How can you get the hairstylist to give you a good haircut?

You visit a new hairstylist, strongly recommended by your best friend. You are welcomed into the salon and escorted to the styling chair where you are met by the artist who you are hoping will be able to give you that special cut that will make you look different, feel good and always makes you look fabulous.

After 2 hours of washing, cutting and blowing you walk out of the salon, feeling more or less happy.

The next morning … reality strikes !

Your hair has again developed a mind of its own and is doing its own thing, which is very different from what it did yesterday.

This cycle has to stop !

What can you do? Here are the guidelines:

1. Before surrendering yourself right into the stylist’s hands and hoping for the best, book a consultation, time before the hairstylist actually cuts your hair.

The consultation is for the hairstylist to understand your needs better and for you to understand whether what the hairstylist is suggesting really will work for your lifestyle and personal style.

2. Share your daily routine to explain your lifestyle. Inform the stylist, whether you are a working professional, a busy mother or both. How much time do you really have in the morning to spend on styling your hair.  Your hair stylist should suggest something that is easy to manage, which in turn means a good cut rather than one that needs work and products to style.

3. Share about your style personality and image you need to project. Do you want a personal style that is ‘elegant’ or ‘ smart’ or ‘fun’ or ‘edgy’? At work, are you needed to look creative with smart casual look or look authoritative with a formal and professional appearance? Your hairstyle should project or contribute towards projecting these characteristics through your overall look.

4. Share about your hair type. You know your hair best. You should advise your stylist on the quality and texture of your hair. Is it wavy, straight or curly? How does it behave with humidity? Ask your hairstylist to suggest styles that work best with your hair type. If its wavy then a hairstyle that requires straightening will not work well for too long.

5. Share about your ability or inability to use hair dryer, hair straightener or even hair products. Short hair styles usually will need hair styling product, therefore, after the cut is done, do spend a few extra minutes to learn exactly how to use the product and in fact, ask your hairstylist to let you try out using the product yourself.

Our image consultant advises: Once decided on the hair style, let the hairstylist explain exactly what technique they are going to use to create volume, texture (which of course will have to match your face shape) etc. A good hairstylist should be up-to-date with their skills and incorporate volume or texture in the cut without you having to add products to create that effect.

The key to getting a hair style that is a joy to wear everyday is to be well informed about what you want and being able to explain it to the stylist.

3 hairstyles for professional women

As a working woman, you do not have much time in the morning to think about doing different hair styles everyday. However, if you are looking to polish up your work look, styling your hair differently can help you add variety and break the monotony of wearing the same style everyday.

Here are 3 hair updos that do not require too much time. Practice them a few times and you will be ready to create a different look to suit your professional image.

1. The Gibson Tuck

Gibson tuck - the freckled fox

2. Easier than it looks updo by thesmallthings blog. (Click the image for the tutorial).

Easier than it looks updo

 

3. French twist and pin updo like Heidi’s, by Hair Romance.

Heidi-Klum-french-twist-pin-bun-hairstyle

 

For more wonderful hair style ideas that are easy do, here is an ebook that we recommend.

30-Buns-in-30-Days-Ebook-collages

Our image consultant’s tip:

bobby-pin-how-to

Use bobby pins to secure any stray hair or fly aways. The correct way of using bobby pins is to face the grooved side down and the straight side up. The grooves are designed to hold hair in place.

Have a great hair day everyday.

Bold, chic, polished and elegant image of Wallis Simpson

She may not have been the most beautiful woman in the world, but she could make up for it by being the best dressed

That Woman: A life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor by Anne Sebba (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)

Classic style like Wallis Simpson wallis in blue

“I began with my own personal ideas about style and I’ve never again felt correct in anything but the severe look I developed then,” Simpson told her friend Fleur Cowles, the magazine editor and society hostess, in an interview for Bazaar in 1966. That pared-down, urban elegance of her early days remained her style until her death in 1986.

Wallis understood her personal style and was able to consistently express it through her visual image whether it was at a formal event or holidaying in the French riviera.

Elements of Wallis Simpson’s stylish image

1. Always polished

2. Elegant and chic, even when casual. She was never known to be too relaxed or casual in her look, wearing even just a breton striped top and capri pants, always was immaculate.

How to be stylish like Wallis Simpson

3. By adding to her no-fuss looks, the quirkiness of brooches, bold leaf patterns and fun  patterns like climbing lobsters and wool-embroidered monkeys, Wallis managed to always display her bold wit and sense of fun.

Lessons to learn from this fashion icon’s style

1. Understand the characteristics of your personal style well. Give yourself the vocabulary by defining what you consider stylish

2. Eliminate elements in your wardrobe that are distracting you away from your desired image. If you are unsure about any item in your wardrobe, its probably because your style personality is conflicting with it. It should an item that you can put in the donate pile.

3. Once you find a clothing style or a look that truly defines who you are, then do not be afraid to experiment and have fun.

4. Slowly build up from your current style to carefully craft a personal style that is unmistakably YOU.

Make style statement like Wallis Simpson

5. Make an impression with a statement jewelry. Shop for one of a kind vintage pieces at Saartizabo or fun dramatic pieces at What Women Want. 

Building your style personality  does not happen in a day but knowing exactly what kind of image you want and by focusing on achieving it, will eventually get you there and have fun while doing it.

Happy reading

By Maninder Krishnan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image & Me’s: Top 5 Styling Tips

In a recent collaboration with Inverted Edge, we were asked to list down our top 5 styling tips.

Here is what we shared with them and share with all our clients who are looking to build their personal style.

1. Know your ‘ style personality’: We can’t insist on this enough. Your style personality is the style that you are most comfortable and confident with. The key to recognizing your style personality is being able to articulate what you think is stylish. What are the design details you like, do you prefer structured shapes or unstructured looks, do you like patterns and prints and if you do then how much are you comfortable with ? How many accessories are you happy to wear and what kind – classic pieces or statement necklaces or accessories made out of unconventional materials? Build your style vocabulary by answering these questions and it will help you build your personal style.

2. Build your wardrobe with quality items or the best you can afford. Cheap fabrics and fast fashion only lasts for so long and in the long run you end up spending more money buying cheap clothes versus investing in quality items.

3. Use accessories to convey your unique personality. Accessories can be great conversation starters and also if you use them cleverly, you change your look to suit the occasion.

4. Don’t leave home without at least  basic make-up if you have bothered to dress up. Make-up completes your look and even just a dash of color on the cheeks and lips can make you look groomed and brighten you up.

5. Finally, Image and Me shopping advise, before you buy something think about how may times you can see yourself wearing it, if it’s just for a wedding or a birthday party, then it probably won’t be your smartest buy. An effective wardrobe is one where every item in your collection can be worn at any time with the right kind of accessories to suit the formality level.

For the complete article and pictures of our client’s style makeover with the help of Inverted Edge, please click here. While you are there, don’t forget to shop their trendy collection.

Till the next time,

Maninder

 

How to find the perfect dress?

First, what is a perfect dress?

According to a survey conducted by Debenhams, this is what the perfect dress would look like.

Elements of this perfect dress: Capped sleeves, conservative neckline, right length, high quality stretchable fabric and is machine washable

                                                    Find the dress for your shape

We think in the right stretchable fabric this dress can definitely work for most of us. (But there are possibilities that it might not be the answer for each and every body shape.)

Your perfect dress or the combination of skirt and top is the one that:

1. Is the best representation of your personal style

2. Is in the right shade of colour to best suit your shape, with lighter colours on parts you want to bring focus to and darker colours on parts you want to camouflage

3. Is suitable for most occassions ( the perfect dress most often than not comes with a heavy price tag, so ensuring that the style is classic and you can get as much wear out of it as possible, makes it worth it)

4. Has the design elements that give you a balanced, hourglass figure

In the same Debenhams survey, 98 per cent women agreed that “the perfect dress” is extremely difficult to find. So seems like the problem is universal.

But instead of being disheartened, here are your alternatives.

Buy a dress if 90% of the design elements are suited to your shape

Try skirt and top option to assemble the look that best suits your shape, especially for women with heavier bottom half, it is challenging to find a dress that comes close to being perfect.

If you are not the type to make compromises, then you may want to find out exactly which styles work for you (right neckline, right sleeve length, right waist placement, right length of skirt, right style of skirt, right colour, right fabric )and get your “Perfect Dress” tailored.

Happy reading.

 

 

 

 

 

4 reasons to include trendy horizontal stripes into your wardrobe

Lately horizontal stripes are everywhere and it surely is very tempting to buy a top in colours that you love but then the horizontal stripes stare back at you and you give up the idea. It is common knowledge that horizontal stripes make you look wide and really who wants to look wide!

Now, here are 4 reasons to stop running away from horizontal stripes and welcome them as a chic addition into your wardrobe.

1.Widely spaced horizontal lines, definitely make you look wider  and hence fat, but thin horizontal lines close together create an elongating effect, making you appear taller and slimmer.

Vama red dress with stripes

2. Use the widening effect to your advantage. If your shoulders are narrower than your hips, create balance by wearing the horizontal stripes on the upper half of your body. Find dresses or tops that strategically place the wide horizontal stripes on your shoulders.

wide stripes on top

3. If your hips are narrower than your shoulders, create balance by placing horizontal stripes on the lower half.

horizontal stripe on lower half of body

4. Wearing horizontal stripes in low contrast colours has less obvious widening effect than colours in sharp contrast.For eg: replace black and stripes with colours that are closer to each other.

low contrast stripes

So, take the horizontal stripes in your stride.

Till the next one.

10 things you should know about make-up

Below are 10 things you should know about make-up application. We compiled these based on our experience working with beauty products, make-artists and other talents in the beauty industry.

MakeUp Courses
  1. Applying foundation with a soft sponge works best, instead of using fingers or a brush which can leave streaks.
  2. You can only even out your skin tone with foundation and concealers, they will not make your frown lines or wrinkles disappear.
  3. Using an angle brush to fill in your eyebrows works better than eye brow pencil. It will blend the color into your eyebrows better.
  4. Knowing which eye shadow shade in a palette (light, medium or dark shade) goes where, to suit your eye shape, is more important than knowing which colors to apply.
  5. Wipe your mascara brush with a thick  tissue when it starts to get clumped up with mascara. This will prevent getting blobs of dried up mascara onto your lashes.
  6. Wash your brushes at least once every month with shampoo, cold water and conditioner. The conditioner helps to keep bristles soft. Let them dry naturally.
  7. All make-up products have a shelf life. If it has been lying unused for more than a year or two its probably time to bin it.
  8. Make-up sponge works better than Sponge 2
  9. Blusher brush works better than Blusher brush 2
  10. eye shadow brush works better than eye shadow applicator 2

Till the next one…take care.