Blog Posts by Good Housekeeping

Avoid common hair salon mistakes Don't fall victim to another hair horror story! We asked top stylists to dish about everyday blunders women make inside (and outside) the hair salon - with these fixes, you're guaranteed to get a good haircut.

Mistake #1: Showing Up Dirty
Visiting a new salon sporting a greasy ponytail puts you at a disadvantage from the start. Stylists like to see your typical hair and makeup routine. This lets them create a style and colors that complement your beauty preferences. Plan your salon visit for a day when you like your locks best - whether that's freshly washed, day-old hair, or two-day-old hair - to give your stylist more insight into how your hair behaves.

For a color appointment, clean strands will absorb color most uniformly. Dirty hair often contains patches of grease, product build-up, and dry ends. "When it's clean, color doesn't have to penetrate through anything in roots, mid-shaft, and ends," says Allen Ruiz, Aveda North American styling director.

Mistake #2:

Follow these tips for time management1. Batch your calls, emails, and texts.
Interruptions are sneaky time-stealers. By responding to each text, call, or email the moment it's received, you distract yourself from your current activity and lose precious time. Just because someone else has a moment to connect with you does not necessarily mean it's a good time for you to respond. Estimate how often you check your communications and divide that number in half. For instance, if you check your texts and emails 20 times a day, dial it back to 10. Checking in isn't the actual time waster - it's the interruption that disrupts your previous frame of mind.

2. Make a quick decision.
While researching my book, Time Efficiency Makeover, I found that people spend anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours a day rehashing their choices. While some major decisions require ample research and multiple opinions, we often put too much time and energy into everyday choices, such as "Do I really want to go Sarah's party Saturday

From luscious strawberry blonde curls to a ravishing copper ponytail, there's nothing quite as striking as a classic red hairstyle. Whether you're pumped for an upcoming salon appointment or eager to experiment with a new 'do at home, get inspired by 10 gorgeous hairstyles from our favorite redheads.

-by Kim Peiffer

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• Marriage Myths You Shouldn't Believe
  
• 5 Best Ways to Stretch Your Beauty Dollars
  
• How to Shop and Dress Slimmer
  
• A Snack to Satisfy Every Craving
  

Get your Irish up on Saint Patrick's Day with a homemade green treat! These emerald-tinged recipes are a breeze to make and loaded with festive flare. Grown ups: Feel free to wash 'em down with a green beer (or three)…

-By Erin Phraner

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• 16 Simple, Slow Cooker Dinners
  
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Reduce your stress at work Lower your stress and increase your fitness - it's all in a day's work

1. Tune Out Travel Tension
Your risks of high blood pressure and weight gain rise if you take long trips to work. Combat the white knuckles of traffic and train delays by listening to audiobooks or music you find relaxing.

2. Skipped Breakfast?
Pair yogurt with fruit and enjoy while checking your e-mail. For a brain boost, add some walnuts - their antioxidants may enhance memory, and the protein-packed combo will quash hunger.

3. Breathe Deeply
The website calm.com provides a two-minute relaxation exercise - good for your mental well-being and your heart. Use it daily or just when you need it most.

Related: 7 Habits of Happy, Healthy Women

4. Crunch Through Lunch
In a Swedish study, twice-weekly exercise sessions boosted workers' efficiency enough for the rest of the week to compensate for any lost desk time.

5. Pause for a Real Meal
A nutritious lunch brightens

Follow our tips for buying the right olive oilWe sent Helenka Ostrum, our intern from Columbia University in the City of New York, to olive oil school and she learned some things you'll want to know before your next trip to the grocery store.

When you're buying olive oil, the most important thing to remember is that you're buying a juice that doesn't stay fresh forever. Would you keep orange juice for two years and still use it for cooking? Olive oil isn't like wine, which improves with age. So how can you know how old olive oil is when you buy it? Here's what to look for plus two other great tips I picked up at a learning event sponsored by the Flavor Your Life Campaign supported by the European Union, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, and UNAPROL, the largest organization of Italian olive producers.

1. Look for a "Harvest Date" or "Crop Date" on the bottle. The "Harvest Date" tells you exactly when the olives were picked. Olive oil is best if it's used within 18 to 24 months of harvesting. If

Surprise! You can transform tattered furniture or freshen up a tired space on a budget with a simple roll (or scrap) of wallpaper. Tackle one of these easy, DIY craft projects and up the wow factor in your home this weekend.

-by Frances Bailey

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• Best New Makeup Finds Under $25
  
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Bobbi Brown Lipstick

Looking for one that survives your morning joe and bagel - and doesn't parch your lips? Here, two proven winners:

1. Winner!
Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lip Color ($24, amazon.com; 12 shades). It scored top marks in our lab tests, and volunteers reported that it lasted 3.4 hours; six out of 10 said they would continue using it.

Related: Best Beauty Buys Under $25

2. Runner-Up
Boots No7 Stay Perfect Lipstick ($10, amazon.com; 11 shades). Women found it lasted 3.1 hours - nearly as long as the winner. They were fans of its creamy texture, which left their lips feeling smooth ... at a bargain price.

Related: Best Anti-Aging Makeup

How We Tested
We rounded up 10 longwear lipsticks. Then 10 women tested them all in our lab; 10 more tried out one or more at home. The biggest surprise: Not one lipstick lived up to its six-hour (or even longer) claim (the range: 2.6 to 3.9 hours).

• First, breakfast: After applying lipstick, volunteers took three bites of a