Kivivi Blog

Celebrity and expert makeup artist Maura ‘Mo’ Lewit is best known for starring in Lifetime's reality competition TV series “Blush: The Search for the Next Great Makeup Artist.”

She currently resides in Las Vegas where she is a senior makeup artist for the Bellagio Salon in the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. Over her career span, Mo has worked with Cirque Du Soleil, the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, Rachel McAdams ("The Notebook") and Omorosa Manigault-Stallworth (Donald Trump's NBC show "The and Norma Strait for the Country Music Awards. Her regular clientele include actress Jennifer Tilly and author Lucie Venture. She is currently the head makeup artist for the Las Vegas-based cable television show “In My Corner” starring Rasheeda Ali.

Written by Lisa - Barnard College

It takes a day with terribly drizzly weather to remind me how hard it can be to keep your hair cute, no matter where you go to school. I made the transition from the dry air of Colorado to the ridiculously humid East Coast, and totally appreciate how tough it can be to revamp your hair styling habits.

Here are some of the tricks I’ve learned over my college transition to keep hair looking fab, no matter the weather.

Photo: JustJared

1. Let gravity work for you: There have always been general rules about thick haircuts versus thin haircuts–if your hair is thick, get lots of layers so you’ve got some movement and so that it doesn’t feel as heavy. If you’ve got thin hair, keep it closer to one-length so that your hair looks fuller. However, these rules can cause problems in humid areas.

• If the weather in your area is wetter, keep your layers long–short layers are more likely to become flyaways. If it’s a particularly wet place, keep hair at all one length so that the weight of the hair will help keep frizz and puffiness under control.
• If you’ve got a super-thick mane, tell your stylist to thin hair out underneath and closer to the ends.

2. Learn the lingo: Have you heard of humectant styling products? What about humidity resistance? There are certain words to look for on your products that are especially suited to challenging climates. A humectant is a product that will pull in moisture from the air and embed it in your hair strands. These are great for gals in dry climates. Try Suave Humectant Conditioner. An anti-humectant, conversely, will block moisture from affecting your hairstyle. This is ideal for curly gals, or people who live in humid areas. Aveda makes a nice anti-humectant product. You can also try humidity-resistance hairsprays like Sunsilk Hold Me Forever, although I find that too much of this kind of spray can make hair look crunchy (not cute!!).

• Thin-haired gals, take note: too many products will make your hair look limp and sad. Try a lightweight serum like got2B Smooth Operator Smoothing Satin Drops, and maybe work a small amount of mousse into your roots for some volume, but stay away from gels, pomades, or heavy cremes.

3. Change up your routine: Winter means dry skin and a dry scalp for me, no matter the climate, so I make sure to change up my shampoo and conditioner to suit the season, too. In winter, I switch to a moisturizing shampoo with tea tree oil, like Nature’s Gate Tea Tree Calming Shampoo, or just to Head and Shoulders for a few weeks if my scalp starts to get itchy. Fittingly, you’ll probably want to work an extra-heavy moisturizer into your ends during the winter as well. My favorite mask is the Bumble and bumble Creme de Coco masque, but I’ve also heard great things about using Vo5 Hot Oil treatments on your ends.

• Added bonus: gentle shampoos and rich conditioners will help keep your hair healthy and prevent those dreaded split-ends!

4. Fight static: My nemesis during the super dry winter months in Colorado was static. You’d be going from indoor dry heat to a dry cold and back to heat again – static-y hair was practically inevitable. If you’ve changed up your routine to include more nourishing, moisturizing products and are still experiencing static and flyaways, keep a travel-size hairspray and a dryer sheet in your purse. Rubbing a dryer sheet (lightly!) over static hair will help to balance out the electric charges in the air, and a quick fix spritz of hairspray will help put your hair back in its style.

5. Don’t fight nature: Even with the best hair products in the world, curly girls are going to have a tough time, no matter what, trying to straighten their hair during a monsoon. (Straight-haired gals are going to have trouble holding curls in humidity, too.) So go easy on your hair follicles and consider embracing your natural hair texture during extreme weather–everyone looks like a wet dog sometimes!!

Photo: IMDB

Most of us don’t have trouble getting excited about a new diet or exercise plan. The idea of having a sexier, healthier body makes us feel exhilarated, hopeful, pumped! It’s when the gloss starts to wear off after a week or two or three that things get harder (“But I don’t want to get out of bed and jog!”).

Rihanna rocks the mohawk! Katherine Heigl goes brunette! Michelle Obama chops her 'do (or so we thought)! They may not be our nation's most pressing news stories, but these celebrity hair transformations certainly had our heads turning in the beauty-sphere. Craving a hair makeover but afraid to pull the trigger? Follow these style tips and tricks to make sure your next hair transition goes smoothly.

Oh Amy Adams, you're just too adorable. I almost can't take it. So when your hairstylist offers any sort of tip that might help me resemble you more closely in some way, I listen.

Amy's hair pro, Matrix stylist Mark Townsend, was so kind as to give us some inside scoop on how he created two of the starlet's most recent red-carpet looks, for the New York and L.A. screenings of "Julie & Julia".

No matter where you turn, people are tightening their belts. Sadly, this fact has worked its way into beauty.

We all want to look and feel our best, but we have to be realistic: Cutting back on expenses is going to include our hair. Of course, that’s not to say we can’t STILL look as hot as always.

Sxc.hu

We consulted Jamie Bushman, owner of The Circle Salon and top Chicago stylist, and came up with some great ways to have a great head of hair - and money left for dinner.

1. Using tinted color shampoo and conditioner (like Davines’ Alchemic series) will freshen up old color so that you can keep your color from looking drab and faded. It comes in a variety of shades, like silver, gold, tobacco, copper, red and chocolate. Using this once a week will allow you to go weeks longer than usual between touch ups.

2. When gray roots are the issue, try a temporary color at the root. There are many options to choose from at beauty supply stores

, but Bumble and Bumble makes a spray on tint that will cover gray roots in between touch up appointments. It is easy to use and washes out with water, so it won’t permanently affect your hair color.

3. Consider switching from an all over color to a demi-permanent instead of a permanent tint. Demi permanent is not a temporary color that will not last in the hair, but it does fade a bit more than the permanents which allows the line of demarcation to look more diffused as your hair grows. Without the hard, permanent line that grows out, you can usually push you touch ups back a couple of weeks.

It's like a bad dream. You know how you want to look--but as soon as you sit in the hairdresser's chair, you somehow can't find the right words. You're talking, but he doesn't seem to be getting the message -- and once you see the finished product, you know he didn't. Now you'll never have to live that nightmare again. Whether you're trying to telegraph "straight but not flat but not frizzy" or "curly but nicer than my natural curls," you can get what you really want. The secret: Learn to speak stylist. We consulted top pros to find out the right words to say and, even better, we got them to spill the steps for re-creating.