Looks like there was some dodge and burn going on in the second one...weird faded lighter area around the hair tie and along the edge of the hair on the left in general.
A bit too much contrast in the first one for my liking. Maybe it's the dark areas that are too dark because the light areas can't get much lighter without blowing.
Unfortunately these pictures says nothing to me. And speaking of post processing they are too overdone. When you do skin smoothening, you're supposed to be doing just that, SKIN smoothening. Not the hair. Her eyes are completely black in pic1 and in pic2 they are still quite dark.
justin: danka for the comments. used a 90,.6,1 on a raw image.
Inga: thanks. Your right, there was some minor burning on the outer background as can be seen with the lighter blue on the inside of the ponytail vs. the side of the frame. I'll keep a closer eye on it next time, my quick pass could be much cleaner.
ccross: thanks
bj: took a look at your site-- very nice images, suberb retouching and processing. With that said, all of your images are far more "overdone" in terms of processing I do love your cool blue/cyan tones.
I do love your cool blue/cyan tones.