I'm back! A Little Explanation For My Relative Silence!

So you’ll probably all have noticed that I haven’t been around for a while; or perhaps you hadn’t noticed but now I come to mention it… but I’m going to indulge myself and pretend that you had all most definitely noticed my absence, even if you hadn’t missed my ramblings.

There’s been a lot going on in my life, and in turn I felt hat these things had largely killed off my writing mojo, meaning that whenever I even tried to put fingers to keyboard (since pen to paper doesn’t really happen these days), I doubted that I was writing anything worth reading… and more to the point, that you guys would actually enjoy reading too.

So I'm going to give you an idea of what's been going on that stunted my writing abilities; although I’m not going to go into everything in detail, as I’d be writing for days, and you’d be reading for an equally long time too.

Over the last few years, I’ve obviously been through the breakup of my long term relationship (I wrote about that previously), which I guess is where my writing started to suffer; but then adding things like house moves, being messed around by people I’ve grown to care about who ended up letting me down, and a sexual assault that happened a couple of years ago have added to the 'problem'... and those things in themselves would usually suffice as an explanation.

However, I guess the thing that has affected my desire, and ability to write the most, is the unexpected, sudden and traumatic death of my mum; the most important person in my life.

My mum was a beautiful, amazing, caring, strong, inspiring and unintentionally hilarious woman, and I adored her with every part of my being... she was my everything; and so losing her at the relatively young age of 69 when she had not had any immediately life threatening illnesses, or diseases leading up to her death was probably the hardest thing I have ever had to go through, and that’s really saying something as I’ve been through a lot of horrific experiences in my life.

I’ve always found it enjoyable to write, and have always been able to inject humour and light-hearted, jokey comments in anything I produce… and so whilst I’ve been wondering what the point in most things is, I found it hard to muster up the fun and excitement to write about anything I’d usually write about on here.

That being said, I still have the passion, excitement and love for everything involved, which is why I’m sat here in bed, at 2.45am writing this. Inspiration struck, and I thought it would be a good way to find my mojo if I wrote about something I have massively felt in my heart, which is what allowed me to write my mum’s eulogy whilst I was still reeling from losing her; her eulogy is the last thing I actually managed to write – and I’m going to include that below, because I think it allows you to learn just a very small amount about why she meant so much to me.

I think writing from the heart like this feels easier as it doesn’t really require me to find and inject the fun factor, or humour that I usually include, but didn’t seem to be able to produce at any point of previous attempts to write. It’s also allowed me the chance to explain where I’ve been, so it’s a 2 birds 1 stone kinda thing for me. So, hopefully this is the start of my mojo, and inspiration returning.

P.S, I've changed. :-) Went blonde, got fillers and that. More about that very soon. X

Mum’s Eulogy

The collage I made to be framed for her funeral.

“Usually, words are my thing… although seemingly not when it comes to this; writing words that mean so much to me,  my mum. who I miss so much already. This is honestly the last thing I thought I’d have to write; at least so soon, and so suddenly… which also makes it the hardest thing I’ve ever had to find the words for.


My mum was the most amazing person I have ever known. She wasn’t perfect, for instance with her seemingly selective hearing, which often made for amusing attempts at her trying to convince me that she had actually listened to what I had said, but without being able to reply, nor repeat back to me what I had said… but she wasn’t far off being perfect in my eyes.


Her sense of humour was lavatorial, and that’s putting it politely. Even on her last day with us, she was able to enjoy a laugh and joke, and at her own expense too. Although telling her a joke wasn’t always as straight forward as you might expect; from telling jokes and getting the polite acknowledgement laugh, followed a few minutes later by the belly laugh, signalling the moment that she actually understood, and ‘got’ the joke, to explaining the joke and her still not getting it.
It was like the ongoing onomatopoeia joke that resurfaced every Christmas without fail., as I could not get her to understand what onomatopoeia meant, despite many attempts to explain it simply – in fact the only time she proclaimed to maybe know what it meant, she told me it was ‘a word that sounds like bronchitis’. She was convinced that if she found a dictionary from the 50’s, ‘that word would not be in it’ and only truly believed me that it was a real word when Sally from Coronation Street said it in an episode last year.

We had many, many laughs at my mum’s expense over the years, something she was completely fine about, luckily. Some of my favourites include telling her that they’d taken gullible out of the dictionary, to which she was absolutely disgusted, exclaiming ‘well that’s just stupid, how can they take a word and say it doesn’t mean anything any more?!’ and even when I tried to explain it was a joke, by asking her what gullible meant, she replied ‘well nothing any more, not now they’ve taken it out of the dictionary’, and in a similar way when I told her that if you said gullible really slowly, it sounded like you were saying orange. I had her repeating it for 5 or 10 minutes, desperately trying to get it to sound like orange and not even clicking on when I kept asking her what gullible meant – her reply being ‘that you’ll believe anything’ as she’d accepted that it was still in the dictionary after the previous joke, but that was swiftly followed ‘but I just can’t get it to sound like orange’.

We loved Christmas with mum, there was never a dull moment; be that from her bursting out in song at the only part of each song she actually knew, or thought she knew the words to, bragging about being able to take her tablets with a glass of Baileys and then promptly throwing them back up… or her joining in with some reindeer racing, having picked the computer chair, complete with wheels to sit on at the dining table, before falling off it – cue an awkward silence from us all, waiting to see if she was ok, before bursting out laughing after she herself did.

And the fact that you could actually tell mum exactly what you’d got her for Christmas, even on Christmas Eve, and it would still be a surprise to her when she actually opened them. I’m still not sure if that was her memory failing, or the selective hearing at work though.

In recent years, whilst in possession of a smart phone, she discovered YouTube and funny animal videos, often finding herself stuck for hours wetting herself (probably quite literally) laughing at them. I introduced her to the world of Facebook, which she never truly used (or knew how to), or even understood, but could work her way around enough to see the plethora of animal videos I shared to her wall. I loved her watching them whilst she was with me, seeing her laugh so much, and hearing that wicked, dirty laugh of hers was half of the enjoyment for me.

Her other favourite pastime on her phone was googling line dancing steps. I remember her first few Google searches were so very polite, asking ‘could you tell me the steps to <whichever dance it was> please’. She spent much of her life suffering with arthritis, yet even when she could barely walk, she’d still go off line dancing, even if she could only supervise and direct people how to do the correct steps.

I remember giving her a computer, so she could do some card making on it, and the only time I believe she ever tried to use it, she told me it was broken. So I went to have a look at it, turned it on and there was nothing at all wrong with it. She asked what I’d done, I told her I’d switched it on and then asked what she had done. She had only switched the screen on. When I asked what she thought that big box was, her reply was ‘I don’t know, just a box’ - she was very special, needs.

She loved charity shop shopping, snapping up all the clothes that took her fancy, despite the fact that she only really got dressed 2, or maybe 3 times a week. She loved owning nice things, to the point that they’d get put into a ‘safe place’ and promptly forgotten about, or saved for best… but there was never quite a ‘best’ enough time for her to make use of most of them.

She was a total magpie, always weighed down in her favourite jewellery in a multitude of colours and styles. In fact, she wore earrings to the point that you could see through the bottom piercing, and happily accepted me taking the micky out of her ‘baggy ears’.

She was a very independent lady, and didn’t really like a fuss… which unfortunately is partly why we are all meeting here like this today. She lived life to the fullest of her capabilities, never really complained, and was surrounded by people who adored her; so whilst we all feel her life has been cut too short, I’m sure she’d have chosen this life than a longer, but less fulfilled one.

I just can’t believe I’m never going to see, speak to or hear her again. You were my absolute world, mum. I love you so much, always will… and I will never forget you.

If love could have saved her, she would have lived forever.”

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

My New Hair Pictures - Pink & Orange.

I’ve been a bit (ok, a lot) delayed in getting this written up and posted due to both illness and also technical issues as I actually had it done on September 9th, but better late than never, right?!

Let me finally introduce to you my new hair that I had 'done' at the Wella Studio in Manchester; a place I’ve been going to since I was about 16 years old (I've spoken about it before here). I’m actually that late in posting this that I’m due to go for my next colour appointment on Tuesday next week – oops, sorry about that. ;-)

Anyway, I still really wanted to post about it as I was over the moon with how bright they finally managed to get it, especially the orange. Before my appointment I had toyed with the idea of changing to peacocky colours (turquoise, blue and purple) at the ends due to a number of failed attempts to get the brightness of orange that I was looking for, but I decided to give it just one last shot… and I’m so glad I did.

Throughout the month since having it coloured, I have been complimented on my hair more than ever. I guess as it’s so noticeably bright, and with such a contrast of colours that it’s hard not to pay attention to it. I actually don’t mind though, I mean it’s always nice to receive a compliment... even though I still don’t know how to take them and usually get flustered before saying thanks and rushing off with a bright red face.

Sorry for the quality of these ones, but I wanted to show images under different lighting, although the top images are more colour accurate.

In case you wanted something similar colour wise (as I do get asked about this a lot via email) the shades/products that were used to get this result were as follows: For the pink they used Wella Special Mix 0/65 with Koleston Perfect and I believe 6% and the orange was Wella Magma 0/34 and 9%. The percentages are to do with how much lightening/lifting your hair would need, so don’t focus too much on those if you were to want a similar colour, just make sure you know the shade numbers for your hairdresser.

Also the technique is somewhere between dip dye and balayage as I wanted all the ends orange, but without a definite line showing, so they brought the orange tips to varying levels where it meets the pink to achieve this. It was done freehand and using foils to keep the colours from merging.

I’ll be sure to get any images from my appointment on Tuesday posted up a bit sooner, especially if there’s anything new to report on the colour front. ;-)

Do you like bright hair colours, or do you tend/prefer to stick to natural shades? x

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Wella Wednesday: New Hair.

New hair time, well similar to before but just slight tweaks in that I wanted the orange brightening again as it had started to dull, and there's also a different pink in there too, but it's subtle... I want it brighter next time. :-) I also had just about an inch taken off all over and a few long layers kept in.

I must say, I am not getting bored at all with my main colour, or the orange but I did toy with the idea of having a bluey/turquoise as my contrast colour, or very bright pink (or both)... maybe I'll go for that in my next appointment, or the one after. I do love the bright shades, and am getting them done whilst I'm still just about young enough to pull it off, ha.

As it was applied.

When dry, both straight and then curled.

The technique the dye was applied in is called Flashlights, and is apparently where hair is going now that Ombré and Dip Dying are apparently 'fizzling out'. Basically, on my hair it's my normal hair colour, then pink, then orange then pink again.. so it's not just the one shade in each length of hair.

Back and front, styled.

The colour I have on my main bit of hair is Koleston with a shade mixed up for me, made up of: 55/65 with 0/65, 0/28 and 8/81 (roots and mid lengths) with makes a slightly lighter pinky, purple-y, red shade; and then also Magma for the pink and orange parts. Magma lifts and colours at the same time, so effectively cuts out having to pre-lighten/bleach and is permanent.

To style, I had it blown with volume, and then curled using the new Wella straighteners (not yet out), before having the curls combed and shaken through to loosen, and set with hairspray. I love it.

What do you think, like it?

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

My Essential Pre-Holiday Beauty Preparation!

I love holidays; I love everything about them (minus the packing and remembering of important things like passports etc, the paying for the holiday, and mostly the coming home); but I definitely love the excitement of looking forward to it, starting the holiday early at the airport - and yes I do mean boozing at wherever they'll put up with us in the departure lounge, boarding the plane, arriving (love it when that heat hits you as you step off the plane), and then of course the holiday itself.

However, before I go on holiday, there are definitely beauty chores that need tending to so that my holiday is as chore free as possible. I mean who wants to be shaving daily, or doing nail polish etc. when there's fun to be had?! Not me, that’s for sure! That's why I'm letting you know about my absolute essentials when it comes to my own holiday beauty preparation.

Hair Appointments:

The first chore to be tackled was my hair, because, other than the roots needing to be done, I wanted my hair colour as fresh and as vibrant as possible for the whole holiday; and with the potential for excessive fading due to the sun and swimming pool action, this was even more important for me. I stuck with the same colour combination I've been having recently, as I felt that a change (not in overall colour, just the tips) could mean that the colour build up that I had achieved so far with the orange-y tips could all be undone, thus there would be even more risk of fading.

I recommend having your hair colour done a few days before you fly if you're going for something slightly new/different, that way you have time to make alterations, should it not be to your liking. Otherwise, get it done as close to your departure time as possible for longevity.

Manicures and Pedicures:

Before gel nail polish existed, I would just go for a bog standard manicure before my holiday, in the hope that my nails would look nice for as long as possible; but then end up having to re-do or top up my nails myself throughout the holiday, since normal polish is extremely prone to fading and chipping very quickly, more so when in a holiday environment.

Nowadays, we have gel polish... thank god, and it has been an absolute godsend because it absolutely 100% lasts for my entire holiday (well unless I'm going on an extended break of more than 3 weeks - I wish!) without chipping, or fading. I had gel polish on both my finger and toe nails, which lasted for the entire holiday, and then some. In fact, the only reason it had to come off was due to regrowth. Although I actually have a post coming up soon about how to extend your gel polish a little longer, if only down to regrowth starting to show. I got my nails done the day before I went on holiday, which worked well for me as they lasted perfectly.

For your reference, I had my nails done at Blink Brow Bar at Selfridges in Manchester; and the colours I believe I had were Artistic Colour Gloss in shades Sexy (the coral-y pink shade on all but 'feature' ring finger), Sultry (the orange shade on my feature finger) and Halo (the sparkly top coat on my thumb and ring fingers)!

Hair Removal:

Well I've already written an article on hair removal recently, so I won't go into it in too much detail as you can read that here! However, when I go on holiday, I absolutely need to feel like I am hair free for the entire time. I mean nobody wants to be in a bikini with hairs that have escaped, or grown back poking out, do they (ew)?!

So, I tend to schedule in a bikini (Hollywood) and thigh wax as standard and then epilate the rest of my body (underarms and lower legs) as I can just about take the epilation pain there but then I keep on top of the fuzz with the epilator, if and when I need to whilst over there - which is rare, but I take it with me anyway! Now that I am doing some at home laser hair removal, I'm hoping that this will be a redundant step for future holidays though.

I also make sure my eyebrows are freshly threaded, as nobody likes a messy brow. ;-)

This isn't an eyelash perm image, it's an old image from a very old Max Factor False Lash Effect post.

Eyelashes:

I think this is another holiday essential if you want your eyelashes to look great whilst by the pool/on the beach during the day, but don't want to be putting makeup on for whatever reason. I personally don't wear makeup at all throughout the day whilst on holiday, unless going to a day time event/club - so having my eyelashes 'done' just makes me feel better about that.

I was actually due to have my eyelashes either permed or extended at Blink Brow Bar on the day that I left the country. However due to a mishap beyond my control, I was unable to make it there that day. I will be having these done on another occasion, so expect a separate review post on this soon.

Others:

Lots of people have fake tan applied before they jet off on their jollies, but I find this to be a total waste of time, since as soon as you hit the pool, the chlorine actually strips the tan straight off. If you're planning on staying poolside, this may not be such an issue, but I definitely like taking dips to cool down, at the very least. I do take a few short sunbed sessions to prepare my skin for the sun before I go, not necessarily the healthiest option, but I do find it helps to prevent overcooking my skin the moment I get there.

Weight loss - I always try to diet and tone up before a holiday. The fact that people will be seeing me in not much more than 'glorified underwear' through the day is a large factor in this. Obviously this is a personal thing, you may not need to lose any (lucky thing) but if you do, timing with this will depend on how much you need or want to lose.

Exfoliation is a key treatment to do both before and throughout your holiday if you're planning on tanning. The more you exfoliate, the better your tan will be, and the longer it will last. Dead, dry skin is not a good look at any time though. I tend to use a nice body scrub AND a scrubby mitt or sponge to slough away any dead cells.

So there you have it, my holiday preparation essentials. I would normally have posted this earlier in the year, however I obviously still had a lot going on then with my personal life (and then technical issues), so it's a case of better late than never and this will hopefully help those of you jetting off for some winter sun. You lucky things.

What holiday preparation do you do?

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

New Life, New (ish) Hair!

Foil Head - With Normal colour applied and bleach in the foiled sections.

"I'm going to wash that man right out of my hair"... or at least colour him out of it!

Sooo, once I had got my head around the massive change in my life, I decided that although I LOVE my hair colour as it is, that it might be nice to have a slight change... and something I've wanted to try with my current hair colour for some time, is having orange slices or sections running through it.

I discussed this with the technician at the Wella Studio and said it was either going to be a genius idea, or totally horrific. She seemed quite enthusiastic about the orange/purple-y combination, and so it was decided that I'd have a number of orange 'tips' woven into my hair, in a kind of balayage fashion.

Orange being applied.

My usual colour was applied to my roots and to the ends that weren't being changed, and a tonne of bleach applied to the chosen ends to make sure the orange was bright, and vibrant. Once the bleach and colour had done their thing, my hair was rinsed, shampooed and the orange dye mixed up and applied. There was actually no going back at this point, and so I might have been ever so slightly shitting myself at how the end result would look.

Eek, a bit disappointed at this point.

Fast forward to drying time, after the final rinse and I was a bit disappointed. The colour looked a bit wishy washy, not as bright, or orange as I had imagined. However, once my hair had been fully dried and styled, I was actually over the moon with the end result. Ok, it could have been a bit brighter and more orange, but I was so pleased with how it looked overall, especially when curled with hair straighteners (which is how I do my hair, mostly anyway), that I didn't mind this.

Finished result.

I walked out of the salon with a massive smile on my face; the orange was a complete success, and one that I'll be continuing for some time to come as I can't see me getting bored of it any time soon. I love it.

What I will say though, is that the orange did wash out very quickly, pretty much the first wash. However I was sent home with a bottle of Colour Fresh in shade 7/43 to refresh the orange on every other wash, until my next appointment, which is next week - so hopefully the orange shade will start to build up and stay put longer next time.

What do you think, do you think it works?

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Wordless Wednesday!

Love the hair, and colour in this photograph that I just found on Facebook. Do you? <3

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Schwarzkopf Live Salon Style & Louise Redknapp's New Colour!

Louise Redknapp has been announced as the new face hair of Schwarzkopf's Live Salon Style, a professional quality home hair colouring system, and with it has unveilled her newly darkened hair colour. I got a glimpse of her new hair colour on Something for the Weekend recently (without knowing about her affiliation with Schwarzkopf), and I have to say, I instantly loved it. I think she looked great with her blonde hair, but her 'new' hair is now super glossy and the warm chocolate hue (that is perfect for the colder weather) really warms up her complexion too!

Before!

After!

I also think it makes her look younger, possibly because it reminds me more of her when she was in Eternal and her surname was Nurding... god I loved that group 'back in the day'!

I know that whenever I've dabbled in being blonde, I always struggle to get any shine into my hair and in fact this is often one of the main reasons I go back to darker hues - and to let my hair recover from the bleaching processes that I put it through to get to and maintain the blonde, of course!

The new Live Salon Style range is their first professional quality home hair colour that claims to give professional grey coverage, shiny looking hair, and most importantly a true colour result - something I'm very happy to see, because as I mentioned in a previous post, a lot of home hair colourants are notoriously bad for getting the true colour result that it shows on the box. I'd actually be very interested to see how well this works out - since this is one of the reasons that I get my colour done in a salon!



To recreate Louise's new colour you can use Schwarzkopf Live Salon Style Shade 4-8, Chocolate Brown - I've embedded a little video from Schwarzkopf above to help with your application technique too!

If you're undecided on which colour you might like to go for, then why not try out their Live Salon Style Colour Booth App on Facebook! I tried the app out and whilst my 'highlighting' of my hair wasn't great (it wasn't even good, it was crap - just look below), I actually found it very useful and came out wanting pretty much every colour in my hair.

Sponsored Post - Views and bad colouring on the app are completely my own!

Hair Colouring - Salon or DIY? Plus My New Colour!

Colouring your hair is, to many, a regular occurrence... be it by doing it yourself, or by having it done at a salon. I had my hair coloured yesterday at the the Wella Studio in Manchester, where I’ve actually been going to since I was about 16 or 17!

Whilst having my hair coloured, I had a conversation with the colour technician about home colouring and its advantages/disadvantages, and apart from the cost difference and possibly the time taken to do it (if you use a 10 minute developing colour), I actually couldn’t think of any other advantages... and it got me wondering why some people choose to home colour, and some don’t.

I have done both home and salon colour on a regular basis, but I much, MUCH prefer a salon service and this is my main way of having my hair coloured. I just find it to be so much easier, I am completely cack-handed when it comes to well, anything really, and the risk of me ruining something in the house, or an item of clothing is always very high, since it’s such a messy job. I also hate the rinsing part of the task, it’s so tedious and that just means that I usually give up just before I’m actually supposed to!

Colour developing... I look hideous, but at least it's all neatly done, ha!

Then there was always the risk that I hadn’t applied the colour evenly, or that the colour will ‘take’ differently in different areas of my hair, or that it could react with previous colours (even if from the same brand etc)... there’s just too many factors that could go wrong for my liking!

I know that money is a huge factor with anything these days, unless you are super rich and hair colouring can be very costly in salons, but there are ways to save on this if you know where to look.

My new colour - slightly less pink than before!

Firstly, there are specialist training salons such as the Wella Studio where I go, I pay just £17.50 to have my hair coloured there (it was £15 for many years and has only just increased, but is still very affordable)!

The reason for the cheap price is because they really only charge to cover the cost of products used as they get their real money from running advanced training courses for already qualified hairdressers (usually very experienced ones) which might be showing new cutting/colouring techniques, new products or further, more specialised qualifications such as the MCA/MCS (Master Colour Award/Specialist) diplomas, which are basically like degrees in hair colouring.

It can take a little longer to have your hair coloured here sometimes, if being done by a student, but a lot of the time I find myself being invited to have my hair coloured by a technician or a special guest (somebody who has notable experience/awards etc and usually very well known in the hairdressing industry) and these are usually as a demo to students, sometimes, these has even included having my make-up done as a bonus too!

It’s also not a traditional booking system, they book you in when they have courses booked in (although it’s not impossible to get a regular-ish appointment, I should add)... or you may get a call asking if you can make it in at short notice if they’re caught short etc.

I love going here, I have never had a bad hair colour done and in all the years I’ve been going, I’ve only ever been unhappy with a cut I’ve had twice, just because the person doing it hadn’t taken onboard what I’d asked for as much as I hoped (which can happen anywhere)! I believe there’s another Wella Studio in London, but I think L’Oreal and other brands *may* do similar – it’s just a case of enquiring to see who does, or doesn’t in an area close to you!

 

If you’re not close to one of these training institutes then there’s always the option of going to your local college (obviously only ones that do hair/beauty courses) as they are usually crying out for real customers for the students to work on. Don’t be too worried about going to one of these, as they’re all supervised by fully qualified tutors, and if you’re ever not happy about the colour, they’ll always be able to rectify it for you as much as any salon would. If you’re still not 100% sure, you can ask for advanced students, or Level 3 as these are basically final year students that have the most knowledge about colouring and techniques.

I’ve also had my hair done in this manner, when I’ve not been able to get into Manchester for whatever reason and have never come away unhappy! Some colleges also do facials, massaging, manicures etc which is also worth looking into – I’ve had many (fabulous) dermalogica facials at my local college! It is cheap and cheerful, you’re generally not surrounded by amazing spa features but your skin/hair will still get the treatment that it is supposed to, and to me that is what matters most.

My top tips for if you are going to do your own colour would be to:

1. Make sure the colour you buy is suitable for your hair – both in terms of colour and products already on it, but also that your target colour will be what you’re looking for. Don’t just expect that it will look the same colour as it will on the front of the packet. Hairdressers sometimes have to use 2 or 3 different variations of the same shade to get an even colour from root to tip due to varying hair shades from previous colours, and different hair porosity from root to tip etc! Also remember that not all hair colours are created equally – some will be good, some not so much – research online if you don’t already have a brand that you trust!
2. Try not to buy permanent colour unless you never plan on having a different colour, as constantly applying permanent colour of a certain colour (ie dark brown) will build up on your hair, and could stop your hair accepting a new colour (like mine did last Christmas after going through a phase of home colouring in dark brown, and then wanting to change to red tones)... and even more so if you’re wanting to go lighter (I would only recommend using a salon service for this kind of colour correction)!
3. Dedicate 1 towel and one top/outfit for the job (preferably old ones), and only use those when colouring your hair so that you don’t ruin too many other things in the process.
4. Finally, apply the colour in the bathroom (even in the bath) as there are more surfaces there that won’t be ruined straight away if there are any mishaps... but do wipe up any solution that splatters, spills or drips on both household items/furniture and also on your skin immediately, as you really don’t want to be ruining things or rocking your hair colour all the way down your face/neck, or both!

I hope you’ve found this helpful, sorry it went on a bit longer than I expected it would... if you’re still reading now, thank you (and well done)! Also, sorry for all the photographs of me in the salon, I had to break it up with something - I was only intending on using two of the pictures, until I saw the length of the post!

Which do you prefer/do... salon, or DIY? x

Holiday Hair Care!

Protecting your skin in the sun is something most of us do automatically by now, but what about your hair? How many of you protect your hair whilst on holiday? Think about it; the blazing hot sun with its harmful UV rays, and swims in the sea/pool (meaning plenty of salt water and/or chlorine penetrating into your hair, causing further damage and making the UV damage even worse) both working with each other to damage those precious strands. Even in this country, hair can be prone to UV damage – and let’s face it, we don’t get much sun to start with, so it just goes to show how easily the damage can occur.

Now, I don’t know about you but my hair is pretty important to me. It’s a big part of how I express myself and how I present myself to the world and I like to do my best to keep it looking as good as possible - even it might not always look that way but that’s a whole other story.

First and foremost, protecting your hair (at the very least whilst on holiday) can protect your hair colour. I currently have red tones in my hair (quite bright, see photo above for the rough colour) which are notoriously difficult to maintain and keep it looking vibrant – and you may remember my dilemma post before my holiday, worrying about keeping this colour tip top whilst away?! Protecting your hair also keeps it hydrated, in better condition and easier to manage whilst you’re away and also when you get back. You can protect your hair in a couple of ways:

• Wear a hat and try to stay in the shade; wearing a hat not only protects your hair, it also protects your scalp which can be prone to burning which could lead to skin cancer (as you will already know)... and staying in the shade should keep your hair (and skin) a little bit more protected from the harmful rays.

• Use a sun protection product: These can come in cream, spray or even serum formulas that you basically apply to your hair, much like any of your usual styling products and are left in throughout the day. The best way to use these products is before and after you’ve been swimming, and then with regular applications throughout the day (even if not swimming) – just like you might use sun cream, really.

Whilst on holiday, I used Korres Red Vine Sun Protection Spray (around £10) throughout the whole stay – sorry I don’t have a real photograph of it, I did take one but some of my photographs were corrupt when I got home, including this one and as I used it all up, I didn't bring back the empty bottle. It smells lovely, was easy to use (spray formula) and I think really did help to protect my locks!

The photograph below shows my hair after my holiday and as you can see, it’s actually not in bad condition – considering I was in Egypt where it is incredibly hot, and spent most of the day, every day in the pool (and going down the water slides *ahem*). What do you think? It has faded, there’s no doubt about that but I really do think that the fading would have been much, much worse had I not been using a hair protection spray. I also came back with hair that didn’t resemble straw which is always a bonus.

Another hair protection range that is worth consideration comes from Schwarzkopf Professional with products including:

BC Bonacure Sun Protect Hair & Body Shampoo (approx £9.30 for 250ml) which says it will cleanse hair to limit sun, salt and pollution damage (so could be great if you live in a city too) and sooth sun stressed hair and scalps. You can use this before and after sun exposure, depending on how often you like to wash your hair on holiday. Personally my hair gets too dry if I wash it too much so I wash after I’ve come in from the pool, just before I go out for the evening but everybody has their own routine.

BC Bonacure Sun Protect Spray Conditioner (£10.45 for 200ml) – This is a 2 phase protection spray that will protect hair against UV rays whilst minimising damage from other environmental factors. I personally would use this throughout the day as and when necessary, but also as a leave in conditioner after washing in the evening! This smells lovely and is not at all oily either on the skin or in the hair.

'Foam' spray is more creamy than foamy!

BC Bonacure Sun Protect After-Sun Treatment (£11.80 for 200ml) – This is a more intensive treatment that you can use to nourish, repair and smooth your hair after sun exposure. It’s a rinse out product that comes as a 'foam' spray although I don't find it to be very foamy. I haven’t been using this all the time, just once a week as a treat for my hair and is of a lovely, creamy consistency (it also smells divine, much like the rest of the range)!

I only received these AFTER I came back from my jollies so I haven’t had the chance to put them through rigorous testing, since the weather has been so... well crap here too. What I will say though is that when I have used the range, my hair felt super clean, soft and healthy and for that reason I have no hesitation in recommending the range to you, even if you’re not going on holiday, as hair needs care wherever you are!

PR Samples, Views are my own!

Celeb Sunday - Katy Perry!

Katy Perry appears to be in some kind of hair transitional phase, going from her trademark black hair, possibly back to her naturally blonde state? She’s not letting on what she’s aiming for (other than to say it will be a drastic change) but is doing it in stages for fear of damaging her hair. Good on her I say, I’ve done the whole black to blonde (ish) and it is HARD work – especially when you’re not a natural blonde, like me – and can really take its toll on your hair if not done with care! I think it’s quite refreshing to see a celeb sporting an ‘in-between’ hair colour instead of doing it all in one go, or donning a wig (or other disguise) to hide it.

Plus, if I’m honest I don’t think it looks bad at all... the style is gorgeous and I do quite like gingery hair anyway! :-)

Halo Hair Extensions Launch In Debenhams, Manchester (Plus Pics)!

I’ve been looking into hairpieces and wigs a lot lately but hadn’t quite decided on what I wanted, so it felt like fate when I got invited to the Halo Hair Extensions launch at Debenhams in Manchester.

When I got there, there was already a bit of a buzz around the stand, music was playing and the bubbly was flowing; all the Halo girls had been having their hair done up by Richard Harvey, their resident hair stylist for the evening, and they all looked great.

As you may know, I currently have plum-y tones in my hair, so I wasn’t entirely sure if there would be anything close to my colour to match it to, as every other hairpiece I’d seen (crown volumizers and pony tails etc from various brands) had been in generic colours like black, brown, dark brown and blonde etc; however the lovely ladies at the stand found an almost perfect match for my hair (99J , in case you’re wondering) which surprised and pleased me in equal measures!

I was offered the opportunity to have Richard put my set of extensions in for me, which I accepted – but had them put in a little differently as I had been talking about using them to bulk up side buns and up-do’s – I loved the finished result, this man is a genius! Lily from Beauty’s Bad Habit took a few photographs of me having my hair styled, so I’ve posted one up for you to see... and you can see my face in it (eek!) so please be nice, I’m very shy!

It occurred to me that since this is real hair and in the same kind of tone as my own hair that there may be some colour fading, I was told that this wouldn’t happen as they lock the colour in (I don’t know how) which is reassuring!

You could actually have this hair dyed if you wanted to, I was told that I could basically treat the hair like I would my own and that means colouring, straightening, curling, and shampooing and conditioning with my normal products which is great for me as one thing that stopped me buying other pieces I had seen was the extra care and attention needed to keep them looking good.

A good match, yes!?

Halo hair have both real and synthetic hair for sale on their website, but on their Debenhams concession stand they seem to just have the real hair, which is what was picked out for me. The hair is so soft and smooth, you can tell it’s good quality - and the clips looked easy to use too. I loved that I could see and feel the hair beforehand, then get colour matched there and then (they have small wefts in cute little drawers for this) which is something you can’t do when browsing the website – no matter how well designed it is! :-)

They use ‘Virgin Indian remy hair’ which is said to be one of the best quality hair types for extension use, so they’re not selling you any old hair, just because it’s cheap for them... which leads me to my next point, the price.

I’ve seen hair pieces (not extension types, just crown volumizers etc) for around £60-80ish, and wigs that could go for much, much more - all of which were synthetic (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I hasten to add) so I was expecting these full head, real hair extension pieces to be even more than that.

Actually I got a very pleasant surprise when I found out that a 16 inch full head clip-in set was just £49.99 – this is the set I was given and it’s perfectly ample for my hair. They also have other lengths available and also deluxe sets in each length that basically give you more wefts of hair to work with.

The prices are as follows:

Clip In Full Head Sets:
16” £49.99
20” £59.99
24” £69.99

Deluxe Heads:
16” £74.99
20” 84.99
24” £94.99

Halo hair also do a couple of other products that I thought deserved a quick mention, the first is something called ‘The Halo’ – a wide weft of hair on a very fine fibre (I’m sorry, I don’t know what it’s made of) that goes all the way around the crown of your head (like a halo, of course) and you then pull your own hair over it, giving you instant extra volume and length. This is perfect for those of you who don’t feel comfortable using clips, or whose hair is too fine to hide the clips from the normal range satisfactorily.

The Halo:
16” £79.99
20” £89.99

Also available are their new feathers range, available in pink, purple, peacock and natural – I saw these on the stand and they look really good fun. They’re perfect for summer and could have you looking festival fabulous in under a minute... I’ll be keeping my eye out for these at V Festival this year; I can imagine a lot of girls will be wearing them (quite possibly myself included)! Prices for the feathers start at £9.99 which is also very reasonable!

If you’re in the Manchester area then it’s definitely worth popping in for a look, the girls are really friendly and the products are great! There are plans to roll out more Halo stands to more Debenhams stores throughout the country so if you’re not in Manchester then you might not have too long to wait for yours – you could always order online if you’re itching to get your hands on your own set of extensions right away!

P.S, When I put these in my hair myself, I'll photograph the results and do another post about how easy I found them to use etc.

Disclosure: PR Sample