All about my hair

My hair. One of the banes of my life for such a long time. I always did the thing where you hide the back and pretend it's really short. Ah to be young again.

My hair story:

I've had stupidly long hair since forever really. I would trim it but never cut short. It was healthy enough until I was say 13/14 and decided that I needed blonde highlights all the way through. If the colour wasn't bad enough against my deep brown natural shade, the highlighting cap was one of the most painful and traumatic things I've ever been through. I'd rather have a tooth out. 

Not too soon after, I decided to cut my barnet off, just under the shoulders I hoped for. However, let it be known that once wet, or freshly cut my hair will curl. And curl it did. Once I had chopped, I found that for a while, my hair sort of shrunk itself even shorter, curlier, and safe to say, I didn't buy my year 9 school photo that year. 

I left it for a few years to grow out, although it naturally grows at record speed anyway. I finished my GCSEs and was heading into sixth form. We started a few weeks after the rest of the school and I remember going into Superdrug with my friend Nikita, buying a 'dip dye for dark hair' kit and getting her to sit on my bedroom floor whilst everyone else was out, to dye it. I still had the leftover blonde streaks from a few years before so I thought topping up the colour on the ends would look nice. This was bad, but not my worst mistake as you'll see. I popped the still dyed, not yet washed out, hair into a bun and went to meet my sister at school that afternoon. I remember of my boy mates asking what on earth I'd done and the dye hadn't even come off yet. 

Year 13. I apologise to anyone who had to see me for that entire year. So a year had passed since the dip dye and once again I was feeling adventurous. I decided to go a light brown/dirty blonde shade. Let it be known that I am my dad's child. Super pale skin and extremely dark hair. The colour, as always, didn't go to plan and I ended up with bright yellow hair. I wouldn't even call it blonde. My eyebrows stood out and my fast growing roots made their appearance within days. I remember walking into the sixth form block and every single person turning around, confused, my friends included. That was in September and by my birthday in November I dyed it completely black to try and counter the colour. Once again, a mistake. For a while the dark colour stayed and became lighter so it looked like my natural colour. But it didn't stop getting lighter. The yellow started showing through and I realised that some parts weren't actually dyed black at all. As my hair grew out for another year and a half, I had my normal brown shade on top, and bright orangey ginger from mid way down. It wasn't straight either. The orange started from a U shape from ear to ear from growing from the roots. I cut my hair for my 20th, but even that couldn't get rid of it all.

And then.. On the 17th of February 2017, I arrived back in the UK from Amsterdam at approx 10am. I had booked an appointment at Toni and Guy a few days beforehand for 4pm on the day I came home. I sat down and the attractive hair washing man washed my hair. Very well I must add. 10/10 would wash again. Anyway I sat down and Louise, the stylist, asked what I wanted. I showed her  picture of someone with shoulder length hair and just said 'that'. She asked if I had thought about this beforehand and not just woken up with the idea one day. Definitely a mix of both. She grabbed a handful of the back of my hair and just told me to watch. Annnd it was gone. She popped a few layers in, made the back very short (top of my neck line) and the front a tad longer. It was shorter than I had wanted but looked better than I could have imagined.

I felt like I had gone from this weird haired teenager (a 20 y/o, but sh) to looking older. It suited my long chin better than before and instantly felt healthier. I couldn't have been happier.

Since the chop I have gotten it trimmed once, two weeks ago. This time at a hairdressers near my house which was half the price and a family friend. He didn't cut it as short as last time, which does worry me slightly as my hair does grow fast so it'll grow out quicker, but we'll see how it goes. It is still it was far better than having flicky out ends of when the back grows and contours with my neck line after a while!

I added waves with a medium width curling wand.

I use pretty much any shampoo and matching conditioner my mum buys. I do adore the Aussie ranges and anything with coconut seems to keep my hair healthy. I use a Umberto Giannini hair mask every time I wash it to make sure the hair has moisture and I'll blow dry upside down. At the Blogosphere pamper event in May, one of the Schwarzkopf ladies recommended to do this for shorter hair as I was finding it hard to keep volume after years of long hair pulling it down.

I adore my hair shorter and, as much as the hairdresser visits are more frequent, I feel far more confident with it and would recommend the chop to anyone!