We’re fast approaching New Years, which means time for New Year’s resolutions. I know, I know, every year you think, this year I’m going to be my best self! But 2019 can be your year where you actually are your best self! While you’re thinking of what New Year’s resolutions you’re going to make, you might as well take one step towards being your best self by getting your best hair.

The right cut makes all difference between lifeless, limp hair and a supermodel mane, making your hair look healthier, shinier, thicker, and all-around more stylish. We’ve gathered up all the coolest haircuts to give your hair a major 2019 upgrade. Here are the trendiest, chicest haircuts for every length, that will help you achieve the hair of your dreams. Every day will be a good hair day.

 

Short Hair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Medium Hair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long Hair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post 30+ Inspiring Haircuts for 2019 appeared first on The Everygirl.

Between every season’s new beauty trends, daily heat styling, and our ever-growing dependence on dry shampoo, our hair takes a significant beating. Face masks get all the glory when it comes to weekly deep treatments, but it’s time that we give hair masks the credit where credit it’s due.

Whether you’re plagued with split ends, still trying to recover from years of box dyeing your hair in college, or your scalp gets itchy in the winter, there’s a treatment out there that your hair is begging for. Here are a few of our favorite masks to replenish, rehydrate, and revive your tired strands.

What’s your favorite hair mask? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 8 Hair Masks That Will Keep Your Hair Luscious This Winter appeared first on The Everygirl.

Right now you’re probably thinking “….there is a wrong way to shower?” It turns out that there is. If you’re doing any of these six things, you might actually be stepping out of the shower in a worse condition than when you stepped in.

 

1. You’re Not Finishing With Cold Water

After a steamy shower, your pores will be nice and open for all kinds of gross stuff to enter in. Splash cold water on your face to tighten them and wake yourself up. You should also give your hair a quick rinse in cold water to seal your hair cuticle and get shinier, healthy-looking hair.

 

 

2. Using a Loofah

Loofahs stay moist (I know, sorry) in the shower and are a breeding ground for bacteria, which you then vigorously scrub all over your body. If using a loofah is essential to your routine, thoroughly rinse and wring it out after each use and store it outside of the shower. Be sure to bleach or replace your loofah often to prevent bacteria buildup!

 

 

3. Not Changing Out Your Products

Be honest, when was the last time you checked the expiration date on that body scrub you’ve had in the corner of the shower since you were 15? Expired products are breeding grounds for bacteria, and ones you store in your shower are especially gross since they’re prone to mildewing — no thanks. Before your next shower, check your products for a small jar icon with a number inside, this is the number of months the product is good for before it needs to be tossed.

 

 

4. You’re Using Gross Water

Often times, the water coming out of your faucets is not the most purified liquid in the world. It can include chlorine, bacteria build-up in the shower head, and other gross chemicals that you definitely don’t want to wash your hair in. Invest in a shower filter for a spa-like experience, and get clean knowing dirty water isn’t pouring on your head.

 

 

5. Your Water is Too Hot

Do you like your shower to be Mordor levels of hot? SAME. However, this can dry out your skin, causing itchy dry spots that aren’t good if you want healthy, glowing skin. If you step out of the shower and your skin is red and blotchy, you know your shower was too hot.

 

 

What are your shower tips? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 5 Things You’re Doing Wrong in the Shower appeared first on The Everygirl.

The Everygirl staff has already entered full-blown holiday mode — some of us had Christmas trees up the day after Halloween and have already cycled through all of our favorite holiday movies (maybe a couple of times). We’re totally ok with being amped up Clark Griswolds when it comes to the holiday season.

But the most wonderful time of the year has us making more lists than usual, and if you have yet to choose gifts for all the beautiful people in your life, here’s our top 10 beauty gifts under $50 to get you all squared away!

Grab your debit cards, we’re going in.

The post 10 Gifts Under $50 for Beauty Lovers appeared first on The Everygirl.

I know a thing or two about stress, and I’m (unfortunately) pretty well acquainted with the toll stress can take on the skin and body. Acne, texture, dullness, and so. much. puffiness. My mom says it’s all the french fries I eat, but I certainly wouldn’t eat (as many of) the fries if I was relaxed!

As much as we love Christmas, we can’t deny how stressful this time of the year can be. Potential money struggles, finding gifts for all your friends and family, somehow making it to every holiday party you’re invited to, and you still have to go to work and stay on top of your adult duties until the week of Christmas — it’s exhausting!

So, I went on the hunt for products that could both help my skin and help me de-stress a little bit. I tried the spoon in the fridge (OK, tbh, that was painful!), tons of eye creams, and cutting out dairy (didn’t work for me, but it might for you!). My first obvious choice was a jade roller (how could you go wrong!), but the more I researched (aka stalking all my favorite beauty bloggers on Instagram for hours), I decided to get in on a trend early.

An Amazon Prime delivery and a month or so later, my gua sha stone and I are basically BFFs. Because I’m so obsessed with my nightly gua sha massage ritual, we’re giving you all the details from what it is, what it does, and how you can do it at home. 

 

What is Gua Sha?

Gua sha (pronounced gwa-shah!) is a tool (or tools) used to scrape the skin to promote circulation. Ancient Chinese medicine utilized the gua sha tool thousands of years ago to increase blood circulation and heal the body. 

When you give yourself a gua sha massage, you’re essentially scraping all of that water and lymph under your skin to the edges of your face and pulling it down your neck to drain. Kinda gross, but also super cool, huh? It moves all the blood around under your skin, so after a gua sha session, your face is plump with fresh, new blood to the surface.

In Chinese medicine, gua sha came in forms of soup spoons and other items (which isn’t exactly what all the gua sha stones you see on Instagram look like). Generally, gua sha is made of either jade or rose quartz stones (jade is known for its purifying and healing your energy).

Here, I’m discussing gua sha as a facial tool for massage, however, there are larger tools that can be used for gua sha on the body. I’m dying to get into an acupuncturist to see all the amazing gua sha could do for my body now that I’ve seen how it helps my face!

 

Benefits of Gua Sha

 

Improves circulation

 

Gua sha is THE tool if you want to increase the blood flow in your face. Circulation in itself has so many benefits from decreasing inflammation, adding a glowy look to the skin, anti-aging, and more.

 

Aids in lymphatic drainage

 

All that extra fluid in your face making you look like Raven when she ate the mushroom? Gua sha can help with that. Lymphatic fluid is basically all the fluid coming from your lymph nodes that hasn’t quite made its way back to the cardiovascular system. Massaging the skin helps drain that fluid from your face (yuck), and gua sha is the best tool to get that all to come out.

 

Relieves muscle tension

 

As you scrape the gua sha across your skin, you’ll start to feel your face instantly relax. For years, everyone thought I had TMJ because of my jaw issues, but it turns out, I clench my jaw while I’m sleeping when I’m stressed (so basically all the time). As soon as I started using gua sha, I immediately noticed that my jaw felt less tight, and I was able to relax it more than ever.

The scraping motion you do with a gua sha stone breaks up the muscle tissue, called fascia, which brings circulation and causes the muscles to relax more. If you’re dealing with stress and can feel it in your face, gua sha is a super easy way to bring some relief while adding in some awesome self-care to your day.

An added benefit: fewer headaches!

 

Can help with skin dryness

 

Stop the presses — gua sha might just save your dry, winter skin! Yet again, when you push all of those toxins out of your face, your skin begins to plump up with moisture since it isn’t weighed down anymore.

 

Reduces breakouts and helps with anti-aging

 

Yep, gua sha is basically a miracle worker. All that lymphatic drainage lurking in your skin is bound to cause some buildup which is what can lead to acne, texture, and dullness in the skin. The massage, therefore, brings elasticity and brightness to the skin. Using a firmer pressure can even help you tackle fine lines and wrinkles in the skin.

 

Adds facial contours

No need for expensive contour powers with your gua sha! As you scrape your gua sha stone across your cheeks, you’ll start to notice facial contours you never knew you had. While this slimming effect is only temporary, over time, getting the blood circulating and moving around all that lymphatic drainage can only help if you’re trying to slim down your face.

 

How do I do it?

You can do gua sha massage after either the serum, moisturizer, or oil step of your routine. I prefer to do my gua sha after I’ve applied all the products to my skin because it helps the stone glide across the skin effortlessly.

Each gua sha tool is shaped differently, so find the side that works best for the different contours of your face. I use the side with the divet on mine first to fit the contours like under my eyes, my cheeks, and on my chin, and then I take the curved side for my forehead and down my neck and chest.

Because you’re about to push all these toxins out of your face (sounds amazing, right?), I like to make sure my neck is decongested before I start pushing all the gunk down it. In three different sections (both sides and directly under my chin), I run the tool toward my face for about five to 10 strokes.

Then, in a sweeping motion, I scrape the gua sha tool from the middle of my chin to right under my ear on my jawline and repeat five to ten times depending on how excited I am to hop into bed. I do the other side and then continue up the face, scraping the gua sha from the corner of my mouth to my ears, under my ears, and just above my eyebrows. It sounds like a lot, but it’s so relaxing that you’ll be wishing you could rub that thing over your face for hours. (If you can’t tell, my gua sha and I are in a serious, committed relationship right now).

If you need a visual, this is a great tutorial! Once you start gua sha-ing away, you’ll get into your own groove of how you like to do it.

As you’re massaging, don’t be afraid to add some firm pressure. Obviously, we’re not trying to bruise ourselves, but if some redness or little red dots appear, that’s normal. Redness means that the gua sha is bringing blood to the surface, so it’s doing its job!

 

I already have a jade roller. Do I need both?

Depending on your needs, both a gua sha stone and a jade roller can be beneficial. In my experience, a jade roller is amazing for helping products like serums and oils sink more deeply into the skin. I love using a jade roller to apply my eye creams at night as well as on top of sheet masks to help all that goodness soak in (one of my fave skincare hacks!). Gua sha, on the other hand, is more for massage than products. It helps you pull out all those toxins in your skin at a deeper level than the jade roller.

 

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What skincare tool are you excited to try this year?! Let us know in the comments!

The post Gua Sha Is the New It Skincare Tool of 2019 appeared first on The Everygirl.

I don’t know who exactly is to credit for the seemingly overnight obsession that we all have with skincare — even my little sister who is a freshman in high school is layering on essences and daily SPF (does anyone else remember setting your makeup with aerosol hairspray and cleansing with only baby wipes at that age, or just me?).

However we got to this point, I’m incredibly grateful. Skincare brands are more transparent about what goes into their products, and we’re all-around more educated about the importance of certain steps and active ingredients.

Serums, while relatively new to American skincare, have been a focal point for Korean and Japanese women for decades. What type of serums you need and when they’re the most effectively used can be tricky to understand, so we’re giving you a list of our absolute favorites and when to apply them.

The post 10 Serums That Will Deliver Powerful Results (And When to Use Them) appeared first on The Everygirl.