Dip Dye

Dip Dye courtesy of Arrojo. East West sheer top, Joomi Lim cuff, Triskaidekaphobia necklace.

A little while back, I had the pleasure of getting my hair cut at my favorite salon, Arrojo.  They recently invited me back to test out their new Goldwell Coloring service, and I jumped at the opportunity to finally get the violet-blue dip dye job that I've been secretly longing to get for the past year.  While I used to dye my hair all the time as teenager, I haven't done it in about 8 years, and the main thing that's stopped me is my disapproving husband, who fears that I will look like the angsty teen that I once was.  Well, Jimmy happens to already be far away in Sweden (I'll be joining him on Friday), and only has a vague idea of what I've just done to my hair.

Inspired by the candy-colored hair at the recent Meadham Kirchhoff shows, as well as some photos from The Neverending Story blog, I brought some pictures to my dear friend Ashley Kowalski, who is one of the most in-demand colorists at Arrojo.  It took a whopping four hours, but with the help of her assistant Jamie, Ashley managed to produce the dip-dye color of my dreams.  Thanks so much Ashley, Jamie, and everyone at Arrojo!  I'll let you know how Jimmy reacts when I see him...

Inspiration snatched from The Neverending Story.

Ashley started by bleaching my hair to blonde, which took about two and a half hours!

After my hair was properly bleached, Ashley mixed some Goldwell purple and blue colors together.

Waiting for the dye to set

Dip Dye hair flip!

-Tiffany

My Nail Polish is Poppin

Gel nails and 3-D Nail Art courtesy of Spa Martier 

In the middle fashion week, the kids at Fashion Indie set up a Blogger Breakroom full of plenty of fun stuff, including a full on beauty salon with eyebrow waxing, massages, and manicures provided by Spa Martier.  There were a lot of manicure stations installed around fashion week this season, but how many of them were offering Japanese nail art and gels?  Novelty manicures have had a recent spike in popularity, and while airbrushed acrylic dragon talons have always been popular amongst a certain beauty-school dropout set, they've only recently evolved into something more widely acceptable.  Not to say that they've broken from their tacky roots, but rather than being ghetto fabulous, the designs are more fun, silly, and smile inducing.  You probably won't be winning any "chic points" for having 3D donuts popping off every fingernail (see example below), but having a ridiculous manicure will bring untold amounts of personal joy, as well as the cooing attention of some very strange strangers.

I went for a multicolored reverse-french manicure using gels, with a few 3D flowers and rhinestones.  I have been hearing about gels for the last few months, and was thrilled to finally try them. They've held out miraculously well, and after a week and a half, have shown no signs of wear or chipping. They're supposed to last three to six weeks, and I expect to have some nice long nails when I remove them. Best yet, the incredible nail technicians were ridiculously fast, detail-oriented, and dedicated.  If it didn't cost around $100, I would probably get it done every week. I'll just have to wait for a special occasion to go back to Spa Martier. I'm planning on getting some donuts, cupcakes, and pizza slices next.

Some of the different designs you can choose from. Check out the donuts in the bottom left corner.
 

The hundreds of gel colors available to choose from.

-Tiffany

Got My Hair Did

Getting my haircut at ARROJO by Topher. All photographs by David Ducane.

Last Tuesday, I was invited to get my hair cut and styled at ARROJO Studio, an amazing salon that's been home to many of my hair stylist friends. While I've visited the studio many times before, thrown parties for the salon, and even had my hair cut by off-duty Arrojo stylists (thank you Ashley), I never actually have had the privilege of sitting in an ARROJO salon chair and getting the full treatment. ARROJO asked several bloggers to get their hair done and photographed, and I was lucky enough to get to participate.

In case you can't tell, beauty-wise I'm extremely low maintenance. I almost never cut my hair, and when I do, I usually do it myself, so going to a salon is a real treat. Topher was a real trooper about dealing with the resulting tragedy that was my hair--a long and mangy tangle of frazzled split ends. He also gave me the best hair cut I've ever had in my life (probably because of the whole cutting my hair myself thing), chopping off all the deadweight and adding plenty of layers and volume in their place. After the cut, I was also treated to a full makeup application by Liz, the in-house makeup artist. The final results will be revealed at a party at the studio in September, but in the meantime, here's a sneak peek. Thank you so much to Topher, Liz, Andrew, Daniel, Rebecca, Victoria, David, and everyone else at ARROJO--I had an amazing time!

-Tiffany