Hey everyone! I’m so excited to be on the blog tour for Andrea Pippins’ I Love My Hair (November 10th 2015, Schwartz & Wade)! This was a really, really fun tour to be a part of – and you’ll see why shortly! First, here’s the official cover and synopsis!

For fans of Johanna Basford’s Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest comes a hip, gorgeous doodle coloring book about all things hair. Unlike other adult coloring books, which depict nature scenes and cityscapes, this title celebrates strong, confident women with a passion for style, design, and fashion.

Revel in the mesmerizing patterns and intricate details of Andrea Pippins’s delicate pen-and-ink illustrations, ready for you to color, complete, and embellish. Lose yourself in page after page of bold hairstyles and accessories, from rows of braids, to Mohawks, to sweeping updos, to cascades of ribbons and beads. Be transported to another world as you ink in Medusa’s slithering coiffure, Cleopatra’s elaborate headdress, and Marie Antoinette’s towering bouffant.

Perfect for experienced color-inners and newcomers alike. Coloring enthusiasts of all ages will love this empowering and stylish book. So go ahead—let your hair down, grab some pens or pencils, and add some color to your life.

The cover was originally revealed on Bustle.com – Check it out here. And if you discuss this epic coloring book on social media, feel free to use the hashtag #IHeartMyHair

Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Like I said, this blog tour was so much fun to participate in – I got to color!!! Below is the design I chose to color in and the story behind why I chose it, why I colored it the way I did and why I Love My Hair! Enjoy!

 
I have a love/hate relationship with my hair. For the majority of my life, I’ve battled curls that don’t know if they want to be curly or wavy or just a weird hybrid (curlvy? wavly?) of both. I’ve also battled frizz for more years than I can count – and, most of the time, the frizz wins!

Don’t get me wrong, when my curls behave, I love them! But I can count on one hand the number of times my curls have behaved (okay, okay, maybe on 1.5 hands… Fine, fine, maybe two hands! But who’s counting?). My point is, I’ve tried several times to embrace my curls. Over the years, I’ve spent hundreds of dollars (no, I’m not exaggerating) on various shampoos, conditioners, styling products and styling tools – hence the green comb in my drawing, which represents the money I’ve spent trying to tame my frizzy curls into submission. Some things have worked fairly well, some haven’t worked at all. But nothing I’ve tried has worked 100%. Most of the time (sadly), I simply use a hair straightener to straighten and tame it.

The picture I chose to color represents the hair struggles I’ve faced. In the picture, the straight hair is colored in funky, playful colors. It represents how I feel when my hair is straight – confident and glamorous. The curly hair in the picture is mostly black (I’m a brunette, but I didn’t have a brown marker and the black shows the contrast with the colorful markers better!), with some of the funky, playful colors mixed in. This shows that, when my hair is curly (and, most likely, frizzy), I mostly feel plain, boring and less than confident – I know my hair looks like I haven’t brushed it in days (which, let’s be real, curly girls know how true it is when I say you really CAN’T brush curly hair…) and I just feel frumpy and blah. Yet some days, my curly hair is on point; it’s tamed, with little to no frizz and pretty, defined curls. Which is why I added the playful colors into the mix in the curly-haired part of the picture – to show that, some days, my curls look great and I DO feel confident enough to keep them au natural.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, though my hair doesn’t always behave, I do still love it. Deep down, I love my curls. They’re a part of me and always will be – even when I DO straighten them!

About Andrea:
 
Andrea Pippins is a designer and educator with a penchant for cool and personality as warm as her Brazilian roots.

Andrea’s first glimpse into the design world began when she encountered a TV profile about a magazine art director, she then saw Halle Berry’s role as an director in the movie Boomerang and was hooked. Andrea began harnessing her creative talents into a BFA in graphic design and later earned her MFA at Temple University-Tyler School of Art. Andrea’s love for design grew as she learned more about what it means to be a visual communicator and what true design is all about.

With her eclectic style, authentic voice and eye for all things beautiful, Andrea continues to capture the attention of the fashion, art and design worlds. Her blog Fly, is a source of inspiration for creative young women and has gained a loyal following of viewers eager to see what unique fashion find, up and coming artist or personal reflection she will post next.

You can find Andrea teaching in the classroom, working on new designs or dancing in her living room with the Samba music way up.

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I LOVE MY HAIR Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, November 2 – Alexa Loves Books

Tuesday, November 3 – Pandora’s Books

Wednesday, November 4 – Natural Chica

Thursday, November 5 – The Irish Banana

Friday, November 6 – The Lovely Books

Monday, November 9 – Fiction Fare

Tuesday, November 10 – Mundie Moms

Wednesday, November 11 – What Sarah Read

Thursday, November 12 –Bookiemoji

Friday, November 13 – Readical

Monday, November 16 – Read. Sleep. Repeat.

Tuesday, November 17 – The Eater of Books

Wednesday, November 18 – The Reading Nook Reviews

Thursday, November 19 – The Jungalow