Natural Hair Roundup 2012

In 2012, I made a conscious effort to use my own hair as opposed to a wig. Now, lolitas use wigs for many reasons, such as their haircut not being suitable for lolita, or their hair too fine, too thick, unhealthy, or simply just wanting an easy, polished do in any colour under the sun without too much effort - it takes enough effort to just dress, so wearing a wig may as well make the process a little easier.

I wear both sweet and classic, and both styles encourage the use of natural hair, or at least, natural looking hair. And I thought to myself that my hair is pretty healthy (virgin hair says my current hair stylist Lidija at Anton's) and a nice basic lolita style and colour, so why not incorporate that instead of hiding it?

I admit, I am pretty time poor, and particularly when I am running ODIP with a full time job I don't have much time for extras. I find it hard to schedule in a haircut most weeks, which was pretty important in my hairstyle to maintain as my fringe grows at the rate of knots. So when I had a meet on, I went to get my hair styled at the hairdresser's, thereby killing two birds with one stone. Let's take a look at some of the styles I tried in 2012.

Librarian's Expo, February 2012 & Supanova Melbourne 2012

Dead straight and librarian-like. Pretty easy, and how I usually wore my hair for conventions in 2012. No muss, no fuss and the emphasis is on the cut.  

Rococo Picnic, March 2012

I wore Mary Magdalene's Bertille Rose OP for this picnic, and since it was a large classic meet, I wanted a nice style to go with it. I picked a braided style, much like the Vm models. Unfortunately we were rained out that day,and the only photos I have of it are me looking drowned rat-like. My apologies, but you can get the gist of it below. The smart version can be found on Instagram as I have already uploaded it there.

Seeing my parents at my grandmother's house, June 2012

My parents live 4 hours out of Melbourne. I don't get to see them much, and they very rarely see me in lolita because of it so I thought I'd wear my Mary Magdalene Antoinette Fleur OP to see them. I tried a double bun style; what do you think of it? Too sweet? An interesting take on classic? I decided not to use it again for the upcoming Antoinette meet.

 Antoinette Meet, July 2012

This meet was dedicated to those who bought the Mary Magdalene Antoinette Fleur OP in the year's reserves. I thought an extravagant OP warranted an extravagant do... and so with two stylists armed with curling wands and 90 minutes later, my hair was a mass of ringlets. Cue attendees patting my head gently at Polly's and wondering if my hair is a wig. The talented Samantha Ee of reclog.wordpress.com took the first and third photos as well as originally arranging this collage.

The first two styles done by Nyssa from Xiang QV; the last style by another stylist at Xiang.

Milky Planet Photoshoot, Supanova Adelaide and the Melty Meet, November 2012

Buns again. Milky Planet was at Anton's and then my friend Christine kindly offered to do my buns for Supanova Adelaide and the Melty Meet. She has many talents!

Hope you got some ideas from my hairdresser adventures. Christine and I recently experimented using various implements and techniques to achieve different lolita hairstyles, so watch out for the next post on natural hair in lolita!

2012: A Fantastic Year in Review

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had an awesome Christmas and an even more awesome New Year's Eve.

In 2011, One Day in Paradise launched its much-welcomed new look website and in its About section, wrote at the bottom...

'Have you ever wished upon a star, and had that wish come true?'

...and sure enough, it did!

One Day in Paradise has had an incredible 2012; by far the most interesting out of its 4 years! Let's take a look and see why.

January & February

There's something in the water... what was it? Oh...

March

BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT agrees to give One Day in Paradise a trial run at Supanova Melbourne and Supanova Gold Coast, providing that ODIP can snap enough lolitas wearing BABY or Alice and the Pirates at the booths. I said I was up to the challenge and put out the call (and you nearly broke the Facebook page with your excitement)!

April 

The call is answered loud and clear, with One Day in Paradise exceeding BABY's expectations! BABY grants ODIP distributorship rights to its monthly collections. Are you in this collage? You rock! Thank you! (And special thanks to the girl who preplanned her cosplay ages in advance but still worked BABY socks into it.)

This is also the month that One Day in Paradise opens its new branch at Kanga Kanga in the Melbourne CBD. I have known Taka since I returned to Melbourne from Sydney in 2007, and we decided it would be a perfect launching spot for BABY items.

May

It's nose down and tail up, preparing for Supanova Sydney and Supanova Perth while simultaneously working full time.

June 

It's time for Supanova Sydney and Supanova Perth! Again, I was snapping lolitas to give BABY an idea of who is wearing what in which location! Are you here? BABY also gives ODIP access to sale items and lucky packs.

 The massive crowd awaiting entry to the trader's hall. 

The team for One Day in Paradise Supanova Sydney -  Elle-May (Visage 'n' Vice), Sharon, me and Alanah!

 Take a carrrrrd!

Photo courtesy of Rachel.

Bird's eye view of the crowd inside the Dome on Saturday.

 

the team in Perth: Me, Steph, Elle-May (VnV), Stephy (VnV) 

 July

Innocent World comes to the party, granting ODIP full distribution rights, including access to sale items and lucky packs and Australian lolitas take full advantage of this - its summer sale is a hit!

AVCon in Adelaide rolls around, and is the first convention at which new Innocent World has been sold in Australia.

August

Manifest's month! Melbourne's anime oriented convention. 

Left to right: Magdalen, Cming, and me. 

Wearing Unico in Bloomland again as if I have no other JSKs in my wardrobe.

Photo courtesy of Magdalen.

September 

One Day in Paradise and the Visage n Vice Boutique announce its new Adelaide location inside Adelaide Arcade, taking over the old space previously leased by Tokyo Hardcore.

October

Renovations take 2 weeks, and we open our new store on the 13th October. Attendees all loved the new changing area at the back so much that they spent most of the day there. I relocated from Melbourne to Adelaide temporarily. The two black x white photos of this unforgettable day are by the lovely Candice, who came from Sydney for the opening.

Photo bottom left, courtesy of Jaana.

November

ODIP and the VNV head to Brisbane and then to Adelaide for the last two Supanovas of the year! And I decide to move to Adelaide permanently. 

Below left: me, Sharon and Veronica, courtesy of Goldie Soetianto and the booth looking pretty unkawaii as the crowds decimated the booth. Below right: me with Christine at Supanova Adelaide. In Unico in Bloomland again, because I sold my Baby the Stars Shine Bright Snow Queen set a day after I wore it in Brisbane.  

 Darth Vader is waiting for his girlfriend to come out of ODIP. Photo courtesy of Alanah.

 I met Elvira! She was so glamourous. 

December 

One Day in Paradise bades farewell to its VNV Fitzroy location, making One Day in Paradise at Kanga Kanga in the CBD its only Melbourne base. 

ODIP also turned 4 on the 5th December, close to International Lolita Day! No annual party this year as things were a little too hectic. There is a 'Welcome to Kanga Kanga' one in the works!

I also signed up for an Instagram account in preparation for this blog. You're most welcome to follow me, and if you are of the lolita persuasion I will most likely follow you back. I'm just about to start uploading a lot of my lolita photos to it, so it's a work in progress.

In 2013, there's much more to come! Hopefully through this blog, you'll follow ODIP's journey to its 5th year in Australia.

What new things do you want to see ODIP do in 2013?