Rescuing a ratty hair extension.

Today is called öskudagur here in Iceland, and children will be going around dressed up in costumes, gathering candy from the stores. This is naturally a great season for flea market hunting because it's like they stock up for it. They probably don't but somehow they still had tables and racks full of costumes and materials a cosplayer or a lolita will easily find usable!

#1 find, this greasy, disgusting bunch of tangles. Regardless it seemed to be of good quality and therefore salvageable.

That's not to say it would be easily done though! It had so many knots its knots had knots and the texture was just as icky as you can imagine a flea market hair extension to feel like. HOWEVER:

I managed to make the above of the above-above! Here's how:

1) I washed the wig twice using shampoo. With second hand wigs you really want to get them clean! With tangled wigs its important to NOT rub it in but to squeeze the shampoo in little by little, section by section, to avoid tangling up the wig further. Rinsing should also follow the direction of the hair for the very same reason.

2) I let the wig soak overnight in a lotion bath. For this you can use any lotion you like, just see that it's definitely water-soluble. Add a handful of lotion to lukewarm water and stir/whip until it dissolves, super long wigs might need more. The wig has to be completely submerged in water and it's good if you can turn it a few times during the soak so that all sides get equal treatment.

3) I rinsed the wing a little but not too thoroughly, the lotion acts just like fabric softener bath would, making the ensuing brushing easier.

4) I pressed the wig between layers of towel and then left it to dry on top of it.

5) When it was dry it was brushing time! You'll want to avoid any brush that has a tendency of grabbing at hair, and preferably a flat shaped one instead of a cylindrical brush. Brushing should start at the ends and then you'll work your way upwards.

6) If there's knots that seem difficult, gently pull as much hair out of them as possible by tugging at the strands above the knot. Try to pry the knot apart into smaller knots and work each of them on their own. You may have to turn the wig/extension several times while you're doing this because once you get a layer brushed out you may find even more knots that were hiding underneath the initial layer...

7) Once the brushing is done is the time for styling if you want to do it. My own hair's straight so I just left it as is.

And then - trying-on time!

Whoah I've never had thick hair, this looked and felt amazing! :D

Hiding the top with a headdress that fits hilariously badly with the rest of my outfit. 

Side view.

So hey, a whole new hairpiece to my collection and it cost me 300kr, which is ~2€/2,70$. Add on the working hours and you'd get a whole larger price though, this took such a long time to fix that I'd easily add a zero and then double the price if I were to sell it. So yeah, sorting out a second hand wig is only for those who don't mind sitting in an uncomfortable position for hours, brushing out a seemingly never-ending mass of tangles... one day after my whole back wants me dead... -.-

Today I'm copying Rinna's style.

(The Rinna in question can be found here!)

It all started with the hairbun. Then I went to Rinna's blog to seek ideas on how to coord my hairstyle - yes I have problems like this sometimes: I have my hair on what else do I need? :D

I'm not actually dying of boredom or deeply depressed, I'm trying to put on an artsy face+pose. Yes.

Outfit rundown:

Dress, lace collar, shoes: vintage

Hair accessories: selfmade

All else: offbrand

And because this is a Rinna appreciation outfit I'd like to point out the lace collar is handmade (crocheted).

The hair that needs a warning sign.

How can you tell you've had an absolutely magically awesome hairdo all day? :D?

Answer: it won't stop being absolutely magically awesome even after you take it down. Btw I did not Finglish that, I quite literally took that do down. You'll understand when you'll see photos of it.

Snu's parents returned from Europe and this... thing had appeared in the tulip pot.

It changes colours!

Oh. My. Bob. How precious is this I cannot count the ways!

Rainy day sweater and a hair tutorial.

Lastly here's the sweater in action. Like you see it's rather long - longer than I expected anyway, but that's all a huge plus.

Here's a better photo of both the collar in the back and my hairstyle. Again it's just three plaits attached to my head with pins + decoration. I made a quick tutorial of it for FB but let's put it here as well:

(Right click open in new tab for full size image.)

An all teal day.

Next up - the teal dress. I absolutely love it and I found out I had a perfect colour match for it in my shoe collection. 

Going outside of course meant an added cardigan...

And hair! All my hairstyles nowadays are plaits attached to my head with pins. Looks impressive, is quick and easy to make.

I also re-did my nails. I really love this effect so I bought orange and black nailpolish to do a proper koi/goldfish patterns for the next round.

Triple-plait hair tutorial for otome, mori, lolita etc.

I made a quick tuto for a simple, yet impressive looking hairstyle. It works even better if your hair's a bit longer than mine.

1. Divide your hair into two sections. Separate a small section of hair on the other side from behind the ear and make a small plait.

2. Plait the rest of the hair as shown. As you can see my plaits are a bit loose but tight plaits work just as well.

3.& 4. Attach all three plaits over or on top of your head (depending on how long the plaits are) with bobby pins. You can try to tuck the ends of the plaits under each other, it makes the whole do look neater.

5. Decorate!

A new coat for the summer.

I'm almost sure it happened in the Roihuvuori park meet-up but I'm not entirely sure, could have been some other one just as well. I no longer remember who said this either but what I do remember is that I was wearing a jacket over my coord. And suddenly someone asked:

"We've been wondering whether you have a coat in every colour of your wardrobe."

This made me realize that without knowing it I was actually a serious case of coatoholic. I really DID have a coat in almost every colour and I hadn't even noticed that I had many! To my own knowledge I don't even like coats that much -

oh well, this is all just to say aaaaah I bought a new coat aaaah I love it!

To make a feeble defense (besides the aaaaah I love it) I bought it for cheaps at the Kolaportið flea market. It cost me about 15E, that's how cheaps. Perfect condition, fits like a dream.

Here's some detail shots of the buttons...

...have I ever mentioned I absolutely love buttons?

Have I also ever mentioned I absolutely love Laura Ashley?

It's very close to a perfect match with my ETC ice cream dress. :3

Here's the coord without the coat, just in case.

Outfit rundown:

Coat: Laura Ashley

JSK: ETC

Shirt, extra collar, boots: vintage

All else: offbrand

 Two sides of the top of the hairdo to better show what's going on with it. I teased my overgrown fringe to the side and pinned it to place, then made a small braid of the hair behind my ear and attached it over my head. My hair's not long enough for the braid to properly cross over so I hid the end of it under those roses. 

This is a very generic rule of my hairstyles by the way. The more roses it has the more things I have to hide (or sometimes I just go rose crazy).

A fun hairstyle.

 

Warm days, cold days. Right now it's almost impossible to figure out which one you'll have the next day. There's been days when the weather is T-shirt toasty and others that, as shown above, demand a wool coat, sweater and a scarf.

Here's that hairstyle again. It's a bit messy, apologies - as you see in the first photos the wind had a go at it.

Side view. The band of roses in the back is a separate piece and only used as decoration. It's the more simple band underneath it that's doing all the work.

You can create this style with a very simple hairband as well. Just put it around your head and start tucking your hair underneath it in sections starting from the front, attach with pins when needed.

When done decorate to taste!

Edit: OH HAY I FOUND A TUTORIAL WITH GOOD PHOTOS:

Same dress, different coord.

Yesterday was still a warm day so I made another summer coord with the dress, this time in a bit more mature style. I'd like to mention right here and now that whenever I call weather "warm", take it to mean you'd freeze on your feet without a thick coat (unless, of course, you're Icelandic or have lived here for more than a year).

The temperature itself is no judge of how cold you'll feel. The air here is always humid and it's constantly windy - well, what would you expect, the grand majority of Icelanders live by the Atlantic Ocean. The first year that I lived here I felt miserably cold all the time: I swore by the local wool sweaters (no other kind will help you, mark my word: Icelandic wool is the best shelter you'll have against Icelandic weather, it's almost wind- and rainproof!), wore layers upon layers underneath etc.

In about a year it got better though. I stopped feeling cold and began to dress lighter. I'm assuming the body just gets accustomed to differences in weather and temperature and that it's just to be expected.

Swishhh~

I've already noticed the effects of this a couple of times. The first time when my parents visited us and were constantly well wrapped-up while I got by in a short skirt and stockings. The second time when me & Snu visited Finland last summer and went around like "omg so warm!" in t-shirts and light dresses... while the Finns around us wore coats. Apparently those weeks of the summer were rather cold. 

The third time happened but a couple of weeks ago when I was walking downtown decked out in lolita (it was this outfit)(for a lolita outfit it's actually a warm one though) and happened to be crossing the road alongside a Finnish couple. The lady was speaking of me in somewhat frightened tones of how I must be absolutely freezing and what will the youngsters do for fashion. Situations like these make me itch to say something in Finnish but I usually manage to hold my tongue. Still, Finns that visit Iceland, remember that there's quite many Finns living/studying/working/staying in Reykjavík and that when we suddenly hear Finnish it makes us sharpen our ears. :D

Now for a quick 360° of the hairdo.

To create it get a large-ish segment of the hair in front and do the emo sweep: tease it sideways so that it gets volume and a correct direction, brush the top smooth and pin into place.

Next take another segment of hair from the side below the emo sweep, tease it a bit for more volume, brush smooth and pin in place so that it flares out a little bit at the side of your face. This balances out the front.

I'm not sure how well this photo shows what happened next, but I pulled the rest of the hair to the other side and made a simple plait out of it. Then I attached the plait at the top of the head, hiding the end of it under the emo sweep. Add lots of hairspray if your hair, like mine, always tries to get out of all control.

Take a look outside and if it looks potentially windy add a kilo of pins to further cement the do in place.

Next: decorate to your fancy. As you can see my own personal fancy takes quite many flowers to be properly satisfied but don't worry, this do does not demand such extremes - something elegant and tasteful will no doubt work as well. :D

More hairstyles a la Snu.

Now the bf settled for something a bit simpler than the last time. Thank Bob because there was at least a camera, coffee mug, a box of needles and a bottle opener right next to me. :D

If you let your boyfriend at your hair...

...you're doing it at your own responsibility. This is what happened. :D

Say what you want but the end result is impressive!