Tuesday 29 May 2012

The Hair Diaries #1 – Brief history and Starting Point


*Please excuse the terrible photos ... (they’re cringe-worthy I know!!!)*

Before I begin I feel I need to explain the point of this article and of many to come in the future. I’ve been growing my hair out since April 2011 and I’ve decided to start a Hair Diary on this blog. Every month I shall post a photo and a little article to share any tips I’ve picked up or products that I feel are working on my hair to maybe help someone else who is struggling as much as I am! WE'RE IN THIS TOGETHER LADIES! It’s so unbearable waiting for your hair to grow... it’s worse than watching paint dry! I’m sure if I kept a diary I’d realise that all my efforts aren’t in vain and that I am making progress!  

After moving house numerous times I’m unable to provide a lot of photos from when I used to live back in England. However, I managed to come up with this one which shows off my mum’s brilliant hairdressing skills ... everyone’s favourite : THE WONKY FRINGE!

Alreet deaaar? Fancy a ride on meee tractorrrrrr? 
The worst part is that my hair has a cowlick right at the front of my head so I can’t do fringes without it being lopsided, sticking up in the air or looking like a comb over. Why my mum tried to cut one in is beyond me! As you can probably tell, my "real" hair is brown (but changes colour in the sun strangely enough). Anyway, growing up, as my hair grew quite fast, I used to go from long hair to bob, long hair, to bob... (below : longish hair) 

All I wanted for Christmas that year was my other front tooth back!! As you can see, another one of my mums failed attempts at cutting fringes. Hee hee!  
Any typical nineties kid most likely experienced the DREADED BOB but Bob was part of our childhood nevertheless and we shall always look back on him with fond memories of shame and... well, more shame... 
Until the age of about 12 I didn’t touch my hair at all. It was too long so I had no interest in it whatsoever and just tied it up in, what my mum referred to as : “The Italian Grandmother style” which was basically the laziest ponytail of all time. It literally just sat on the nape of my neck... Like a rat tail... Sexy!!!
When I moved to France (9 years ago now) I started experimenting with highlights... I’d chop it from time to time... 
I despise this photo but there seems to be a highlight around my ear...
Then I forgot my hair. My locks grew out for a bit and turned out like this (picture below)You can see that my roots are coming through (a darky browny colour) and my hair is in its normal state when I haven’t straightened the crap out of it : wavy duuuuude... which I hated at the time. Looks like curly rat tails :p 
Highlights finally growing out...
So I proceeded in cutting it to a manageable length, sometimes with lots of layers, so I could straighten it (photo unavailable). Then I started with the dreadful black hair dye...  

Lots of layers.
Frizzled ends :'(
The straightening was followed by lots of damage. I never used to put any products on my hair or any good conditioner so I ended up frying it. I may as well have served it with sausages and eggs... it was cooked to smithereens!

Before hairdresser ...
After hairdresser ...
Being naive and all, I didn’t care (rebel... LOL) and carried on straightening it, dying it black and bleaching streaks into it when I had the chance. But of course, just ruined my hair even more. This ended up with the hairdresser cutting my hair to almost shoulder length without asking me... as it was “for the benefit of my hair” (picture above on the right). Looking back I should have just taken better care of it and took that chop as a warning. But no! I had better plans... like hacking a fringe into it... Which looked fowl (see picture below) as the lopsided fringe took its revenge by refusing to stay centred and flopping to the left... I kept dying it black (more and more frequently)... straightening it everyday... layering it and taking a razor to it to "thin it out" (I am ashamed... my poor poor poor hair!!!) I do believe you can save hair with the right advice and the right hair products. If my old hairdresser had told me how to look after my hair I would have at least used a hair protecting spray! I had no idea how to take care of my hair but thanks to Youtube, blogs and people's advice I'm a lot more wiser today and more careful! 


After the hairdresser decided to cut my hair the length she saw fit I didn't go back for an extremely long time. I took matters into my own hands from the cutting to the dying. It looked... let's not go there, eh? *TERRIBLE* 
The summer before I started University I was sick and tired of my “broken” and ragged hair and had it all chopped off whilst back in England for a few weeks. Which looked like this :


The benefit of having short hair was being able to wear extensions!! I really loved mine but they were just too much of a hassle to put in every morning!


This fad of having 2 looks lasted until December when I decided I wanted to be ginger-ish... tadaaaaaaaa! To get out years of black dye it took nearly 6 hours of bleaching at the hairdressers (please don't attempt this at home!)


I loved this colour but I didn’t like the cut. So I had it cut into a bob (which took 2 trips to the hairdressers as the first one messed it up at the back because guess what? I have a cowlick at the back of my blooming head as well! Hallelujah to my head being a right pain in the arse). I saw my bob as a new start... no more evil black dye (which is nearly impossible to get out) and more TLC. Unfortunately I couldn't stop straightening it... so the the big chop was kind of pointless... 


UNTIL!!!!!!! For some unknown reason I felt another urge to cut my hair... one side shorter than the other and to go a little darker :


I haven’t cut my hair since (so yes, it is growing out LOPSIDED!!!!). I died it red multiple times, back to brown and even purple for a few weeks... but always come back to dying it to my natural hair colour (well ... as close as I can get). For maybe 4 to 5 months now I've refused to use any heat on my hair, I let it dry naturally and if for a special occasion I need to use heat, I now have the right products to protect it! Learn from your mistakes, right? My goal isn't to just have long hair, I want it to look and feel healthy too. Unlike my teenage years, I don't want to be a scarecrow with straw for hair!  

Today, May the 28th, my hair looks like this:



Lopsided but healthier and fuller!

I shall be back in a month with tips and hopefully longer hair! I'm hoping that if my hair is long enough by the end of the summer I shall cut it evenly (as I'm really terrified a hairdresser will just cut it short again).

Left photo : scaaaary face with longer hair
Right photo : normal face with longer hair





Are you letting your hair grow out? Do you have any tips and tricks to share?  

xxx

3 comments:

  1. It's like I'm reading about myself haha I went through this too. I was emo (what a clever idea that was duhh) had black hair then I changed my hair colour to blond! It took me about six hours to bleach it too. Last year I tried to do the ombre look at home but it didn't come out well, it almost killed my hair. It's still very damaged and I have no idea what to do with it to be healthy again, nothing helps. Though I haven't dyed my hair for a year now.

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  2. Oh my gosh! I'm glad I wasn't the only one to go through the dreaded teenage rebel emo stage! I must admit, I've never tried going completely blond because I'm pretty sure it wouldn't suit me. I hate bleaching, it ruins your hair so much! But when you're trying to repair your hair you really do have to be patient. Mine is never going to be as nice as it used to be before I started abusing it. I'm currently trying a product at the minute, if it makes a difference I will sure let you know :)

    Thank you so much for your comment <3

    xxx

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  3. Oh my god using a straightener without heat protection... that sounds just like me 3 years ago. Oh dear, we have all gone throught this, haven't we? To be honest it's frickin' hard not to heat style your hair every time after having washed it. :(
    I am totally going to read the hair diaries Part II ;)
    And hey, I've just started a blog letsgetdolce.blogspot.com

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