Revolution Rainbow Drops Review.

Hello my lovelies! I hope you’ve had a good week so far and have been enjoying the slightly warmer weather (if we can even call it warmer haha we’re still under 10 degrees celsius)! So, this week I’ve been taking some time for selfcare, and one of the things I decided to do was to look after and tone my hair. You may have noticed from my other posts over the last few weeks that my hair is now pink!

I had pink hair once for about a week, and that was when I first shaved my head. I loved the colour, but at the time it was too big of a change for me and I only kept it for a week, but then about a month or two ago I took the plunge and went pink again, and I absolutely love it!

This weekend I spent some time bleaching and toning my roots. Since bright hair colours fade fairly fast I’ve taken to toning my hair every 5-7 weeks to keep my hair vibrant. And to do that I’ve picked up some Revolution rainbow hair drops in ‘pink rays’ and ‘peach rays’ to try out, and I figured why not review them for you as I think they’re fairly new!

The hair drops have around 300 drops in a post, and are used with conditioner and is applied like a hair mask. To get the colour you want you just add the number of drops into the conditioner until you get the colour you want. You can also check the colour with the number of drops you need with the colour chart on the box.

First impressions of the drops are that they’re quite gloopy and are very pigmented. I used about 25 of pink and 10 of peach to make my colour the first time I toned my hair and then I just winged it the second time until it was a colour I wanted. The conditioner I decided to use was a from superdrugs own ‘fruity’ range of hair products, I picked it up at the same time I picked up the drops.

I’ll admit, when I looked online at reviews I saw that these drops worked for some people and did nothing for others so I was a bit skeptical, but figured that for the price it was worth a try and if they worked for me then I’d definitely get more than my money’s worth.

Here’s what my hair looked like before, during and after the toning:

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And here’s what my hair looks like now that it’s dry:

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I have to say, when I washed out the toner (the time I didn’t count how many drops I used – probably around 25/30 pink and 20 peach) my hair was looking like it was going to be neon, and to be honest I absolutely love it! My hair has never been so vibrant and pink is definitely a colour that I’ll have for quite some time.

My overall review on the Rainbow Hair Drops by Revolution is that they worked amazingly on my bleached hair, and I was able to get a completely unique colour for my hair which I love. Plus, I love that it’s a pigment dropper that will last a long time and all you need is a colourless conditioner; so not only was the colour payoff great for me, but my hair was also left feeling super nourished and shiny.

I’d one hundred percent recommend these to anyone who has pink hair, and if I decide to go another colour I’ll definitely look into using their colour drops to tone my hair; at the moment they’ve got pink, peach, lilac, silver and blue available at superdrug. I believe they’re priced at £9.99 per bottle which if you think about it is very cheap for a toner that has 300 drops in it and all you have to do is decide how much you want to use for the shade you want. I’d be very interested to see how their other colour drops look on others hair, especially the lilac and blue droppers (blue hair unfortunately isn’t my colour, but I may try lilac in the future if I fancy switching up colours!).

I think the results you’ll get with these will depend on your hair and it’s current condition,; for me, my hair had been bleached twice once with 30 volume developer and another with 20 volume and then I had a previous pastel pink demi permanent colour which had faded out. With most bright and pastel tones they’ll show up better on light natural blonde or bleached hair, and my hair sucks up pigment pretty quickly and easily which is likely why I am able to get such a bold shade.

What hair colours have you been? What was your favourite? Let me know in the comments!

And with that, I’m going to go and have a pyjama day! Have a great rest of your week my lovelies!!

Love,

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Hair Update.

Hello my lovelies! I hope you’re all staying warm during these dark and colder days. I’m loving these colder days, but I will say that this year I’m feeling the cold quite a bit more because I cut all my hair off in March as many of you know! My last hair update was around April, which I can’t believe was 8 months ago; so I figured I would give you another update because my hair has changed a lot recently!

So, let’s jump in to how my hair has looked over the course of the last few months!

First up, we’ve got March, where I finally took the plunge and shaved my hair off, which is still one of the best decisions I’ve ever made not only for my hair health but also for my mental health. I never believed everyone when they said that shaving their hair off was super liberating and freeing, but it really was and it completely shifted my views on my own beauty.

March 2020!

Next up we’ve got April, where I made the decision to trim my hair every two weeks and then at the end of April I made the decision to grow out my hair and see what my curls look like when they’re completely healthy!

April 2020!

After deciding to start growing my hair out, we’ve got May, and my hair is a little bit longer; but it’s not a length where it can be styled yet!

May 2020Q

Next up we’ve got June! June is when my hair got to a length that it could actually be styled, and I ended up going pink for about 2 weeks!

June 2020!

In July I was able to actually get my hair trimmed and then I went back to being a brunette so my hair could grow out as my natural colour without my roots being super bold! Here I had a brief moment where my hair was long enough to be styled, and due to my hair type I could make it fairly straight when I brush it out and dry it without a diffuser, so that’s what I started doing.

July 2020!

Next up is August, and here is when my curls and waved started to come back in full force! I stopped drying my hair to avoid any heat damage, but on the off chance I did dry my hair with a diffuser I used heat protectant spray.

August 2020!

In September I had about 2 weeks of straightening my hair to try and make myself look a little more presentable when going out and about because my hair was getting to a length where the sides were sticking out a bit too much, and then I decided to just go for it and let my crazy hair be what it wants to be.

September 2020!

Next up is October, where my hair health is back in full force and my curls are finally at a point where they’re crazy bouncy and feel super soft. This month I also decided to dye my hair with a semi-permanent dye, which ended up staying permanent (a happy accident!).

October 2020!

And finally, here I am now! I’ve found a method/routine that works well for me, and my curls are now insane! My hair is finally shiny, soft and super bouncy, which I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get before I shaved my head! Some mornings my hair looks absolutely insane, a bit like I’ve been dragged through a hedge, but most mornings that can be hidden with a headband or refreshed with my spray bottle.

November 2020!

So.. that’s where I’m at with my hair now! I’m not going to lie, I now don’t feel like myself when my hair isn’t its natural texture, even if it does look a little crazy from time to time!

My current routine involves washing my hair with shea moisture manuka honey shampoo, following up with shea moistures manuka honey conditioner, then shea moistures strengthen and restore styling lotion and finally a little bit of twisted sistas gel! Then I go in and add a spritz of heat protection spray and diffuse until my hair is 90% dry. Then I scrunch it out and fluff!

I straightened my hair yesterday to check its length and I’m nearly at a short bob/mullet length now, so I can’t wait to check my hair length again in a few more months to see how long it is!

I used to hate having to look after my hair, but now I love looking after my hair and usually dedicate one day in the week to do a hair mask and just chill.

How do you like to take care of your hair? Have you had any big hair transformations over the last year? Show me on insta!

And with that, that’s all from me for today! Have a great weekend my loves!

Love,

in

I Shaved My Head.

Hello my lovelies!! I hope your week hasn’t been too bad with everything going on outside our homes. To fight the boredom of staying home non-stop for a few days a lot of us are coming up with creative ways to spend the time, creating games, making art, and video chatting more people than ever before. And some people are wanting to get their hair cut so bad that they are cutting it themselves!

I am one of those people.

And as you can tell from the title of today’s post, I shaved my head! It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but have been way too scared to actually do it.

But since we’re in quarantine until further notice.. I figured that if I hated it, I’ve got a few weeks to figure something out at least.

So, how did this all go down?

Well, on Monday I had decided that I wanted to get a pixie cut. And that afternoon the lockdown in the UK started.. so going to the hairdressers was no longer an option.

( I should note now that none of my family or myself are hairdressers in any form.. I just have experience with doing my own hair at home so I do the odd trim and colour here and there)

So, me being the careless person when it comes to hair in the family, figured I’d get my mum to give cutting my hair a go. We decided to begin with cutting a reasonable amount off with scissors, and then we decided to do an undercut, so we could get closer to a pixie bob to begin with.

Then, about a day later I decided that we should increase the undercut and have it go from my temples, which essentially made it just shaved everywhere apart from the top layer of my hair.

Now, I will say now, that I was debating shaving my hair off whilst we kept cutting shorter and shorter, but the fear kept getting to me.

So, by this point I had what looked like a blunt bob because you couldn’t see my undercut/shaved head. I will say here that my hair was extremely damaged from going blonde (I don’t regret it, but I do wish my hair wasn’t damaged) so cutting off more and more made my hair feel a whole let better immediately!

Two days the went by, and I had then cut even more length off my hair, to the point where I now did have the pixie bob I was after, and I managed to style it and it did look kinda cute.

That night I was watching YouTube and a video popped up by the amazing Rifenstine!! And you can check out her video about her shaving her head below:

And I loved her hair so much and the fact that it was so healthy now!

Even after watching the video (and several others by this point) I was still super unsure and nervous about shaving my head. Then when I woke up the next day, something still niggled at me so around lunchtime I finally plucked up the courage and put the clippers to the rest of my hair.

And I am extremely happy to say that I love it so so much!!

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It’s the most freeing experience when it comes to beauty that I have never experienced before, and I feel like I am truly myself! Which is weird and saying a lot coming from someone who has always made a big effort with my hair! And now I finally get it when people who have shaved their hair say that everyone should shave their head at some-point in their lives.

I can’t wait to discover what my fully healthy hair will be like (if I grow it out, but right now I’m loving it like this so we’ll see) and how I express myself probably even more through my clothes and makeup!

I’m also getting some hair paint delivered soon, because even though I want my hair to be the healthiest it’s ever been, I still want to be able to play with hair colours; and hair paint is the perfect way to play with colour without any damage or commitment!

Another thing that I love is that it takes me about 2 minutes to wash and dry my hair (without having to touch a hairdryer) and my hair is ready to go!

So, would I recommend shaving your hair off? Absolutely. Just be prepared for a big change, and don’t worry about how short it will actually be. Your hair will grow back, and you never know, your confidence might grow even more too.

Have a great weekend and stay safe everyone!

Lots of love,

I Went From Hennaed Hair To Blonde.

Hello my lovelies! As you might have noticed, I didn’t put a post up last weekend, and that’s because it was my birthday! But I’ve also been working on this post for you, so here we are today!

So, as you can probably guess from the title of this post, I’ve gone blonde! It took a lot of thought before I actually decided to do it because of having henna in my hair (disclaimer: henna is permanent and if the henna you’ve used on your hair contains metallic salts then you risk your hair literally burning off your head if you bleach it). Lucky for me, the henna I used is Lush Caca Rouge and hasn’t got any metallic salts in it!

Hairdressers won’t touch hair that has has had henna on it due to never being able to fully know what henna you have in your hair and it’s very hard to get out. Something I only learnt AFTER I had hennaed my hair. Whoops!

Being someone who likes to switch up their look a lot, and someone who isn’t afraid to just go for something, I decided I was going to go blonde myself. Yep, you heard me right. I decided that I was going to take my brown/auburn hennaed hair and go an ash blonde. Crazy idea right?

So what did I do? I made a list of everything I was going to need and sent my sister off to salon services for me, because if I was going to bleach my hair to death, I should at least do it with the proper products.

What did I get for this hair challenge?

I bought a bucket of bleach, a big bottle of 20 volume developer, a lightner that I thought was a toner when I bought it to find out it was not, a hair colour, olaplex and then my sister and I picked up some more stuff that was bound to ruin my hair from the supermarket.

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This all happened the day after my birthday, when my sister, her husband and I were babysitting my younger brother and sister (they’re teens but we just had to make sure they didn’t burn the house down when my parents were away) and we had my niece and nephew round. My sister and I are pretty close and have a great laugh whenever one of us are doing our hair so we knew it was going to be one hilarious ride from bleaching my hair to finally getting it presentable. With me doing my sister’s hair in between mine.

To start my hair process, I actually used two lots of colour b4 on the henna on my hair about a week before deciding to go fully blonde because I had heard that it strips henna from your hair. It took a very small amount out which you can see below, and then I slapped on a semi-permanent ash medium blonde which went pretty dark on my hair. It was then that I thought, lets just go fully blonde!

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Side note: Please don’t fry your hair off at home, my hair is very resilient and can withstand a lot of bleaching and processing! But like I always say, you do you!

So onto my first process! For bleach one, we put the bleach over the mids, then the ends and then finally the roots of my hair (as the roots are virgin hair and the heat from your scalp makes the bleach process faster) which resulted it white roots and carrot orange lengths which we had to laugh at! The henna turned out to be extra stubbon than we expected but we went with it.

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Then we went on to bleach number two which helped a bit and we went to a pale orangey yellow!

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Next up we decided to try the lightener which I don’t really think did anything for my hair but I’ll let you be the judge of it.

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It was at this point that we decided to try a box blonde dye, which meant taking a trip to tesco with my Griffindor hat on at 8pm at night… and my sister persuaded me to get a platinum blonde kit which is essentially more bleach and an ash box dye. After the platinum bleach kit we ended up with a pale yellow look with platinum roots, making a good amount of progress!

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Then we put on the ash blonde box dye applying to the roots first and viola! Blonde hair at last! It still needed a bit more toning for my liking at this point so a few days later I put another ash blonde over the top of everything and got to a colour I like.

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Since my hair had been through hell and back, and was essentially just a straw birds nest on my head at this point, I made sure I got myself some good protein, repair and moisture treatments to give my hair a bit of love.

I used the olaplex treatment and then paired that with a heavy layer of love in conditioner on one night which I found helped a little, and then two days later I used the Aphogee two-step protein treatment paired with a shea moisture repair and strengthen mask which was like a miracle treatment for my hair, the protein treatment is something I would recommend to anyone using bleach on their hair because it transformed it from straw to soft and bouncy once again.

The Aphogee treatment is bizarre experience because the protein step is a very liquidy orange product which you saturate your hair with, then use a hair dryer to warm it up to make your hair go rock solid, which you then rinse out and leave on a moisturising conditioner on for a few minutes. After rinsing that out your hair feels so much better!

Here’s before the Aphogee treatment and after:

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I’m currently using protein and moisture masks every time I wash my hair which is around 2-3 times a week which is definitely helping my hair. I’m also washing my hair alternating between a gentle purple shampoo and a co-wash from Noughty haircare which is a brand I love so much (not sponsored, I just love their products!) along with some of their treatment and styling products.

So, here’s my hair now!

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And that is how I went from auburn brown/ginger hair to blonde in two days! I definitely wouldn’t recommend you do this yourself at home if you don’t want to damage your hair; but if you are going to do it like I have, then I would 100% recommend the Aphogee protein treatment, a good moisture restorative hair mask and a leave in conditioner. I would also not dry your hair with a hair dryer or use heat on your hair for as long as you can. I personally only ever use heat to diffuse my hair but now that it’s shorter I let it air dry with my natural curls.

My plan for my hair now is to gradually go a little more of an ashy tone, more so on the ends of my hair as that’s where I’ve got slightly more golden tones from the henna. And I will also keep on using protein and moisture treatments regularly to help my hair bounce back more.

So, that’s my hair! Have you ever changed your hair colour drastically in one/two days at home? How did it turn out? Let me know in the comments!

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I love my new hair colour, it brings out my blue eyes and I think it’ll bring out my freckles when the weather gets a bit warmer. If you want to change your hair colour, go for it! And if you’re unsure what colour to go, you can always try semi-permanent colour without the risks!

And with that, have a nice weekend lovelies!

Love,

Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Change Up Your Hair.

Happy Saturday my lovelies! How’s 2020 treating you so far? With us now in the new year, it can feel like the perfect time of the year to experiment with our appearance, whether that be by playing with makeup more (or less, you do you!), wearing new clothes that are out of your comfort zones or, you could switch up your hair.

Just before Christmas I did just that, I decided to get a big hair cut. Here’s how it happened, like how all of these sorts of decisions start for me, it began on Pinterest. I fell head first into the gorgeous hair pins rabbit hole and couldn’t stop pinning these incredible hair inspo photos for hours on end. It was a few hours before I noticed a pattern with the pins I kept adding to my boards; for one everyone had amazing natural waves and curls, and number two, they were all a lot shorter than my hair was at the time.

Lucky for me, I am all for changing up my hair, they only hair length I haven’t gone is the buzz cut, and for the longest time I’ve wanted to shave my head. Who knows, maybe 2020 will be the year for the buzz cut! Like many of you I imagine that like me you probably get the urge to chop all of your hair off when it’s long and vice versa.

Well my hair was below my collar bone, and had been for quite a while as I’ve been undergoing a hair health transformation which has led to me finding new ways to care for my hair and my natural waves and curls. If you want to see what my hair journey has been like then please check out my previous post on it here!

I debated getting my hair cut for a few weeks, and then I figured I would just go for it. I had decided I was going to go a little shorter and get a curly wavy fringe to go with the look. Because you know, what’s something all girls debate for weeks when it comes to hair… to fringe or not to fringe?

Knowing that my hair will grow back, I decided to book in for a hair appointment that same day and off I went to my local salon to get the big chop.

So, what did my hair look like before? Well here’s how long it was before the cut:

You can’t always tell the length of hair when it’s curly, and here it may not look that long to you, but when it was straight it was below my collar bone near my bust. Also, something you can’t see here is that the ends of my hair are still slightly damaged from how much I used to straighten it, so I was happy to get the last of my damaged hair chopped off.

So, what’s my hair looking like now you ask? Well… take a look!

My hair is certainly a lot shorter here that it was! But it as a whole lot healthier and it takes me half of the time it did before to do my hair which is great. I did have a curly wavy fringe for a little while which was super cute, but I am trying to keep my hair off my face as much as I can at the minute so my acne doesn’t flair up too bad on my forehead, so I’ll show you that another day.

My plan now is to grow my hair again, because it’s finally in a healthy place and I don’t plan on burning it to death again, so it’ll grow faster now that I actually know how to look after my curls. And if I decided to do another big chop in the future, so be it!

I’ve always been of the mindset that hair is hair and that it will grow back, so why not experiment and get it cut or coloured and try something new. I love all hair types, textures and lengths, they’re all beautiful in their own ways, and changing things up every now and again is so much fun for me!

Plus, I find sitting in the salon chair super relaxing and I could easily let a stylist cut all my hair off or dye it any colour if they wanted! Lots of people told me not to cut my hair because it was finally getting long, but here’s the thing.. it’s MY HAIR. ON MY HEAD. So.. thanks for the input but I’mma do me thanks.

Moral of the story:

Experiment with your hair! Have fun with it and don’t be afraid to try something new on a whim, because who knows, it might become your favourite look yet, and when it comes to trying something new, it’s your opinion that matters most, no one elses!

And with all of that said, what’s your hair like? Do you like to experiment with different styles and cuts? Let me know in the comments!

Have a great rest of the weekend my lovelies!

Love,

I Tried Lush’s Henna Hair Dye.

It’s Saturday! And you know what that means.. new post alert! This week I came across something called Henna Hair Dye – found at Lush, and after doing a bit of research, I decided to get some and give it a go.

The reason why I decided to give henna hair dye a go is because henna hair dye is more of a deep conditioning treatment, and the Lush website states it is made up of:

Persian henna, cocoa butter, and essential oils in a conditioning, natural hair dye for silky, conditioned locks and long-lasting colour.

And after reading that, I figured what have I got to lose! Worse comes to it my hair will be a funny colour but it’ll be super soft and healthier than before I dyed it! I chose the Caca Rouge henna for my hair as I’ve always loves deep rich auburn hair, and whenever I tried box dyes in the past to get that colour it never looked natural or remotely like the colour I wanted! Plus my hair would get so damaged from the chemicals too.

Plus, for one block of Lush hair colour, it’s only £11 ish pounds?! The block itself is made up of 6 chunks, and out of them I only needed about 2-3 chunks but did it all at the time to make sure I had enough.

One thing if you’re thinking about dyeing your hair using henna, I’d recommend watching lots of YouTube tutorials and reviews in advance! The video below is one from Lush about the different colours and how best to apply it!

If you are going to have a go at henna hair dye, I’d highly recommend getting yourself the following in advance:

• Gloves (Lush henna hair dye comes with them but it’s always good to have more!)
• A glass mixing bowl
• Knife
• Chopping board
• Pot (to melt the henna over)
• Wooden spoon
• Cling film or shower cap
• Towel
• Newspaper (COVER EVERYTHING.. It gets messy!)
• Vaseline or Lush’s Ultrabalm
• Hair dyeing brush
• A friend to help!

So, before I get into how to dye your hair, here’s my before photos!

 

It’s important to note that before your put the henna on your hair, it’s a good idea to have clean hair without any products in it, as you never know how it’ll react to certain things.

Here’s what the henna looks like:

Step 1: Unwrap the henna from it’s card and chop it up into small chunks. The smaller the chunks, the quicker it melts.

Step 2: Put the henna into the glass bowl and put it over a pot on the hob to heat it up and melt it. Add some boiling water to the henna to help it along and continue adding the water until the henna is a smooth brownie batter/cake mix consistency.

Pre-warning, this stuff does smell pretty bad in my opinion so get some candles going in advance! Also, it does look like mud, so don’t worry, it hasn’t gone wrong if it looks like that.

Step 3: Application time! Make sure you put Vaseline or something similar to protect your skin, because it will stain your skin if you’re not careful! Put Vaseline all over your neck too, because your hair will most likely touch it at some point.

Carefully take the hot bowl of henna with you to wherever you’re planning on applying it, and make sure you’ve got ever surface covered, because this stuff is messy and stains! Grab a friend to help you out with the application. Take small sections of hair and paint on the henna with a brush or use your hands. To make the application easier, use the henna whilst it’s still warm because when it cools it becomes less spreadable. But make sure it won’t burn your head!

I forgot to take photos of this part but I did remember my after photos! (you’ll see them at the end.)

Step 4: After applying it to you entire head, plop your hair on top of your head and wrap it with clingfilm or a shower cap to keep the heat in (if you want brighter tones, wrap your head with clingfilm and keep it warm, but if you don’t want that, don’t wrap it up). I put my hair in a shower cap and then wrapped my hair in a t-shirt over the top for extra warmth.

Then it’s chill out time! Leave the henna on for anywhere between 1-6 hours to develop. The longer you let it develop, the brighter the colour. I left mine on for about 3 1/2 hours. I would’ve left mine on for longer, but I was heading out for dinner, and I wasn’t about to go out with my hair still in a shower cap! (Having your hair wrapped up in a t-shirt is a super sexy look.. haha)

Step 5: Rinsing it out. The temperature of the water you rinse it out with doesn’t really matter with this, so use whatever temperature you’re comfortable with. Start off by rinsing as much of the henna out as possible with just water, and then use some conditioner to help de-tangle your hair as you’re rinsing it out. Then when the water is clear or as close to clear as you can get, shampoo your hair to get any left over residue from the henna out. Then do what your usual routine is!

Important note: Your hair colour will develop over the next 24/48 hours after application and washing the henna out. It tends to go a deeper richer colour over this time.

It was too dark outside by the time I finished my hair on the day of dyeing it; and I wanted to show you the results in the same natural light as before, so here’s what my hair looked like the next morning!

 

So, what are my final thoughts?

Well, I absolutely love the colour my hair turned out! It looks a lot more natural than the colours I’ve tried with box dyes in the past, plus my hair feels super soft, healthy and nourished.

Since putting henna on my hair I’ve washed it twice (I only wash my hair twice per week because I’m doing the curly girl method – you can see my post on it here) and the water has a tiny reddish orange tint when it’s being washed, but I haven’t noticed the colour fade and it’s nothing like the box dye washing out.

Would I recommend Lush’s Henna hair dye?

Yes. And I’ll probably do it again in the future. The only downside to using henna hair dye is the mess, but I personally think it’s worth it for getting a pretty new hair colour and using natural ingredients and packaging that isn’t damaging to the environment.

So, that’s all for today’s post and how to dye your hair with henna and how it turned out for me! Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever used henna to dye your hair and what your thoughts were! Also, if you try this for yourself, tag me in your before and afters on Instagram @theweightofmyworlds! I’d love to see how it turned out for you.

Have a great weekend lovelies!

Love,

 

I Embraced My Natural Curls.

This week I’m telling you about a change I decided to start about 4 1/2 weeks ago. And it’s to do with my hair. Now, I’ve done a post about my hair journey before, and you can read that here! But recently I found something called ‘The Curly Girl Method’, and it’s said to be the best way to embrace your natural kinks, curls and waves, and apparently makes your hair healthy and teaches you how to properly manage your hair.

Before I get into what the curly girl method is and what’s involved, I’ll tell you a little about my relationship with my hair. For years and years and years I knew I had curly hair, and I know now that my natural hair is beautiful, but for the longest time I felt like having slightly messy curly hair with a bit of frizz wasn’t very attractive (except when someone else had it… typical!) and that straight and sleek is the only way my hair should be.

I guess it was something that I unfortunately learnt from lack of representation of people with natural hair! I mean, it wasn’t until Disney’s Brave that there was a princess with natural curly (and a bit unruly.. but fab) hair! And how long did that take? YEARS.

So what did I do for years? Well, yes you guessed it! I straightened the living daylights out of it. EVERY SINGLE DAY. And when I say every day, I mean for at least an hour, every day; whether I was going out or not! And then I realised my hair looked nice when I straightened and then curled it.. so that’s what I did. Sounds silly straightening your naturally curly hair to then curl it again doesn’t it?

Yeah, I thought it was ridiculous too. And then I luckily came across the Curly Girl method and I’m so so glad I did!

So.. What is the Curly Girl method exactly?

Well the basis of it is as follows:

• Products are free from sulfates
• Products are free from silicones
• Products are free from damaging alcohols
• No heat to be used on your hair
• Use a micro-fibre towel or t-shirt to dry your hair
• Dry hair on the lowest settings with a diffuser if not airdrying hair

That’s the general jist of it I think! I’m sure I do some things that aren’t entirely Curly Girl friendly but I’m still working on my routine with this new hair care adjustment.

My hair care routine used to be:

Washing my hair every other day with whatever shampoo and conditioner was on offer – and they always had sulfates, silicones and bad alcohols in (partly because I didn’t realise how bad they were!) and then dry it on the hottest heat on my hair dryer, then brush and straighten the hell out of it. To be honest it’s a miracle I still have hair on my head!!

My routine now goes like this: (And I now only wash my hair 1-2 times per week!)

1 . Wash with Curly Girl approved products – I’m currently washing once a week with a clarifying shampoo (to get rid of any build up from styling products) and then with the Noughty Wave Hello Curl Defining Shampoo on my second wash day.

2 . I then do what they call co-washing, which is basically washing your hair with conditioner, the one I’m currently using is the As I Am Coconut Co-Wash Cleansing Conditioner and I use this in the same way I use shampoo, and then after rinsing it out with cool water I apply more to the ends and lengths of my hair.

3 . I then scrunch out excess water.

4 . And then after all of that, I then apply my Cantu Shea Butter Curl Activator Cream to my hair and scrunch it in.

5 . Then wrap my hair in a ‘plop’ with a simple t shirt and leave my hair in that for about 5-10 minutes before I take my hair down.

6 . I then sort of organise my hair I guess? Haha my hair doesn’t necessarily part the same way everyday so I create my parting and then scrunch my curls with my t-shirt to remove more water.

7 . Then comes the mousse! I squirt a dollop of mousse into my hands, rub them together a little and scrunch that into my hair and curls.

8 . If my hair needs more volume at the roots (which it normally does since I have thin hair anyway..) I’ll add in some root clips around my hair part and hairline for about 30 minutes to an hour.

9 . When time’s short, I’ll then diffuse my hair upside down on the lowest settings; and if I’ve got time, I let my hair air dry!

10 . Once my hair’s dry, it then has what the curly haired community call a crunch or cast, which I then crunch out. If I want more volume at my roots I’ll fluff my hair out a bit and use my hair pick to lift my hair up and shake out, and voila! My hair is good to go!

And I know it sounds like way too much work, but in all honesty, applying all of these things actually takes less time than it did when I was straightening my hair! It’s only the air drying that takes a little longer.

And with my results I’m getting, that’s all the motivation I need to keep going! Oh, and the fact that when I’ve done all of this, my curls usually last about 3-4 days, which means waking up, shaking my hair out from my ‘pineapple’ (that’s how I sleep with my curls – scrunchie, silk or satin pillow case and pineapple hair) and about 5 minutes later, I’m usually good to go!

And if my curls are having a bad hair day, I just refresh them using a spray bottle with water and a small amount of conditioner in it and scrunch in some mousse! Simple as that!

I am still going through what they call the transition phase with my hair, in the sense that it’s going to be a while until my hair is really healthy again along with my curls remembering what to do after being washed!

Here’s before I started the curly girl method, when I straightened and then curled the life out of my hair:

Here’s my hair on my first wash day doing the curly girl method:

I know this just looks like a big mess, but I knew that going in to this, I would have to be prepared for my hair looking pretty bad for the first few washes, especially because I am still working out the best methods for washing, styling and drying my hair! Before it’d be a blitz with anything and then a load of heat damage.

Here’s my what my hair looked like for next few weeks:

And here’s my hair as of last week (fluffed out, day 3 hair and trying out new products):

There’s loads of different products out there for curly hair, and it just takes some time working out which ones work for you and your curl type, hair thickness and porosity! If you’re wondering about any of the more complicated stuff like hair porosity, hair protein etc, I highly suggest checking out Jannelle O’Shaughnessy Engels, Curly Susie and Alissa Evelyn‘s YouTubes! They are all curly girls themselves and have great channels devoted to curly hair!

So, what have I learn’t from going completely curly girl friendly?

For a start, I only wish I’d embraced my curls sooner! And I never would’ve thought it’d be this easy to completely stop using straighteners on my hair! I don’t miss them at all! Part of me still can’t quite believe I’ve managed to go all natural, and my hair has never felt so good!

If you’re wondering whether or not to try out the curly girl method of hair-care, I would totally recommend it! I will say, it will take a few months/years to get your hair to a good place where your curls don’t need as much help with products etc, depending on the current condition of your hair, but my hair has only just begun it’s curly journey and I can’t wait to continue my curly journey!

I heard a quote (can’t remember where from) which sums it up pretty perfectly:

“Frizz is just a curl waiting to happen.”

I’ll do a follow up post in a few months so you can see how much my hair has changed! Oh and if you’re wanting to start this hair transformation and aren’t sure what products are curly girl friendly, here’s an article I found helpful!

How do you like to have your hair? Have you gone natural before? Did you like it?

I know I do! haha. I might do a styling post in a few weeks, because I know that on day 3 and 4 hair (before it’s being washed) it can look a little crazy, and sometimes I just want my hair up and out of my face! Is that something you’d like? Let me know in the comments!!

Have a great week lovelies!

Love,

 

 

My Hair & Skin routine

We all love having silky hair and smooth skin. And for me that’s been a bit of a journey; over there last year I’ve managed to put together my own extremely simple routine that does everything I want it to whilst still being pretty cheap.

I’d definitely recommend trying these quick and simple routines out for yourself as all of the products I use are less than the price of a fancy coffee.

I can’t guarantee everything will work for you, but it’s always nice to try something out!

So, my skin care routine. Well as some of you know, I have suffered with adult acne for a long time and also suffer with psoriasis, so finding skin products that work for me is sometimes a challenge. (Check out my Acne Journey here!)

I use acne medication prescribed to me along with a few other things to keep my skin in tip top form. (If you think you’re suffering with any form of acne then I highly suggest going to your GP where you can find something that works for you.)

My skin routine goes as follows:

1. First thing in the morning I take my first lot of acne medication, ‘Doxycycline’ with breakfast.
2. Then after breakfast I wash my face with just cold water and put some ‘Simple Kind to Skin Protecting Light Moisturiser SPF 15‘. That’s it for the morning, nice and quick!
3. Lunchtime is when I take my next acne medication, ‘Co-Cyprindiol’ (you have to have frequent check ups when you’re on this one as it doubles up as contraception.
4. At the end of the day (this bit is typically once a week) I use a microdermabrasion skin care machine to exfoliate, promote blood flow and just generally get any nasty stuff out of my pores.
5. Before I go to bed I then apply my ‘Adapalene’ topical acne cream medication.

Some things I also do to help my skin stay clear and healthy are:

• Drinking mostly water. I know I know, we hear this one all of the time, but water helps keep us hydrated and out skin looking moisturised.

 

• I try to not touch my face as much as possible, (don’t want to spread any oils or any traces of stuff that could be transferred onto my face!).

• Wash/Change my pillow case often. (dead skin cells, sweat and all sorts get on these and can cause breakouts after build up!)

 

• I ALWAYS take my makeup off before bed. – I cannot stress this one enough!!

• A balanced diet; this doesn’t mean eating super healthy all of the time, it’s about not eating mountains of sugary, oily, fatty food all of the time, you can still have your favourite guilty pleasures, but just in moderation.

 

• Speaking of food: I always wash my face after eating any form of takeaway; I always feel super greasy after eating foods like Chinese or Fish & Chips, so washing my face after stops me from developing mountains of spots around my chin.

 

• Sun cream. Wear sun cream no matter what weather it is, you skin is always vulnerable to the sun even when it’s cold outside. And if you’re not great at remembering to put it on, get a moisturiser with SPF already in it!

 

Now, onto hair care!

A bit of background on my hair journey:

My hair has been through it. Like really through the ringer. It’s been blonde, brown, auburn (so jealous of all you natural red heads out there!), orange, red, pink, green, strawberry blonde and several other colours. There was once a week where I decided I wanted to go from bright red to blonde.. my mum and I decided to do it in the space of two days; it involved 4 lots of bleaching and a lot of laughing. I’m incredibly lucky to still have hair on my head to be honest.

I have cut my hair off numerous amounts of times in order to salvage what was left of it after copious amounts of bleach and box dyes. One time I decided to go red again after bleaching my hair and putting blonde box dye on it and my hair was so damaged that after one wash my hair had millions of blonde and pink patches where the dye could no longer stick to my hair.

That leads me to now, I cut nearly all of my hair off in September last year in order to finally give up what had become a hair dye addiction (fellow hair enthusiasts know the struggle haha). And from January this year I have been growing out my natural hair in order to get it as healthy as possible again and not felling like straw. I am also slowly getting my naturally wavy and curly hair back!

Here’s just a few images of my hair journey over the years:

Here I am as a baby next to my older sister, that’s me on the right, and as you can see my hair is pretty curly and mad naturally.

As you’ll see in these photos, my hair goes from nice and healthy to getting more like straw and shorter as it kept snapping off!

Here’s me at 12 years old, my hair was still completely natural here!

Here I am at 14 years old, I think my hair might have been bleached slightly at this point?

Here is where my hair escapade starts to go downhill.. I had dyed it a few times by here so it’s big, frizzy and very straw like hair!

I dyed my hair red when I was starting sixth form and you can see how damaged my hair had become by the ends of my hair!

About 2 months into sixth form I decided to bleach all of the life out of my hair and fry it constantly by making it wavy every damn day.

After sixth form I decided to cut my hair into a pixie to try and salvage it, I then dyed it brown and then as it was getting healthier and growing out I decided I wanted blonde hair again.

A year later came around and I couldn’t stop myself from going auburn again, and here you can really see the damage!

My hair survived for a little while longer by going brown for a few months and it grew to a good length, then I wanted to go blonde so bleached it to bits, then I decided I wanted red hair again..

As you can see here, when my 21st birthday came around I decided to try and get my hair healthier again by cutting it into a pixie, and it was bleached blonde during the summer.

I actually have healthy hair in this photo! Here is my hair a few months after I turned 22, I’m starting to grow out my pixie here!

So that is what my hair went through, I’m sure there are more photos all over the place of even more hair colours but that’s something for another day, you’d be here for hours!

Here’s my hair now! It’s finally healthy and all my natural colour; I’m working on styling my natural air dried hair as it’s a big crazy at the moment!

So now you know a bit about my hair past, on to my routine!

1. I brush my hair to get rid of any knots or tangles before I wash it in the evening.
2. I then wash my hair with warm water, using ‘Tesco’s Pro-Vitamin B5 shampoo damaged hair’; I stumbled across this when looking for a new shampoo to try, and for 90p it’s a bargain! This shampoo is absolutely amazing on my hair and I definitely recommend it; it lathers nicely and is super cheap!
3. I then use ‘Tesco’s Pro-Vitamin B5 conditioner for damaged hair'(it is nowhere on the website at the moment but you can find it in store!) on the ends of my hair and work my way up avoiding my roots, like the shampoo, the conditioner is also 90p and makes my hair feel so silky and less frizzy.
4. I then rinse the conditioner out with cold water (it takes a bit of strength to not jump out of the shower at this point haha!).
5. When I get out of the shower I wrap my hair in a micro-fibre hair turban (you can get them from wilko for £1.15!).
6. Then, if my hair is feeling a bit dry I put some spray in conditioner onto the ends of my hair. I use one I picked up by chance at Aldi (it was on their special buys) which is a dupe of the ‘Aussie Miracle Hair Detangler Conditioner Spray’!
7. If I have time I’ll let my hair dry naturally and if I’ve got to be somewhere then I’ll dry my hair on the cool setting with my hair dryer.
8. I usually leave my hair overnight and style my hair with my straighteners in the morning, this is usually straight, but if I do style my hair in the evening it will be curly ready to be clipped half up the next day.

And that’s my hair routine!

Some things I do to help with my hair growth and health:

• Brush my hair before washing it so it isn’t too knotting when I wash it and there’s less damage when I wash it as your hair is a lot weaker when it’s wet.

 

• Rinsing my hair with cold water is something I found makes my hair less frizzy, shinier and it helps promote blood circulation to your scalp, which helps with hair growth!

• Use heat protection sprays even when just using the hair dryer. I recommend putting heat protection spray on your hair when it’s wet, as you avoid potentially making your hair feel greasy when applying it to dry hair.

• I avoid washing my hair everyday as this can strip my hair of it’s natural oils and prevents any oils from penetrating into the hair.

So that’s my skin and hair routines! What’s your hair journey? And what is your skincare routine? Let me know in the comments, I love reading and responding to them all! I hope you all have a great weekend my lovelies!

Oh, and don’t forget, there’s still time to enter my giveaway! Check out how to enter here!

Love,

 

 

Life Lessons To Remember

So this week I’ve realised that 1.) I’ve come a long way with my eating disorder treatment, and 2.) I’ve learnt a load of lessons not only about myself but about how I should see the world; and this is why I’m writing this today. What made me come to this realisation is the fact that I got my haircut, well, I got bangs.

Why would getting bangs make me have this big realisation you ask? Well because I had been thinking about getting bangs FOR AGES (I was totally inspired by Devin Lytle’s hair – fellow thin hair gal who is amazing, who works for Buzzfeed and is in Buzzfeed’s Ladylike which I LOVE along with all the ladies there so you should defo check them out!) but every time I went to get booked in at the hair dressers I chickened out because I thought it might look bad and that people would think I looked stupid. That’s when it hit me, why am I worried about what other people think?! All that matters is what I think and if I want bangs then I should just get some damn bangs cut!

Once this realisation hit me, I decided to book in a haircut to get bangs, and because I’m ridiculously indecisive I actually ordered some clip in bangs to check if I definitely wanted them. Here’s the bangs I ordered:

Once these arrived I did ask people what they thought, and they weren’t sure that it would suit me and then I realised that if I liked them, and I wanted them, I should get them cut no matter what anyone else thinks.

Something I was scared about was that my boyfriend wouldn’t like how I look with them, especially since he wasn’t sure that they’d suit me; but guess what, he told me to get them cut anyway because he knows that my opinion is what matters most and that he’ll love how I look no matter what (and to be honest, he’s seen me at my worst so I couldn’t get much worse than that haha). And with that sense of ‘it’s my hair so I’ll do what I want with it and I’ll rock it no matter what’ in my head, I went and got it cut.

And guess what?! I think I look pretty with them.. (that feels weird to say but I’m trying to be nicer to myself).

Ok, now that I’ve rambled on about my hair for long enough, let’s actually get back to why I’m writing this post.. here’s some life lessons I’ve finally learnt:

1. If you want to try something new with your appearance (or really anything in life – providing it isn’t harming anyone duh) and are unsure, just give it a go; you’ll often find that you’ll rock it and look great!

2. Confidence is key. (I’m still working on this one but I’ve realised that if you act like you’re confident even when you’re not, everyone around you will think you’re a boss ass b*tch. And you’ll look good because quite frankly, confidence is sexy and looks good).

3. When it comes to your body and appearance, your opinion is the only one that matters, and anyone that tells you how or what you should look like can go f*ck themselves because you’re perfect as you are.

4. Self care is not being selfish. You gotta take care of yourself! After all, you’ll be living with yourself for the rest of your life.

5. Learn to accept compliments without putting yourself down after hearing them. If someone is complimenting you, (unless it’s unsolicited catcalling from a stranger, in which case.. they can eff off) it’s because they want to, no one is forcing them; and why wouldn’t they want to compliment you?! You’re great!

6. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength and you’ll find you feel so much better after asking for help. Plus you’ll find that you’re probably going to make some really great, reliable friends along the way.

7. No number defines your worth, whether it’s on the scales, on your clothing labels, social followers/likes or your bank account. You are worth so much more than any stupid numbers!!

8. And finally, sugar and chocolate WILL NOT KILL YOU. Eat what you want, when you want it. Nothing is unhealthy in moderation so try to stop labelling food, because that’s all it is. Food. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just food that tastes good and nourishes your body.

So that’s what I’ve learnt recently, and if you’ve ever had some realisations of life lessons yourself, definitely let me know what they are! Also, to finish, to the right is a selfie of me and my new hair in case you haven’t seen my insta, because why shouldn’t I show this off?!

Oh and buy the way, I totally recommend trying out clip in hair pieces (when it’s cheap) if you’re thinking of changing up your look but aren’t sure yet, here’s the clip in bangs I bought (I did trim mine but do what you want with them!).

Hope this helps any of you out there who tend to worry about what other people think about your appearance (aka people like me.. I’m working on that haha) and remember, your opinion of yourself is the most important!

A little life quote to end: “A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms”.

Have a great weekend everyone!! Love,