Battle of the Rollers, Part One – Caruso Hairsetter

In case you haven’t noticed, big hair is everywhere. Fashion runways, magazine covers, you name it. It’s all about VOLUME this season. (Hallelujah, by the way. I’m ready to give my flat iron a rest.)

I decided it was time to revisit my high school ways and bust out the rollers. I fondly remember the days of driving to school with 39 rollers in my hair, as I was the Hot Roller Master. However, that was, ahem, quite awhile ago. What changes have come about in regards to rollers? What kind of rollers are considered the best? I decided it was time to figure it all out, so I tried two best-selling sets, the Caruso Steam Hairsetter and the BaByliss Pro 30 Professional Hairsetter.

Let’s chat about the Caruso Steam Hairsetter today, shall we? I am loving on this super easy-to-use hairsetter. Just fill a little water into the reservoir (shown below), let the water heat up, place individual rollers on the stand for 5-10 seconds and roll into your hair.

Now, I have to say right off the bat when reading reviews about this product, a few people mentioned that they “just didn’t have the time to wait for the curlers to be steamed.” You all, that is pretty much the most ridiculous statement ever. It takes 5-7 seconds to steam an individual roller, which is less time than it takes to prep a section of your hair to be rolled. A helpful tip – place the roller on the stand, then section off and smooth the hair. When you are finished with prepping the section, the roller will be properly steamed.

Take small sections of hair and roll onto the roller. (Bonus – steam rollers aren’t wicked hot like ceramic rollers, so you don’t have to worry about burning your fingertips!) If you have layered hair, one of the best features of a sponge roller is that you can start in the middle of the hair shaft and roll around, instead of starting at the very ends. This was super helpful for me because nothing is worse than trying to roll your hair while shorter pieces are falling off the roller.

Continue rolling all the way to the scalp and clip the holder into place.

Once all the rollers are placed, leave them in for however long you want. I prefer to put on my makeup and catch up on very important US Weekly reading while waiting, which is give or take 10-20 minutes.

After the allotted time, carefully remove rollers without pulling on the hair. Here’s what the hair looks like directly after. I usually let a couple minutes pass before touching, and then I prefer to flip over, spray a little bit of hairspray and then run my fingers through the curls to separate and smooth.

Voilá! Bouncy, healthy curls that last and last. And remember since these are steam rollers, you don’t need to worry about the effects of heat styling. Truly loving this hairsetter, you guys.

The big question – will the Babyliss Hairsetter be able to hold its own against the Caruso? Click here for the Babyliss post!

You Like Me! You Really Like Me!

I am so freaking excited to announce that Whoorl and Hair Thursday won Best Personal/Family Blog and Best Shopping/Beauty Blog at the Just Spotted Orange County Blog Awards Party last night! I was totally shocked…in fact, they had to call out ‘whoorl’ a few times before it registered in my post-partum, pea-sized brain. A huge THANKS to all of you who voted! You made my night! However, don’t worry; my short stint with a big head lasted all of 30 minutes. Shall I elaborate?

My fellow blogging compadres Tera and Christina invited me to grab a margarita after the awards party to which I responded with a bit of drool dribbling from the side of my mouth. (I guess that means yes.) On the way to the restaurant, I called D to tell him the news.

D: Hello?

Me: I won! I WON! BOTH CATEGORIES! I WOONNNNNN! I’M KING OF THE WOOOORRRLLLLD. SO HAPPY! SO EXCITED!

D: That’s great! So great………um, Wito has diarrhea.

Me: Not so happy. Not so excited. Not so King of the World.

D: Sorry, sweets.

Me: Hrmph.

D assured me that everything was fine (p.s. – believe it or not, this is Wito’s very first gastrointestinal issue in his 4 years of living, so we are totally novices in the barf/diarrhea department) and to have a good time. So I enjoyed my dinner and Celebratory Margarita™ sans kids. It was quite relaxing, I must admit.

I returned home around 10pm to a quiet house and busted out a brief performance art-based “I’m a WINNER” jig around my living room before retiring to bed. This girl was ready to saw some happy logs! And that’s when Wita, my perfectly consistent 8:30pm to 6:30am angel of a sleeper, decided to wake up at 11pm. And 3:30am. And 6:30am.

I now sit here with a 4-year-old diarrhea patient who is begging me to drink milk (NOOOOOOOO) and a spaced-out 11-week-old who is 3 hours away from receiving her first round of immunizations.

WAY TO RAIN ON MY PARADE, KIDS.

(But you like me! You really like me! Thanks again, all!)

5 Years, Baby!

Well, well, well. I guess with all of this nursing and cooing and diaper changing, I missed my 5-year blogging anniversary last month. 5 years, y’all! That’s quite a lot of rambling.

I’ve been reading through my archives lately; mostly to compare my newborn experiences (strikingly similar minus most of my first-time neuroses), and as much as I hem and haw about what and how much I should include in my posts, I am so glad I have those snippets to walk me down memory lane.

When I started this blog in 2005, I was a childless newlywed who spent the majority of my time wearing J. Crew suits and sipping decaf lattes and/or wine, depending on the time of day. I occasionally dabbled in performance art.

Now? This best represents my life.

And I love it.

So, guess what? I just found out that whoorl was nominated for Orange County’s Best Personal Blog by the lovely Kelly and Collen of Just Spotted! And the icing on the cake? Hair Thursday was nominated for Best Beauty/Shopping Blog too! Dude! I don’t think I’ve ever been nominated for anything! (For good reason, right? Wait. Don’t answer that.)

Would you all take a second to vote for my blog(s)? You don’t need to sign in or anything, just click here and make your choices. Of course, only if you think I’m deserving of A Major Award. I must say, it would be a perfect way to celebrate 5 years.

(p.s. – I don’t have a chance in hell, but hey! Positive thinking!)

Yo, Breastfeeding Runners! I’m Perplexed!

Feel free to answer one or many of these questions.

1. How do you hold those suckers down? Suckers…Heh.

2. What kind of sports bra works best? Do you double up?

3. Do you wear breast pads? (Obviously you need to wear breast pads, right?)

4. Do you feed/pump right before a run?

5. Any wisdom you feel you need to share?

As you can see, I need answers. I’m about to construct a running bra made of overnight maxi pads and industrial duct tape.

HELP ME.

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