Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Product Review!

I am in NO way paid to endorse or test anything, but everyone knows that I have lots of kids and have lots of things to buy for myself and my husband and my kids, so there you go. I'm a huuuuuuuuuge consumer in this world and I thought I'd review something every week or so, who knows, it may be every day if I get excited about something or some place off the bat. We'll see.

Today, I'm obsessed with Spin Pins. Actually, Good Housekeeping has given Goody and the Spin Pin the VIP Very Innovative Award for 2010.  (click!) It's well deserved.



See, I have super fine hair. This in no way means I have thin hair. Thin hair means your follicles aren't many on your head, giving you thin hair. As a matter of fact, you can have thick hair per strand, even coarse hair per strand but still have thin hair. Likewise, you can have super fine hair per strand but tons and tons of it. The latter is me. As a matter of fact, my aunt Dawn back in the day used to color my hair and for real, every time she'd sit me down in the chair she'd start coloring my hair and say "why do I always forget that you have tons of hair?!?" and have to remix another batch or three of color because really, I have tons of hair. My sisters do too. It runs in our family. Anyway, here's my dilemma (and I'm sure many of you can understand me...it's really common) I have a lot of hair and I have really LONG hair right now. (Long for me...right past the middle of my back) With 6+ kids I don't always have time to curl my flowing locks into a beautifully placed do like our friend Carrie Underwood. (mine's longer though. Ha, Carrie. I win)


(How cute is she?)

So on those days (almost every day) when I don't have time to do my hair like Carrie Underwood (time?  What's time?) I pull my hair up. My neighbor friends can attest to this. My hair is in a pony tail pretty much every day. And because I have a BILLION hairs (but fine per strand, like kitten hair soft) I can't use things like bobby pins (slip out unless I use forty ninety eleven of them) and other kinds of simple hair puller-uppers. I have to either put it in a pony tail or nothin.  So when I saw the commercial for Spin Pins last year, I immediately dismissed the thought of using them because really, what do 2 spinny things have to offer me?  Really. What?

I'll freakin tell you what. THEY ARE A MIRACLE FROM HEAVEN.

No really. They are shockingly amazing. I put Kenzie's hair into them last night and she about passed out. She isn't one to get really excited about something but she ran upstairs to see if I'd pulled some magic trickery on her. It's that easy and remarkable.

Let me give you the steps to making my hair into a bun before:

  1. rat the crap out of my hair
  2. smooth the "visible" parts of hair so that it doesn't look like orangutans live in it (please pronounce it "orr-ann'-goo-tans" if you will)
  3. put hair into an elastic band (the kind that aren't rubber. That hurts people. Plus I don't get the newspaper so why would I have rubber bands anyway?)
  4. twirl hair into a tight twist
  5. wrap into a bun shape
  6. pin the crap out of it with (and I'm not joking) 20-30 bobby pins
  7. put my arms down because they've been up for 5 minutes and this ain't The Biggest Loser and my arms aren't buff even though the rest of my body is. (ha!)
Pony tail?  Yes please.  That's the only way I can think of doing my hair that doesn't cause massive shaking of my arms. See, I'm preventing earthquakes here.

So I open the Spin Pins and I read the directions. There are 2 things on the list. TWO.  So here's how I made my hair into a bun yesterday:

  1. Twist hair into a bun
  2. Spin 1 Spin Pin in from the top and 1 Spin pin in from the bottom making sure not to get them twisted into each other.
That's it. 

And it worked.

IT WORKED, PEOPLE!!!  I even did a huge head bang not unlike one you'd do if you were listening to Enter Sandman by Metallica. (right click and open in a new tab because when it gets to about 55 seconds in...you'll understand. Oh and my sister Eliza and I who are mostly hip-hoppers loooooooooooove this song and this entire album. Sorry mom and dad. True story)

MY HAIR DIDN'T MOVE FOR THE REST OF THE DAY/NIGHT!  Guys, these things are a miracle. They're a treasure. I want to make out with them.

They're not super cheap, about $6 for 2, but they're cheap enough for me to justify. Messy bun?  No problem!  Side bun so I can look effortless yet still hip?  Pshh, no big whoop! Bun for church that looks cute but still like I wake up this gorgeous?  Oh yeah, no big deal at all.

Go get some. Oh and they come in dark ones for brunettes and light ones for blondes. I don't think they make them for redheads, so sorry to all my ginger friends. You're outta luck. ;)

21 comments:

Sean and Janet Eyring said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sean and Janet Eyring said...

Woo Hoo! First to comment, in my "turning a new leaf" of if-I-read-it-I-comment thingy.

And this is just another example of the kinds of things I'll miss out on because I have boys. Maybe I'll get some for Janet though for her birthday, and she'll say to me, "Have I ever worn my hair in a bun in the 15+ years you have known and loved me?" TO which I will have to reply, "But Alli said they were super-cool and she wanted to make out with them." And then all will be well in the world.

P.S. my word verification is "bininkt" which makes me think of bikinis and binkies at the same time.
(: Sean

P.P.S. I had to delete my first comment because of all the typos, and even though you told them not to, I didn't want to be publicly flogged for my fat finger typing mistakes!

Tiffany said...

Dear Mom, please send me a pack of them immediately.

Love, me

"The Aimonites" said...

I think a gorgeous picture of you with these unimaginable thingies would finish this post off nicely. I am a visual learner and just can't picture the greatness.

Leslie said...

Wow! First of all, second day in a row I have learned something really awesome from you. I feel like I'm back in college, minus all the stress! Never knew there was a difference between fine hair and thin hair. And secondly, I want the twisty things! Where do you get them?

Love, Bormhol (my verification word)

"The Aimonites" said...

OK I couldn't wait so I you tubed it.. I get it now it's like a screw

Eliza said...

No buns for me either. Hair buns that is...

Oh and Carrie has visible deodorant in her pits. Hahaha!....Yeah, actually just jealous cause she's so stinkin beautiful.

word verification: consnos
say it nasally.

Alli Easley said...

Sean, please do get some for her and she will love them. I promise. Also, that's the best word veri ever.

Tiffany, when you get home you can use them all the live long day.

Aim, good thing you youtubed it! They do demos, and this 8 month pregnant lady ain't postin' NO videos/pictures any time soon.

Les, see? My job is done. I'm an educator.

Eliza, try them. I'm telling you. Even with your crazy thick hair! Also, I said "consnos" nasally and felt bad for mocking people with issues that make them sound like that, then I laughed really hard.

Alli Easley said...

And Leslie, bormhol is sweet.

Tricia said...

So when do we get to see pictures? And what the heck is up with the deodorant chunks under Carrie Underwood's armpits? Has the girl not heard of clear deodorant? ;o)

mrlyne@gmail.com said...

Well, this was interesting look at what a woman goes through with their hair in a day... haha! Also, I would never have thought you a Metallica fan, Alli (Although to be fair, you picked the most mainstream song ever... so maybe not so shocking?) :-)

Alli Easley said...

Tricia, I don't know on the picture thing! I'm not very good at taking pictures of the back of my head! I should update my blog post to include a link to a tutorial on YouTube. Actually, everyone reading this go to YouTube and search "Spin Pin tutorial" and there are tons! Also, seriously, clear deodorant! Look into it, Carrie!

Mike, you have no idea. I've been a fan since Ride the Lightning. And yes, I'm old enough. Also, you must not know me that well because I've probably got one of the biggest collections of music you could even imagine. My iTunes currently tells me that I have 18,542 songs, 55.9 days and 111.21 GB of music on it. And I clean it out often.

Chris and Kim said...

I would like to see a picture of you so that I can make sure you aren't fibbing :).. No really a picture would be great. I have the same type of hair and its tough to deal with.

mrlyne@gmail.com said...

That's funny you mention Ride the Lightning... that was one of my favourite albums while growing up (I had that CD in my Discman allllll the time... good stuff!!).

And no, I guess I don't know you that well... cool that you like music though. :-)

Carla Lozano said...

These are amazing! Kylie bought some a few months ago and they are the BOMB! The girl still has hair down to her booty and she can get all of it up on top her head with just two of these babies! The other day, she did two little buns at the base of her neck, one in each, held all the live long day, at work.

Don't you hate when way cool stuff comes out you think, "Why didn't I think of this?" Yeah, that was me with these.

Dani said...

I've been waffling whether to get these or not -- now I am convinced and I will be making a purchase in the near future!

High "phive," "cougaiz" out! ;]

Anonymous said...

You need to post a pictorial

~Aimee

Alli Easley said...

You people are silly. How the heck can I post a pictorial or a picture of it when it's the back of my head? Maybe I can do it on Mackenzie and you can see on her. I think that would work!

Alli Easley said...

Oh and Dani, that made me laugh so hard!!! Oh and I love the "sentence" in the post below of one of our convos recently. We're funny.

Mike and Jackie said...

I am off to you tube these right now!

Mandy said...

i may have to try these. My new fav hairdo i found here http://sometimessweet.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-milkmaid-braids.html. it works great on my four sometimes five day old hair. :)