Growing out a pixie cut part 2: Inbetween stage and short bob

It's been about about another month of growth since my first 'growing out a pixie cut' post. I'm still pretty much still in that in the in-betweener stage.

I've gotten a trim since then (I was so nervous I was squirming in  the chair!) and came out with a look that I hadn't really expected. Not in a bad way, just a look that I'd never had before. Unstyled and straight from the chair It looked sort of like a one of those mod/helmet/ A-line/high fashion/blunt/flapper bobs.  Its hard to describe, but.....you know what I'm talking about!

Kind of inbetween these cuts, but my layers are a little different.
It was a shock to see myself at first, and I didn't know if I liked it or not. But afterwords I realized
This was the first step away from the pixie cut.

I got a haicut that wasn't a pixie cut.

Finaaaallyy! And once I grew into the cut I liked it more and more, using bold flat colors in my wardrobe to match the new style. I can swoosh it behind my ears for an elf-like style! Unfortunately I don't have have her magical hairdresser products to make my hair so smooth and shiny, but I don't mind! I like the bedhead look as well.

I haven't had such short bangs for a while (besides my awful attempt a couple years ago to try and cut my own bangs. 'shudder') but the shorter bangs seem to create the illusion that my hair is longer than it is. As my hair is getting longer I'm opting more for a middle part as that seems to create some added length-illusion and fullness as I can part my bangs to the side to give my hair a more full look.
Tada! There's me!

Bangs swept to one side vs. full bangs

Sides behind my ears vs. covering my ears

AGG! I should have cropped my hands out but...I'm too lazy now...

Hmm, and I didn't realise that my hair was kind of messy this morning...but that's all cool. I like it that way anyways. :)

Comparing this post to my last pixie post, I'm not that much farther along in growth, but instead of being on out-grown pixie cut look, now I have kind of a short bob. Its coming along! Slowly, but it its growing.

During this stage I'm trying to cut back on straightening and curling just for the sake of healthy hair, but I occasionally texturize my bangs.

Okay! So that's my second installment of growing out my pixie cut! I think I may be finally past the awkward parts of growing it out (Or am I??? DUN DUN DUUUN) Tune in next time!

Check out the next episode here!

What to do when you need new music.

Hey everybody! Whats up? I hope you're all having a great day!

Fashion post coming up real soon, but for today I thought I would show you how to find new music.

I'm a person who is heavily inspired by music. I keep my headphones with me wherever i go.  Sometimes when I'm having a really hard day, listening to music can make me feel so much better about it. I feel like it gives me a little boost of energy and concentration that I need!
But what if you get into music rut and feel tired of your music?
No worries my friends! Great music is a never ending supply!

1. Internet radio! Nowadays, there are so many great choices for Internet radios, and that's usually my number one  choice for finding great music. I usually use Pandora but here's a list of other great music streaming websites. Here it be. And here be another.

2. Youtube! Believe it or not, finding artists on youtube can be easy and helpful. Either try the music discovery project or try searching in you favorite artist and use the redirecting videos on the right hand of your screen to find similar artists and songs and voila! Endless possibilities! This is best used for finding indie or hipster music.

3. Ask your friends who their favorite artists are! This can be a hit or a miss but I've found some really great artists that have been introduced to me though friends.

4. Broaden your horizons. Maybe you've been stuck on the same genre for too long. That happens to me sometimes. When I first got my first mp3 player, I thought all I would ever like was disco music....so..yeah....that only lasted for like a month though. Try something new! Perhaps someone's a closet country fan, hmmmmm?

5. Foreign music. Yes, I know Gangnam style is cool and all, but honestly, their is so much more to foreign music. You just might not know about it because of the language barrier! But with a little research, their is so much music to be discovered! I suggest starting at the international billboard charts and work your way from there.
orcheckoutmyearlierblogpostsformusicilike
'coughcoughcough'.

6. Listen to the non-Internet radio. Underrated, these days! I mostly like listening to the college station, because there is a lot of very different variety of unique music you wouldn't find on the 'top 40' station.

And Voila! Those are my tips for finding new music! Good luck everybody!

Foreign pop recommendations: Mandopop Soft Lipa 蛋堡 Review

Yeah! Review number 3#~! On to another staple in my ipod!

 Soft Lipa! 

(Otherwise known as SL, Egg Fort or Du Zhenxi)
(Or as I thought he was saying, Salt-Flippa!)

蛋堡

I forgot where I found out about Soft Lipa. I think I was maybe messing around on grooveshark or something. It was really fun to look him up again though and find more of his songs!

Orgin: Taiwan

Language: Mandarin

Style of music: Easy Rap? Soft Hip-hop?

For fans of: Hmm.. This is hard. Soft lipa kind of has a style that is all his own. Maybe for fans of jazz who have an interest in hiphop? Or vice versa? 

Good for: Relaxation, Listening to while on a walk.

Mainstreamabilty: 5/10

Honestly, I have never heard a style like Soft Lipa. It's hard to describe. He usually samples a retro track (usually swing or jazz) puts a beat to it and raps to it. It comes of very thoughtful with a consistent tone. I guess this wouldn't be considered Mandopop, I think the term for it is C-rap. but...yeah....

I don't want to refer to it as that -_-.

But on a downside, none of your friends will know about him. I don't even know how I know about him because he is pretty non existent on the Internet. He doesn't have an English wikipedia page and none of his songs have translations.

I did find a Mandarin wiki page on him and supposedly his name is Egg Fort???

"Eggs Fort, Taiwan rapper Du Zhenxi nickname. A McDonald's bacon and egg fort contained child father every day when he went to school will point to let him breakfast, the fans called eggs Fort." -Baike

Yes. I totally understand what you're saying.

Honestly, I know really nothing about Soft Lipa too. I just know that I like his songs, 
I don't really like the music videos as much.  
I have absolutely no clue what he is saying.
And I like to imagine it's super deep.

This is the first song I've heard by him 

This is 踩腳踏車 AKA "Biking" I love the images in this one. Its a lighthearted, sunny music video with artistic imagery that one would see while out of a bike ride. Pretty and sunny, it captures the feeling of a bike ride perfectly. It was a great song and enough to make me want to research more. 

Honestly, I like so many of his songs, its really hard to choose only a couple

This one is called 

過程 Aka "Process".  No music video for this one! And that's fine with me. I really like this song, it reminds me of Katamari type music. This one is supremely jazzy and I like the accents of the piano.

Hehehe! This one is called  熱水澡 AKA "Hot Bath".  This one is my favorite because he sampled it from my favorite jazz song "The Girl From Ipanema". With his rapping style its a really serene combination. Ahhhh... Again there is no music video here, but I don't think thats important. 


There was also another song called 回到過去 or "Back to the Past" I think it translates to. that was also a really great song but it won't let
me embed the video so here it is if you want to listen to it. 

I could show you about more of my favorite Soft Lipa songs, but you get the idea. He has a unique and consistent tone that makes his songs sound a little similar to each other (Not in a bad way) and it takes a unique song taste to appreciate it. I hope you enjoy it anyways, I tried to keep my comments about the music short, so you could decide for yourselves.

Since I can't understand Mandarin, I really hope he's not one of those rappers who just strings along expletives and calls it art, but it sounds so thoughtful that I can't imagine that to be true. I think it's unfortunate that I don't know a lot about Soft Lipa, and that he doesn't seem to be very popular. Maybe someday I'll finally meet another person who knows his name!

Gah! This is the second artist review I've done today, I've been sitting on my butt for way too long. If you want any particular foreign artist for me to review please tell me in the comments!

Foreign pop recommendations: British Pop MIKA review

Hi there lovely people! I was just going through my ipod again for another foreign pop recommendation and I think I found the perfect one. And bonus for all of you: It's in English (Well some of it ;) )

MIKA

Orgin: Britain

Language: English and French

Style of music: Electronic Pop

For fans of: Queen, Keane,  80's pop, Ben Folds, Kate Nash

Good for: Dance!!!!

Mainstreamabilty: 10/10!

MIKA's music is SO fun to dance too. I first discovered him when I bought my first mp3 player when I was about 10ish. I was just getting into to music, but I didn't really know what I liked yet. So one day when I was looking for inspiration, and sat down and turned the television to the Today Show.

And there was MIKA and his band singing "Big Girl You Are Beautiful". 4It was about the catchiest song that I had ever heard and I rushed to the computer immediately to try to figure out how to buy it, but that was the only song of his that I knew.

5 years later, I was on youtube looking to update my stash of French pop and I came across "Elle Me Dit" and thought it was the catchiest song I had ever heard. I went on itunes to buy and it turned out,

Elle Me Dit was by MIKA too.

I had come across him twice without even trying to.

His songs were that. good.

His style is awesome. His songs will be stuck in your head for weeks. They're fun, explosive and full of life. They demand you to get up and dance. I didn't even know he could speak French but it turns out he is fluent in French and Spanish, how cool is that?? And a couple of my friends had said that they had heard of him before! That never happens with music that I like!!!

Here's the song I first heard from him. 

...My gosh that's an awkward place to pause. This is Big Girl You Are Beautiful , its just a fun, retro celebration of girls with bigger bodies. Catchy Catchy Catchy!

Here is Elle Me Dit, (She says to me) which is probably one of my favorite music videos in the whole world.

I love the silliness in the music video. Its colorful, adorable and goes perfectly with the song. Whenever I try to introduce MIKA to my friends I always use this music video and song. There is an English version on this song called Emily, but I prefer the French one. You can find the other one if you like though...but you'll have to find it yourself! Ha!

OMG I DIDN'T KNOW THAT HE SANG THIS SONG TOO. NOW THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED.

This is Relax, Take it Easy, This is probably the song that you've most likely heard of his. It's the only one that I've heard on the radio. I love the synth in this one. Boop boop boop boop boop boop...

I'm listening to his music while I write this. Its getting increasingly hard not to get up and dance....

ELLE ME DIT DANCE!

Next time I'll try to write a post that isn't France related, promise!

Foreign pop recommendations: Canadian pop Coeur de Pirate review.

Don’t know what to listen to next on your ipod? Tried all your Pandora stations? Why not try some foreign music? No, I’m not talking about obscure drum sounds with chanting, or any old Portuguese jazz. I’m talking about Foreign pop!

I love foreign pop, my ipod is loaded with the stuff. Someday it would be really cool to have a position on the radio station so I could share it all with listeners, or own a coffee shop and subject coffee-goers to my music choices (squeal!).  There are so many good artists, too many to explain in one post. In my upcoming posts, I’ll try to explain them, one artist at a time

Lets start with one of my personal favorite artists:

Coeur De Pirate! (aka, Heart of Pirate in French)

Orgin: Montreal (MY CITY!!!!!!!)

Language: Quebecois (French, Quebec dialect)

Style of music: Indie pop

For fans of: Lily Allen, Adele, Lenka, and others with similar vocal styles. 

Good for:  Listening to in coffee shops, art inspiration, sweet french breakups. 

Mainstreamabilty: 10/10!

When ever I am in an artsy like mood I always listen to Coeur de pirate. She has a style of music that is sweet and easy to multitask too. And plus, she speaks my language!!!! WOO! She also has some English music too, but the majority of it is Quebecois.

 I love the catchiness of her music and if you don’t happen to speak French, you should really take the time to look up her lyrics in English because they are really witty and smart.

I first heard of her from her single Adieu. A sweet song (And odd...err..explosive music video) about Coeur de pirate leaving a guy who tries to make her jealous and treats her badly, regardless of his attempts to make her feel guilty about it by reminding her of all the memories that they shared. Perfect for breakups! Plus I love her outfits in this music video. She has great style.

Another great songs of hers is called Golden Baby. But if you ask me what its about, I couldn't tell you.  The lyrics are talking about another dumb guy doing her wrong, but she didn't see it at first because her love was blinded. But the music video is just....super odd. I suggest listening to it without the music video. In fact, I never usually like Couer de Pirates music videos. This one is just kind of random.
(Unless there's some deep symbolism that I'm not getting)

It shows her and her friends just going around breaking and entering in different places making messes. And then Couer de pirate makes a gumball machine explode again? Does she just have magical wizard powers that make things explode with her mind? And then.....the northern lights talks to her.

Hmm. Yeah, I have no clue what to say about the music video, but without it, its such a sweet song. Here's the music video anyways if you're okay with super weirdness. 

Another thing I like about Couer de Pirate is that her songs are very consistent (to my knowledge) All of her songs seem to have the some sweet flow. This is my favorite song Pour un Infidele (aka, to unfaithful-person) featuring Julien Dore. As you can guess, it's another song about a rat who was doing her wrong by cheating on her. I actually like the music video for this one too. It's all retro style and whatnot in black and white film style. Artsy, and adds something to the song.

I feel like Coeur de Pirate could easily be mainstreamed because of her easy listening type music. Her style is relaxed and familiar with some American pop. There's a good chance your friends will like it and even though I don't love all of her music videos, there really isn't a song of hers that I dislike.

Do any of you know any foreign pop you'd like me to write about? Any country you'd like me to start with? Let me know!

How to look good with a cold

Winter effects are starting to slightly lessen here in Alaska! Unfortunately, it's still about 16 F here and colds and flus seems to be coming around AGAIN. So here's some tips for you all trying to look fashionable with the sniffles.

1. Get enough sleep. I know this can be a difficult one for well, EVERYBODY to follow, since life is busy but having a cold is enough to drag you down and feel tired, so not getting enough sleep could make it that much worse making you feel and look exhausted. Eat well and go to bed early and you'll get over it twice as fast!

2. Be prepared for work or school. Bring emergency things such as extra tissues, cough drops, medicine, lots of water to keep you hydrated and extra concealer if your nose starts to get red or if you get bags underneath your eyes.

3. Make sure you're staying hydrated to the max. water and loads of moisturizer to flush out that cold and keep your skin looking good.

4. For a red irritated Rudolph the red nosed reindeer noses, try putting on a layer of clear lip chap to sooth, protect and hydrate the skin.

5. If you are someone who uses makeup, when putting it on during a cold, its purpose should be to make you look bright and fresh. brighten your eyes using concealer and foundation, use a light blush to give you some color and use a nice bright color on your lips. You want to look nice and awake.

6. Dress for comfort and warmth. Scarfs and sweaters, please.

7. Don't let having a cold ruin your day! Smiling is always a way to look great.

Good luck with your cold, and I'm sure you look wonderful regardless! ;).

I Got a Terrible Haircut

Where did it go wrong!?!?!

About a half a year ago I went into the salon I brought in a picture of Rainie Yang's short hair tucked behind her ears because I like the rounded shape of her short hair but I wanted to keep my length since I was growing out my hair. 

Halfway through the hairdresser said. “Well, I’ve trimmed the back up a bit, but I’m just going to make the sides shorter to even it up when it grows out. Okay? Okay.” This is where I should have snapped out of my after school daze and told her no. Buuuttt I kept quiet and passive, leading me up to the worst haircut ever imaginable.

She cut the sides unevenly, and not past the top of my ear, giving me a mini rat tail and a short bowl cut on top.

 4 months of growing it out. Gone.

It looked kind of like this expect this looks better

I was devastated. It looked awful.
It was so short there was no possible way to get it re-cut without shaving it all off.

People at school noticed. When my very HONEST and BELOVED friends saw me the first day, they downright gasped “Your hair!!! OHGAWD WHAT HAPPENED?”. 

Friends reaction

There was no denying that it was awful. I don’t have any pictures of that first month for a reason. 

To be truthful, It wasn’t all the hairstylist's fault (though there is NO way that I'm ever going there again). I should have spoken up. The experience made me a little afraid to go to the hairdressers ever again, but eventually I switched places.

Tips for bad the recipients of bad haircuts (especially those that are too short to re-cut):

1. Don’t get angry at your stylist. Nothing good will come of it. Speak up and tell her calmly what you don’t like and what you like. If its long enough to cut again maybe damage control and ask if re cutting it is an option.-

2. You are allowed one good cry/freakout

After that you just need to move on. Hair is hair and although you might look like a troll doll now, this is not the worst thing that could happen to you. Overcompensate your bad hair by becoming a better person. In times to come your terrible haircut will make a great story that everyone will laugh about or a horrible memory that everyone will block out of there minds!

3. If it’s winter: Congratulations! Its hat time!

4. Please, think twice resort to wearing wigs or extensions. I KNOW YOU GOOGLED IT. I thought about wearing extensions and even bought one just to see how it looked. I decided that it wasn’t for me. Maybe that’s just me though, probably because I don’t like the way that long hair looks on me. If you do get extensions, please wait a couple weeks to decide if you want to wear them and make sure that either they’re good quality or Nicki Minaj crazy.

5. Shower to assess the damage. Maybe it’s just styled weird. It happens sometimes

6. Play around with the straightener and curler. Even with my tiny scruff of hair on my head the curler added a cute amount of poufy volume that I learned to live with (Instead on leaving it in its natural bowlcut disaster look.

7. Smile, like it never even happened. Come up with a lot of witty comebacks if people insult your hair.

8. I don't know anything about hair growth vitamins, nor have I ever used them, but if any of you find them useful, please do share!

I know things don't look so rosy right now, but I promise, in a month or two it won’t be a big deal at all. 

Here's some pusheen gifs to cheer you up.