a few times just to give you something to start with. Once this is done all you have to do is drop the bottom strand. Then you will proceed to pick up a piece of hair from the root beside the last piece you dropped and then braid that part into your hair (kind of like a french braid). You need to repeat this again. Pick up a strand of hair from the top and french braid it in. Then once that strand gets to the bottom drop it. Then pick up a new strand from the root beside the strand you dropped and french braid it in. I'm sorry if this is a little confusing it is kind of hard to explain so hopefully the video helps you understand. I also apologize for my hands being in the way at the beginning and making it slightly hard to see. Near the end it is easier to see and I think i have dropped the hair about 3 times. Now with the waterfall braid you can end it in 2 different ways. You can either start a braid from both sides of your part and have them meet in the middle for a sort of half up and half down look or this one is done most commonly, you can go all the way around the back of your head and the braid ends on the other side with a zig zag braid. When they meet in the middle they simply just tie together. I also have a video of myself attempting the zig zag braid for the first time except I only did one side of my head in the waterfall braid. All you need to do for a zig zag braid is braid your hair normally. Then separate the excess hair on the braid (where you stop braiding) into 3 strands and the 2 strands on the side up your hair with your braid. Then reverse what you just did with it and bring it back down about half way (hopefully the video makes this a little bit more clear once again). As it turns out I lost the original video of me finishing the waterfall braid with a zig zag braid so I just quickly made a video of my just putting a zig zag braid in my hair. I apologize as it is kind of messy because I'm in msip and did not have a hair brush. It looks a lot neater when you can brush your hair before hand. 

Most of the time when you see pictures of the infamous "tumblr girls" wearing waterfall braids they have curly hair. For the best results for this type of curl I would suggest using a straightner to curl your hair. Once again, I have created a video to help you. I find straightners work awesomely if you are going for a more lose natural curl. All you have to do is clamp the straightner down in the middle of a strand of your hair and turn it 3/4 away from your face then pull through. It always reminds of twirling ribbon with scissors (it's pretty much the same concept). It is super easy to get the hang of and looks really good. I would use hair spray to set the curls. Don't hairspray until after you have finished curling everything as this is really bad for your hair and it won't work as well either because the heat will just dry the product you just put on your hair instead of curl it.

I have some pictures of the end result so you can see what the whole look pulled together looks like. I attempted to go around my head but I kept getting confused because I couldn't see what I was doing so I just did half of my head. I wish I had room set up with 2 mirrors facing each other but oh well. Stay Beautiful! :)