New hair!

From this:

 To this:

 I love it! It's very subtle, but looks so much better.

And finally one with my glasses as this is how I actually look!

 

Making like a sheep

As you know I am a self-confessed gym dodger, still paying for my membership in the vain hope that just having the card in my purse will give me buns of steel.  I was reading something the other day, no doubt with a glass of red in one hand and a bag of crisps in the other, about how women with fabulous hair are generally fatter than those poor souls with skanky, unwashed, seriously unfabulous hair.  

As I am one of the folliculey blessed, with  a great mane of tresses that are bathed in unguents at great expense and then teased into a coiff of glossy lovelyness (in my head, if not actually on it) this gave me pause for thought.  Apparently, women that spend ages doing their hair avoid getting all hot and sweaty cos it makes their hair look shit. 

I had a quick mouthful of wine and another handful of crisps as I processed this and had something of an epiphany.  That is exactly the reason I avoid the gym.  Well, its the main reason I cite for my gym avoidance. I get up at 5.30am 5 days a week, it takes me 1hr & 20 mins to do my hair and face so that I am presentable to serve guests breakfast.  This finishes at 8.30am.  The gym is 10 minutes away, puts me at the gym at 8.40.  1 hr in the gym and home and its 9.50am.  Add the second hair and face session so that I am presentable to see in guests as they arrive later in the day and its 11.10am and the entire morning has gone. 

So I decided to do something unheard of for me.  On Sunday morning I got up, washed my hair and left it at that!  To fully grasp how important that is you have to understand how fat women think.  Fat women know that everyone thinks we are lazy and out of control, which isn't actually the case we just like wine and crisps and don't move as much as we should.  So to show you how much control we have our hair is always perfect, our nails are always manicured and we would never, ever leave the house without full make up, whilst struggling to do up our size 20 jeans and hating anyone that dares weigh a pound less than us.  See, it was a REALLY big thing!

Whilst it isn't perhaps the most terrific look for me it also isn't totally awful and I am going to stick with it for a bit longer, certainly on weekdays, I get to have a lie in on Saturdays and Sundays - no alarm clock til 7am so maybe I'll splurge and do the full works then.

Done

Undone - oh but looking at these I am missing my lovely groomed hair.

And as I am sure you are wondering, no I still haven't been to the gym!

Clairol Perfect 10 Hair colour to dye for

See what I did there? Yep, I am bigging up my own rather pathetic pun, sad really.  Apart from one very long winded and astonishingly scientific hair colouring post right back when this blog was a baby I have never really mentioned colouring my hair.

Which is rather odd as it is something that I do about once every 2 - 3 weeks, quite an oversight in fact!

I have been colouring my hair since I was 14, firstly with Toners (Rich Mahogany) then Glints (Pimento Red) and then I grew up and let the hairdresser do it (caramel, honey and red highlights and light brown base colour) and then when the greys became really persistant I went back to doing it myself at home.  I made the usual mistakes - why does the colour on the box never look like that when its on your head?  After lots of trial and error I bought my first box of Clairol Perfect 10 in Medium Ash Blond last July (in response to a bit of a hair trauma!) and have stuck faithfully to this range pretty much ever since - had a brief flirtation with a mousse home colour, loved the formula not the results.


Over the last 12 months I have had 3 different hairdressers, (yes I am picky and yes I will switch hairdresser the minute you lash up my cut) each one has asked about my colour and each has commented on how great the colour is and what fantastic condition my hair is in, all were surprised to hear that I was using a home colouring kit, kudos Clairol!


I have used Medium Ash Blond and Light Ash blond alternatively, just to prevent my hair getting too samey, I tend to use half the pack for a full head colour or divide it into 3 if I am only doing my roots, so not only does it give great results but it is stupidly inexpensive!  I recently had a dabble with lightest Ash blond which I felt was just too light for me, the greys seemed to dominate and with my pale skin and grey eyes I just felt that I was becoming almost invisible.  I needed a lift so last night nipped to Asda and purchased Dark Blond, plan being I'd get up 10 mins early this morning, slap on the colour whilst I brushed my teeth rinse it off in the shower, job done.


I did manage to get up 10 mins early, stumbled into bathroom and promptly mixed half the tube of conditioner with half the bottle of Activating cream, stirred it for a while trying to work out why it wasn't thickening up and then realised what I had done! Luckily had half the activating creme left so rinsed out the bowl and began again!  New hair colour done and upstairs by 8.15am to start work!

As usual I am really pleased with how this has come out, I think I had been rather sucked into the thinking that the lighter my hair the better, on reflection this darker more neutral shade is much more flattering on me, at least I think it is and response from the fam has been positive!

My hair feels lovely and is really shiny as well.

Think I will be sticking with this dark blond for some time, I really like how it doesnt completely mask your hairs own tones so it looks very natural, not fresh out of the box and this neutral shade is warm enough not to make me look like death!

 If you are thinking of a bit of home colouring I would definately recommend trying Perfect 10, it is one of the few colours I have used where the shade on the box is pretty much what you get on your head, most aren't even in the same colour spectrum, it smells fine, the conditioner is lovely and is the only one from a colour kit that I have actually used between colouring to keep my hair looking good and my hair is in great condition, whats not to love?!

Hair cut update

From this:

to this:
Job done (sparing you the front as it comes with face, and no one needs to see that right now!)

Boots Expert

So far have never been disappointed with anything from this range, well ok a teensy bit with the sensitive skin serum which didn't really do much, although bought it buy one get on free so it was the equivalent of £2 a tube so for a bit of additional moisture cant really complain at that!

Decided that with all this straightening I should be protecting my hair a bit as have noticed the ends are becoming a tad crispy, not a great look!


Got the clarifying shampoo too, as I use SLS free all the time I like a once a week blitz with lather and foam and bubbles piled high and sod the chemicals! Just to make sure its really clean.

Charles Worthington Dream Hair - on trial

Am usually a salon product only type of person when it comes to my hair. My hair is my crowning glory and where I let my control freak run wild. Getting my arse exercised into shape is waaay too much like hard work so my hair takes the brunt, most fat girls have great hair and nails - check next time you are shopping, the stuff that's easy to fix we fix, unless we are inherently lazy and then that's a different kind of fat. Whole other story.

So salon stuff all the way and had been using Paul Mitchell Super Skinny £10 ish for shampoo and £11 ish for conditioner. It was nice but a bit boring. On Sunday spent a little more than I had envisaged on make up (see UNE post!) so thought I should be a good girl and buy cheap hair stuff. Spent ages scanning all that Boots had to offer and having opened and sniffed so many bottles of shampoo was starting to develop holes in my septum I found the Charles Worthington Dream Hair stuff which quite frankly smells delish. I am Taurean. (hence being "well upholstered". Like a bull.) Taureans are sensuous types, we like taste, texture and smell a whole big lot (see Prada post!)

So I got the Charles Worthington Dream Hair Shampoo, Conditioner and Vitamin styling spray based purely on its smell. Decided there was no way I could post about this til I had used it for a week - you don't care how it smells, you want to know if it works, right? So this is a mid-test round up and so far I am thinking this stuff should come with a good hair day guarantee. Loving it.