An unconventional fashion blogger trying to find her place on the internet

I’ve been pretty open about some of the crazy things I’ve done with my hair since starting this blog and am all for sharing my woes to help you all. So it obviously made sense for me to share some tips on what to do to your hair, as I sat twiddling my broken ends between my fingers over the weekend.

Inspiration for today’s post came as my friend Chloe popped over to give my hair a trim and we started to talk about some of the stupid shit I’ve done to my hair (ahem… perm…) – she’s the only person I’ll trust with my hair now and I love that she’ll listen to me when I ask her to take off a centimetre from the ends, when it probably needs 4 inches. I mean, let’s remind ourselves of how amazing my hair looked on my wedding day last year (without being too modest).

Today’s little nuggets of wisdom are based on my first hand experience – so I hope you can get some sort of guidance from my misgivings.

Don’t perm your hair at home

This is my most recent hair disaster and something I regret every time I dry my hair and see the frazzled ends, a reminder that I was a complete dickhead and had ruined my lovely hair to obtain what I thought would be a cute ringlet, only to have a wavy, frizzy mess. I tried to convince myself it looked good and I was happy with it, but who was I kidding?

Don’t bleach over already bleached hair

If you want your hair looking sleek and gorgeous, but super blonde – go to a hairdresser and be realistic on what you can achieve in a certain amount of time. If you’ve got dark brown, borderline black hair, don’t go ham on your hair with bleach and singe it to an inch of its life. Don’t cover your entire head in bleach when your ends are the colour you want. And make sure you look after your cotton wool ends once it’s all over. You’re welcome.

Be careful with curling wands

A few years ago, Aaron bought me a curling wand for Christmas that I’d used a few times, but had it tucked away in a box for a good few months before pulling it out again to do my hair for New Years Eve. On said night, I parted my hair and started to wrap my hair around it (as you do with a curling wand) and held it for the usual amount of time I would, only to have a hint of burning float up my nostrils. I panicked and pulled the wand away only to find chunks of my lovely long hair coming away. Just like that girl in the legendary video, the wand was fucked and as the night went on I kept losing chunks of hair.

Just be careful people, you never know when your hair appliances will turn on you and burn your fucking hair off.

Avoid sleeping with curlers in

There’s not too much more to this other than you’ll not get a wink of sleep – I did this a few months back and ended up; tired as fuck, with a stiff neck from sleeping awkwardly and still damp hair. Just plait your hair and rest your head for nice waves – it’s a lot easier.

Be confident in a decision to change your hair colour

It’s okay to want to change up your hair colour, but make sure you’ve thought it through before taking the plunge. I decided to go dark a few years ago and ended up looking washed out as I didn’t pick a shade that suited my skin tone. I also didn’t think about how much I loved having blonde hair, so spent months trying to get it back to its former glory.

When I decided to ombré my hair (I darkened the roots instead of lightening the ends as I already had blonde hair) I spent hours and hours poring over images of what I wanted on Pinterest and took my time before taking the plunge. I ended up keeping my hair like that for a long time until my super blonde ways were calling me as we were getting married, so it was a lot easier to transition back (remember my earlier point about taking your time when bleaching – cotton wool ends will surface).

Find a hairdresser you trust and GET REGULAR TRIMS!

As I said earlier, I trust Chloe with my hair and don’t think I’ll ever have another hairdresser – she’s bloody amazing and always makes me look fabulous. So don’t just settle for anyone, find someone that makes you feel just as great. Another point to add to this is that you need to regularly trim your hair for it to grow. I left mine for far too long and felt the ends snapping, it looked like straw and just felt shit – this meant I probably had to have more taken off the ends than if I’d had a trim about two months earlier. GET YOUR TRIMS IF YOU WANT LONG LOCKS!

And there you have it! Some little nuggets of wisdom I hope you keep in mind when you’re contemplating bleaching the shit out of your hair or avoiding the hairdresser because you “don’t believe getting regular trims will mean your hair grows faster” – and yes, too often and it won’t grow.

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