Many women dream of having a hair change and as a hairstylist I hear those fears of ' would short hair be too much work?' or 'growing out my hair will take forever' and of course we have fear of the unknown - 'will that haircut suit me?'

Real* hair wigs are a quick alternative to any extreme hair change but if it's length you desire or added volume and body a simple hair piece can get you from va-voom to va-VA-VOOM!

Clip in hair set available for $667.99 USD at International Wigs

There are so many pre-made pieces and falls on the market but you can easily DIY and get your monies worth and more.

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These are real hair wefts. This is what you want to buy. The prices vary depending on length - I have seen packages anywhere from $40 - $120+ USD; you only need one package for a head of hair.

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Weft clips are what you need to sew onto the hair weft. I have seen these 2/ $5 and a package of 12 / $10. Shop around.

These are my DIY hair kit pieces.

Step 1: Get some lace and cut a 'pattern' with regular paper to the size you need for your piece. The top layer should measure from just behind your ears going ear to ear; the second piece will be less wide and so on.  Note: Dollar stores sometimes have wide lace on spools.
Step 2: Sew pieces onto the lace starting from the bottom piece first. You can do this by hand or with a sewing machine
Step 3: Sew the weft clips on. Use 2-3 clips depending on the width of the piece

TIP: It's better to  style, curl or straighten the hair once it is clipped into your own hair - this makes it easier to blend the hair into your own hair.

This is the lovely Liv Lo that I did hair and makeup for on an ad job (wait on those details for when the job is released)
Liv has a lovely bob that was easy to work with my clip in DIY human hair pieces.

TIP: When adding in hair pieces don't have them too close to your hair line or too close to your crown and be mindful when you put your hair up- where the hair separates you can see the tracks and that's not pretty. Oh Britney.

Alternatives to clipping in hair extensions:

Hair wefts (or tracks) can be sewn onto a braid using a special rounded needle so you don't perform a lobotomy at the same time.

Simply using eyelash glue along the tracks works beautifully as well. Try Ardell DUO Clear Eyelash Adhesive  $6.99 USD at Sally Beauty
Use the same way you glue on eyelashes - allow the glue to become slightly tacky and then press onto the scalp on a clean parting. There is actual hair glue available but that is made to last 2-3 weeks and if your desire is for a photoshoot or a night out this works more on the temporary side and adheres nicely. To remove use something oily to break down the glue - ie olive oil or coconut oil.

*It is important to use real hair to have the ability to heat manipulate the hair as well as believability. There are high heat tolerant fake hair pieces but in my professional opinion they still look fake. If you are a company who makes heat tolerant fake hair and want to challenge me on that, feel free to send me some to play with.

Can I just say how much I love my hair? I like that I have a natural beachy texture and a natural ginger colour - so far I have no greys... on my head anyway *sigh* 

So what's a girl to do when she loves her long hair and her hair colour but wants a little change? Why, put in a big blue chunk of course! 

This is me bein' all hip and cool with my blue hair.

Super easy to DIY so my 23 years of experience helps but is not required. You just need guts and some bleach.

L'Oreal Creme Lightening Kit $9.99 USD at Ulta

step 1: grab some foil and some hair bleach, pull out a lock of hair and snap to it - wrap the hair with bleach in foil so you contain the fabulousness.
step 2: wash out bleach towel dry and apply effect colour - wrap the hair with the colour again in foil - bla bla, see above.
step 3: party like a rockstar

*Darker hair may require a second bleaching to get to the base that you need for a better impact with the effect colour.

I bought a few of these colours from Sally Beauty as requests from clients were on the rise for a little splash of fun. I also bought a few bottles of 'Beyond the Zone' colour and that in a word sucks - it washes right out - literally a waste of time. Meanwhile back in blue hair land- this Ion Brilliance Color is going nowhere, the pigment has lasted so far (to my hb's dismay) 7 weeks!

This is the back of one of my clients' heads.

[BTW: I am not calling us Stepford Wives. I'm just being cheeky - clearly we are cool]

My client posted a pic of herself on Facebook with the caption 'Don't tell my mom!' 

Cute.

Don't tell your mom that you are FABULOUS! 

The beauty of having a splash of colour under the top layer of your hair is that when you need to be the conservative mother at the PTA you can hide the colour with strategic combing and pinning.

I happen to know first hand that there is a certain HBO TV host with a splash of colour - if you are guessing Oli Pettigrew you are...wrong! He wishes. It's his better half, Linda Black.

Hey!! Let's do a giveaway shall we?? First one to get a screen shot of Linda on HBO with a glimpse of that hair colour will win a little beauty something from me! Upload the HBO screen shot onto my Facebook. It may be impossible because her network hairstylist may have taken the conservative road and hid that sucker. Good luck! I do like to give a challenge where the end equals free beauty products. 

*Yes 'colour' is spelled two different ways here. One is the American product and the other is because I am Canadian and our spelling is better. ;)

My writing the F-word for XoJane and how it has no place on the lips of my children has nothing to do with the fact that I live in Asia. I have lived in Asia for 5 of my 42 years - yes they are 'skinny obsessed' here but the rest of the globe isn't too far behind. My experience here has not been the majority of impact on my F-word opinions but yes, I have been affected by the obsession here - can't deny that.

I have worked on TV makeover shows in Canada where some of the women have cried saying that they haven't felt good about themselves for a long time and that f-word has come up - that impacted my opinion of the word.

Images of me being fat and lazy.

Growing up my 'father*' used to call me a 'fat lazy ass'. That impacted my opinion of the f-word.

I have been on set with slender models and stylists have patted their slightly bloated bellies and have said 'oh, menses or a little fat huh?' That has impacted my opinion on the f-word.

I have been around food courts where a woman has been eating a burger and have overheard people saying 'that fat lady should be eating a salad' - that has affected my opinion of the f-word.

It's funny how the takeaway for many readers was my incident with a four year old 'model' - and trying to shame me on my reaction for it; I can't force you to take away anything else. My points on society's opinion on weight and how it trickles down to our children apparently had little bearing. Honestly: I feel like my piece failed - that's ok - novelists have failed books, I can have a failed 1500 words or less.

I saw many comments eluding to or spelling out that they felt I was denying a body type that exists. Nope. I was just saying 'fat' is not a nice word. Sure, it's a descriptor but so is voluptuous, curvaceous and robust - which I think are more flattering and less aggressive then the word 'fat' which 99.9% of the time has negative intentions.

Some comment was made suggesting to empower the word by grabbing your rolls and shaking them at the 4 year old stating in some form of 'yes I am and what of it?!'

Aggressive and that teaches nothing.

When faced with inquiries from young minds I don't believe that responding aggressively is the answer - children need to be taught through love and our own actions. Children need to know that there are various body types in the world without the need of less empowering labels.

Sticks and stones break bones but words have the power to pierce through deeper.

There are many words in society that are unacceptable and politically incorrect- should we allow those back into circulation and just say: Come on- you choose the power that word holds!

No. Society has rules. We need rules so we can all get along and part of these rules include no name-calling or bullying - which we (hopefully) teach at a young age.

I was reading through comments after the first day that my piece was loaded and I saw some interesting, well expressed viewpoints that I didn't agree with but could see their sides. Then, I came across a giddy comment excited for the 'bloodbath' of comments that was about to ensue which made me lose interest in reading any comments or opinions from that point onwards. Although I am curious, I can't filter out mean people - I'm a Pisces - horoscope hazard.

I am open to a conversation on any of my opinion pieces and rants -I am not on a 'high horse' so you don't have to agree with me - try to sway me to your opinion :) - besides total complacency can be a snore. I guess I miss being on the school debate club. Lol. But as soon as someone becomes less about thought process and opinion and more about being nasty and aggressive to turn on someone for their own sport... Well... No thanks. I don't want to play that game.

(That and I had poor Zoie in the doctor's every day this week with a 103 fever, dehydration and touch and go whether or not we hospitalize her. She's fine now)

Replace my original f-word piece with the word 'skinny' - I have friends who are 'skinny' and are equally annoyed with the reference. I have had 'skinny' friends tell me that they have been approached by strangers assuming that they have eating disorders and is everything ok with them? Sure, everything is fine with them - they are just slim. Actually - one slim friend told me someone asked her if she was in chemo.

My intention with my article was to draw attention to the constant discussions of body types using the F-word as an example from my personal experience.

For those men and women who are ok with labelling themselves as 'fat' and proud of it - that is ok if you are truly ok with it; but if my child walks by you and mutters the word fat I would discipline her for behaving like a bully.

Being a hairstylist and makeup artist (23 years now) who has worked with many models, celebs and us regular folk, I can't say that I have come across anyone who was ok with being called fat - I have heard more complaints about that little F-word.

But let me push through all of these anecdotes, no need to reply with 'Andrea you aren't fat' - my piece was not intended to get me physical compliments (although, thank you for those who did)  the focus should be on healthy people and how we teach our children - size should only matter to you and your doctor.

“How people think and feel about the way they look can influence their physical health as well as their psychological health.” Centre for Appearance Research

So how do you talk to your child about weight?

*Father is in asterisks because I have daddy issues and he has been legally disowned - but that's more than an article, it's a mini-series.

Here's a round up of fat chat on xoJane

Just like a kid in a Candy[Brissima] store...

The creative juices are flowing.

Thanks Marks & Spencer for the bangin' bras...

I am enjoying this times 'one hundred million trillion' as stuffZoiesays would say.

Love handles.

Sha-ZAM! Dear Furla: I want this! I mean: Thank you for the fun night!

Art meets fashion.

As a digital influencer, I was so honoured to be asked to participate in Singapore's preview night of the Furla Candybrissima World Tour.

The Furla CandyBrissima World Tour pop up creative laboratory is in Singapore at the Paragon and open to the public for your creations - one day left! May 25th 12pm to 7pm! Go. Make your interpretation of a Candy Bag, take a pic and then hashtag #FurlaCandySG #CandyBrissima for the world to see - and me too - I keep looking at everyone's designs. :D

You can watch what the rest of the CandyBrissima World Tour is like on Furla's YouTube channel.

*my dress is by Romyda Keth that I bought during my recent trip to Cambodia, my bracelet is Swarovski and my shoes TopShop.