The Journey Begins

Stage 1 of the Ombre Journey got underway today.

I am so thrilled with the outcome I actually bounced out of the salon earlier on. My hair is notoriously difficult to colour and unmanageably thick. Most attempts to dye it result in a disaster that just gets covered up with a bottle of Natural Black, and hair cuts can be very hit or miss (if the layers are too short my head has a tendency to look like a Christmas tree). 

The photos really do no justice to the colour at all. You really need to see this colour in daylight to get the full effect. Laura, the owner of Vibe in Thurles, who personally took care of my colour today, spent ages putting in a head of duo tone low lights in copper and caramel. She put a lot of care into making sure I didn't end up with zebra hair, and it paid off. I've got beautifully natural looking tones that make me wish I had actually gotten them from a summer on the beach.

We decided to skip cutting my hair into the new style for the time being and wait and see how the next stage of colouring turns out before chopping off 6 inches. Secretly I was delighted - this is the longest my hair has ever been, ever and it would be kinda nice to keep it for a little longer.

Cardigan - Pennys

Vest - Dunnes

Jeans - Dunnes

What do you think?

Hair Update

Finally... it's hair cut time. 

Tomorrow is the first in a series of trips to the hairdressers to turn my hair into this.

If you ask really nicely I will post a photo for you

Things I Love Thursday

Fantastic Fakeness - I had two fake firsts on my life last week... nails and spray tan... and I think I'm a convert. Both turned out amazing, both lasted ages, both were fairly comfortable... well as comfortable as you can be in someone else's house and being told you can't wear a bra until tomorrow. My main reason for the tan was because I was wearing a strapless dress to S&C's wedding last week and my nails were to match the rest of the bridesmaids shellac manicures. Even though a girl should rarely fake anything this is highly, highly recommended.   

Braids - Overly long hair that I cannot style by myself equals a lot of bun and braid wearing just to keep it off my face. I had been growing my hair for the wedding and it's probably at its longest in my memory - about a third of the way down my back - and that's very long for a girl who used to get a blade four trim all over in the summer months. Thank god that braids are still in style - simple, easy and so pretty to look at... and a great way to hide two day old hair.

Old Favourites - I've been spending a lot of my time over at S's, am keeping an eye on her cats cause I'm a great friend. I might have also pilfered her bookshelves a little, pulling out books that I've read years ago and almost forgotten about. Delightful. 

Honourable Mentions - strapless dresses, apple crumble, Room by Emma Donoghue - it's haunting, road trips, Micheal Buble, photos from Vegas, yoghurt with muesli, lie-ins, the first run after a week off, the guilty pleasure that is Teen Wolf, writing in pencil instead of pen for a whole day, band aids with cartoons printed on them - makes me feel like a kid again, crunchy green apples, bare legs - even when it's raining 

Beautiful Ombre

I am giving serious thoughts to dying my hair for the summer months and I am really loving the idea of ombre. Since my own hair colour is black I probably wouldn't go for the brown to blonde option that seems to be doing the rounds, a la Alexia, but would maybe try going from a very dark brown to caramel. I really think that this hair colour suits wavy or curly hair so much better than straight. The texture really helps to give life to the colour and stops it looks quite so artificial.

What do you think? Do you think that it's just another hair trend, and one that has already had it's day? Or do you think it has thoughts of summer, and beach, and all things lovely still attached? 

Things I Love Thursday

Wonderful Weather - It's a beautiful day here in Limerick, just like yesterday and the day before and the day before. The shades are out 24-7 and I'm just loving it. Any excuse to put my shades on makes me pretty happy.

Perfect Plaits - Not! I got a little bored yesterday and randomly threw a few plaits into my hair - mostly to keep the short bits at the front from falling into my eyes all day. It was rough, it was messy, it was just thrown together and it was perfect for the day that it was. A bright, beautiful spring day spent with friends and food and a few beers.  

Gorgeous Grey - Infinitely more simple to wear than white, perfectly neutral and much less harsh than black on an Irish skin tone. Grey is now my go-to neutral in my wardrobe. In the last few weeks I've picked up some grey skinnies and some grey vests to go along with my grey cardigans, jumpers and dresses. Think I might even do an all grey day next week. What do you think? Do you have a go-to neutral in your clothes?  

Honourable Mentions - making pavlova for Easter Sunday dessert because it's my dad's favourite, hot chocolate made with nutella, blush coloured knits, thinking of buying lemon yellow nail varnish for my toes, getting my flip flops out from the bottom of the wardrobe, Angry Birds on my phone, coloured staples holding my research papers together, cranberry flavoured water, hugs from friends, sweating it out at aerobics - you know it's doing you good, thinking of going to the French Market at the weekend and sampling food from the top of the street to the bottom, looking forward to my first beer garden cider of the season this bank holiday weekend 

Things I Love Thursday

Bread Is Just Raw Toast - If you have ever spent more than a day with me you will know of my love affair with toast - to the point that I will not buy bread for fear of eating the whole lot in one sitting. One of the most wonderful moments of my weekends visiting my parents is sitting at the breakfast table with some tea and a plate full of toast in front of me, jam pot on one side of my plate, butter dish on the other. A guaranteed way to my heart? Offer to make me some.

A Little Laid Back - These days I'm a little low maintenance (read lazy) and so I have become enamored with the 'messy ponytail', the rough around the edge, morning after, I'm too cool to care kinda look. I have to warn you though... this look does not combine well with a 'couldn't care less' fashion attitude - I always make sure that my nails are well polished and my make up looks fresh in order to avoid the bag lady tag.

Mug Shot - Eating food out of an oversized mug is one of my simple guilty pleasures. I get a lot of satisfaction out of being able to cradle my food in my hand, fingers threaded through the handle. My own little portion of happiness. Some of the best foods for your mug - fruit, cereal, noodles, ice cream, parfait, soup, the list is endless...

Honourable Mentions - hearing the truth, ice cream sandwiches, waiting for strawberry season to arrive, eyebrow pencils that glide on without smudging, the most amazing slice of mushroom pizza on the way home from a Saturday night out on the town, Clint Mansell soundtracks, oversized knits, time on my own, this song, friends who hide presents in my handbag for me to find later on, balloons with my name on them

Oh Those Teenage Years

I have never been one of those girls who are precious about their hair. One of those who only go for a trim, and maybe branch out for a few highlights in the summer months. One of those who clutch at their tresses and squeal if you threaten to cut off their ponytail while they sleep. 

Oh no... that was not me. I was the girl who cut off all her hair when she was 14 and realised that no matter what you threw at it it would grow back. And it was a proper cut, none of your bobs for me. This was a 'feel the bristles on the back of your head' kinda cut. I embraced hair products and threw away all of my scrunchies, hair bands and clips. I played a lot of sport at my pretty conservative school so my multicoloured nails and fingers full of rings were about as flamboyant and in your face as you could get.

Until I went away to college... 

I spent the end of my teens and early twenties throwing everything I could think of at it. See all the colours above? I have had each and every one of those colours at some time, with the exception of white blonde. That was only ever done to bleach down my black tresses so that every other colour in the rainbow might adhere to my impossible-to-dye hair. At one stage I even had tiger stripes in my hair, but that was more due to something going wildly wrong with a batch of bleach than by design. I liked it though and kept it for a month.

One summer I got so fed up with my hair and the heat that I got a friend of my mums to shave it all off with a blade 2 clippers and decided to press restart with it all... but that didn't last long and soon the blood red streaks began appearing through my crop again.

If you saw me now you would never believe that I was the girl in school with the jet black, spiked crop or the girl from college with the 'pink this week and red the next' look. When I turned 23 I realised that I didn't know what I looked like with long hair and set about growing it out... and growing out bleach sucks! A lot! So I reigned in my love of colour for a few years to see if I liked what I would see in the mirror with hair long enough to tie back.

And it's pretty nice. Different, but nice. Lovely in fact. But if you told me in the morning that I would have to cut it all off again I wouldn't bat an eyelid. It's only hair. It is not part of my identity or who I am. It is not how people recognize or describe me. It is just hair.

Are you one of those people who have a connection to your locks and refuse to change your style, a person who chops and changes it at a whim or somewhere in between? How much does your hair say about you?