Fishtail Braid Tutorial

Wow look, I actually posted on time for once. I’m proud of myself for that lol. Anyway, as promised every Wednesday is a post about beauty, and these will range from makeup tips to hairstyles to reviewing products. As I said before most of them will probably be hairstyles since I can actually do them and I’m not very good at makeup tbh, but hey I guess this is a place where we can all learn together.

So today’s hairstyle of choice is a fishtail braid. Now, this style is something that I always used to love on other people but when I went to do it myself I simply just didn’t know where to start. It can be very tricky to get your head around the first time you attempt it, which is why I’ve done step by step instructions for this tutorial (along with some horrible pictures of me doing it that I took this morning) to help you along the way. Please don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t come out right the first time you attempt it, it can take a lot of practice to get right. Also sorry about my awful selfies throughout the post.

Step 1. To start off with, brush your hair through thoroughly so that there’s no tangles. This will make it easier for you once you start braiding as there won’t be anything for your hair to get stuck on, and you’ll end up with a much better finish. Some people find it easier to braid hair that’s slightly damp so if you want you can spray it with a little bit of water or you can do it after a shower if you wait until your hair is mostly dry. I don’t recommend braiding or brushing very wet hair as it can leave you with split ends and damage it.

Step 2. Once you’ve brushed it through you can then move all of your hair to the side on which you want the braid to be. You can then brush it through again if you need to just to make sure all the hair is completely soft and braid-able. Below is a picture of me doing just that this morning:

(Jesus Christ look at my lipstick it’s no wonder I don’t do make up tutorials) MOVING ON

Step 3. Once you’ve done that, split your hair into two even halfs making sure you keep it all on the side that you want the braid on. Then, take the furthest away piece of hair from the outer section and cross it over into the “inner” section. Repeat with the other part. Here is a picture of me doing that this morning incase you are confused.

This one’s even worse I stg I look drunk omg why did I decide to do this.

Step 4. Just keep crossing each strand of hair over into the opposite section. Don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t look much like a braid once you start doing it, you have to get a fair way down the hair until it looks like a recognisenable fishtail braid. For example:

Step 5. Keep going until all the hair is included in the braid and secure with an elastic. The end product should look something like this:

I would recommend this hairstyle the most to people out there with mid-length to longer hair, purely because it is easier to braid and comes out looking a lot slicker. Basically, if your hair’s long enough to do a simple plait in its probably long enough for a fishtail braid. Once you’ve done the braid you can kinda choose where to go from there based on preference. Personally I like the braid quite neat but with a few baby hair’s pulled out on the other side, but if you prefer it slightly messier you can pull each side of the braid out a little to make it looser. I’ve heard of people doing this overnight for heatless curls; this isn’t something I’ve ever tried but if it’s something you want to try yourself, do it and let me in the comments or via email (my email can be found on the contacts page) how it goes.

So there you have it, a fishtail braid. Enjoy.

Lily ❤

Theanine is a miracle worker – Mental Health Update

So here we have it, my first “proper” blog post and it’s a day late. I know I said I’d do mental health posts every Monday and it’s now Tuesday, but I completely lost track of the days and for some reason thought that it was Sunday yesterday, hence why this post is coming to you today. Sorry about that.

Before we get onto the main point of this update, I thought I’d give you a little round up of my week so you have a little bit of a back story as to what led to me finding this. The past week admittedly wasn’t the best for my anxiety attacks.

On Wednesday I went over to my friends house, nothing too mentally strenuous and quite an enjoyable activity. We were both having a great time and then suddenly out of nowhere I just had a panic attack. There was no obvious trigger, it just kinda happened. It was a very strange experience and one that left me with a lot of guilt at the end of it as I felt that it had casted a shadow over what had otherwise been a very good day.

Then, on Saturday, I started getting those panic attack “symptoms” (you’ll know what I mean if you suffer from them yourself) and just had an attack right in the middle of the shopping centre. It wasn’t fun.

So after that last experience, my mum took me into this herbal/health food shop in our village, which was where we discovered Theanine. It’s a natural herbal capsule tablet thingy (pardon my bad description) that’s found in green tea and is used for improving focus and concentration and is also amazing for panic attacks. Right now I’m taking two a day (as was recommended to me) and I’ve been taking them for three and a half days, and it’s going brilliantly so far. I’m already feeling a lot calmer having only been taking them for a short amount of time, and things that previously would have led me to having a panic attack haven’t.

They’re available to everyone over the age of eight in the UK (I’m not sure if different countries have different guidelines but that’s what it is in the UK) so it’s available to teenagers and young people. It’s also suitable for vegetarians and vegans I believe (not so sure about vegans but it’s definitely available for vegetarians and I’m pretty sure vegans can take it too) and it doesn’t contain any gluten. As far as I know it’s compatible with all medictation apart from those for Parkinsons disease, so if you’re on any medication except for that you should be fine but I’d always recommend speaking to someone first just to double check.

These tablets are definitely something I would recommend for those who suffer with panic attacks or high levels of anxiety. In the reviews that I’ve read of them there has been multiple people saying that this has cured their anxiety disorders. Obviously I can’t make a fair judgement of that based on the fact that I’ve only been taking them for three days, but so far it’s looking very promising. I will update you on how it’s going and how these tablets are working every Monday, along with my usual mental health update.

Lily ❤

Introduction

Hi everyone; my name’s Lily and welcome to my blog. On here you will find everything to do with Beauty (though I admit I’m not an expert in that field), The Eurovision Song Contest (who doesn’t love Eurovision?!) and Mental health (again – not an expert. Please see a professional if you’re in a crisis.) I hope you enjoy your visit.

I decided to start a blog because I have been suffering with panic attacks on and off for the past two years. Recently they’ve increased in severity and frequency with no obvious trigger, and I was advised to start writing a diary of when they occur and the symptoms that come with them. This seemed like something that would be helpful to me, and I realised that maybe if I published it in a blog it would not only help me but also other people who struggle with anxiety and panic attacks to realise that they’re not alone and that we can all connect and help each other through the means of the internet. As well as this, it will help to clear my own head if I’ve got a record of when these are happening, and perhaps some of you will be able to offer me some advice. I will be writing about this every Monday, and as I said before I am not a professional mental health expert and nor do I claim to be. I am merely someone on a journey to discover what is causing my panic attacks and to help others. As I said before, please seek professional help if you’re in a crisis.

The next part of my blog will be a bit more sporadic, and that’s Eurovision. You know, the annual festival of music every May where each country in Europe (and Australia for some reason) sends a song to perform at the contest which a jury from each participating country then rates and the public votes on. Which ever countries song receives the most combined points from the Jury and the televoting goes on to have the honour of winning Eurovision and hosting it the following year. Yeah, that. Well I’m not ashamed to say that I absolutely love it and so I’m including it in my blog. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to incorporate it due to the fact that I’ve started this blog right in the middle of the 2017 Eurovision “season” but I think I’m going to upload my top 43 (Russia may or may not be participating but as of now I’m leaving it at 43 including Russia), then once rehearsals start I’ll review them, and then I’ll review both semi finals when they’re on, and then obviously the grand final. In future years I’ll review the entries as they’re announced, but since they’ve all been announced at this stage for 2017s competition in Kiev, there wouldn’t really be much point in doing that now.

The third part of my blog is probably the part that I’m most anxious about and that’s beauty. Mainly due to the fact that in my opinion is have a face like a cow’s arse (ok, perhaps thats a little bit of an exaggeration, I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily ugly but I’m not a goddess either) and the fact that I have absolutely no experience in it whatsoever. My makeup skills are terrible, but it is something that I enjoy and something that I’m really interested in so hopefully through this blog I can gain some tips and we can all learn together. I think I’ll write about this every Wednesday, and these types of posts will be mainly about hairstyles (the only things I can actually do lol) and beauty products such as bath bombs, moisturisers and hand cremes.

So yeah, in short that is basically what my blog is going to be. I am genuinely really excited for this adventure and I want to have an open relationship with the people who read this (I refuse to use the word “followers”, too many bloggers and YouTubers see themselves as above their audiences and I don’t think that’s healthy for anyone) so please drop me a comment as I’d love to talk to and get to know you all.

Lily ❤