Copper Dreams

Hello everyone! That's me officially finished up on my BBC job now and back into the land of unemployment (well, self employment) I'm so excited to be taking a bit of time off to focus on my own projects and generally just recharge my batteries. My body and my brain are in major need of some tlc, so that's exactly what I'll be doing on the lead up to my holiday in a couple of weeks. I also just wanted to thank you all for your overwhelming support in the form of comments, tweets, emails and texts about my last post. It genuinely brought a tear to my eye and was such a massive weight of my shoulders finally verbalising something I've wanted to talk about for so long. I'll let you know how I get on with the actual procedure, but for now - I'd like to chat about HAIR!

If you've followed my blog for a while now, you'll know that I went on a hair colour journey from brown, to blonde, to pink, and then to blue. As much as I loved the blue, it was really hard to upkeep so I decided to get rid of it. After some failed bleaching attempts (that blue is stubborn as hell!) I ended up having to go dark brown over the top and I really wasn't enjoying it at all. I'd had a little twinkle in my eye for some titian coloured hair, so over the course of a few months with some colour knowledge from my Mum and a visit to Blow, this is how it turned out...

 I'd heard a handful of fellow blogging pals going to Blow for their haircuts (Lynsay and Sheri) and others swearing by their colour service (Amanda and Claire) so I was quite confident that I would be in safe hands with Tabitha at the salon. She managed to achieve the above results in one single visit, which I was pretty shocked by! I wasn't even in the salon for that long, and despite how vibrant the colour turned out my hair didn't feel like it had been coloured at all. It felt healthy and smooth, and getting a big bouncy blow dry was the icing on the cake. I don't do this enough, and it's gutting that I will probably never be able to recreate these gorgeous curls at home. Prices start at £85 for a cut and colour, and my hair was £100 because I paid £15 for extra toner. The ends of my hair (where the blue is still essentially underneath) is proving quite non-cooperative when it comes to the colour sticking to it! But as my hair grows,  I'll be able to get that chopped off and the overall copper should be an easier job for them to dye each time.

Tabitha suggested that I should invest in a copper toner to use at home, along with a good colour shampoo to keep my hair looking at its best in between salon visits. I probably won't be back to Blow until I get home from Portugal next month, so in the meantime I picked up this Maria Nila Colour Refresh from Sallys. I'd originally went in thinking I'd buy some orange crazy colour until the sales assistant pointed me in the direction of this instead! It feels quite creamy like a conditioner, rather than a dye, and I just pop it on the ends of my hair once a week and leave in for 20ish minutes. My roots are quite vibrant because it's my natural colour underneath (rather than layers of pink, blue etc) so I've not had to use the toner any higher up than the bottom of my ears. I'll definitely be repurchasing this, and noticed you can get it in all sorts of other colours too.

I've been using the toner alongside the shampoo, conditioner and triple rescue spray from the Paul Mitchell Ultimate Colour range*. These were kindly sent to me in perfect timing a couple of days before my dye job, and I can tell you that the shampoo/conditioner bottles are well and truly empty now! This range promises to lock in colour, which is a post colour necessity, as it's a horrible feeling when you wash your hair after having it dyed and it feels like you can see half of it swirling down the drain. Salon visits aren't exactly cheap, so investing in a good colour shampoo and conditioner after a colour job is pretty essential, otherwise you'll have wasted a lot of money getting your hair dyed. The triple rescue spray is essentially a protective heat spray, but I also found it helped detangle my hair after washing, and I'm also convinced it helps my hair dry a lot faster! I wasn't too keen on the smell of this range, I think the Quinoa gives it a more natural scent rather than fake and flowery. Which I suppose is actually a good thing but it's just not what I'm used to. I got a free Maria Nila mini shampoo and conditioner with my toner, so I'll keep using that until I restock with the Paul Mitchell ones. Do you have any colour related hair products that you absolutely swear by?

Here is how my hurrr's looking a few weeks on...

Jacket - Spartoo
Dress - H&M
Shoes - Dr Martens
Swallow Brooch - Tatty Devine
Watch - Jord*

Last week I went for dinner and a nosy around Factory 45 with Lynsay, and she snapped these photos of me down by the Merchant City. I dug out my old wooden Tatty Devine brooch and little lady face ring (can't remember where it's from!) to match my new Jord watch. I'm not normally a fan of rose gold (sorry internetz) but I fell in love with this one as soon as I saw it. I don't tend to wear a lot of jewellery during the day, but this watch is so light and comfy, I think I'll definitely incorporate it into more outfits. I don't actually own a lot of nice grown up jewellery like this, mostly just bits and pieces that tend to turn my fingers and neck green when I wear them. Now that I'm off work I'm going to have a massive clear out of all my clothes and jewellery, and hopefully make space for some more good key pieces. I was actually saying to Lynsay that it's funny how as we get older we want to invest in quality over quantity. Plus, I think my boyfriend would seriously appreciate if the quantity of my wardrobe went down and we split all the space 50/50 rather than 80/20 as it is currently haha. That's all for now my dears, I hope your Monday was short and your coffee was strong!