FASHION Magazine

Valentine’s Day can bring with it a certain amount of anxiety. Dinner plans, gifts, the right outfit… it can all be overwhelming. Thankfully, blogger Cara McLeay (from A Fashion Love Affair and our very own Style Panel) is as talented with beauty as she is with fashion. To help you check one to-do off your V-Day list, she’s created a video tutorial for a romantic half up-do—and best of all it’s super easy to do.

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We have one last holiday hair tutorial to share, and this one is a New Year’s Eve-ready twist on the rope braid. First of all, don’t be intimated by this braiding technique. It’s much easier than it looks, especially because you’re only working with two strands of hair, not three. So if you’ve ever felt like you could use a second set of hands while attempting a French braid, the rope braid may just be the hairstyle for you.

Our step-by-step rope braid tutorial was developed by Toronto-based hairstylist Margot Keith, and breaks down everything you need to know to master this twisted updo. Oh, and did we mention? The other excellent thing about this holiday hairstyle is that it works best on second-day hair—meaning you can skip the shampooing and the blowdrying and instead enjoy a well-deserved bit of holiday relaxation. Ready to try? Read on for the full rope braid updo tutorial.

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Our mission to make your holiday season as glam and effortless as possible continues, with the debut of a new holiday hair tutorial. The chignon is a classic hairstyle that has an infinite number of variations—once you master the basics behind it, it’ll be all chignons all the time. For our holiday party take on the look, Toronto-based hairstylist Margot Keith created a low chignon that looks as pretty as a perfectly wrapped present. This tutorial takes all the guesswork out of holiday hair and will get you from from prep to polished in less than 15 minutes—leaving you with enough time to pause for a pre-party under-the-mistletoe kiss or two.

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As holiday party season kicks into full swing, so does the need to have some impressive hairstyle options in your beauty arsenal. December may seem like the busiest month—one where it’s impossible to add yet another obligation to your schedule—but our series of holiday hair tutorials are beyond foolproof and make it easy to learn a new technique in less time than it takes to sit for a blowout.

First up in our holiday hair tutorials for 2013 is the braided updo. This sleek style is serious enough for the swankiest of corporate parties and will certainly stand out in a sea of chignons. Our step-by-step guide was developed by Toronto-based hairstylist Margot Keith and is so easy to follow, we’re sure the braided updo will become your new go-to look. Ready to try? Read on to learn how to do this holiday hair tutorial.

There’s hundreds of different ways to style your hair in an updo but when it comes to a new summer look, the simple style outlined in this updo how-to is sure to become your next go-to. Part faux bob, part on-trend braided style, this updo has it all.

The talent behind this easy updo is Moroccanoil artistic director Antonio Corral Calero. We met up at the Quartz Crystal Spa at Toronto’s Trump International Hotel to talk about his work at New York Fashion Week and summer hair trends. When it comes to looking polished for a formal summer event—be it a wedding, work party or special date—the less time you spend fussing with your hair the better. Thanks to this updo how-to, you’ll be able to make your hair look red carpet ready in less than five minutes. All you need is some hair spray, a comb, very basic braiding skills and a few bobby pins.

What could be more representative of the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer than a braided updo? When the hot sun is doing its sweaty, sweaty thing, there’s nothing better than keeping your hair off your face—and this braided updo does just that while also looking super pretty. (Also, if you’re headed to music festival, why not weave your hair into a braided crown instead of wearing a flower headband?)

I met up with Moroccanoil artistic director Antonio Corral Calero at the Quartz Crystal Spa at Toronto’s Trump International Hotel to talk about his work at New York Fashion Week and summer hair trends. It’s the fashion-forward appeal of the braided updo that made this look sit at the top of his summer hair list and he showed me how easy it is to do. (Just two French braids, some hairspray and bobby pins are all you need!)

Alright kids, this hair tutorial is a fun one. Considering that she’s the cover of our Summer issue, it only made sense to take inspiration from Lana Del Rey for a hair tutorial. While she’s often spotted styling her hair in loose waves or a deep side part (both of which we just happen to have tutorials for as well: waves here, side-part here) Lana Del Rey’s fondness for the ’50s and ’60s mean she’s sported a bouffant more than once. The video for “National Anthem” is all about the Lana Del Rey bouffant and she wore her hair up for much of her summer festival tour in 2012.

While the thought of attempting to add a few inches of volume to your hair may seem overwhelming, the bouffant is easier to master than you may think. If you can tease your hair, you can do a bouffant. This bouffant hair tutorial was created in conjunction with Toronto-based hairstylist Margot Keith, who knows a thing or two about adding impressive amounts of volume to even the sleekest heads of hair. She’s also made learning how to do a bouffant totally foolproof. Read on for our complete step-by-step hair tutorial.

Structured curls—the kind that have been so popular with the Hollywood set on award show red carpets—will always be a go-to style, but soft, wavy hair is definitely the look to try this summer. From Veronica Lake to Lana Del Rey, soft waves have both retro appeal and a modern, cool girl aesthetic. It’s a trend that fits in with the move to make everything as minimal as possible, like the dropped out curls Tanya Taylor did for Fall 2013. But knowing how to make hair wavy can be a bit of a trick to master. Irons are designed with perfectly round corkscrew curls in mind and the longer your hair, the harder it becomes to get a curl to hold.

So how do you make hair wavy? We asked Toronto-based hair stylist Margot Keith to show us in this step-by-step tutorial. While everyone has a different technique for curling hair, there are two main tricks to note when creating loose waves. First, you want to make sure every curl is done in the same direction. So if you hold the curling iron in front of the section of hair you’re about to curl and then wrap the hair around in a forward motion, you’ll want to make sure you repeat this with every curl.

There are two reasons why the faux bob—a style that’s been a recent runway and red carpet favourite—is going to have a major moment over the next few months. First, short hair is in. The faux bob may not resemble the cropped cuts and punk-inspired hairstyles that populated Fall 2013 runways, but it does satisfy that need to change how your hair looks, without making a commitment. Second, consider the season: Spring may be off to a slow start, but once summer is in full swing you’ll want to know how to create a faux bob. Any style that keeps long strands of hair off your shoulders and back will certainly be in demand!

The faux bob is a great hairstyles to learn because it looks impressive and complicated but is actually anything but. Our step-by-step faux bob tutorial was developed in conjunction with Toronto-based hairstylist Margot Keith and takes all the confusion out of figuring out how it’s done. Like most updos, this style works best on hair that has a bit of grit in it, so save this faux bob tutorial for days when you’ve skipped the shampoo.

You’ve got the dress, the shoes and maybe even a dream date planned for prom, but what are you going to do with your hair? Instead of booking an updo appointment at a local salon, consider taking the do-it-yourself route. After all, many of the most popular prom hairstyles are easy enough to master at home. From waterfall braids to fancy ponytails, read on for our foolproof directions (and Pintrest-worthy tutorials!) for five of the best prom hairstyles. (BTW, if you’re still looking for the dress, check out our prom style guide.)

How do you curl your hair? From hot rollers to sock buns tricks, there’s a seemingly endless number of ways to make straight hair curly—and as someone with bone-straight hair, it feels like I’ve tried them all. After much trial and error, I’ve discovered that the technique with the most promise comes courtesy of a curling wand, that is, a curling iron without the clamp. However, one problem remains the same: the curls on one side of my head never seem to match the curls on the other. One side looks flawless and red carpet-ready while the other flips out awkwardly, falls in the wrong direction or just looks… bad.

In order to get to the bottom of my hair curling problems, I met up with Morgan Roy, creative director at the Aveda Institute Toronto. It turns out this hair curling issue comes down to dominant hand dexterity and the tendency to do what’s “more comfortable” first.

The ponytail is probably the first hairstyle you ever learned how to do, but chances are it’s one you still struggle with to this day. It should be simple: brush hair back, pull it all together, secure in place with an elastic. But oh, the variables! Hair texture, length and volume can all change the way a ponytail looks and how tricky it is to style. And just when you think you’ve pulled off the perfect ponytail, you let go of the elastic only to see ridges and bumps in your hair. What should have been smooth hair just looks like a mess.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered just how easy is is to fix these common ponytail errors. I met up with Morgan Roy, creative director at the Aveda Institute Toronto, to discuss the problematic ponytail and she shared some easy tricks on how to style one that’s bump-free.