My Hair-story

I have no fear when it comes to my hair, I will, and pretty much have done everything to it. I have bravely put together various images of me over the years (sorry only the ones I happened to have stored on my computer-some not the best quality), to illustrate. Please don't be mean!
People will say 'oh, if you're going to go for that colour/cut/style you should really get a professional to do it', however I have always managed even the most difficult change myself. I also hate going to the hairdressers...I completely detest it. I can't understand the notion of 'treating/pampering yourself' at a salon, to me, it's torture. It's probably because I've never found a stylist I like. Even from family/friend recommendations of 'oh she's a lovely girl, really friendly, you'll like her'. Whenever I sit in the chair, said stylist turns into a nasty so and so. I seem to attract hurtful, rude and bitchy remarks. During my last visit (perhaps 2 or 3 years ago-I cut and dye my own hair now), the stylist said (more than once) that she wouldn't use a home-hair dye kit on her worst enemy. 'You don't know what sort of chemicals they put in home dye kits, I would never use them, it's the worst thing you could do to your hair', she went on and on. Now, I may be naive here, but exactly what sort of colourant do salons use? Some special form of no-harm fairy dye that magically lightens, darkens, covers grey and treats the hair at the same time? I doubt it.

I admit my hair has been battered over the years. At Uni it was assumed I was a natural blonde (I'm actually mousy brown, I think) and for most of the 4 years I was varying shades of blonde (apart from a brief encounter with pink and further very brief encounter as a brunette). I went through a short phase of crimping my hair on nights out, so it was all Tina Turner sticky-out as you will see from the pics. Then I dyed it pink again a few years ago, I didn't realise how difficult it would be to get rid of the colour when I got bored. I think I ended up using pre-lightener twice, then dyed it brown and you could still see pink shining through in the light. After this, I decided I liked it really Gwen Stefani blonde, so continued to bleach my hair for over a year. Then there was the perm when I was 12 that didn't quite take, so I had to go back a few days later for it to be re-done...some bits still wouldn't curl, so it was permed again a couple of weeks later (3 perms in 2 weeks!).

I'm sure we all have horror hair stories from our youth though. When I look now at what some people do to their hair, I actually think I'm quite tame. Yes, I bleach the roots before applying my pink dye, but the pink is vegetable dye and completely non-harmful and I take care to only apply bleach to the new hair. I don't use heated appliances at all, not even a hairdryer. I always condition my hair and use intensive conditioning products regularly. I don't overuse styling or leave-in products and I don't wash my hair everyday (my hair really doesn't need it). So I can become quite irritated when people say to me 'oh I'm surprised you have any hair left after all you've done to it'.

For the past couple of years I've been cutting my hair myself using the ponytail technique (scrape your hair forward into a ponytail in the centre front of your head and cut straight across so it's all the one length. Let the ponytail down and it magically swirls all around your head with feathered shorter lengths on top and longer underneath-similar to the Taylor Momsen cut that everyone loves just now). I've never been afraid of a fringe (or bangs!), lately I've had mega short and straight or longer and sideswept. I've been feeling like a change for a few weeks now and I am happy with the colour, so decided I need a different cut. I'm going to get my Mum to cut it off tonight! She bleached my roots last night (an attractive shade of yellow just now!) and we were going to do the pink tonight, so I might as well cut it before colouring it. This is the longest my hair has been and it's been like this for a good while, but I want to get rid of all the straggly ends and go for something like this (below). For once I'm slightly nervous (aside from the fact I have a wedding tomorrow-it's probably not the best time to cut all my hair off), I've never had a bob since I was 5 and I hated it then. I'm not sure it will suit my face shape, but I'm going for it anyway. It'll grow back if I don't like it.The J-Lo pic is just her longer hair pinned up I think but that or the Penelope Cruz pic is what I am going to attempt to style tomorrow. I don't like my hair all neat and suit volume, so I want to be able to play with my natural wave and wear it tousled like SJP or curly like J-Lo. I'm sure I saw a image of someone recently (maybe Jennifer Lopez?) that had a really voluminous bob...that's what I'm trying to achieve-may be difficult with thin and not very much hair, but I'm game for a challenge. Wish me luck!!