Taming the Lion’s Mane

I am a Leo and, when your star sign is a Lion, having lustrous locks is surely meant to come with the territory.

Here is the story of my hair:

My hair is auburn, I like the colour of my hair.

I always used to cry after I had my hair cut but not since I started going to a salon.

I was jealous of girls at school who could easily scrape back their hair into a ponytail, mine was always bumpy because there is so much of it (I am better at it now).

I remember it taking my mum hours to dry my hair.

When I was 12 my hair reached my bum, I had 12 inches cut off it. I think my Dad was distraught. My mum kept the cut piece for ages and we did look into selling it for wigs. Just as real hair seemed to be coming back in she chucked it.

I had a disastrous experience with styling wax on my 18th birthday (even after a few washes I felt my hair looked really greasy) – the playing of Nellie the Elephant by the DJ was far more embarrassing though!

My hair is thick, there is tons of it. This has led to some really bad hair styles (see below for ‘The mushroom’) especially when I had it cut shorter. It has also made it really hard to find hair bands that fit.

So how have I worked on taming this mane of mine?

I love my GHD ceramic straighteners and without these I would have grown my hair long again so I could always tie it back out of the way.

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=kirstyes-21&o=2&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B000CSLJDW

I don’t tend to over style and often leave my hair wet (this is probably more to do with the fact I’m not a morning person).

I have finally found hairbands that work for me – Goody StayputTM (with slide proof hold) (I bought my set of 10 black ones from Asda, they also have a website http://www.goody.com). They are excellent, long lasting and retain their shape and hold.

The Body Shop’s Brazil Nut Define & No Frizz smells gorg and helps smooth down frizz, working like a serum.

An ex neighbour (still good friend) introduced me to the John Frieda Collection Brilliant Brunette range. So I now use the shampoo, conditioner, hairspray and on/off the intensive conditioner and Shine Shock perfecting glosser lovely summery coconutty smell.

Love the fresh cucumbery smell (I’m sensing a theme with my hair products) and shininess of SebastianTM Trilliant thermal protection and shimmer-complex spray which I use with those fantastic GHDs.

As I said earlier I love my hair colour but as the years have been added so have the amount of grey/white hairs but I have continued to put off dying my hair (only once using a wash in wash out colour shampoo and once talcing my hair to become the Statue of Liberty for a costume party!). After my car accident I did seem to have a few grey hairs linked to an area where I cut my head but I have to now accept that the grey salt and pepper is part of aging not shock.

Finally I was persuaded by my fab hairdresser (Claire Fromage at Scissors, Poole) to try highlights/lowlights, so I’ve had a gentle introduction to the world of colour by still keeping it quite natural. Now this hasn’t fully covered the grey as I only had the T section done and up close they still appear quite obvious to me but from a distance when my hair is back I think it has blended more so I’m happy, except with the fact that mid process I looked like this! ;o)

Here’s the end product!

My next hair appointment, cut only, is on the day before I am due to be bridesmaid for my friend Stacey. I think that she will be very glad I’ve finally got my mane under control and have some smaller glasses so that there is no fringe, glasses, chin situation going on (sorry to my Auntie and Uncle for this get up on their wedding day).

What are your hair nightmares (not including the pics of my bad hair days above) and styling tips?

(Just so that you know this is not a sponsored post at all – I just love all of these products. I’ve linked to them just in case you fancy trying them – If you did buy the GHDs from Amazon that link gives me a small reward but I just like having images when I can).