If you're unfamiliar with Visiting Voices, you are not alone. This is a new series-type thing that I'll be doing occasionally. As you can probably guess from the title, I have a guest blogger this week! This post is going to touch on a serious matter. You may have previously been unaware that April is Child Abuse Awareness Month. I know I was. A couple weeks ago, Emily brought this to my attention and I thought it was something that was worth blogging about. Seeing as I have very little knowledge on the subject, I decided to hand the reins over to Emily and have her write this one. Hopefully by the end of this post you will have a better understanding of child abuse and why it shouldn't be taken lightly, beyond the obvious. Take it away, Emily!
Showing posts with label introductions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label introductions. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
#hairoftheweek: the Origins
As a general rule, I try to make things a lot harder than they have to be (maybe not try, per-se, but it does end up working out that way most of the time). While #hairoftheweek may seem straightforward, it is and it isn't at the same time. Why oh why must you do this to yourself, Yvette?! Overachiever might be a good word to describe me.
It all started my senior year of high school. At this point in my life, my long, shiny hair was a part of my identity. While I took pride in my hair, I wasn't doing anything with it. Everyday was the same old side pony, high pony, signature braid, or down. I felt like my locks, honestly a blessing to the world, were going to waste. This wasn't an explicit feeling at the time but looking back, it's probably one of the reasons that I started playing with my hair. That, and probably boredom.
One day, I was messing around with my mane and I discovered if you make two rope braids from a single ponytail and twist it a certain way, the rope braids would fit together perfectly and end up forming what looked like chain links of hair.
I wore it to school and I got so many compliments. That day, I decided that #hairoftheweek was something I was going to do once a week to spice up my hair routine. Knowing so many people enjoyed something I created was so rewarding, especially since I would never in a million years consider myself to be a creative person.
There are a couple rules for #hairoftheweek. First and foremost, no coloring. My gramma, before she passed away, told me to never dye my hair because it would ruin it. I know "dye = damage" is a myth but to honor my gramma, I've decided I will never color my hair. Although colorful hair is really cool, I quite like how my Asian hair changes in different lighting and I can be really subtle with the details of the hairstyles.
Secondly, I try to use as little heat as possible. My hair is naturally stick straight (well, it's wavy when it's not so heavy that it weighs a ton and straightens itself out). This is a blessing and a curse. Heat is very damaging to hair and I don't want to subject my hair to that kind of torture especially since I'm already bad about taking care of the ends of my hair. Sometimes having just straight hair can limit my looks and sometimes it even changes the tone of the hairstyle. (That's probably weird to think about if you aren't familiar with hairdos.) On the other hand, I have used heat, a curling wand, in this case, and it held surprisingly well. I wore the same hairstyle for prom and graduation. So I'm not entirely opposed to heat styling, but not owning any hot tools kinda helps.
So far, we know that #hairoftheweek happens once a week, I'm not using any color, and heat styling is rare. Another thing to note is that I have seasons, so to speak. My hair philosophy is that it should be shared with the world, so I only do #hairoftheweek on days I go to school. Because of this, I take summers off to recharge and build up my bank of new hairstyles for the coming seasons. When I first started, there were ten weeks left of school. It must have been my destiny to be inspired to start #hairoftheweek when I did because of the way the timing worked out. On top of that, now that I'm in college, I'm on a quarter system rather than semester and that breaks it up into eleven weeks, nice and even. Wait, eleven weeks? I thought you said ten weeks was the perfect amount! You're right. This leads me to my next point.
I consider #hairoftheweek to be the people's project. I like to involve my friends as much as possible and I think that's a fun way to keep everybody excited and caring about #hairoftheweek (I'm not gonna lie, I'm the most indecisive person so their input means the world to me). Most of the final products have been influenced by the opinions of a group of friends through a process I like to call "filter game" (patent pending (not really)).
If you aren't in my ~~super exclusive~~ #hairoftheweek contacts list, there's still a chance to participate! At the end of every "season" I have the people vote for their favorite hairstyle from that season for me to recreate on the eleventh week. Voting is open to anybody and everybody who wants to let me know what their favorite look was. I tally up the votes and the one with the most love gets another feature. Typically, each person gets one vote so they have to use it wisely but there is a secret exception to the rule. I keep track of the first person to like each of my #hairoftheweek posts on Instagram and when it comes to voting time, the person with the most first likes gets a second vote. The winner can choose to use their vote on two different hairstyles or double up on one. This just gives people a little incentive to follow me on Instagram and try to keep up. It's a bit difficult since any day of the week is fair game.
Now that we've got all that background knowledge out of the way, we can take a look at how I plan on doing my blog posts. I say that as if I know what I'm doing. Honestly, I don't know how it's going to work at the moment. I want to explain my thought process and how I felt when learning the hairstyle and I'm also going to include the final product. That's for sure. I also want my #hairoftheweek blog posts to go up on Sundays so no matter what day my Instagram post goes live, you definitely won't miss the post about it here. Other than that, I'm just going to have to see where my writing takes me.
Are you still with me? If you are, congratulations! I have no idea how I managed to write all that let alone having you read it all. I hope now that you know how and why #hairoftheweek began, you'll be as excited as I am for #hairoftheweeks to come.
Talk to you soon!
It all started my senior year of high school. At this point in my life, my long, shiny hair was a part of my identity. While I took pride in my hair, I wasn't doing anything with it. Everyday was the same old side pony, high pony, signature braid, or down. I felt like my locks, honestly a blessing to the world, were going to waste. This wasn't an explicit feeling at the time but looking back, it's probably one of the reasons that I started playing with my hair. That, and probably boredom.
One day, I was messing around with my mane and I discovered if you make two rope braids from a single ponytail and twist it a certain way, the rope braids would fit together perfectly and end up forming what looked like chain links of hair.
.jpg) |
| 3.28.14 chain ponytail (x) |
There are a couple rules for #hairoftheweek. First and foremost, no coloring. My gramma, before she passed away, told me to never dye my hair because it would ruin it. I know "dye = damage" is a myth but to honor my gramma, I've decided I will never color my hair. Although colorful hair is really cool, I quite like how my Asian hair changes in different lighting and I can be really subtle with the details of the hairstyles.
Secondly, I try to use as little heat as possible. My hair is naturally stick straight (well, it's wavy when it's not so heavy that it weighs a ton and straightens itself out). This is a blessing and a curse. Heat is very damaging to hair and I don't want to subject my hair to that kind of torture especially since I'm already bad about taking care of the ends of my hair. Sometimes having just straight hair can limit my looks and sometimes it even changes the tone of the hairstyle. (That's probably weird to think about if you aren't familiar with hairdos.) On the other hand, I have used heat, a curling wand, in this case, and it held surprisingly well. I wore the same hairstyle for prom and graduation. So I'm not entirely opposed to heat styling, but not owning any hot tools kinda helps.
.jpg) |
| 6.7/14.14 aurora's twistback (x) |
So far, we know that #hairoftheweek happens once a week, I'm not using any color, and heat styling is rare. Another thing to note is that I have seasons, so to speak. My hair philosophy is that it should be shared with the world, so I only do #hairoftheweek on days I go to school. Because of this, I take summers off to recharge and build up my bank of new hairstyles for the coming seasons. When I first started, there were ten weeks left of school. It must have been my destiny to be inspired to start #hairoftheweek when I did because of the way the timing worked out. On top of that, now that I'm in college, I'm on a quarter system rather than semester and that breaks it up into eleven weeks, nice and even. Wait, eleven weeks? I thought you said ten weeks was the perfect amount! You're right. This leads me to my next point.
I consider #hairoftheweek to be the people's project. I like to involve my friends as much as possible and I think that's a fun way to keep everybody excited and caring about #hairoftheweek (I'm not gonna lie, I'm the most indecisive person so their input means the world to me). Most of the final products have been influenced by the opinions of a group of friends through a process I like to call "filter game" (patent pending (not really)).
If you aren't in my ~~super exclusive~~ #hairoftheweek contacts list, there's still a chance to participate! At the end of every "season" I have the people vote for their favorite hairstyle from that season for me to recreate on the eleventh week. Voting is open to anybody and everybody who wants to let me know what their favorite look was. I tally up the votes and the one with the most love gets another feature. Typically, each person gets one vote so they have to use it wisely but there is a secret exception to the rule. I keep track of the first person to like each of my #hairoftheweek posts on Instagram and when it comes to voting time, the person with the most first likes gets a second vote. The winner can choose to use their vote on two different hairstyles or double up on one. This just gives people a little incentive to follow me on Instagram and try to keep up. It's a bit difficult since any day of the week is fair game.
Now that we've got all that background knowledge out of the way, we can take a look at how I plan on doing my blog posts. I say that as if I know what I'm doing. Honestly, I don't know how it's going to work at the moment. I want to explain my thought process and how I felt when learning the hairstyle and I'm also going to include the final product. That's for sure. I also want my #hairoftheweek blog posts to go up on Sundays so no matter what day my Instagram post goes live, you definitely won't miss the post about it here. Other than that, I'm just going to have to see where my writing takes me.
Are you still with me? If you are, congratulations! I have no idea how I managed to write all that let alone having you read it all. I hope now that you know how and why #hairoftheweek began, you'll be as excited as I am for #hairoftheweeks to come.
Talk to you soon!
xo, Yvette
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Welcome to xo, Yvette!
Wait, what? Yvette is blogging?! As you've probably gathered from my "about me" section, my name is Yvette and that's pretty much it. I find it difficult to capture everything I want you to know about me with a character count. My hope is that you'll get to know me as friends get to know each other - by spending time with one another. I'm constantly trying to find a solid way to document my life that I can stick to. So far, nothing has been able to hold me for long. Fingers crossed that this blog is the one! I don't consider myself a writer and I certainly do not have high expectations for this blog so I hope you don't either, but I will give it my best shot. For the time being, I'm not entirely sure what I want to go on my blog. There are a couple things I am interested in posting about but the rest is really up in the air (I'm also trying to work out a posting schedule so be patient with me).
I intend to show you not only the final product, but also my inspiration for the hairstyle (if I created it myself) or where I learned to recreate it. The latter is much more common. If you're interested in seeing more of my previous #hairoftheweek creations, scroll through my Instagram and see if anything catches your eye.
I spent about a week in Iceland in 2014 and it was one of the most amazing places I have ever visited. I couldn't tell you exactly what made me fall so in love with it but the scenery definitely didn't hurt. I was lucky enough to be there during the winter solstice and that 3pm sunset was a sight to behold. My 2014 winter break was really a once in a lifetime experience and the future probably holds a blog post about it. Obviously, travelogs won't be very consistent as I am not traveling 100% of the time but when I am going somewhere, this blog will give me a place to put my thoughts.
Things to look forward to...
1) #hairoftheweek
To start, one of my main purposes for creating this blog is #hairoftheweek. It's a series I do on Instagram and I'll get into more detail in my first post dedicated to the subject. Here's my most recent post: |
| 1.24.15 rope accent four strand (x) |
2) travelogs
Another series, so to speak, is my travelogs. Traveling has been a huge part of my life and its importance to me could be a post in and of itself. That being said, I wish I would remember to write about them as they happen, or at least right after my trips end. I always tell myself I'll do it soon but soon never comes, does it? I'm not sure how I want to format it yet. They could come as day-by-day journal-style posts or it could be a trip wrap up and reflection. I have some thinking to do, but to get started, I thought I'd share a photo from one of my more recent trips. |
| Reykjavik's winter solstice sunset (against the Harpa concert hall) (x) |
3) miscellaneous
As I said before, I'm not entirely sure what else I want to put on this blog. Beyond hair and travel, my interests include books, nail polish, and boybands, among other things. I want to try my hand at book talks. You'd think I'd be well versed in the art of book reviews based off the sheer number of books I've read but I definitely do not feel confident enough to venture out that far yet. But I can guarantee you that book talks won't be the only book-related posts. I'll most likely be doing most anticipated new releases, to be read posts, and other posts of the sort. (Check out my Goodreads page!) Movie reviews (I use this term loosely)? Nail polish appreciation? Life things?! The possibilities are endless. Stick around to see what this blog has in store!
Talk to you soon!xo, Yvette
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)