Helmet Head (aka Cyclists Solution #2, #3, + #4)

You may remember that I bike to work pretty much every day.  Doing this has been a challenge to my scarf wrapping ways, because a helmet does not work well with a volumizer!  Here are some solutions and advice that I have come up with so far:

1) Get to work early and do your scarf in the restroom.  Often I opt for this solution, and just arrive at work early with scarves/volumizer ready in my bag and do myself up in the restroom (which is also essential if face rinse/makeup touch-up/shirt change is needed).  This was always the most obvious option for me, especially in colder months when I need to bike with a hat/warm headband.  However, it is time consuming and can be awkward when you are biking to multiple locations and/or walking out of your workplace with friends (“excuse me while I duck into the restroom to change my scarf!”)

2) Go casual.  This option works very well, especially with a colourful cotton scarf, glasses, and earrings.  It was my go-to option in this post:

It works well… but as you all know, I couldn’t bear wearing single square scarves all the time!

3) Do the braid.  This seems like the easiest solution, and it keeps my wrap from being too boring.  Only issue is the braid sometimes getting stuck under my bag while biking, but so far so good!

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4) Or do a bow!  One of the simplest options I have found is after taking down my elabourate tichel that I wear at work, I just tie the loose ends of the base scarf in a bow and ride on!  It actually looks pretty good with the helmet off as well.

To all you bikers out there, how do you bike with a tichel?  Any pointers/ideas?

Colour Celebration! (and Giveaway!)

[Giveaway is now closed!]

I am so happy to announce that our facebook page has reached well over 1,000 “likes”!

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To celebrate, we are going to do a giveaway!  Two winners will be picked on August 1st!

What will I be giving away?  Get excited…

I will be mailing the  winners a velvet headband (my personal tichel secret!) as well as a handpicked scarf just for her!  How will this Wrapunzel Wrap Kit be selected?  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment at the bottom of this post telling us:

1) What is your favourite colour and why?
2) How would you describe your personal style and how does hair covering fit into this?

That’s it!  One winner will be chosen at random on August 1st, as well as another winner whose entry is a personal favourite, and then I will go on a shopping trip for them and send a velvet headband and handpicked tichel through the mail!

Kol tuv (all the best), looking forward to reading your entries, and may we celebrate many more milestones together!
Love, Andrea

[FYI – please be sure to comment/enter only ONCE.  When you submit your entry, it has to go through me for approval and I am usually not at my computer so it may be a while before your comment appears.]

Lady Wrap Star Hannah!

This lady has only been doing hair wrapping for a few months!  Upon becoming friends on facebook, I knew that we had to feature her on Wrapunzel.  I’ll stop blabbering and let her speak for herself; Meet… Hannah!

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I am quite honoured to be asked to be a Wrap Star.  I am quite new at covering my hair…only a few months!

I am a nice Jewish girl, and I grew up in Montreal in what I guess would be considered a culturally Jewish environment.  I am married to the most amazing man, who isn’t Jewish.  I have been on a journey which includes becoming more observant.  My amazing husband is completely supportive of this, and is actively raising our son to also be Jewishly observant.  

I have been keeping Shabbat for several years, and our kitchen is mostly Kosher (I only use Kosher food, but we still have to buy separate meat and dairy dishes…in time…).  My husband, son and I went to Israel this past May, and I was incredibly inspired by all the hair coverings.  

I have always liked the idea of married women covering their hair.  To me it seemed to be such a special Mitzvah.  I started covering part of my hair while in Israel, and then by the time we got home, I decided to take on this Mitzvah full time.  

My collection of tichels started with the five I bought in Israel: 3 sinar (apron) tichels and 2 square tichels.  

Like most families, we are on a tight budget, and I realized quickly that buying tichels can get pricey!  I had a thought…how many people buy scarves they don’t wear then give them away to Value Village?  I love buying the second hand scarves because they are so different than the ones in the stores here.  They are also much much cheaper, less than five dollars a scarf.  

I bought a few scarves and realized…I have no idea how to tie them!  I guess that is why I liked the sinar tichels so much.  I discovered Andrea and Wrapunzel and I LOVE her website.  Andrea shows so many beautiful wraps and shows how easy they are to do!  

I buy scarves that I like, but some fabrics are not always predictable once they are on your head.  Andrea has helped me troubleshoot my tichel issues.  I’m still learning to tie my tichels and some days even a simple wrap takes me ten minutes because I can’t get things to sit on my head properly.   

My friends have asked me how many scarves I have…and I really don’t have that many (I think)…and I keep thinking my answer should be “not enough”.  

I have a few favourite wrap accessories…my grip band and my colorful bobby pins.  I found a package of bobby pins in the dollar store in a rainbow of colours.  I like using those either because they are camouflaged in the scarf or they add a little flair.  I have a couple of fabric flower clips and I would love to find more pins and hair bands to help accessorize my tichels.  I also found a donut bun thing (what is it called??) that I find helps fill my wraps better.  Of course after I bought it, I discovered Andrea’s sock trick to do the same thing!   

Some other things about me…I used race mountain bike… while I was doing my Masters degree, my friend and I had a vegetarian/animal rights radio show…I used to be painfully afraid to speak in public and now that’s all I want to do!  (too many years of keeping quiet??)  In 2009 I went on the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project (JWRP) trip to Israel and it was AMAZING!  I would love to make Aliyah with my family one day (my parents live in Israel now).  

Thanks Andrea for all you share and having me as a Wrap Star!  

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And thank YOU Hannah for being our Lady Wrap Star!  Wasn’t that refreshing?  I think it’s so incredible to have so many women from different backgrounds sharing their stories and love for hair wrapping.  Questions/comments/encouragement for Hannah?  Post below!

Wedding Wow!

What kind of head wrap should one wear to a wedding?  And epic one!

andrea grinberg wrapunzel wedding

This style is an elegant waterfall twist wrap with the new sash that I featured last week thrown in for extra wow power!  I put my bun/volumizer much higher than usual to give it extra height.  Here it is from the side:

andrea grinberg wrapunzel wedding

And from the other side:

andrea grinberg wrapunzel wedding

And since many of you have been asking me to do full outfit posts as well as headwraps… this next shot is for you!  I am still debating whether or not I want to post my clothing choices because this site is about hair wrapping, not modest fashion (there are many ladies on here that wrap their hair and do not dress like I do) but I know it can sometimes be hard to match wraps with outfits.  Disclaimer: I am not a fashionista in the least and it is hard to take self shots of outfits!  But for what it’s worth, here I am wearing a floor length silk dress ($8 thrift store sale yeah!) and a purple shell underneath:

andrea grinberg wrapunzel wedding

Medieval Princess

A high bun and long, flowing scarves are the keys to achieving a medieval princess wrap.  This is the perfect wrap for those too-large scarves that sometimes feel a bit cumbersome to work with!

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Notice how adding a black shirt changes the look completely!  (It was chilly with the AC inside.)

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From the back:

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And from the other side:

wrapunzel andrea grinberg tichel

Anniversary Tichel!

It’s not every day that I celebrate being married to my outstanding husband for exactly two years.  Here is the tichel that I wrapped for our anniversary:

All smiles:

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With lots of volume and height from the sides:

andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel

 

 

Nice and secure from the back:

andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel

 

 

Don’t you love the colours?  Here is some more detailed shots:

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Bright ‘n’ Beautiful!

I try to convey to women that one should continuously strive to love covering her hair (as with all mitzvot), which means coming to understand it deeply, emotionally, philosophically, logically, and then learning how to put all that knowledge into her daily practice.  On the same note, I would never advise a quiet, subdued woman begin by wearing outlandish wraps, same as I would not advise an extroverted, bubbly woman start covering by wearing something neutral.

That being said, we are so much more than the labels that we give ourselves, and I ALWAYS encourage women to try something new and not get stuck in a hair wrapping rut.  I have often surprised myself by loving colours and styles that I had previously deemed “not me”.  Hence the story behind this beautiful wrap;  Hot pink, bright green and a huge yellow flower?  So not “me”.  But I tried it, and ended up loving it!

Here are too many pictures of this beautiful wrap.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 🙂

andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel

andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel

andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel

andrea grinberg wrapunzel tichel

How do I love my velvet headband…

… let me count the ways!

I got this super silky scarf, and my [almost] sister in law expressed her concern for how it would slip off easily!  Enter the velvet headband!  With it, I can wear the slipperiest scarves for hours and hours, and I don’t even need to check on it!

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As well… check out this scarf!  It’s much less colourful than my usual, but is elegant and looks beautiful without a complicated tie or volumizer.

Wrap du Jour!

Here is today’s wrap.  I felt like I was doing something quick and simple when I wrapped it in the morning, but every time I looked at it I was impressed with how well it matched my outfit (I had on a turquoise skirt).  Just goes to show you that a patterned shirt can bring together clashing scarves!  Hmm… maybe this is a key to world peace!

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