The Anatomy of Jennifer Lawrence’s Updo

Otherwise known as “Volunteer as tribute? With THIS hair?”

Jennifer Lawrence is definitely my new hair icon! The braids, the bangs, the updos! The girl goes from tomboy to Hollywood glam effortlessly! And how gorgeous was her gold braided updo at the Hunger Games premier? It sent me digging through my jewelry box for gold chains.

How to get Jennifer Lawrence’s updo: Getting her look is actually quite simple. It’s really the gold embellishments that make it look so much more intricate than it really is. Jennifer is using two gold beaded headbands woven into her braids. You can actually just use two gold rope chains.

Start by gathering your hair into a low ponytail and secure it with a hair tie. Gather the chain with your hair and braid your hair neatly. Tie the ends with a rubber band. Go back and widen the braid by tugging each side slightly. From there, you’re just doing a simple wrap-around. Wrap your braid around your ponytail (Princess Leia Style) and secure it with bobby pins. Now take your other chain and wrap that around the outer perimeter.

Voila! Simple, right? I know… Please feel free to tell me what a genius I am for dissecting this one.

What will you do with all the extra time I saved you?

1. Follow Zelo on Pinterest

2. Like us on Facebook

3. Tweet Wonderful things about us.

4. Enter our current Beauty Giveaway

5. Or what I do, obsess over anything Hunger Games related! Like our other Katniss hair tutorials.

Stay strong, guys. It’s only a few more days till Friday!

Three Easy Ways to Get Pink Hair

Why should Easter eggs have all the fun? There should be PASTEL for EVERYONE!

While I may have disregarded the pink trend last year, thinking pink hair went out of style along with bands like Simple Plan, the thought of wearing a dainty Easter frock with a candy pink french braid this spring is just too tempting to resist. And so…

Three Simply Ways to Go Pink:

1. Chalk it up!

Lauren Conrad probably sent a wave of women running to the school supply isle to buy chalk last winter, and for good reason; chalk makes a great temporary color! Chalk with water and heat create a temporary tint to the hair that’s  excellent for vibrant color streaks and highlights.

For all-over, ombre, and dip dyeing, Color Bug uses the same concept of the chalk without the damaging heat. It’s a staining powder  that, more importantly, comes in lavender and bright pink for your dip-dying pleasure! Plus, putting it on will make you feel daintier than Marie Antoinette.

Sadly Color Bug isn’t in stores here in the states…yet, but you can definitely find it online. Here’s a tutorial showing how it works.

2. Clip it in

Say you’re not a blonde. Or you don’t feel like powdering your hair like an 18th century courtesan. You can actually clip extensions in to get this multicolored look. Use color for highlights that pop or combine several colors and taste the rainbow! Easilites are my choice for cheap but easy clip-ins made with human hair so you can curl and style as you wish.

3. Commit to it!

If you’re just cool like that or your boss at your job is cool like that, then you should try a semi-permanent pink. Manic Panic in Hot Pink and Raw Color’s Candy are two bright and fluffy pink dyes you’ll find in your neighborhood Hot Topic. The bottles say they last up to 6 weeks. Don’t pay attention to that. It actually lasts up to 3 weeks before it starts to pale. Of course, limiting your number of weekly washes will help.

I bet you didn’t know that pink hair was so easy to do. What do you think? Are you going pink this spring?

Hair Care: Give Your Hairbrush Some TLC

Often I find myself worrying so much about my hair itself, that I forget to pay attention to the tools I use everyday. You know how hairstylists always have combs and brushes soaking in disinfectant? That’s not just for sanitation (although it’s definitely reason enough), but it keeps everyone’s hair looking best when the tools used on it are clean! Otherwise, you’re adding lint, dirt, even oil and dandruff back onto your hair every time you brush and style. Yuck.

The great thing is, you don’t need anything fancy to clean your brushes and combs. All it takes is gathering up all your tools and heading to the sink with a bottle of your regular shampoo (or, if you treasure every drop of your shampoo as much as I do, I’ll rummage through those leftover mini hotel bottles I snagged from my last trip).

Step 1: Remove any hair tangled in your brushes and combs. This sometimes isn’t such an easy feat, especially if you don’t keep up with it. For stubborn hair, I’ll run a hair pin between bristles to catch and lift hair quickly.

Step 2: Rinse your brushes and combs under warm water to remove any major residue.

Step 3: Drizzle a dime sized-amount of shampoo onto one of your brushes.

Step 4: Rub this brush lightly against the bristles of another brush to lather them both up, killing two birds with one stone. Or, if you have a brush and comb, run the comb gently down the brush. Key word: gentle, we don’t want any snapped bristles!

Step 5: Rinse the lather off with warm water.

Step 6: Repeat steps three through five until all your brushes have been lathered up with shampoo.

Step 7: Lay your brushes and combs out on a towel and let them air dry.

Now it’s confession time. Do you clean your brushes and combs? How often?