Monday 12 March 2012

Bring on the Blonde

Aside from an excessive desire to hibernate and eat carbs, another unfortunate side effect of winter for us natural (ahem) blondes is that without the lightening properties of the sun, my hair tends to lose its golden tones and grow through loads darker. Every year it seems I am fighting off the mousey brown...

This year was no exception and earlier this month I was forced to take serious action as it was genuinely starting to get me down!


BEFORE




DURING

Now I'm quite lucky that I've got a mum whose a bit of a dab hand with a highlighting cap and a bottle of bleach so it does save me an absolute fortune in hairdressing bills. Plus the professionals have always said she's done a good job!

 
However, given the state I'd let the colour get into, it took two rounds to actually get me to the desired colour. The first go just about covered the roots, but I wanted much more of a lift so donned the cap a second time.


AFTER
And of course you're dying (no pun intended) to see the finished result with the colour...



Obviously bleach does have a tendency to dry out my hair so I try to avoid using too much on the ends, but to minimise any damage I always book myself in for a cut within a week of colouring. Plus it was starting to look a bit Worzel Gummidge.


Now whilst my mum would make a great colourist, there's no way I'd let her near my barnet with the scissors. Not since 1997 when I asked her for a Rachel from Friends and it all ended in tears and a trip to a real hairdresser ;)

When I went for my cut at Vidal Sassoon in Leeds they offered me a deal on a treatment and I jumped at the chance. I had a treatment from the Kérastase Fusio-Dose range, which contains highly concentrated doses of active Kérastase technologies which can customised by your hair stylist to target 2 problems at once. I had the Kérastase System Fibronic which is designed to give shine and luminosity for freshly coloured hair and the Kérastase Intense colour protection booster with ionium and polyphenols.




This was a great moisture boost my hair - it feels healthy and amazingly soft to say I've put it through the bleach trauma!

I've only had the ends trimmed and a lot of the weight taken out of the top so it doesn't look that different to the photos above but next time I have a decent hair day I'll share a pic of with it cut too.

Hope you like it!

Lindsey

8 comments:

  1. Without wanting to be dead gay, you might want to look at the PH and hardness of the water, your hair will go drier if you have acidic water, as the cuticles won't open to accept it.

    It will go frizzier if you have alkali water, as the cuticles swell and, well frizz.

    My nan used to wash her hair in beer, I'm guessing for the very reason that it was the best suit ph level wise.

    So there.

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    1. Haha you don't sound dead gay Jez, maybe a bit of a geek but I wouldn't expect anything less.

      Sounds interesting and definitely worth looking into whether there's a specific hair routine I could follow depending on water type. I definitely notice a difference in texture when I wash it when I'm working down in London.

      Would you know where to find out about water ph levels/hardness etc?

      Lindsey

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  2. Your hair looks gorgeous hon. Laughing at Jez's comment, my now ex-boyfriend believe it or not once swilled me with beer in a club - and my hair was amazing the next day!

    Water hardness has an affect on our skins too, the harder the water the drier and tighter my skin feels.

    If you look on your local water board's website it should tell you what kind of water you have - when I am abroad it's always much softer as I live in a hard water area x

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    Replies
    1. Haha thanks Sara, so beer shampoo it is then?! :)

      Will take a look at Yorkshire Water now x

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  3. Cant believe you went through the torture of the highlighting cap twice!! wow! must have took ages. but well worth it, it looks great!

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    Replies
    1. Haha spoken from experience there I gather?

      It can be painful but I find a couple of tips help - Its always easier with hair that isn't freshly washed and there is some natural oil build up. Secondly if you use a hair serum before you put the cap on it also pulls through much easier!

      Hope that helps!

      x

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