Okay, get your heads out of the gutter people! I’m talking about blow outs here duh! (But I did get your attention :p).

Alright, so for the longest time I just didn’t get the point of blow outs.  I mean, why would you go to the salon just to have your hair washed and dried?  It honestly seemed like a waste to me.  Then one day I heard about blow dry bars, salons specifically offering blow outs and just blow outs, no cuts, colours, etc.  Thus my interest was sparked; there must be something more to blow outs than just a wash and blow dry.  Yes, their certainly is.

If you want to hear more about the blow out craze read my article about it here.  In the article I talked about Blo Blow Dry Bar, which is North America’s first blow dry bar with 16 locations all across the United States and Canada. There are a number of other blow dry bars across the continent as well (just Google “blow dry bar” and your city to see if there is a location near you).

Anyways, this leads me to Platinum Entourage.  With all my research and writing about the craze I knew I had to have a blow out.  I was itching for one.  I wanted my hair to be washed and tousled into Victoria Secret voluminous hair.  So after a quick Internet search with the words “blow out” and “Las Vegas” I came across Platinum Entourage which is LV’s first and only blow dry bar.  Surprising I know.

Platinum Entourage is located at 6670 S. Tenaya Way, which is about a $30 cab ride there and back each from the Strip.

Basically how it works is you are given a menu which offers eight different styles to choose from (all costing $35).  You can choose from Victoria Secret runway hair to freshly tousled beach waves to the perfect chignon and more. I chose “the Soho” which is “wildly shaken curls, the bigger the better”, whereas my friend chose the “Platinum Signature” which is the Victoria Secret hair.  I would have done the signature too but my hair is too short for it (not technically, but for the way I would have wanted it, yes it is).

Anyways, my friend got her hair done first then I was after her so I took some photos with my iPhone to document the process.  She got her hair washed and probably had a scalp massage thrown in.  I chose not to get my hair cleaned because I washed it that morning and then there is the fact that because they were going to do tight curls it would hold better if my hair wasn’t freshly washed.

After the stylist (blower?) washed her hair she took her back to her station and dried a little bit of it and then put the top part in huge curlers for volume. Both my friend and I were facing away from the mirror probably for that “wow” factor at the end (think Extreme Makeover, and no I don’t mean Home Edition).

After some more blow drying and curling at the ends (as well as a glass of sangria – hello, it’s Vegas!), I have to admit, her hair was the best I have ever seen it.  It was so full of volume and literally looked like the models’ hair from the Victoria Secret fashion shows.  It was crazy!

The "after" shot (it did lose some volume by the time this was shot, about four hours later). And yes, we did go to Victoria's Secret after we got our blow outs.

This was how mine ended up too.  It was crazy curled, I seriously don’t know how the heck they did it, it looked like I had a perm.

So, would I get a blow out again?  Yes! But I think I would only get it done for a special occasion.  It was nice to get it done in Vegas and I’m glad we went but it was a very expensive cab ride and the curls did fall a bit by evening time. With that being said, I am glad we went though, it’s always nice getting pampered and it’s certainly a different experience than having your nails done.

Have you been to a blow dry bar?  What were your thoughts?  Worth it or skip it?

Happy Monday!

I am back in reading mode after three failed attempts of trying to get through some books.  Right now I’m still trying to plow through Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and 14 Days Later by Sibel Hodge.  Between all that I tried reading The Book of Awesome which was good and entertaining, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to finish it because my loan period ended.

Anyways, I requested The Carrie Diaries from my local library’s eLibrary and they finally told me that I could “take it out” so I jumped at the chance.  I knew I would have to get through the book fairly fast because you only get a two week loan period from the time you take it out, but luckily it took me about seven days to get through it.

For those of you unfamiliar with what the book is about, basically it is a prequel to Sex and the City but aimed towards a younger demographic.  I think it would be safe to say that the novel is for the teen to 20-somethings age group.

Before Manolos and cocktails Carrie Bradshaw was a high school student in a small New England town where she lives with her dad and three sisters (her mother died when Carrie was younger).  An aspiring writer, Carrie’s future looks like she is going to go to her dad’s alma matter Brown to become a scientist once she finishes up her senior year.  Now throw into the mix three best friends (no not Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte), a typical “mean girl”, the stereotypical bad boy, and you got The Carrie Diaries.

If you are looking for something to soothe your Sex and the City cravings, this isn’t it. The novel, although well-written and entertaining, is very different from what you would probably expect.  To me, it was like a mix of Twilight (sans vampires and werewolves of course) and the Lindsay Lohan classic flick (before her jail stints of course) Mean Girls.  If you are looking for designer shoes, Barneys, martinis, and a stark description of the Manhattan skyline, well, then I would skip this novel.  If you are looking for a teen melodrama with a small town feel then pick this up.  It may not have Jimmy Choos, but it’s still a good read.

I personally haven’t read Candice Bushnell’s Sex and the City (in fact, the only other novel by her I’ve ever read was 4 Blondes) but like a lot of people, the Carrie I know is the one from the HBO franchise.  There is something that you have to realize going into reading this and that is that The Carrie Diaries is a prequel to the Carrie in the Sex and the City book.  One reviewer on amazon.ca commented that there were a lot of inconsistencies between this book and the series, and of course there is going to be.  Like a lot of novels that are adapted for the small screen or big screen, stuff changes – characters are often changed from who they were in the pages of paperback to fit certain storylines in a television series or movie.  I believe that Sex and the City is a stand-alone novel, meaning that there was no sequels, so of course there are going to be some things that don’t add up.  The Carrie Diaries is about Bushnell’s Carrie, not Darren Star’s Carrie.

Anyways, for all you wondering if there is some sex and “the city” in The Carrie Diaries, well yes, there certainly is.  Although Carrie is still a virgin in this prequel, her friends seem to be quite active in the act (which provides a sub-plot), and as for New York, Carrie makes her way to the big city at the very end of the novel where she meets a familiar face to SATC fans (which creates a great springboard for the sequel to the prequel, Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel).

So would I recommend it?  If you are a huge SATC fan (or like teen novels), then yes I would. If you expecting the Carrie that we all know and love, then maybe skip it.  This Carrie is a bit far off from the Carrie made famous in SATC.  There are hints of her, but don’t expect a huge closet devoted to shoes.  Carrie is first and foremost a writer and that is what The Carrie Diaries explores, not the frivolous things that came with her lifestyle.

Like I mentioned there is a sequel which I definitely will read eventually, right now I have way too many books to get through.  Also, as a side note, apparently they are making The Carrie Diaries into a television show (duh, not surprised) on the CW.  Who are the executive producers you ask?  None other than Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the duo behind The OC and Gossip Girl.  It’s gonna be a good one.

Have you read The Carrie Diaries? If so, what were your thoughts?  Read it or skip it?

Hey guys!  So pretty lazy evening, I went to the gym and then decided to do my hair.  I wore my hair in a top bun the entire day and I only did weights at the gym so I didn’t work up a sweat.  Therefore, I didn’t have to wash my hair (if I don’t have to wash it I won’t, it’s better for your hair if you don’t wash it every day).

Anyways, I decided to curl it and make it from blah to bam!  This is kind of a silly post, ignore the funny faces haha.  So grab your iPod, play your favourite playlist, and make sure you have a cool beverage on hand, we are going to go from drab to fab!!   Alright so this me basically when I got home from the gym.  In case you guys are wondering I’m wearing MAC’s Candy Yum Yum from the spring Quite Cute collection.  Believe it or not, the last time I applied this was at lunch and this photo was taken around 7:30 p.m., crazy hey?  It lasts forever! Okay so when I took the bun down I got this hot mess.  Not much you can do with this… just a note, my hair looks really greasy in these photos but I can assure you it’s not like this in real life, I swear! Alright so grab your curler and turn that baby on!  The one I used is Sultra’s The Bombshell, it’s a one-inch clipless curling iron that takes the half the time of a conventional curler and doesn’t leave that annoying kink in your hair. While the curler is heating up, grab your favourite heat protectant and spray, spray, spray!  The one I used is Kevin Murphy’s Damage Manager, but any one will do.  A favourite of YouTube beauty guru’s is Tresemme’s Heat Tamer Spray, I think it retails for around $5 in drugstores. Once you have sprayed a heat protectant in your hair comb it out so it’s evenly distributed.  I recommend using a heat protectant every time you use hot tools on your hair.  Although it won’t fully protect your hair against heat damage, it still adds some protection. Next up, section your hair from the base of your scalp and then… Grab the stylish pink glove that comes with the curler and slap that baby on! Most clipless curling irons come with a glove which I highly recommend because you are the one wrapping the hair around the barrel, so therefore it’s extremely easy to get burned.   Alright, so I skipped the whole curling and sectioning part and we are basically at the end here.  You want to curl your entire head grabbing small sections of hair, winding them around the barrel, holding it for two to three seconds then letting go.  If you want a tighter curl, hold the hair and then pull the curler out still holding the curl waiting for it to cool off then release. Just a note, when you are using a clipless curler make sure that the barrel points down, for some reason the curl turns out better that way in comparison to holding it horizontally or pointing up.  It’s probably because that’s the way the hair naturally falls. Once you have your whole head curled, shake that mess up!  Of course you can always leave your hair nicely curled, but I wanted volume, so messing the curls up pumps the hair up and creates a different effect. We don’t want to lose the curls so grab a hair wax (I used OSiS Flexwax) and wind some of the curls around your fingers.  This still holds the curl shape and adds some definition. To add some extra volume, grab your hairspray, section off hair at the crown of your head and spray, spray, spray. Then grab your teasing comb and tease that beast!  Make sure you just tease down as opposed to up and down.  Another way to get volume is to grab a volumizing powder like OSiS Dust It or Kevin Murphy’s Powder Puff and apply it to the same spots.  Those powders work like a charm. And that’s it!  Well, spray it with your hairspray then you are done.  Sorry for the dark photos (having dark hair doesn’t help either).  I wanted to do a post and I thought this could be fun.  I mean, it’s not rocket science, but it was fun to do!

As always, don’t forget to subscribe :).  Until next time lovers…