| How to Blow Dry Layered Hair Posted: 25 Mar 2016 05:00 PM PDT Blow drying with the wrong technique can leave your layers frizzy or flat. Either way, you're not showing off the hairstyle. For better definition and a more attractive appearance, follow these methods instead. The quick method is best for thin, straight hair, which is unlikely to frizz. The longer method is mandatory for thick or curly hair, and recommended for anyone who wants a longer-lasting style. EditQuick Blow Drying - Brush out your hair. Get rid of all tangles before you begin.
- Apply heat protectant. Blow drying always risks damaging your hair. Apply a heat protectant evenly throughout your hair.
- Flip your hair upside down. Flip your hair forward and tilt your head toward your chest. This is good for volume and definition.
- Skip this step if you have thick, frizzy hair.
- Brush your hair as you go. You may hold the brush on the opposite side of your hair, moving it along to follow the blowdryer. If you'd rather not blow dry every layer separately, just blow dry without a brush, and stop every few minutes to brush your hair out.
EditBlow Drying Layer by Layer - Start with wet hair. Layered hair usually takes a long time to blow dry. If you towel dry or allow it to air dry partially, your hair may dry before you finish heat styling. Blow drying dry hair can cause major damage.
- Brushing out tangles is recommended, unless you tend to lose hair when you brush it wet.
- Section your hair. Use your best judgement depending on how thick your hair is. Typically, you would divide your hair into left and right sections. Divide each of these sections further by layer, and clip most of the layers onto the top of your head. Leave the lowest layer or two hanging free.
- Apply heat protectant to the lowest layers. This will protect them from heat damage. Natural options such as argan oil are also available.
- Blow dry the lowest layers with a round brush. Place a round brush against the underside of the hair near your neck. Wrap your hair around the brush and blow dry from the other side. Move the brush and blow dryer down along your hair at the same rate, steadily drying your hair.
- The round brush helps define the ends of your hair, making your layers stand out.
- If you want to add volume, brush and blow dry backward instead. (Note that this can damage your hair.)
- Some people get better results brushing hair from the back and pulling it forward (toward the face) as it dries.
- Flick the brush off the hair at the end. When you reach the end of your hair, lift your brush a little and pull the brush out sideways. This little "flick" will give a natural swing to the layer, instead of having it hang straight down.
- Repeat with each layer. Once your hair is dry, pin it to the sides and let down the next layer. Repeat the same process for each layer until your hair is dry.
- To prevent frizz in curly hair, make sure your hair is completely dry.
- Don't forget to apply more heat protectant to each layer.
EditBlow Drying Short Layers - If your hair is several inches above your shoulders (your shortest pieces less than an inch long), section off the hair right above your ears and clip it away.
- Blow dry your shortest layers (below the ears) with just the blow dryer in a downwards motion, combing through the hair with either your fingers or a brush.
- Proceed to dry the rest of your hair the way described previously.
- The lower the temperature setting, the less your hair gets damaged. Ideally, you should be able to point the blow dryer at your skin for 15 seconds without pain.
- Some people get good results by setting the blow dryer on "hot" while you're actually drying your hair, and then switching to "cool" or "cold" to lock in the straightness.
- If you plan to straighten your hair or put your hair in a ponytail or headband, do this immediately after blow drying.
- Use a no-tangle brush if you have thick, easily tangled hair.
- A concentrator nozzle gives the best results for curly or wavy hair, although it will take longer to dry.
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| How to Dye Eggs for Easter Posted: 25 Mar 2016 09:00 AM PDT Coloring hard boiled eggs is an Easter tradition. The fun part is, there are so many ways to do it! You can do single colored eggs, but an added touch never hurt anyone. You can eat these eggs, give them as gifts, or use them for decoration.
- Organize the supplies needed. There are a few things you need to do before commencing:
- Buy a half dozen to a dozen eggs at the grocery store, or collect them fresh from your hens.
- Hard boil the eggs. Do this by placing the eggs into a saucepan with a pinch of salt and covering with water. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for at least ten (10) minutes and then lift the eggs out carefully with a spoon or tongs. Place them under cold running water until they are cool enough to handle, at least a minute, and cool completely on a rack in the refrigerator before using.[1]
- Buy an egg decorating kit! These usually consist of several dye pellets, color coded cups, a special egg spoon, and, of course, directions to make the dye. Or buy a set of little bottles of food coloring, which you can use for all kinds of projects such as tie-dyed cake.
- Follow the directions on the dye packaging carefully, and make the dye. In most cases, you drop the pellets into water or vinegar (about 1 tablespoon of vinegar). (Liquid food coloring usually requires vinegar). Make sure to have both nearby. You can use a glass, cup, or a bowl to pour the water into, just make sure the container has enough space for the egg. A disposable plastic cup (suitable for hot liquids, if you're using them) would be perfect because staining it won't matter and it may cushion eggs dropped in a little.
- Set the containers of dye in a row. Place the hard boiled eggs in one spot for easy access. It's also a good idea to set up the work surface by covering it in newspaper (you can then rest the eggs on this as you add more dye effects, and it will also catch dye drips.) And add an egg carton or a wire rack for drying the eggs on after they are dyed.
- Decorate each egg before dyeing if you intend on adding features. If wished, you can draw on the eggs with crayon, or place rubber bands or dot stickers on the egg. Covering parts of the egg with tape, stickers, crayon wax from drawing, or rubber bands will result in the covered parts of the egg not being coated in the dye you are about to dip the egg in but will create their own cool effects.
- You could dye an egg a light color, mask off parts, and dye the rest a darker color.
- Naturally, you can add decorative effects after dyeing as well. It's really up to you and a good way to find out what you prefer is to try decorating both before and after dyeing the eggs.
- Set the egg on the egg spoon, and lower it into the desired color. You can either lower it in partway to dye only a certain segment of the egg, or lower it in all the way. Leave the egg in for at least 3 minutes before considering removing it.[2]
- The egg will soak up more color the longer you wait, so if the color isn't what you want just yet, leave it a little longer.
- Place the removed egg onto a work surface that has been covered in newspaper. At this point, you can place a different drop of coloring on the egg for added color effects, and then blow through a straw to disperse the drop of dye across the egg. This will make interesting new patterns. You can also use a paintbrush to move the dye around if you like.
- To make an especially beautiful egg, repeat these steps as much as desired. Continuous re-dipping of the eggs will result in colors mixing together, multiple layers of patterns (some colored), and varicolored stripes. You can take off the bands and stickers in between rinses or not; experiment with different methods, as explained in the next sections.
- Leave the eggs to dry in the egg carton or, better yet, a wire rack which will minimize the marred contact points. Place each egg there as done, and get on with the next egg until you've finished with them all.
EditMarbled Eggs - Prepare the egg dye according to the package, or make your own using natural food colorings. If you plan to eat the eggs, make sure to use food-grade dyes.
- Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to each container of dye. Note that if you want to dye some eggs normally or give them a base color before marbling, do that first. Once the oil is in the dye, you can't go back! Experiment by adding a bit more oil to the dyes; different amounts create different amounts of marbling.
- Better yet, float droplets of a concentrated food coloring-vinegar (for colorfastness) mixture on a bed of shaving cream or float droplets of an oil-based immiscible food coloring on water, rake the color into a loose pattern, and dip the egg briefly to marble it as one would marble paper.[3] You may need to dip one end or side of the egg at a time. A pair of tongs with loop-ended jaws would hold the egg securely and mask very little of its surface. If you use shaving cream, let the egg dry before rubbing off the excess foam.[4] With either method, be prepared for the possibility that the color may stick to you or what you're wearing better than the egg, even after it's dry.
- Dip quickly. Using a spoon or the dipper that comes with a kit, lower the egg completely into the dye and remove it quickly. Because oil and water don't mix, you'll get color on some parts of the egg, and none on others, creating a marbled effect. Keep dipping to get a brighter color.
- Dry the eggs on a paper towel. Lightly pat the just-dipped eggs with a paper towel, or the color may become muddy. If you want to dip them in another color, wait until they're completely dry first.
- Add some shine. Moisten a paper towel with vegetable oil and lightly wipe down the finished eggs with it to add a nice shine.
- Refrigerate. Refrigerate the eggs until you're ready to display them.
- Wow everyone with your masterpiece!
EditSponge Dip - Put five drops of food coloring in a cup and add a few drops of water.
- Dip a sponge into the cup and press onto egg.
- Let it dry.
- Do the same with a different color.
- Continue using other sponges with different colors, but let dry in between.
EditPolka Dot Eggs - Stick dot stickers on the egg.
- Color it with any color or colors.
- Let the egg dry completely.
- Carefully peel off the stickers.
- Alternatively, paint the dots onto each egg as preferred.
EditGlitter Egg - Dye the egg the desired color or colors.
- Add white vinegar to the dye for a deeper color.
- Cover with glitter paint. Or, add glitter to the dye beforehand (this is easier).
- Let dry. You now have a very glam egg for Easter.
- Finished. The glitter egg is now ready for displaying.
- If using crayon/candle wax to draw patterns on the egg before dying, the egg needs to be room temperature for the wax to stick to the shell.
- The more vinegar you put in with the dye, the more vibrant the colors will be.
- The longer you leave an egg in the dye, the darker the color will be. So, you can do a "quick dunk" for a lighter color.
- You can combine techniques for an even cooler looking egg.
- Try not to make all the eggs too dark or too bright. If they are, they won't stand out as much.
- Did you know? In 2005, Belgian chocolate maker Guylian created a 27-foot, 3-inch tall, 4,299-pound edible chocolate Easter egg out of 50,000 praline chocolate bars.
- Use natural dyes like crushed blueberry juice or turmeric.
- Why eggs? The egg is a symbol of Christ's resurrection because the egg represents new life. Various cultures around the world have traditions focused on giving dyed or decorated eggs, with some countries having very distinctive methods for dyeing eggs.[5] It can be a fun thing to do with kids to look up the different styles of egg decorations from around the world; ask them which ones they'd like to try to decorate on their eggs.
- Blow out an egg for a hollow shell to decorate elaborately and keep for a long time. When dyeing a blown egg, it can help to leave the spoon (or whatever else was used to dip the egg in) on top of the egg, because hollow eggs float. After you take them out, make sure to have newspaper or paper towels under the eggs to catch any dye that drips from the holes.
- Hard boiled eggs will keep for 4 days in the refrigerator.[6]
- The glitter egg is for decoration only, so don't eat it.
- Only eat the eggs if you have kept them refrigerated and you have used non-toxic, food-grade dyes and decorations. Eggshells are very porous!
- Peel the eggs before eating, and don't eat the shells!
EditThings You'll Need - To Set Up:
- Hard boiled eggs
- Egg decorating kit
- Egg carton(s)
- Vinegar
- Water
- Measuring cup(s)
- For the "Fancy" Eggs:
- Crayons
- Rubber bands
- Dot stickers
- Sponges
- Glitter paint
- Vegetable oil
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| How to Start a Home Staging Business Posted: 25 Mar 2016 01:00 AM PDT Home staging is a way to prepare a house for sale. By using professional cleaning, repair, and decoration home staging aims to make the house appear larger, brighter, cleaner, and more inviting to potential buyers. Professional stagers use high level design skills to appeal to a buyer's senses. Any number of techniques can come into play from rearranging furniture into a larger visual concept, to paint, showcasing fine fabrics, putting drapes on windows, and adding pieces like bookcases or shelves to bring attention to particular areas. You can run this business alone or as part of a larger real estate agency. Either way the goal is to show a house in use so buyers are more encouraged than they would be seeing a vacant house.[1] EditTaking Preliminary Business Steps - Create a business name. You can come up with something unique to your concept or just use your personal name.
- If you use a concept name then keep it relevant to your industry. You want a name connected to the ideas of home and design.
- Whatever name you choose will need to be heavily publicized in real estate offices, among builders, art shops, mortgage brokers, and anyone else who might use your services.
- Draw up a budget. This will be preliminary at best until you get a better idea of your area's real estate market and client needs.
- Start-up costs for home staging are usually low, but regardless if you ask your bank for a small business loan or not, plan on a few items from the beginning.
- Expect some costs for early marketing such as business cards, frequent travel, advertising space in local publications, and possibly web hosting.
- Canvas the area contractors for painters, plumbers, electricians, etc... for their costs. You mostly will be working with what's on site at a home, but sometimes you may need an assist. Keep in mind this will factor into what you charge the homeowner.
- Print a business card. You probably want this done at a local print shop or office store. You can ask them about other items to get your business logo on such as pens, magnets, note pads, etc...
- The major items to have on the cards are your business name, your own name, and contact info. You should have at least a phone number you can easily be reached at, an e-mail address you check frequently, and possibly a website.
- These items can be relatively inexpensive if you cut back on extra embellishments such as fancy fonts, glosses, special paper, etc... Conversely, spending some more on the display sometimes appeals to customers. Strike a balance.
- Create a schedule of charges. This will be what you charge clients for your services.[2]
- You will need to decide your basis for charging including square footage of the house, hours of labor, weight of objects moved, etc...
- Some stagers can charge between $500 to $5,000 dollars per house.
- Set your rates to cover your total business costs plus a reasonable profit.
- Contact the US Small Business Administration. You can look at the SBA for financing ideas if you think more funding will be necessary for decorating. Also this will help with registration if you want to build a larger office with more employees.[3]
- Some staging jobs will involve you encountering an empty house or room. In these cases you will have to rent furniture and other decorations, so having some extra money on hand would help.
- Some staging jobs may involve substantial painting and/or repair work. If you're doing the work initially yourself then you may need to pay the contractor first even if you're charging the homeowner later.
- Create a website. This is a good idea with modern technology's advantages. The website can make contact smoother between clients and you plus showcase your work with photos--even video.
- You can try free website creators if you know how to use them.
- If you do not know how to program webpages, consider budgeting extra for a professional website creator to do it for you.
- Do consider if you have any friends, family, or colleagues that are good at web design that might do this in exchange for you staging a room for them or similar service.
- Make sure whoever designs the site helps keep the page high in popular search engines.
EditManaging Your Local Real Estate Market - Look at consumer reports for home buyers. You want to get a sense of what potential buyers are looking for in their homes. This could vary quite a bit by neighborhood.[4]
- Check out area business commentary, surveys, reports, and talk to realtors if they are willing to discuss buyer general interests. You want to get sense of consumer tastes.
- Think about asking people close to you what they would be interested in seeing for a new home--especially if a friend or family member is actually in the market.
- Contact local real estate offices. You can do this to either see if they want to hire you as a stager, or at least get information on potential clients.[5]
- Offer to do a couple of free stagings for the realtor to demonstrate your abilities.
- Get permission to put your business card or a small sign with your name and contact information on an early display when you do them. This will showcase your skills for the realtor and customers in addition to perhaps getting the realtor's reports on buyer interests and referrals.
- Join the Real Estate Staging Association. RESA is a professional organization that can help professional stagers network worldwide, and gather at conventions to exchange information on the trade.[6]
- The organization can help network to find stagers, achieve higher levels of training, and learn more about the different elements of the industry from redesign to marketing.
- RESA has an annual trade convention called "RESACON."
- Write for the community realty publications. Many cities have a local real estate publication or might allow a contribution on matters of decoration in the local newspaper.
- Look up the real estate publication's submission guidelines, and do the same for the newspaper regarding contributions.
- Contact the appropriate editor saying something such as: "I am a local home stager, I would like to write for your publication about my strategy for making a room look warmer." or "I would like to submit an article about home decoration." Proceed according to the editor's instructions. If they are not taking any submissions then you should move onto another venue.
- Contact reliable contractors in the area. Ask the realtors you network with about cleaners, repair crews, painters, and other similar workers they recommend to homeowners when trying to improve a house for sale.[7]
- You may want to check the contractors against the Better Business Bureau reports to see if any problems come up.
- Look for reviews online and/or from other realtors and homeowners that used the contractors to get a reasonable idea of each one's cost, speed of service, and capabilities in case you need them to help with your staging projects later on.
- For example, if you find a painter that is fast and can do large homes, but is too costly, you may not get many customers when you start-up with no established reputation. On the other hand, a handyman that has a reputation for cheap, safe, and efficient electrical work might be useful if you need to alter lighting in a room.
EditWorking With Interior Design - Set up good resources for home decor. This means being able to pull in props, furniture, art supplies, and the like to supplement whatever you might be lacking when encountering a client's home.[8]
- Get in touch with local renters of furniture, art shops, paint sellers, and wood crafters. These are going to be shops that will be more useful with quick turn-around items than some of the more involved repair shops.
- You might let these local shops know you plan on using them regularly. Perhaps introduce yourself to their manager or owner by saying, "I'm starting a local home staging business and would like to make use of your furniture for empty room situations." They might give you some discounts for frequent use.
- Also look into renting a storage facility to keep supplies you purchase and don't rent so you can reuse them for multiple jobs.
- Move furniture. This is probably among the more demanding aspects of staging on a regular basis. Moving furniture can involve a lot of heavy lifting, has a major impact on the spacious feel of a room, and has a high risk of you damaging something valuable of the homeowner.[9]
- If you can get assistance moving the furniture, with the homeowner's permission, do so.
- Different strategies can be employed to make rooms feel more open and comfortable including grouping furniture away from walls, making sofas and armchairs into more cozy units, or adding a bookcase or dresser to a room.
- Add lighting. Generally the problem in most rooms is a lack of lighting, so adding fixtures or bulbs with more wattage is necessary. However, sometimes the lamps in place cannot handle bulbs with more wattage, so replacing them may be necessary.[10]
- If you need to add a new light fixture or replace an existing one then you will need an electrician. In this event, if this situation was not already covered under your work contract, you will need to ask the homeowner for authorization.
- If the homeowner resists then you can simply give them the recommendations for lighting additions to different areas and let them decide how to proceed.
- Change colors. The mood of a room can be drastically affected by dark hues paired with light colored furnishings or the reverse. Neutral colors can allow brighter ones to pop even more if you want them highlighted in specific areas.[11]
- Moving around existing colored objects can be accomplished similar to the furniture technique. But if you plan on painting significant portions of the interior of a home then you will need the homeowner's agreement in your contract or later on.
- If the homeowner does not want you to change the paint scheme of the house then you can make some recommendations and let them choose what to do on their own.
- Add accessories. These can be anything from flowers to wall hangings. Where they come from is up to you and the homeowner.[12]
- Flowers can add to the beauty of any staged setting, as can pictures, and framed paintings.
- These don't have to be from expensive shops. You can use the local connections you made to get some inexpensive artwork and plants to liven up a room, but you can also move around existing framed work in the homeowner's house.
- Consider using existing potted plants and flowers from the homeowner's garden, with their permission, to accentuate a room within the home.
EditAttracting Customers - Advertise in the right places. Give out business cards, do lunch, show your portfolio of designs to related businesses.[13]
- This includes realtors, office managers, painters, construction companies, mortgage brokers, and moving companies.
- Offer occasional sample stagings to the managers or executives of these companies in exchange for referrals.
- Periodically reestablish contact with these colleagues to remind them of your availability and abilities.
- Use word of mouth. There is no substitute for customers sharing their experience with you to others. Find ways to remind clients to mention your business in their dealings with others.[14]
- If you are working with a realtor then remind them to drop your business name to other realtors at their trade shows and meetings.
- Hand out items with your business name or logo to your clients so they pass it on. If they ask for a pen then it should be one with your business name on it.
- Do a staging demonstration at your own home. This is not only a good way to experiment with designs, but a way to showcase your skills to anyone you wish to invite.[15]
- Invite some real estate agents you want to network with.
- Consider doing a friend's or family member's home too.
- Take some photos of the finished product to include in your portfolio.
- Practice with trends. Keeping up with the latest fashionable ideas in home furnishings, draperies, ambient lighting, and color schemes is important to satisfying newer buyers.[16]
- Use the staging at home or a friend's location idea if you want to practice before doing this at a client's home.
- Take photos of your use of the latest trends, include the photos in your portfolio, and add the photos to your website. This will demonstrate to potential clients that you are with the times in your decorating skills.
- You don't need any special certifications or licenses to do home staging.
- This business has low start up costs and requires few additional supplies that you need to bring. You mostly are using what's already in the home.
- Take advantage of the network of realtors, mortgage brokers, and anyone else in the real estate business to get clients.
- Set-up a network of helpers that are affordable and reliable that you can recommend to the homeowner including cleaners, painters, and repair crews. Ideally, these helpers are also local.
- Have some extra help available if you have difficulty moving heavy furniture.
- Leave your business card in lots of places including real estate related offices, art related shops, and any place else you want visibility for your offered services.
- Leave your card or some small sign (with permission of the homeowner) by an area you staged so others can see you are responsible for the work.
- Set up a website that is easy to find on search engines, and quickly displays your vital business contact information. You may want some sample photos of your work on the front page.
- Make sure you have a detailed contract with the homeowner for any work you will do.
- Consider getting business insurance.
- Be on site to supervise all stages of work.
- Building your initial portfolio of clients, until your reputation is established, will take time.
- Moving furniture can result in injury, so be careful and consider getting assistance.
- Clients may be nervous about you handling their property, and you can be liable for damages.
- Real estate agents require a license.
- Plumbing, electrical work, and major repair should be handled by licensed professionals.
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