I would hate spending 20-30 minutes every morning braiding my hair into a bun. To each her own!

How about 2-3 minutes? You do get faster over time. Of course, if you make a mistake and have to start over....
You do look good with that haircut, though having to get it dealt with that often would slay me (currently at one trim a year).

When my mom does her single simple braid after her shower, it only takes her 2-3 minutes. I could probably handle that if I learned how to braid properly. But she does two French braids twisted and pinned into a bun, and that's why it takes so much longer.

Wow, I can't believe I missed all the talk in here for nearly a month! So, let's see...in no particular order....

Regarding braiding hair, I think the time really depends on what you do. Ordinarily, every time I wash my hair, I put it into microbraids, which, depending on how many I do, takes about 4-6 hours. Since I'm fairly light, and my hair is quite dark, I take the braids around the edges out usually a day or two later (whenever I have to actually leave the house and face people) and then put it all up in a bun. It probably takes me, say, thirty seconds to smooth out the top, twist it up, and put pins in? I'm pretty much the ultimate lazy girl when it comes to hair. Plus, if I don't braid it, I end up spending hours sitting and detangling, which is absolutely no fun.

Moving from that on to haircuts, congratulations to all of you who have made the jump to a new style! I'd probably never actually sit down and do a short cut on myself--I'd frankly be much more likely to just get frustrated with the entire process, and shave it all. I guess that's where headcoverings and wigs come in handy. As I said, ultimate lazy girl over here.

On the no makeup front, Ruby, I think that will be a good rest for your skin. In general, I usually forget when I put stuff on, and then sleep with it on, although in the perfect world I would aim to have looks and style similar to Safiya, who is basically my makeup and clothing spirit animal. Anyway, if you're experimenting with skincare things, I would recommend taking a look at Innisfree. They are one of my favorite companies, and I love their lip care, with this balm and a lip scrub (which now I can't seem to find on their site, but I'm too lazy to unearth myself from my blankets to go find it in the bathroom). Just be careful about buying any "whitening" products from them--the Koreans are very much into having lighter faces, and that can sometimes result in an...interesting result. At least in my opinion. Other than that, I'm not sure there is much else I would suggest from my bag. I have a couple masks that I like that I picked up from Target, one that is specifically for reducing puffy eyes. I've thrown that one on while traveling before. Yeah. Hmm. I'll think on this one more, and if I find any more masks or anything that I have really liked, I'll post about them. I have a variety of ones I've used, and about half of them I've felt that they didn't do much, but I never remember which ones I didn't like. I should probably keep a list.

Your mom's hairstyle sounds pretty, fantasia! I'm pretty sure my arms would fall off if I tried to learn how to do it, though.

... Which is why I'm quite impressed that you manage to microbraid your hair, Wren! Your pinned up hairstyle sounds cool.

If the puffiness is due to sodium intake, I usually manage that by reducing the salt in my diet and increasing potassium intake. Potassium helps the body excrete excess sodium. I keep my potassium levels high by eating lots of unsalted or minimally salted vegetables and having tea with blackstrap molasses in it, which is full of minerals and an excellent source of potassium. (Don't go crazy with eating it, though; just a tablespoon is good. Hyperkalemia, i.e. too much potassium in your blood, can keel you.) I know it can be hard to control sodium intake when you're traveling and eating on the go all the time, though. Those masks sound interesting.

Has anyone ever tried henna hair color? I love using non-coloring henna shampoo and conditioner (it brings out the shine), but I've never used coloring products of any kind. I haven't really had a need to do so because I like my brown hair and the few silvery threads that have cropped up over the years are not very noticeable, but premature graying runs on one side of my family and I never know if I'll be next, dun dun dunnn. Sophie's hair in Howl's Moving Castle (well, the film anyway) is a comfort, but I'd kind of like to have a game plan, just in case it all decides to go silver suddenly and I don't feel like I can pull the look off. My mother's hair color is wonderfully stubborn, but I'm not sure I have those genes, darn it.

I haven't tried henna personally (my hair is rather dark to start with) but the ladies at buzzfeed did do a video of it that I found interesting. But that's probably not what you're looking for. Anyway, from others who have done it, I've heard that it's more of a tint than a proper coloring, but I suppose that would vary based on who you are. And if you're just trying to tint down the silvers, it might be perfect. I'd considered doing the same sort of thing a while ago, but all of my silvers are coming in at the same place, and I figured I could go ahead and rock the Lily Munster look. If you try henna-ing it, though, let me know how it goes!

...and I just realized I went on youtube to get that link and then spent a half hour watching videos. O_O

^Oh dear. I knew people said it was messy, but that was a lot worse than I was expecting. I'll have to poke around Google and see if anybody has come up with some "hacks" to make it easier. Regardless, I think I'll definitely cut my hair before I give it a try... less to wrestle with.

Does anyone have super curly hair? Mine always gets tangled after washing and drying it. Does anyone have any tips to prevent that?

Valiant_Nymph, I have curly hair, though I haven't had too many problems with tangles for a while and I don't blow dry it. In the past, I've combed and braided it after washing it, and then let it air dry and that's worked pretty well. I've also used mousse on it. If you do blow dry, do you use a diffuser attachment? I've heard that's supposed to help with tangles.

Valiant_Nymph, I have curly hair, though I haven't had too many problems with tangles for a while and I don't blow dry it. In the past, I've combed and braided it after washing it, and then let it air dry and that's worked pretty well. I've also used mousse on it. If you do blow dry, do you use a diffuser attachment? I've heard that's supposed to help with tangles.

Thank you! Yes, I've been thinking of getting a diffuser. Hopefully that helps

We joke that God pulled a recessive gene card for my daughter Ariel because she has super curly hair and it came from ???? Yeah, we don't know. My husband's side of the family has some curly hair, but nothing approaching the ringlets that Ariel does.

So, when we give her a bath, we wash it, rinse it, and then put an insane amount of conditioner in her hair. While it's in there, we brush it out to get the tangles out more easily. Then rinse again. I kind of scrunch it up after that and I don't usually dry it. It makes it more curly that way. If my husband is in charge that evening, he doesn't scrunch it and he does blow dry it, so Ariel's hair ends up being a tiny bit more straight. (aka, the ringlets start further down her hair ) We do not have a diffuser, but I need to get her one at some point.

Thanks Fantasia Kitty! If I end up getting a diffuser I'll let you know how it works

One of my sisters has curly hair and she made a t-shirt "towel" that she wraps her hair in after she washes it. Her hair has wavy curls.

Fun thing about sis being the one with curly hair is that she had straight blonde hair when she was little and I had the curly hair when I was little. But when we got older my hair straighten out and her's got curly.

SnowAngel

My friend has curly hair, and she says a diffuser helps!

Does anyone have tips for putting on eyeliner? I'm having a hard time lol

Thank you, SnowAngel and JillPoleFriend!

I'm not good with eyeliner myself, but I've heard there are good tutorials on youtube.

* arrives late to the party *

Curly haired girl here! Mixed texture. I use Mixed Chicks shampoo and leave-in conditioner, and I alternate between microbraiding my hair and fighting with tangles. I've a lot of hair, though. I've heard twisting and diffusing is helpful, but I've never had the patience to try it. Shameless Maya recently put up a video, however, that goes over four different ladies and their hair care routines. Heads up--they do show the girls showering, but just shoulders up! Anyway, it is a handy video, if you're trying to hunt for new ways to deal with your hair or want to compare.

As far as eyeliner goes, that's sort of a thing that you have to develop through trial and error. I don't use eyeliner that regularly (hello, allergies!) but I highly recommend getting a high quality waterproof liquid liner. That said, I subscribe to the winged liner theory, so a good, sharp, line is super important to me, and you'll never catch me blending eyeliner out. I know you're supposed to use concealer to help guide where your line should go, but I'm lazy and reckless, so I usually just grab a piece of paper, line it up with my lower lid line, and just make my eyeliner run into it. This is probably not a good idea (hello, papercuts!) but it's only ever failed me when I got too much liner on the paper and it soaked through. *shrugs* I'm probably not a good role model.