My Hair from Long to Short of it- and pros and cons.

(Basic pros and cons are at the bottom if you want to skip past my tale) 
  Like any modern day woman i'm in-decisive and constantly wanting to change and update my look. And up until two years ago, my look with my hair anyway was always long jet black hair, right from the age of 15/ 16. 

 

Even on my wedding day i still had my long black hair, i have had it cut a few times, or a few red streaks added etc but its pretty much always been like this. But then

apparently like most other "new brides" i went through the usual crisis of wanting a dramatic change now that i was a married woman. I'd realized that my fashion sense was my own and i didn't have to follow any trends so in order to make myself more unique and more like who i felt i should be, i had all of my hair lobbed off!

I believe it was one of the best things i've ever done. It was like i'd chopped off my security blanket that i was hiding behind and stepped out from the crowed, now i could have some fun! as sad as that sounds that's what changing my hair meant to me! it's exactly what it did! i was more confident in myself, in my style and more inclined to try new looks and that lead me to lightening my hair and eventually going blonde.

 Again stepping away from my security blanket of long black hair... i now had short blonde hair! Which also meant i could do a lot more with it! i ended up being able to do so much with my hair i think its one of the best things i've ever done! I'd had it white, lilac, pink...even multi. i felt i could express myself easier.

And now i'm right up to a pixie crop!

ANYWAY thats my quick hair length journey, now to the part you're really here for, should you cut your hair or grow it out? Here's a list of my personal pros and cons i've discovered. 

Pros and Cons:

• Long hair was easy to hide when it was getting a little dirty, you could easily whack it up in a bun or pony tail and no one would know, so with short hair its more effort - BUT the miracle that is Dry shampoo covers a multitude of sins with short hair! 
• Short hair uses less products, You may have to wash your hair more often and use some styling products like wax etc but over-all your shampoo usage is halved and the excuse "i'm washing my hair" doesn't work anymore. 
• Its quicker and easier to work with when its short, and you don't really have any of those "my hair wont do what i want it to" with styles etc.
• You can still have different hair styles day to day with short hair, especially as short as mine, you can pin back the fringe for a cute quiff or spike it up and volumise it for an edgy OTT quiff or even gel into a mow-hawk.
• Its easier to change your colour- there's less hair to actually damage, you don't need to use as much dye and you can go for bold bright colours without investing hours in bleaching, conditioning, re-bleaching to get the colour out of the saturated long ends where you've been dying it for years. 
• Lastly- and not meant as a 'dig' at people with long hair but i find personally i stand out from the crowd more, i'm not mixed with the generic long hair- pretty girls. Not that that's a bad thing if that is what you like, but personally I've never been a "pretty" girl, I've always been a Kick-your ass, tattoos, motorbikes and decorate my house with skulls and roses kinda woman. And for me short hair was the best choice I've ever made. Its made me step out of my shell and away from the usual conforms of what i thought was my personal fashion- when actually i was just trying to be like everyone else. Girls with their long luscious hair are beautiful but i was trying to be them and it really just wasn't me. 

   I'll be the first to admit i do get hair envy when i see someone with long blonde hair, but it last for a second and then i remember why i got rid of my curtain and stopped hiding myself away behind it all. There's no hiding now! It's the same as women with straight hair will always want curly and people with naturally curly will always want straight. I guess were blessed with being able to have the choices we do now. You can cut it off or grow it out, or straighten it or perm it.

   If your thinking of going short its a long-term commitment you have to live with for years before it'll grow back out again so think long and hard, but if you're doing it for the right reasons it'll be the best thing you've probably ever done. 

Just think before you chop!

XxX

My new Vans :)

Just a quick one to show you my amazing bargain from the Office shoes January sale!

I bought these amazing Pink and Dress-blue Vans, "old skool" style, and only £23! Also i had free postage and packaging as I spent over £50 and i bought my husband some shoes too.



I've been on the site and they are now out of stock, but you can find similar items HERE

Or, they are also on ebay in the Schuh store for £24.99 with £4.99 p+p which is HERE

The price is INSANE! The RRP is £55! So if you like them i suggest you get them now!
Unlike the regular Vans these have a padded heel so they don't need breaking in, pretty much lace up and go...and it is real suede on the shoe too. They just look so awesome!

Enjoy!
XxX

Beatiful rings from Etsy!

So, yet again I have been on Etsy, which is leathal for me. Last time I went on the app I probably favorited 100+ items... and I feel NO SHAME, they're all amazing. I had a little Christmas money left so I decided to finally get myself a ring that I had been after for ages...and I ended up with two.

The shop is called HangingByAThread1 on Etsy, ownd by a lovely lady called Angie, based in Greenbay, Wisconsin, USA. She makes beautiful individual peices, some using upcycled materials, and i just fell in love with these two adjustable Rings.



The filigree Vintage style rings were £11.32(GBP) with around £5 Postage and packaging, the postage to the UK is super fast too! One ring has a Pink opal stone, which gives off this golden glow in the light, and the other is a Green Opal stone in an identical, filigree, vintage style setting.



I'm totally in love with them. I literally couldn't decide which one I wanted to wear first! This shop is highly reccommended, reasonably priced and even has a sale section! Totally ideal for gifts!

I think the next item i'll be buying from her is either The Fire Opal Necklace or the Green Opal. They're all so lush. It's a stunning shop.
Be sure to go and check her out!
XxX

Christmas mini-haul, L'óreal skin perfection toner and cleanser review. (warning, also includes rant about ungreatful brats included)

CHRISTMAS WAS HERE; it's been and gone, time for the Easter eggs! Actually saying that, you may think i'm joking, but i used to work for a large supermarket and they have Easter eggs delivered ready to go out on boxing day. Also at the corner shop up the road from me they started selling Easter stuff about 3 weeks ago...

I love Christmas, its my favorite time of year. I love the food, family, friends, snuggling infront of the T.V and of course the gifts. My husband and I didn't have a lot of money this year, most of the gifts i made, or we bought in sales etc... And we didn't ask for anything as we knew money was tight for others too, but i still got quite a good haul.
I also got a bit of money to spend in the sales, i did hit Primark on boxing day with my sister but i literally bought one thing as we were rushing and that was this beautiful Pink one button blazer, in a really soft cotton fabric, only £7!

I also treated myself to some new Cleanser and toner, it's the new L'oreal Skin Perfection range, in the pink packaging. Cheaper then my No7, protect and perfect and 100% better for my skin. I have quite sensitive combination skin, oily t-zone and dry cheeks, so i needed something that covered all three bases, the No7 stuff was the only product i'd ever used that didn't dry my skin out too much nor make it too oily, and didn't bring me out in spots or redness. This new L'oreal Skin Perfection range is AMAZING. It completely changed my skin after one use. I don't have the day or night cream yet, but i will. It's now going to be my new range. I've been ordered to stop using make up wipes, and you should too, the chemicals in them and alcohol content are insane! So cleanse, Tone and Moisturise all the way ladies!!! The cleanser and toner were on offer, usually around £7-8 each but i got mine for £5-ish, plus you get your Superdrug loyalty points so it all adds up to money off later on!


I also treated myself to some True Match Minerals, Powder foundation in 'golden ivory', as i was using a Revlon matte finish creme but it was clogging my pores and was visible to the naked eye. I cannot rave about this True Match Minerals foundation enough! It's so easy, and even and just gives you a lovely glow. If you have a spot break out i'd still recommend using a concealer underneath but no more caking on thick cream foundation! It's around £14 from Superdrug (UK)



Now for the rant, i'm literally outraged by what is summed up in this article: Brats on Twitter
Now i'm not going to go overly 'High and mighty' because i do understand the pain of getting a gift you didn't really want. But sometimes that's how life goes kids! If you don't like it, be honest but not in a horrid way and just ask if you can exchange it, don't beat the sh*t out of your mum, or cry, or say your parents ruined your life because you got a white iPhone and not a black one... you know what i'd do...sell it because i bloody hate apple, but also i'd say oh i didn't really want the white one, thank you though, but is there any way i could get it changed for a black one. DON'T smash it up and throw it at your mum! OR alternatively you can just shut up and be f*cking great-full you got a present from your parents at all and not drop-kicked on your ass out the house. I swear that a few in that generation have a few thousand brain cells missing, or a few they just share between them... I'm horrified that my kids may be worse! But then i remembered, I'm awesome and my kids wont get away with any of that. I'm pretty sure my kids will understand life in all its wonder, no religion forced on them (if they want to be religious they can, and i'll help or support them), there will be no over the top outbursts because they ripped their school trousers while they were having fun. And i'm certainly not allowing them to become some of the spoilt brats I've witnessed this Christmas. I want my kids to grow up still looking at the stars and wondering and imagining the impossible.

****I do whole-heartedly want to explain too that this is the daily mail so their representation of all of the kids these days is only based on a biased view of a few twitter accounts, and by no way should allow everyone to tar all of that generation with the same brush.

BLEACH LONDON; Rad? or Fad?

I'm one of those people who is constantly updating my facebook status threatening to go a different colour, people say no and i do it anyway. I'm always on the look out for new colours etc, especially in the past year since finally getting my hair the the white blonde i 'always' wanted. But then there are so many new shiney awesome colours that will make me look awesome... and finally i'll be happy with my hair... ERRGH WRONG.



I hauled myself some BLEACH LONDON products from Boots (UK), this brand is from a salon of the same name in London, (yes really, who'd have thunk), and this salon is where all us 'out there' non-conformists, can go and conform together into one rainbow hair mass. So i got myself a lovely white toner kit, which essentially is a dye kit, rather then my usual pot of whack-it-on directions white toner, and some silver shampoo as well as a bottle of 'Rose' pink hair dye. It's only semi, lasts 2-10 washes, although that immidiatley rings alarm bells for me as it's a bit vague. Usually 8-10 washes i feel comfortable with, but 2-10??? I mean am i going to go in with mild pink hair on my 6th wash and come out stark-white again on the 7th??



Moaning aside it is a nice dye, i will add i haven't used either of the other products yet, only the Rose colour. Its in a simple easy bottle, whack it on washed, NOT conditioned, towel-dried hair, it's a lovely gloopy formula that goes NEON pink on your hair. It is only recommended for very light blonde hair although i have seen a couple of reviews on darker blondes and it does still show up a lovely softer pink colour. It doesn't stay NEON pink. Wait 15 min, wash it off and out comes this amazing soft, candyfloss-pink hair.



Suprisingly i DO love it! Although i've had it two days and i'm bored already. But that will be the joy of it washing it out in under 10 washes, because i can pop back down to boots and pick up another colour. Also, as my hair is quite short, i only used half a bottle so i still have another half i can top up the colour with. I will warn you though. I hadn't long had my roots done, and it didn't take too well to my roots. :(



The white toner kit was £7, the silver shampoo £5 and the Rose dye was also £5 but at the moment boots have a 3 for 2 offer on their salon brand hair products so i got the cheapest item free! :)



All-in-all if you're like me and you get bored easily, its highly recommended brand for colours. Especially if you want to to stand out! But i do feel its a tad over-priced and the bottles feel really industrial and kind of cheap, although they do look awesome. The product smells amazing, and i think it'll be better value for money if it drops down in price (which it probably will when the hypes died down). I do highly recommend it! So have fun experimenting with their vast rainbow of colours and i'll stick up my review of the toner and shampoo in 2-10 washes! Xx