My Favorite Hair Products (For Blonde Hair)

Top Hair Products for Blonde Hair

Having a website name devoted to your hair colors means you better take pretty good care of your hair, right?

Here are my favorite hair products for blonde hair and when and how I use them.

Moroccanoil Intense Hydrating Hair Mask: This is probably my favorite hair product. I use it about 1-2x a week, and I love the product size as it lasts me months. Shampoo and condition your hair, then towel dry, generously apply this hair mask, brush through, and rinse out after about 7-minutes. Not only does it give your hair the moisture it needs, especially if you use a lot of heat products, but it smells wonderful.

Wet Brush: This is the only brush I use, and it helps to detangle my hair much easier than any other brush. It’s the only way I recommend brushing your hair when it’s wet, and it’s a must to bring in my beach bag or pool bag. Stock up with this brush.

Sun Bum Sea Salt Texturizing Spray: This product smells wonderful and helps give messy waves and some texture to my hair. Although you can use this on dry or towel-dried hair, I only use it on towel-dried hair if I don’t plan on doing anything that night (i.e. spray this, then do a loose braid at night, and voila in the morning). I have not had much luck with this spray on dry hair, but the next product is my absolute fave!

Toni & Guy Sea Salt Spray: If you’re only going to buy one sea salt spray or hair texturizing product, this is 100% the one you want. I typically wand my hair (with this hair wand) for loose waves/curls, wait about 5-minutes and then run my fingers through my hair to break up the curls. THEN I use this spray, just a few squirts all over my head and shake it out. It gives it that perfect peachy-wave look.

R+Co High Dive Moisture Creme: This product doubles as a leave-in conditioner, which is great for blonde hair and gives it a shine boost and makes it more manageable.

Joico Color Balance Purple Shampoo: You’re not living the life of a blonde if you haven’t invested in a good purple shampoo. Purple shampoos are meant to counteract brassy tones, so use this once a week or every other week to help balance your hair color back out. Yes, it is bright purple and looks kind of weird, but it’s so worth it. This one doesn’t have a smell to it, which I find a bonus. This is another must for blonde hair, and the Joico brand is highly recommended by many hair stylists.

My Top 3 Dry Shampoos:

When I say I’ve tried them all, trust me, I have. I hate washing my hair, so having a quality dry shampoo is a must for me. Here are my favorites.

Bed Head Rockaholic Dry Shampoo: This is my go-to dry shampoo and I always have at least four bottles on hand, plus their travel size ones. Dry shampoos work differently for everyone, but this is my favorite and I know many other blondes who especially love this one too.

R+Co Death Valley Dry Shampoo: This one smells great and I absolutely love the way it soaks up the oils, without making my hair chalky or adding more oils to it, like I have found others to do.

Oribe Gold Lust Dry Shampoo: This one is swoon worthy, and the one my Houston hair stylist uses. It smells amazing, and works magic on my hair, but I’ll be honest. As much as I use dry shampoo, this one is a bit out of my price range. If you can afford it, go for it, or if you only use dry shampoo once or twice a week, this one may be a great option for you. (I use my dry shampoo after the gym too, to soak up the oils and get it back to life, which is another reason I use mine so often.)

Nordstrom is also a great place to stock up on Oribe products and oftentimes runs sales. 

My Favorite Shampoos For Blonde Hair

Moroccanoil Shampoo and Conditioner: These are my everyday shampoo and conditioner that our whole house loves. They smell amazing and the conditioner is probably the best for my hair that tends to get tangled fairly easily when it’s wet. If you can splurge for the bigger bottles, I’d recommend it.

R+Co Sunset Blvd Blonde Shampoo: Clearly this is a brand that I love and highly recommend any of their products, especially their shampoo and conditioner sets. Here is the match for the blonde conditioner.

Oribe Bright Blonde Shampoo: Obviously another favorite, plus the bottle is simply gorgeous!

Purple Shampoos are super important – I linked my favorite Joico Purple Shampoo and Conditioner above. 

Everything I linked above was to Amazon, but Ulta is also a great place to get your hair and beauty products.

If you’re in Houston and need a hair stylist, especially for blonde hair, but for anything really, call Roi at Tease Color & Style Bar on Richmond (off Kirby).

This post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are my own and these are all products I loyally use.

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15 Things To Help Your Blog In Downtime

Best Blogging Tips In Your Downtime

These at-home orders are tough for all of us. I’ve seen tons of “what to do you in your downtime,” and I guess I should count my blessings I haven’t had a lot of downtime. My clients are needing more work, and my days seem to be shorter having to share at-home office space with two other people and a puppy.

But for those who do have downtime now or in the near future, I wanted to share some blogging tips for optimal ways to update your blog and grow your blog presence. I have been blogging on The Blonde Side for 10+ years and run multiple corporate blogs, so I do have some valuable blogging tips to share.

If you want to succeed as a blogger and hopefully make money as a blogger, it takes time. If you aren’t sure where to start, here are some ideas.

Here are 15 things to do to help grow your presence and make the most of your time:

  1. Support other bloggers. Yes, this is my #1 tip. Supporting others in this industry in a genuine and authentic way will do wonders for your blog, your growth, and your community. Guess what? You were probably inspired to start a blog because of these people, so share the love. I know you’d want the same love reciprocated, right? Do this in simple ways: shoot them a message thanking them for their content, leave a comment on their blog post, LIKE and share on social media, link to their blog on your personal FB page, etc. Many times they will reciprocate, but it also shows you share other relevant and fun content, not just your own 24/7. Plus, just be reaching out to their blog or social media, you can see ways they are successfully doing things (or not) and generate some of your own content ideas.
  2. Create graphics and link your evergreen blog posts on Pinterest. Use one of the free Pinterest templates on Canva to create a graphic and link it to your posts. One of my most read recent blogs was this Downtown Denver Dairy Block Hotel Staycation Guide. A few weeks after posting the blog, I created a Pinterest graphic to link to it. I looked over my business Pinterest analytics and one of my most engaging pins all year (!) was the Denver Dairy Block pin, so I took a few different images from that trip (Pinterest does not recommend sharing the same pin or same graphic over and over, so take time to make a few different ones, including the text overlay), and added different text overlays and scheduled the pins. They continue to perform well, so I started using that same logic for other evergreen posts like At-home Workout Tips and 3 Weeks of Workouts in Denver. There is definitely something to be said for evergreen content (content that doesn’t have to be updated often) and sharing it on Pinterest, so take that approach for at least a few posts and see where it gets you.
  3. Speaking of Canva and Pinterest, spend time utilizing their free online tutorials. These are

    15 Blogging Tips That Go Beyond Just Writing Blog Posts

    so useful and will help you get in a rhythm to market your blog the right way. Canva literally has a Design School online, which is FREE.

  4. Learn blog-related skills other than writing, like coding and photography. Full disclosure: I haven’t the slightest idea how to code, but when I have time to sit down and learn, it’s top of my list. Not only are these helpful tools for your own blog, it’s 2020 and these are tools we all need. I can’t count the number of times I have emailed or texted my web guy for something as simple as a spacing issue, even in WordPress, which is pretty user friendly. It’s a lot, trust me. If I knew some of these simple coding tactics and wasn’t afraid to mess up my post, I’d try it. Also on this list are video editing tools, so I have been trying to get better at using Splice for my client videos to simply add professional logos at the beginning and end of clips and fit social media.
  5. Update your links. If you’ve been blogging for a while, it’s with great certainty I can say you have broken links on your site. Broken links aren’t a good look for your blog, nor are they doing you any SEO or Google justice. Spend time re-reading old blog posts and clicking through the links to make sure they are still functioning. I have a ton of sports articles on The Blonde Side that link back to CBS Man Cave Daily, a portion of the CBS site that is now defunct. It’s time to clean up those links.
  6. Audit your blog. This goes with #5, but go through your entire blog and make sure your contact info is updated, there aren’t misspellings, that your photos display correctly, etc. It could even be handy and fun to offer to trade auditing services with another blogger – a clean set of eyes will benefit you both.
  7. Can you update any posts to make them evergreen? Again, it takes time, but go through old posts and see what you can add to make them relevant now and reshare them again. I have a post about tips from working from home – if I spent my time wisely, I could update a line about how COVID-19 has found many people working from home or link to my favorite work-from-home Amazon products, then make a Pinterest graphic (see #2), and share it on my social networks as a way to share relevant, useful and timely content. Those clicks from Twitter will help your overall numbers. You are providing a service with actionable and helpful tips to your followers (social media, strangers, newsletter, etc.) and they are providing beneficial web traffic – it’s a win win. My friend Carrie Colbert does this magnificently.
  8. Sign up for influencer sites. If you want to make money from your blog, this is ideal. Setting up your profile, interests, web analytics and more allows brands and third party sites to reach out to you for collaborations, which can bring in a few hundred dollars, per collab. The two I have had the most success with are Activate and AspireIQ, but there are literally hundreds, especially if you’re interested in trading for product ( I am not).
  9. Create (or recreate) your elevator pitch. I’ve had a decade of experience with this, but I find it’s usually hit or miss introducing myself as a blogger to strangers. Many people still don’t understand what that entails or the fact it’s more than a hobby. I talk about how I’m a sports and travel and fitness blogger as well as a corporate copywriter. I’ve found keeping it simple at first allows whoever I’m talking to to ask questions they want to know. Perhaps they want to know what fitness publications I’ve written for or what athletes I’ve interviewed. That lets me share what I do in a valuable way that benefits both of us.
  10. Create your hit list of brands and/or follow up with your targeted list. To go along with #7 where you hope brands come to you, it’s smart to have an outreach list. This is something I have done for years. I create a folder on my iPhone, my computer, Instagram saves, and more, with snaps of products I think truly align with my brand and following. For me, this tip would be to spend the time researching the company/brand, finding their PR or media contact and sending out a collaboration request. Sometimes it can be as simple as sliding into their DMs, but I have had much more success taking it off social and into email. I clearly state why and how we should collaborate and go beyond “I love your clothes and want to share an OOTD.” People do that for free all the time with clothes they paid full price for. Why should they send you clothes or even better, why should they pay you? What can you offer them that they would consider valuable? I find my list many ways – looking at companies already spending money on other influencers (hit that IG save button), seeing who is spending money on Google ads or sponsored posts, what companies sponsor the MLB team in your neighborhood or advertise in your neighborhood publication. That means they already see the value in marketing (and have a budget!), now you need to show them the value in marketing with you.
  11. Create or update your media kit. This is essential for me and should come before #10, but this sets my blog apart from others that are merely a hobby. Being able to send a professional media kit with demographics and updated engagement rates and blog and social media numbers shows brands you mean business, and that this is a business. You can Google free or cheap media kit templates or odds are you have a friend who is a designer you can pay $100 for their work. You only need one page, but include the pertinent info so they don’t have to look you up, which they likely won’t find the time to do. Send them a good looking and factual media kit, get their interest, then they look you up and respond.
  12. Plan your content calendar. I have never been good at this, but I can see why it’s so crucial to your blogging business. Pending your blog niche, staying ahead of holidays and trends (i.e. DIY Pumpkin Ideas or 4th of July Recipes and Outfits) can truly set you apart and keep you organized. In fact, Pinterest Business sends emails to remind you about “peak planning periods” for upcoming holidays like graduation, Mothers Day, Memorial Day, etc. so you can get your blog posts up, and start generating traffic from Pinterest when people being the high level searches.
  13. Create content ahead of time. This is a big one, if you can pull it off, also part of #12. Although my blog is a large part of my business and income, I also run other corporate client social media accounts and blogs, so those will always come first. But when I do sit down to write blog posts, I tend to try to knock out 3-4 at a time. I’m already in “my voice” and usually have blogs ready to put to paper, so I will write and schedule them all at once, so even when life gets busy, I still have content being posted. Same is true for social media posts (scheduling ahead on Facebook) and creating those Pinterest graphics and scheduling those. This allows your readers to get your content when it’s most important and gives you a better chance of making affiliate money off their link purchases or having them share your content on social media.
  14. Create content on other channels, related to your blog. For me, a loose extension of my blog and where I can make extra money are Poshmark and the LikeToKnowIt app, so having photos ready to post and share are helpful. You can shop my links here.
  15. Take evergreen photos. As I’m writing this post, I’m wondering what photos I have in my existing arsenal to feature. None come to mind, so that may delay this post, oops. I went to a fashion blogger panel at SXSW probably 6 years ago where one of the fashion influencers shared a secret that blew me away. She admitted she shot all of her OOTD for a two-week period in one day. It finally made sense. These gals didn’t always dress to the nines and have a full face of makeup to run to Target. They simply hired a photographer (or used a selfie timer or asked their boyfriend for help), did their hair and makeup perfectly and changed outfits multiple times, and by the end of the day, albeit exhausting, they had all their content they could edit, save and schedule. Time saving tools like that and the ability to plan ahead (i.e. taking your Memorial Day outfit pics and linking to them on the blog before the actual holiday) can result in a lot of money, not to mention your sanity.

Those are my best blogger tips for your spare time. Of course writing compelling content and staying consistent are great tips too, but that’s stuff you probably already know.

Do you have any tips to add? Or favorite bloggers who just kill it at the blogging game?

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My April Top 5 Amazon Picks

Top Amazon 7/8 Leggings Under $30

If you’re like me and most of the world, your orders from Amazon during this pandemic have greatly increased. As always, I appreciate any “link love” you can give me when shopping at Amazon or other websites.

And this month, my picks could double as an Amazon Quarantine Package, because all of these products have been used and abused over the last few weeks. Anyone else struggling to get into a routine or are you already pretty solid?

Here are my Top 5 Amazon Picks for April:

1. Kamo Fitness High Waisted Leggings 7/8: I absolutely love the fit and feel of these high waisted leggings, but my favorite part is the 7/8 length, which fits me perfectly. These are under $30 and are free shipping and free returns for Prime members. My only complaint: it only comes in two colors, otherwise I would stock up!

2. HP OfficeJet Pro All-in-One Wireless Printer: This has been a game changer for me, especially working from home. I used to think printers weren’t worth the hassle, but this is ideal for all my Poshmark shipping labels (I can even print straight from my phone), plus I edit most of my work the old-school way with pen and paper. This wireless printer is under $160 and worth the time alone that I saved having to run to the FED Ex print shop every day to print out labels and work contracts. It’s also super easy to unplug (just one plug into the wall) when you aren’t using it, so it doesn’t look clunky or take up extra space, though it’s pretty small.

3. 6-Sided Dice for At-Home Workouts: Another key piece of our quarantine life are home workouts and these dice are a great addition. For less than $14, these offer a unique and hard-hitting workout option for at-home workouts. My advice when using these is to set a goal (i.e. roll them 20 times) or use them at the end of your workout for a “bonus round”. Sometimes you can get lucky and roll “10-second burpees” option, which isn’t enough of a workout for me, but other times you might get stuck with “90-second burpees,” which as you know is killer.

4. Everybody Writes (Book): If you’ve been following The Blonde Side for any amount of time, you know I’m a big book nerd. Ann Handley’s book was recommended by a LinkedIn connection, and it has so many great tips. Even if you don’t think you’re a writer, as the title states, everyone is. If you write emails or even short tweets, it helps reframe your thoughts to make more succinct messaging and has very actionable tips throughout the book. Having a few good books during quarantine is ideal.

5. Moroccanoil Hydrating Hair Mask: I have been obsessed with this highly-rated hydrating hair mask because of the restoration it has done to my heavily-colored hair, but also the amazing smell. Here is the product description: A five minute, deep conditioning mask that revives medium to thick dry hair. Infused with antioxidant rich argan oil and nourishing ingredients, it improves hair’s texture, elasticity and manageability.

This post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. I also love Amazon because I only purchase Prime for free shipping and free returns, so if it doesn’t work out like you wanted, it’s easy to send back and get a quick refund.

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FACEFORWARD Cosmetics

FACEFORWARD Cosmetics – Houston Makeup Artist & Cosmetic Line

I don’t talk makeup or beauty often on The Blonde Side, because it’s not something that gets me overly excited and I’m certainly not good at putting makeup on.
But as I recommit to sharing my favorite brands, products, services, and more, I wanted to reintroduce to my friend Andrea’s new cosmetic line, FACEFORWARD.
Use code JAYMELAMM for a 20% discount code.
A few things about her – she is hilarious and a good friend. And she knows makeup like the back of her hand, having been in the industry for nearly two decades.
She is Houston based and is currently doing virtual makeup lessons, which I strongly encourage. Even if you don’t wear a lot of makeup or often, knowing a few hacks and best ways to frame your face or products that will last all day will go a long way, I promise.
Want to use quarantine time to learn how to apply makeup with a virtual makeup lesson? Want to use the time to support a local Houston boss babe and her new makeup line? Want an excuse to shop?
My Favorite FACEFORWARD Products:
Mineral Sheer Tint SPF 20 This is literally the only makeup I bring on vacation. I don’t like full coverage makeup like foundation, so this is perfect, plus the fact it has SPF is more than ideal.
Brow Tint This brow tint doubles as helping color in/shade my eyebrows, as well as providing just enough gel hold to keep those suckers in place. Side note: I have the most unruly eyebrows you’ve ever met.
Waterproof Gel Lip Liner This is another must for beach vacations and pool days, because it gives you a beautiful pop of color and it stays put all day. I also have an irrational fear of having lipstick on my teeth, so a waterproof gel lip liner voids said fear.
Brow & Eye Highlighter Is another great product, to help open your eyes and give just a little more depth to your look. The other great thing about using FACEFORWARD is that she’ll walk you through how to use the products. She sent me a little video for this one, to make sure I wasn’t over-applying it or using it the wrong way, which I have been known to do a time or two.
 
Use code JAYMELAMM for a 20% discount code. If you’re interested in a virtual makeup lesson (grab a glass of wine and do it!), reach out to her – she is literally the best and will surely make you laugh and have fun. 
 
Happy local shopping and I hope everyone is hanging in there during this stay-at-home order.
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FREELANCE + SPORTS + TRAVEL + FITNESS
COPYRIGHT 2019, THE BLONDE SIDE
CREATED BY JAYME LAMM