Hair Update

If you've been reading here for a while, you may be aware of my self-imposed anti hair-dye challenge. What you won't know, is that I broke it...

In November I made the decision to break almost 2 years of not dyeing my hair. I toyed with the idea of a slight change, maybe a chestnut brown or mahogany...but subtle was never my thing. I love dramatic hair changes, and it took me a while to decide between going light or dark. I decided to go light, and stocked up on bleach and toner.

Several packs of dye later, I had bleach blonde hair.

My roots have since come through, so I've redyed them, now it looks like it's growing through ginger! Time to re-bleach, then I have a grey dye to go over the top - after that, who knows!

I stopped dying my hair for a year and this happened...

At new years I was challenged to avoid dying my hair for a year. I accepted the challenge, and took the opportunity on new years eve to dye my hair one last time. Now, over a year on, I have successfully avoided hair dye.

I have been tempted to break the challenge...every time I see a hair dye aisle in a shop I go and stare longingly at all of the different colours. To anyone who has seen me doing this I must look very strange! I do feel like I want to dye my hair, but at the same time I'm enjoying not having to worry about keeping my hair colour vibrant and fresh, and there is the added bonus of no longer spending money on hair dyes every month!

I was worried about my roots coming through and really hating the way they look, but it hasn't been too bad. A part of me quite enjoys being able to see my roots - it's like a progress tracker. I am all about visual progress trackers! My hair hasn't grown as much as I thought it would, but I can see that it is getting healthier. The more it's grown out, the more it looked like I had dyed it ombre - especially when the brown colour I dyed it at new years faded to show the blonde underneath again.

I like how it looks, I have my curls back and I like having fresh smelling hair. No more chemical-smelling hair for me! Following that thought, no more stained towels, smelly bathroom, or stained fingers either...bonuses all around.

So here we go - I got pics with my hair straight so you have an easier time seeing the colour and length.

You can see in the 2016 picture that the ends of my hair are blonder - this is where the brown dye faded adn the blonde underneath came through. my roots however, are all my own colour. From roots to around my ears I should say - I don't think it's just my roots anymore!

I was originally going to dye my hair as soon as possible, however, I decided to keep going and make it 2 years without dying my hair. I am curious to see what the colour ooks like when it's all my own...plus I have my wedding to think about, so I want my hair to be in the best condition possible.

PS...apologies for the crazy smile, I had to replicate the frist pic sooo there it is again.

The Empties Challenge! January Edition

New year, a new month of empties! Though to be honest, I haven't got through quite as many products as I expected to...

1: Tresemme Karatin Smooth: 7 Day Smooth System Conditioner

I bought the whole set of the 7 day smooth set - the shampoo, conditioner, and the heat activated serum. I've made my way through the conditioner the quickest - no surprises there. I dont know many poeple who use shampoo faster than condtioner! I can't comment on the efectiveness of this product without mentioning the other products it was made to be used with. Using the conditioner alongside the other related products is meant to keep your hair smooth for 7 days - even if you get your hair wet in that time frame. You may be aware that I rarely straighten my hair, but when I do, I used these products. I got pretty amazing results with them, my hair looked like I had used GHD's on it - and I don't own GHDs. It was sleek, smooth, neat, and stayed that way while in humid conditions. It lasted a few days with me sleeping on it, only needing a brush and quick top-up straighten until I washed it again. I was really pleased with the results - way back when I used to straighten my hair all the time, everyday it would be a challenge to restraighten it after it curled up again or got any moisture near it! Big change from back then - I was able to do my hair in 10 minutes or less. However, there is a downside of these products - it leaves residue in your hair - like a coating of karatin. This made brushing my hair very difficult as I would have to very carfully brush through the product buildup.
I have used the shampoo and conditioner without straighteneing my hair afterwards - I was left with smooth non-frizzy hair that I left to curl naturally. I still ended up with product build up though, so my curls got a bit snaggley and tangled, especially overnight after sleeping on them. I reverted to only using one or the other, alongside a different shampoo, and this moreor less solved the issue. no product build up, and slightly smoother hair for a couple of days. Honestly, I think 7 days is pushing it, but perhaps this would work better on someone who doesn't have curly hair?

2: Sure Maximum Protection Deodorant

I bought this after it was recommended on another blog that I read (Hello TooFatToRun!). It was also on offer, and deodorant on offer is basically how I decide which one I'll be using... I haven't ever used a deodorant that you twist at the bottom to get the product out before, so this was a new experience for me. At first I found it a bit odd to smear product over my underarms, but actually I think I prefer it to roll on deodorant now. In terms of the functionality of the product, it did stop me from feeling so sweaty and smelly, even after a workout (obviously I was sweating everywhere else, but I didn't have to worry about having smelly pits!). It has a pleasant smell, and does the job it says it should do - you'll hear no complaints from me on the product itself. However, I haven't re-bought this product because the price of it is a little more than what I would usually spend on deodorant. whenever it's on offer htough, you can be sure I'll be stocking up on it! PS - let me know if you see this on offer anywhere? K, thnx.

That's it from me this month, but did you know that I'm on facebook? you can like my page for some more updates and anecdotes here

Happy February!

Life Updates

Hi!

It's been a while. No fault but my own on that one - soz.

I feel like a lot has happened in the past couple of months...here's a rundown of what I've been up to:

• I moved out of the house Andrew and I were sharing together.
• I moved halfway across the country into a flat (with Andrew).
• The move was not very well planned out, and took a lot of time over several weekends to get everything moved across.
• I successfully hired, drove, and crashed a transit van.
• Lots of reading - so many reviews to write up and post!
• Work got very busy very quickly - peak trading season is upon us.
• I joined a gym
• Found and joined a new Slimming World group
• Went to Ireland
• Made several Ikea trips to kit out our flat
• My car failed her MOT and is for sale...Click here if you'd like to adopt a wonderful little runner... 

  

  I love my little Tallulah! Sad to let her go.

• Found & bought a new car
• Named new car. 'Hogan' in case you were wondering.
• Had a spa day
• had a couple of haircuts - discovered a hairdresser who is really enthusiastic about cutting curly hair, epic win for me!
• Did, and am still doing, a hell of a lotta unpacking

Thought I might have a small pitiful list but actually it turned out to be quite long! Go me. Busy bee.

You can expect some more regular posts from me now that I've settled into our flat, there's not too much more unpacking to do! Let me know if you want me to elaborate on anything above, happy to throw in a random life post!

Anywho...I promised to get a box unpacked tonight...SEEYA.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I hate being hairy. Yes, I am absolutely going there. When I have hairy armpits I feel like a icky man-lady. Over the years I've tried all kinds of hair removal...shaving, waxing, that stinky hair cream stuff...the only thing I haven't tried is the slightly more permanent laser hair removal (I can neither confirm nor deny that it may be next on my list of things to try...)

I thought it would be interesting to write about my experiences with each method...ENJOY

1. Shaving

The standard. Where more or less everyone starts out...

Yay

• Feels great to get the hair off quickly and pain-free! 
• Quick
• Cheap
• Easy
• Can do it at home
• Convenient

Nay

• Itchy regrowth
• Does NOT last very long. At all. 2 days max
• Accidental slips or bad angles can cause uncontrollable bleeding and scarring
• Razors quickly go blunt
• Razor burn/razor rash
• Ingrown hairs
• Red bobbly skin

Krummometer says: 

P.S. Krumm is a character from a cartoon Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. It was always on Cartoon Network in the late evenings.

The convenience of shaving pushed it up to a 3 for me, and to be fair, I shave on my legs pretty much all the time. Though in other more sensitive areas - like armpits - it does not work very well for me.

2. Hair Removal Cream

Yay

• Quick
• Can do it at home

Nay

• It smells gross
• It doesn't work as well as I would like it to
• It's gloopy

Krummometer says: 

I did not like this. at all. Gross and smelly with unsatisfactory results...Boooooo!

3. Epilator

Yay

• Quicker than plucking each hair out
• Cheap (once you have bought the epilator)
• Reusable

Nay

• Painful. All the pain.
• Scary - there is no way I would use this on my underarms - legs are as far as I will go with this!
• Too violent - sometimes it breaks the hairs and I'm left with stubble

Krummometer says: 

Another hair removal method I did NOT like. It's too painful and does not give very good results.... Having said that, the last time I used an epilator was several years ago soo it might be worth giving this another shot. Maybe. 

4. Strip Wax (Home kits)

Yay

• Pulls the hair out from the root
• Lighter regrowth
• You can do it privately at home without the awkwardness of stripping off in a salon

Nay

• Painful
• Takes a lot of courage to pull off the strip yourself
• Messy and sticky
• It's hard to reach all the areas you want to wax 
• Takes a lot of time

Krummometer says:

It's hard to pull the strips off - correctly - on your own. It's also soo messy and sticky...I prefer the smoothness of waxing, but I prefer the convenience of shaving over the mess of waxing myself

5. Strip Wax (Salon)

Yay

• You don't have to do anything. Just lay back and let the beautician do the work
• Lighter regrowth
• Smooth results

Nay

• Going to a salon every month can get expensive
• Painful
• Having to grow the hair out long enough to be waxed again is neither fun nor attractive...

Krummometer says:

I love the smooth, clean feeling after a wax. However, I have sensitive skin so I do sometimes come up quite red and sore in the stubborn hair areas.

6. Hot Wax

Yay

• Gentler on the skin (no wax strips - just peels off)
• Gets the shorter hairs that can be missed in a strip wax
• Smells nice
• hairless for longer
• Grows back finer

Nay

• Gets expensive going to a salon every month
• Can be painful (but less painful than strip wax)
• I haven't seen this in many places - few and far between!
• Have to regrow the hair in-between treatments

Krummometer says: 

Pling Pling Pling! We have a winner. This by far is my favorite hair removal method. I prefer it over all other methods I've tried thus far! 

What method do you prefer? 

Krumm image sourced from here: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/317/1/f/krumm_by_mollyketty-d6u5rsd.png

Hair Chronicles, Vol #4

Hi all! 

This is the (actual) final Hair Chronicles post. Then you'll be all up to date with my hair history just in time for the New Year...

Catch up:

Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3

2014 - A year of Length

As you know, I entered 2014 with dark purple hair. I was fond of this, so it stuck and my hair grew.

I even went up Ben Nevis at the end of March with purple hair.

After a little while I let it fade out, and felt the itching need to dye it again. I was really torn between going light, or going dark. What helped me make the decision was having already made the decision to grow my hair, bleaching it would more or less reverse that process by killing my hair. So dark it was.

I stayed dark through the summer, and just let it fade out to a dark brown. Then I got bored again and decided to play with some bleach...and used it on the ends of my hair. and then just left it to grow...and grow...

Oh, and I also had a haircut for the first time in months and decided to get a full fringe...it felt soooo much healthier after I got it cut!

I got bored with the colour again and spontaneously picked up a ginger hairdye. It faded pretty quickly, but I have since dyed it the same colour again & had a second haircut - just a trim! 

The ginger-ness really didn't come out well in pictures. I promise you it is quite ginger now. A good Auburn kind of ginger!.

Now for the final, current hair colour on my ever changing noggin:

Voila!

Now, this colour is particularly significant. If you have ready through all of my Hair Chronicles posts, you have a very good idea of how much I like to change my hair. I have been set a challenge for 2015, I have to go without dying my hair for a year.

So you see, this brown colour is - approximately - the closest to my natural hair colour. It will be my hair colour for the next 365 days as my actual hair colour comes through. I'll be sure to update on this challenge as is progresses...

The challenge was given to me by Pip, who I'm sure will be there to enforce the challenge when I get tempted!

Thanks for reading all of my waffle about my hair, let me know if this was interesting? More like this?   

Hair Chronicles, Vol #3

Volume #1 and Volume #2 here!

Welcome back to the third (and final?) instalment of my Hair Chronicles! Yaaaay

To remind you, at the end of 2012 I saw the new year creep in with pink hair. I was in a colourful stage...

EDIT: This is the second time I am writing this post as I lost everything. even though I clicked 'save' twice to make sure I had it all...

2013 - Taste the Rainbow

As you know I saw 2013 in with pink hair. This faded (or did I use ColourB4 - I have no idea!) then I decided to go bright orange...

Yes, I am dressed as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland...happy 21st to me! 

I must have then used ColourB4 on my hair because it wasn't long before I was back to blonde, and had a risque haircut - it was rather short at the back.

This brings us to the end of Feb...Oh and I put purple into my hair too (Right pic)
My rapid colour changes did not go unnoticed, and I was publicly challenged (on Facebook) to do rainbow hair.

Several hours and 7 pots of dye led me to this...

It was magnificent. I l o v e d having rainbow hair. Unfortunately, it was not to be. I was working on a project at uni that required non-crazy natural hair. Time for another box of ColourB4...

Nailed it.
Totally natural.

After all of the bleaching, dying and stripping, my hair was...understandably dead. Again. So i took a big leap and had a hair cut. I have never had hair so short!

Yes, that is my natural hair colour on the roots of the left picture.
I wasn't a fan of the rooty blond look, so I dyed it brown while it grew out again (we're up to May).

These are July to September, where I must have had a haircut. the hair is looking much healthier, and it has stayed one colour since May!

I had another haircut for my graduation in October. You may have also noticed some purple has snuck into the front of my hair...and yes, this included having to bleach the front...

There we are, bleached front on the left. I dyed my hair dark purple just in time to see in the new year.

Ummm this post is rather long with all of the colour changes...so I'm afraid 2014 will have to wait for another post!

Has anyone else undertaken a crazy hair challenge? Or is that just me?

Hair Chronicles, Vol #2

In case you missed it, Here's Vol #1 

Here we go again! It's getting more and more complicated to find all of the pictures from all of my hair colours/styles...but I've given it a go. 

2011 - Brunettey 

To refresh, ended 2010 with brown hair, and I was looking to give my hair a rest on the bleaching front...about damn time after a hard year of constantly bleaching it! 

this year I more or less had 2 haircuts, and let my hair grow out. Yay for healthy hair!

2012 - So. Many. Colours.

In the space of three months I went from brown, to purple, back to brown, then back to purple again. (yes, that is me dressed as a cow.)
I also grew out my hair, in the last pic you can just about see how long it got!
please excuse the bad quality photos...

Then of course I had a haircut and bleached it again...and grew it again...then went blonder and cut it all off...again...

Then I decided I wanted white hair...Again. which worked great for Halloween!
There can't be many more changes to my hair, right? Noope. 

I then decided to go post box red and then had to cut my hair again because...you guessed it...it was dead again.
Pink hair is one of my favorites, I was quite happy to let the red fade out to a pink!

I am quite sure I was almost every colour in the colour spectrum this year. Or at least thoroughly covered the 'reds' part of it!

Check back soon for Volume #3 . . .

Hair Chronicles, Vol #1

For those who dont know, or those who have never seen me now and again over a period of time; I have a tendancy to change my hair a lot. I really mean A Lot. There aren't many hair colours I haven't been. I saw a post on Briar Rose Blog about Briar Rose's hair story. Isn't her hair amazing?! The post got me thinking about all of the hair styles and colours I've tried on over the years, and I thought it might be fun to share them - the good and the bad...Enjoy!

2005

Apologies for the AWFUL editing...

It all began with a highlighting kit. At the ripe age of 13, I wanted to have highlighted hair. In the pic you can just about see my natural hair colour peeking out underneath! I clearly did not do much styling with my hair back then. Although, that is exactly the same as now in 2014 so...clearly that hasn't changed!

2006 - I have no idea.

I cant find pics from this year sooo....no idea what my hair was like. I think I had stopped highlighting it and was letting it grow out after cutting it a couple of times...

2007 - Big Change

The little devil in the corner is Sisterbell way back when

This is the year I dramatically went from luscious bra strap length brown hair, to an inverted bob, which I then convinced mum to dye black for me. Perfect for the summer...In the second pic above you can see the bob had grown out a little, but you get the jist!

2008 - Sudden Curl Attack 

After the hassle of straightening my hair for a long while, I decided to give up on that (mostly) and let my hair do its thing-both with growing and with curling. My hair always had a natural wave to it, this is the first time I realised how curly it can get! Regarding colours, after the black hair - which I kept up on and off for a while, I became fond of a med-dark brown. I think the med-dark brown was actually faded black hairdye...shhh don't tell anyone. I think the curlyness was due to my hair being a bit happier with some more nourishment!

2009 - Do your thaang

Long black hair & the beginnings of my backcombing stage!

This year I let my hair grow out, was black haired, then did some hair modelling and ended up with violety-black and copper hair (which I loved); and experimented with a full fringe. I was really getting into changing my hair up and trying new things. Being full-time at college helped, I had more freedom to do whatever I wanted with my hair, and it didn't matter. Unless we were performing, occasionally bizarre hair was a problem.

More from 2009 - left to right: hair for a dance show, full fringe and growing out, side fringe & growing.

 Almost to the end of 2009! Left to right: Lopped off my hair, growing, and growing!

By the end of the year it was just a bit longer than my shoulders!
FunFact: 2009 is also the year I met Manfred :)

2010 - Attack of the Bleach

Well, this year I decided I wanted white hair. I had dark brown hair at the beginning of the year...There may have been some damage to my hair after multiple bleachings...

Okay a LOT of damage. As in full on chewing gum hair...
I attempted to go red, but the hair was so damaged it couldn't take on the colour (the colour pigment just came right back out of the hair folicle) sooo it was pink. Which I loved...however my workplace didn't! Oops. You can see how bad the condition of my hair was on the end of my pigtails on the bottom left pic above.

I MAY have attempted to cut my own hair without success, and had to go and get my hair cut, it went from very long and dead, to very short. Then I dyed it brown to give it a chance to recover...

Yay! Happy new year rice crispy cake!

Volume #2 will be up soon! Just as soon as I find some more pics...