Silver hair.

After having silver hair for around 3 weeks now, I thought I'd do a post explaining the process and how it's lasted etc, as I've had a few questions about it on social media. 

I went silver on the 18th December, and I had it done at a local salon. My hair was a very brassy blonde before, and my hairdresser had to put extra toner & dye mixture onto my hair as it wasn't covering evenly as my hair had a lot of bleach in it. Because of this, my hair came out a lot darker than I originally wanted, but I still really loved it. (The second picture and the picture of just my lips and hair is after I'd had it done, before I'd washed it myself)

My hairdresser expected the blue tones to fade quickly, but for some reason on my hair, they didn't. My hair started to look less gray and more blue. I work at a school, so have been washing my hair a lot to try and get rid of the blue tones as it looked completely blue in some lights. I personally liked the colour, but wouldn't be allowed it at work. 

The first picture is taken as my hair is now (after 3 weeks). As you can see, the majority is still grey, but I have some greenish blue tones that just don't seem to budge! I think the green tones are because of how brassy my hair originally was (if you mix yellow and blue it makes green). 

I'm currently using no heat on my hair, and loads of conditioning products to try and get my hair back in good condition. I was hoping that the silver would fade and leave me with an ash blonde that I could easily grow out into an ombre with my natural colour. At the moment, my hair is in a lot better condition, and is growing again, but I think it will probably keep fading to a blueish green. I'm hoping to not have to dye it again as I'm trying to get my hair back to my natural colour, and in better condition. 

At the moment, I'm still happy with my hair despite the blue/green tones. I think I hated the yellow and orange so much before that I'm just glad it's not that colour! 

Would I recommend going silver/gray? Yes! I really liked mine, I'm not sure it's something I'll keep for a long time, but I really do love it! I think it's a good idea to go to a salon though, as there's a lot of different shades, and your hairdresser can pick one that will work for your hair and skin tone. Just keep in mind that if your hair doesn't take the dye well (like mine didn't) you may end up having to go darker, which may fade to blue/green like mine did. 

Does it damage your hair? Not a lot. I already had very damaged bleached hair (I've had it bleached on and off for years) and my dye was conditioning and mixed with a very low level peroxide. On my roots (which are naturally blonde) the dye took really well and gave me the colour that I wanted all over, it's the bleached parts which have gone a blue/green. I'd recommend going to the salon and asking professional advice. If you're naturally blonde, I wouldn't bleach your hair first (unless it's already bleached), but if you're darker, it'll probably be necessary. 

Will I suit it? Silver is a very cool colour. If you suit cool toned hair colours (ash blonde for example) then you'll probably suit it. If you suit more warm tones (red, brown, ginger) then you probably won't suit it. I've used directions conditioning dye in silver before (semi permanent) which washes out completely, which you could use first before getting it done properly to see if you like the colour. 

How much did it cost? Mine cost £40, but hairdressers vary significantly in price depending where you go. I used to go to Toni & Guy for example, which is around £100 for colours. I luckily found a local hairdresser who is really good and a lot cheaper. 

How to care for it? My hairdresser recommended I use a lot of conditioning masks and no heat (partly because my hair was already damaged) which I have been doing. I'd also recommend using purple shampoo to maintain ash tones, and using lots of hair oils and leave in conditioner. If you struggle to use no heat there's loads of lovely hair tutorials on youtube (Alex centomo has a lot) without using heat. I personally wash my hair at night, sleep with it wet, and usually leave it natural the first day, then experiment with buns, braids and ponytails. 

How to wash it out? Head and shoulders shampoo and/or Bleach london washing out liquid. Always follow with a really strong conditioner such as Bleach reincarnation mask. 

I hope this post answers some of your questions about my hair, and that hopefully you found it helpful if you're considering silver hair yourself! 

Weekly Roundup #9 & Primark Haul

I haven't done one of these posts in weeks, but I thought I'd do one of this week & last week's events and happenings! 

Florence + The Machine 

I went to see Florence live at the Manchester Arena last week, FATM are currently on their How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful tour and it was absolutely amazing. I don't mention music much on here, so if you didn't know, Florence + The Machine are my absolute favourites and if I had a bucket list  seeing them live would have been on it. I'd really recommend seeing them live if you're a big fan like me, it was probably the best thing I've ever been to! I was literally so sad when it was over! I did buy something from the merchandise too, which I'll show in a haul video going up tomorrow! 

Hair 

I'm blonde again! Last Saturday I was feeling pretty bored, and my hair needed washing and toning, and I've been thinking about re-dying it for a while now as it was looking very orangey. Everyone keeps telling me that my hair is better blonde, and somehow I didn't feel 'myself' with darker hair so I decided to go back blonde! I did it myself at home instead of going to the salon, as it's a lot cheaper, and I find colouring and highlighting hair pretty easy (If you've not done it a lot though, I'd recommend going to a salon!). I'm going to film a video about the products I used and the different stages and things, so if you're interested, keep an eye out for that video. 

Other News 

There aren't any other 'exciting' things to report, but my new job is going very well and I'm managing so far to keep up with my blog and youtube schedule, which I'm pleased about. 

If you haven't seen it, here is my latest video - It's another Primark haul! (obviously filmed before I dyed my hair back blonde!) 

I hope you've all had a great week, and for those of you starting/going back to school, college, uni, or work, I hope it's going well for you! :)

New hair.

It was time for a change. My roots were getting very noticeable, and I'd got a little bored of being bright blonde. I've thought about going back to my natural colour for a long time, but after a bit of a tough time recently, I thought 'sod it, time for a change'. I've been backwards and forwards between brown and blonde over the last few years, so I didn't want to go back fully brown as I'm paranoid about getting those dreaded orange tones again! I went back to the same hairdresser as last time (Beth at Toni&Guy Mosley st, Manchester) who is amazing, and is easily the best hairdresser I've ever been to. I had a chat with her about what I wanted, showed her about 20 pictures of Alexa Chung, and we decided on a balayage colour with a dark blonde very similar to my own shade. My hair was pre-coloured to prevent any orange fading, and then was coloured using a mixture of dark blonde and an ashy light brown.
I'm really pleased with my new hair, and it's such a big change (it looks more brown in real life), and hopefully I'll be able to get my hair in better condition now that there isn't as much bleach in it! I'm also really happy that it looks a lot more natural.
My cut is pretty simple, it's all one length as my hair is naturally curly/wavy so layers just don't work for me, and then I have some shaping around the front, with two 'fringe bits' to cover my baby hairs that annoy me!
So I'm back to the dark side (well, darker side of blonde).

New hair.

I should have probably used the cliche title: Short hair. Don't care. But the thing is, I do care about my hair, a lot.

I've been debating going shorter on and off for over a year now, and I keep chickening out and keeping it long. I loved my long hair, but I found it so difficult to style as my hair is very thick, course and is hard to style generally. This is the shortest I've had my hair in a long time, I had a bob when I was a lot younger, but I wanted more of a long bob that still gave me plenty of styling options, including a messy bun for those days when I just haven't got time.

I went to a new hairdressers after much thinking and reading reviews I went to Toni&Guy on Mosley street (Manchester). My hairdresser was Beth and she was brilliant, she did both my colour and cut and I couldn't be more pleased with it. I'd taken loads of pictures of cuts, colours and styles and she did exactly what I asked for. I normally come out of a salon thinking 'It's okay' but not this time, I was really pleased with my hair, and didn't feel like I needed to re-do it, or anything like I usually do. If you're in Manchester, I'd highly recommend Beth and the Mosley st salon.

I've curled it a little bit in these photos as it had dropped a little overnight. I used my Lee Stafford wave wand just to create some messy waves.

My cut is all one length, but the ends have been chopped in a little so that the ends aren't too blunt. My colour is all over highlights done with a bleach, and a natural blonde shade (very similar to my natural colour). The highlights are very fine, and I have them all over. I've also had a toner on it to give it that ashy look, that I've wanted for so long!

I couldn't be more pleased with my hair, which is definitely a first for me!

What do you think of my new hair? x