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To Extreme or Not Enough?

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We live in a society that presents a mixed message as it relates to personal style. On one hand, we want our children to express themselves as people. On the other, we present them with rules, regulations, and restrictions in terms of their hair styles and clothing choices. While some parents support their children’s wish to dress the way they want, others feel that this freedom causes nothing more than problems. When you stop to think about how children’s fashion has evolved, you may find it easier to decide for your own child.

Consider the typical high school from the 1960′s. If you walked through the door, you would likely notice several groups or ‘cliques’ of kids. There would be the jocks, clean-cut and preppy dressed. The ‘hoods’ would be dressed distinctly differently. There may be a small sub-group, but for them most part you were either a jock or not.

Now, consider the typical high school today. There is a group for every kid. Goth kids in their heavy eye make-up and dark clothing. Nerds, who have embraced the floods and pocket protectors. Gear heads, metal heads, good girls, and bad boys. Today, our kids are able to express who they are in the way they choose to dress.

The question becomes is this a good thing or not. In reality, kids today focus so much energy on how they dress and how those around them look. They generalize personalities based on apparel. Maybe it isn’t a good thing. Maybe the schools that have created dress codes and rules about extreme hair styles have it right.

We can only hope we have made the right choice for our children.

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3 Ways To Fix a Bad Hair Day

It’s hard to find someone who enjoys a bad hair day. We can’t stand when our hair won’t cooperate. Sometimes all we have to do is switch our hairstyle and that bad hair day will turn into a cute up do.
One of the easiest up dos that will make a bad hair day look great is a messy bun. You’re hair is obviously already messy, so why not make it cute? There are several ways to create a messy bun, but it’s all about your preference and how you like to do it. A simple way is to pull your hair back and secure like a ponytail. Take your hair and twist it around until it starts forming a bun. Leave the bun loose and secure with an elastic. Then pull pieces out until it’s as messy as you would like.
A braid can be a savior of a bad hair day. You can either make a braid from an existing ponytail or simply pull your hair together and begin your braid. Three way braids are the easiest. Divide your hair into three equal sections. Take one of the outside sections and transfer it over the middle one so that it is now the middle section. Do this with the other outside section over the new middle piece. Continue until you reach the end and secure your braid with an elastic.
Sometimes all your hair needs is an accessory to make it look great. If your bangs aren’t cooperating, try pulling your bangs back and securing with a clip. If you put your hair up and you don’t like the look of it, maybe all you need is a headband to make it look great. Maybe you simply need to put a bow in your hair. Don’t give up on your hair when a simple hairpiece can save your bad hair day.

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Determing Your Face Shape

Not everyone can wear the same hairstyle and look great. Each person is an individual and needs to consider several things when choosing a hairstyle that will compliment them the most. One of the things to consider when choosing a hairstyle is your face shape. Different face shapes will look best with different hairstyles. While one person may look best with a short wispy style another person looks best with longer locks.

How do you determine what your face shape is? Your face can be oval, oblong, round, square, heart, or diamond shaped. It is difficult to be objective about your own face shape but your hairdresser can help you determine which shape you have. However, if you would like to determine this for yourself there are some things you can do to help you with this.

You will need to take some measurements of your face to determine your particular face shape. You will be measuring across your forehead, cheek to cheek, from the point of your hairline to the tip of your chin, and across your jaw line. Once you have all of your measurements done and written down it is time to determine the shape of your face.

If you have an oval face your measurements will show that the length of your face is equal to one and a half times the width. A round face is approximately as wide as it is long and will physically have a round appearance. If your face is oblong it will be longer than it is wide. The heart shaped face is narrow at the jaw line and wider at the forehead and/or cheekbones. With a square face you will find your face will be approximately as wide as it is long. A diamond shaped face is widest at the cheekbones with a narrow forehead and jaw line; the forehead and jaw line will be close to equal in width.

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Choosing the Right Hairstyle For Your Face Shape

A woman with bangs or a fringe

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Once you have determined your face shape you can now make some decisions on the best hairstyle for you. If your face is oval or diamond-shaped you can wear just about any hairstyle and look great! Oval shaped faces look best with hair pulled away from the face. If your face is diamond-shaped you may want to keep weight at the nape of the neck to balance out your delicate chin line.

If you have a rectangular or oblong face shape you may want to consider a short or medium hairstyle to look your best. Fullness at the sides of the face with wispy bangs tends to soften the look of longer face shapes.

A round face shape needs fullness and height at the crown. Wearing the hair in an off-centered part will help reduce the fullness of the round face. Long styles are best for this face shape. To give the illusion of length and reduced fullness of the face, layering the top to get fullness and leaving the rest of the hair cut relatively close to the face can achieve this.

Short to medium length hair looks best on someone with a square face. Wavy or curly hair around the face is especially softening. Wispy bangs can also help to soften the sharpness of a square face. Off centered parts with height in the crown area look great with a square face!

If your face is more heart-shaped you may want to consider chin length or longer hairstyles. A chin length bob is an excellent choice for the heart-shaped face! Layers that are swept forward around the upper part of the face with wispy bangs would be another style to try. However, if choosing shorter styles you will want to keep weight at the nape of the neck to balance out dramatic cheekbones and narrow chin.

With a triangular face, short hair balances a prominent jaw line. You will need layers to get the fullness you need in the upper part of your face. A shag style cut, wedge, or center part works well for this face shape.

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Emo Attitude Makes the Best Emo Hair

Hair coloring
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People either love or hate Emo kids. Maybe that’s the purpose. No one really knows exactly how to define Emo, but you can bet that Emo attitude makes the best Emo Hair. Some people pay hundreds of dollars to get the Emo look on their locks, but kids who don’t have that kind of cash can do it themselves by being creative and really exploring their personalities.

Emo can be pouty and sad, it can be emotional and sensitive, and it can be very cool. Our hairstyle defines us. Emo hair can be subtle or it can be an extreme hairstyle with far out colors and jagged edges.

Emo hair is usually black, so getting that extreme look will require some hair dye. The hairstyles are also defined by asymmetrical lines and jagged edges. That means the hair has to be longer. The best Emo attitude doesn’t really mind if the hair gets messed up in self experimentation. Emo is all about expression, good and bad. Emo hair is usually parted to one side with locks falling across the face and hiding one eye. This may be a way of expressing hidden feelings or being just a little mysterious.

Emo hair is usually not spiky or big. The idea is to be moody, so the hair is falling downward, not jumping up with excitement. If making that jagged, crazy extreme hair will get a kid in trouble, it’s easy to have instant Emo hair by parting the existing style on the side and combing the hair over one eye.

However, some of the most interesting Emo styles take hours to achieve with hair products and blow dryers. It could be that self expression includes two tone hair. Maybe there’s a lighter tint underneath with bold black on the surface. Maybe it’s just some crazy died pattern in the hair.

Get creative and expressive, and show your Emo.

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Extreme Hairstyles Require Extreme Care

A young man with a Mohawk hairstyle.
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Extreme hairstyles require extreme care. After all, these outrageous, eye catching styles mean lots of products and blow drying. The extreme look can be very damaging, so get radical with your care, too.

There are many products that claim to keep extreme hairstyles looking good for a long time, and some work. The problem is the cost of getting that healthy look after unhealthy manipulation of your locks. Sometimes you’ll need to tone it down and look more professional, so you want to go from extreme hair that stands out, to beautiful hair that shows your class. Salon products can help keep your hair healthy, but they may cost more than you want to pay. Here are a few things you can do to keep your hair looking good all of the time.

It will be costly at the beginning, but it will last a long time. Buy some pure jojoba oil. You can find this at most health food stores. It costs about one dollar per ounce, but it won’t take much to keep your hair, and even your skin, healthy. Also buy some organic shampoo. Try to get all the chemicals out of your cleansing routine. The extreme hairstyles can only be achieved with chemicals, so the extreme care needs to be void of them.

Wash your hair daily. Then before you dry off, work the jojoba oil into it. If you can go a day or so without doing the extreme coif, then your hair can heal and rest. Don’t even blow dry it on that day. Just get lazy and let it rest. It’s good to get your hair cut on a regular basis. This way you can eliminate frizzy split ends and really damaged locks. It’s also a time to begin anew with another extreme hairstyle. Extreme is defined by cutting edge creativity.

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Inexpensive Natural Shampoo Keeps Hair Healthy

Bottles of shampoo and lotions manufactured by...
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Organic and natural are considered the healthiest way to keep your hair and skin in great condition. Today’s extreme styles can really damage hair, so it’s good to find a product without chemicals to wash it. Natural shampoos are really expensive. When compared to major brand products, they can be as much as four times the price. No doubt, their worth it, but everyone deserves to use a natural shampoo to keep hair healthy.

One of the biggest natural and organic retailers in America is Whole Foods. Like many major stores, they carry a private label brand. And like the others, it’s designed to give the budget minded a chance to enjoy the latest natural products on the market.

Whole Foods brand of inexpensive natural shampoo is the 360 brand. This shampoo is only few dollars a bottle rather than $10 a bottle. Early formulas were criticized for not lathering very well, and we all know that you need a good lather to get all the extreme hair product off the locks. However, it seems the company has corrected this problem, so now their 360 shampoo really lathers nicely, and it leaves the hair clean.

It comes in a variety of natural fragrances, too. There is a lavender scent that smell like the actual plant rather than like some fake perfume version of lavender. There’s a great mint scent, too. This one will please the guys. After all, extreme hair isn’t just for the girls.

What does it mean to be a natural shampoo? It means the product is free of parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate, artificial fragrance, and it isn’t tested on animals. The reason the 360 brand smells real is because it is. They use actual essential oils from the plants they scent the product with. There are usually other natural plant extracts in the product, too. They might include rosemary, lemon and thyme.

It’s definitely a natural clean that keeps hair healthy.

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Extreme Side Parts Are the Trend for Summer 2011

Cropped screenshot of Audrey Hepburn from the ...
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The eternal side part is back, but this coming summer, it will be the extreme side part that sets the trend setters apart from the pack. Side parts are eternally youthful, but they can be incorporated into just about every style today. Not only can this simple technique give you a totally new look, but it won’t require an expensive trip to a salon.

The runways are already rife with extreme side parts. Some are neat, clean and straight to show off that smooth healthy hair that defines the girl next door. Some of the styles are mussed up, curly locks that have been swept to the side in extreme fashion to give the model a free spirited appeal. The extreme side part can also help update the classic updo. It gives this uptown style a new angle that can re-frame the face and give a total make-over with a simple motion of the comb.

In many ways, this season’s hair trend is paying homage to some of the classic hairstyles of the Twentieth Century. Audrey Hepburn comes to mind when thinking of that slick, parted updo, and the models do seem to be channeling her classic, yet eternally youthful style.

That’s what it’s all about. The side part always signals that the person under those locks is just a little youthful and fun loving. It is a simple expression of freedom and excitement. With longer locks, the extreme side part can be used to make the hair cover one eye and create a mysterious air. Emo hairstyles have been incorporating this kind of part for some time.

A few words of warning. Experiment with parting the hair on both sides to figure out which way best frames the face. This extreme angle can be unflattering if done incorrectly. Make sure you analyze your features before incorporating this extreme hair style technique.

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