A Loooong break and some exciting updates.

Firstly I would like to apologise for not posting for a while, I have had a very busy few months and this kind of got pushed off my to do list. :/

First up to catch up on is my Colour Trophy Entry, we got through to regionals and ended up coming 5th in the North East! Here are some pictures from the event itself.

Here is our beautiful model Sophie, Aaron who blow dried and styled her hair and myself. I did the colouring.

Only the stylists were allowed on the floor to do the final touches on each model. Aaron was given 25 minutes to make sure Sophie's hair was looking it's absolute best so the colour really stood out.

Our look got a lot of attention from the judges, many of whom kept coming back for a second and third look. We went for a retro futurism idea with her overall look, a future mod or something like that!

There was also a catwalk show done by L'Oreal's own ID artist team. They showcased their looks while the judges made final deliberations.

I really love the use of a carabina to hold on this models ponytail!

So the first four from each region go through to the grand final in London and we happened to come 5th. An amazing achievement for our first time but it's very frustrating to be so close and yet so far. What we didn't know at that point was all the regional finalists from across the country were entered into the peoples choice award. This was a brand new award this year where all the models pictures were put online and the public could vote. In hindsight if I had been more organised I should have posted about this on here and tried to drum up a few more votes but never mind!

The response to our picture was amazing and we got the email that we had got into the top three, we were going to London!

The awards were held at the Grosvenor Hotel in London and was quite possibly the fanciest event I have ever been to. The ballroom was beautiful, the dinner was lovely and the show itself was amazing. We were treated to displays from Dylan Bradshaw, Richard Ward, Toni and Guy and Trevor Sorbie. Caroline Flack was presenting and the whole evening was truly inspiring.

My place setting, (note the free perfume!) everything was super elegant.

 Our wristbands were huge and clunky and we all thought they were a bit odd, until they all lit up during Dylan Bradshaw's show and flashed in time with the music, they also flashed every time a winner was announced.

 Biggest surprise of the night was we won! This is from the left, Caroline Flack, Aaron who was the stylist, Sophie our model, Karen who own Contemporary Salons, Me! (colourist) and Jo Hanson MBE.

So overall a really eventful experience. I still can't believe it completely and I'm just so happy to have been a part of it all.

I think that's about enough for one blog post, it feels very long to me now. I'm going to force myself to keep on top of this from now on!

Cake baking and Anni-Valentines

So today I've been keeping myself busy by baking a cake for my friends engagement party. I'm not a pro baker it's just something I do for a bit of fun. I made her a Devils food cake as it was one she tried before and particularly liked. The recipe I use is Martha Stewart's in case you want to give it a go!

Even when it was in the gross gloopy stage it smelled so good it was really tempting to eat! It's quite a stiff cake mixture, so it was a good workout. My arms were killing!

Finished cake! I decorated it with Cadbury caramel nibbles, my boyfriend said they looked a bit rude so I'm kind of regretting the decision now, oh well!

So that was my cake making escapade, tomorrow is my partners and my anniversary or anni-valentines day as I have so named it. We don't have a lot of money and we never know what to get each other as presents so we are spending the day together. We got a load of sweets from the 99p shop and are planning a Disney marathon, pure bliss! I'd love to know what you all have planned for tomorrow or even if you hate Valentines day and why! See you all soon. :)

Spring/Summer Hair trends

Thought I'd post a quick round up of the key hair trends for Spring and Summer this year. Most of the styles seen on the catwalks have been very simple and very natural which is great news for the rest of us as it's easy to replicate! 

Embellished hair, as seen at D&G. For me this might be one of my favourites for Spring and one I will definitely be trying. Best for medium to long hair the easiest way to accomplish this style is to plait your hair in one braid at the back then flip it up and use hair grips to pin it to your head in a circle. Hide the end under a clip and your good to go! Or add loads for this fantastic over the top look.  If your hair is shorter then I would wear it down and wear broaches and clips all along one side.

Princess twists, as seen on the Ellie Saab catwalk this look should work for most lengths of hair apart from a mega short crop. Apply a little smoothing serum to your hair to prevent flyaways, I recommend Frizz Ease or L'Oreal Liss Control. To do this section your hair at its natural parting and then working from the front of your hair where you want your twist to start turn it in on itself in a roll. Make sure you gather all your hair into the twist as you work down and then use a grip to secure behind your ear.

The low pony, very very simple to do and works best on freshly washed hair. The look for spring to summer is quite loose and flyaway so don't add any product to your hair beforehand. Simply bring it back into a low pony then leave a small section out when you secure it with a thin elastic. Then take that small piece of hair and wrap it around the elastic to hide. A grip underneath to secure in place and hide the ends of the hair and you are good to go! 

Loose waves, this look for me us by far the easiest to do, I think for many people out there this is bed hair! If your hair looks like this when you wake up, lucky you! You won't need to do anything to replicate this trend, however if you are like me and your hair is a little straighter then I would recommend scrunch drying your hair. To do this after washing your hair, towel dry then spritz on some thermo active styling spray when still wet. Garnier do a good one as do Matrix and L'oreal. Then when you dry with the hair dryer take sections in your hands and scrunch. Simples! The spray will hold the loose waves in your hair all day. :)

This was just a little insight into my personal favourite styles for this year. If you would like me to do some more in depth photo tutorials of any please let me know. Also let me know what styles you're looking forward to this season! Bye for now!

All photo's from Pinterest

Photo shoot!

Sorry it's been a few days since my last post. It's all been rather hectic lately but I promised you something more exciting and more hair related so here we go. These are the sneaky backstage pictures I got from my photo shoot for the L'Oréal colour trophy. So excited! 

This is our beautiful model before we coloured or cut her hair. She had virgin hair so was very brave to let us near her with the dye, safe to say she is now hooked!

Here she is sitting anxiously with the colour on. Her natural hair was a mid brown (base 5) which we darkened down a bit to compliment her complexion and then we added a red panel through the sides and fringe and I hand painted some of the darker colour onto her roots and the tips of her fringe to create a shine band effect. 

 Here she is sitting patiently while the balyage colour develops, hence why her fringe and roots look a bit claggy. 

Cheeky shot of the mens entry while our model say in make up. 

We wanted to go really strong with the eyes and more neutral on the lips and the make up artist did a stunning job.

The finished look waiting for the photographer. It's such a pain trying to take picture's of dark colours on a phone so please forgive the quality! 

Tried to take a picture of the properly lit photo on the photographers mac book. Easier said than done but I'm super happy with what I've seen so far. 

We also curled it for a change of pace to see which we liked better. I'm leaning towards straight as it shows off the colour better but I'd love to hear your opinions. 

End of the day, two very tired stylists and our beautiful model. Note to self, don't take pictures with models. Especially after making zero effort on appearance that day! Oh well I live and learn. 

I hope you like my backstage photo's, I had to grab them quickly whenever I had a spare moment so they are a little rushed. Please let me know your thoughts, I'll try to get hold of copies of the final photos and upload them and I'll keep you up to date on any news from the competition. Bye for now! 

Dentist Visit

Good afternoon everyone,

Sorry for not getting the chance to post yesterday but it was a very busy day. Wednesday and Fridays are super busy so I wont always be able to get a post up.

Today I'm feeling pretty sorry for myself after going to the dentist this morning. I'm coming to the final stages of wearing braces and today I got the little elastic bands that hook on to the metal brackets. I can only describe the sensation as being like they've wired your jaw shut. My mouth only opens a small amount and I tried to have noodles for my lunch and was struggling to get the fork in my mouth! I've done a bit of research and some dentists websites say your meant to take them off when you eat but mine said they have to stay on all the time! Should be an interesting couple of months!

If any of you have been through this stage of braces and can offer any advice on how you coped I would love to hear it. Also if any of you have any questions about braces or about getting braces later in life (I was 21 when I got mine) please let me know. Again sorry about the missed day I promise to come up with something suitably hair related to post about very soon!

Liebster Award Tag

Hi everyone, little bit of fun for you here. Lauren from Lauren Is Dead Wrong has nominated me for the Liebster award .

From what I gather from her blog post it's a tag award aimed at newbie bloggers to try and give them a bit more recognition and following. The rules are as follows:

1, Display the award on your blog.

2, Thank the person who nominated you.

3, Answer the taggers 11 questions.

4, Nominate some more newbie bloggers with 200 followers or less.

I think it's a fantastic way of discovering new blogs and helping new bloggers to get a bit more noticed. So here are Lauren's questions.

1. One thing you can't leave the house without.

My phone, I'd feel completely lost if I didn't have it with me! 

2. If you were a superhero, what super powers would you have?

I'd like to be able to change my appearance at whim to anything I wanted.

3. On a night out would you grab a clutch bag or a over the shoulder strappy one?

Depends on the venue, if I was going out for a nice meal I'd be more tempted to take a clutch but if I was going to a club I would prefer a shoulder strap.

4. Ridiculous/weird celebrity crush

Benedict Cumberbatch, is that weird? I don't know :S

5. Biggest achievement?

I'm part of my salons team for the L'Oreal Colour trophy,  helping to style models on a photo shoot for our entries.

6. Cereal: better at breakfast or any other time of the day?

I don't like cereal! I use to get those Mornflake squares I think they were called and have them dry in a bowl but I don't like milk so never eat cereal properly. I do like the occasional bowl of Ready Brek though.

7. If you could be on the cover of a magazine, which one would you choose?

I think Harpers Bazaar probably. The style tends to be a bit wilder than some other magazines.

8. What is the nicest thing anyone has done for you?

So many people have done too many nice things for me. Especially since my boyfriend and I moved into our own home and had absolutely nothing.

9. If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?

Disneyland I think, it's just so magical and carefree. If I was being a grown up going on a grown up holiday I would probably like to go to Japan because it just fascinates me.

10. The one song you just can't get out of your head at the moment.

Stevie Nicks: Edge of Seventeen, old but amazing :)

11.The one food you could never give up!

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!!

So I'm nominating,Alice, Niamh,Anna, Cayla Anne, Queen Beady, Jane and Awkwardgirlx and my questions are:

1, What is your day to day go to hairstyle?
2, What hair product could you not live without?
3, If you could change your hair colour to any colour what would it be?
4, Describe your ideal holiday.
5, What's your favourite thing to do to de-stress?
6, What is your biggest achievement to date?
7, What one crazy thing would you like to accomplish in your lifetime?
8, Name one thing that never leaves your handbag.
9, Post a picture of something you're currently coveting.
10, List one thing you have learned recently.
11, What is your favourite website?

Again no pressure to do it but if you do please link me back in the posts! 

How to curl with straighteners

So something that a lot of people have asked me before is how do you curl with straighteners. I know it's something that for some people it clicks straight away and for others they cannot get their heads around it. So I thought I would throw together this really quick guide on how I curl with straighteners.

For this you will need: a straightening iron, some sectioning clips, a comb, some heat protector and hairspray.

So here is my model Audrey, unfortunately as this was a quick spur of the moment post I couldn't secure a real person and my long suffering dolly head stepped in to be my model.

So the first thing you want to do is section your hair, I section my hair from my crown down to just behind my ear on both sides and then work up the back.

This is my first section and I'm going to take pieces about an inch wide to make my curls.

I clamp the hair in the straighteners and rotate them 180 degrees towards me so the hair ends are facing me.

Then pull the straighteneners slowly down the hair, try not to pull very hard you don't want a lot of tension on the hair. the result should look something like the curl below.

Carry this on along the section and then work up the hair taking little sections each time. The end result should look something like the photo below. 

Sorry this guide isn't the most detailed and the pictures aren't very good but it was just something quick I thought I would put together while the idea was in my head. Hope you all find this a bit useful. Please let me know if it is or if you have any other tips and tricks for creating your own straightener curls.

Bloglovin!

I've joined Bloglovin! Bloglovin is a great because it keeps all your blog subscriptions in order and updates you every time someone adds a new post. So please click the link on my homepage and follow me on Bloglovin. <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11678369/?claim=keb6rmtt95w">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Best hairdryers for your money.

As a hairdresser the one tool that probably works harder than any other is the hair-dryer. I use mine nearly every day and for the average dryer that is just too much to cope with. So I am going to go through a few of my favourite dryers that will definitely stand up to heavy use. Whether your budget is small or infinite here are my recommendations.

Budget buy: Babyliss Pro Black Magic £17.21 Beautybay.com

If money is a bit tight for you then I cannot recommend the Black magic enough. I know that there are cheaper hair dryers out there (theres pretty much a smartprice/tesco value version of everything these days!) but this one will really hold up to pretty much anything you can throw at it. This was my first dryer which came in my college kit and I was blown away when I compared it to the dryer I had been using. This has a 1600w motor which doesn't sound particularly strong but trust me it's more than powerful enough. It  has 4 heat settings and two speed settings, a good tip to remember is with a more powerful dryer you don't need to have the heat as high so your hair will thank you! It also has a cold shot button which is useful for setting curls into the hair. Durability wise mine has been dropped and bashed off things. I have sucked my hair into the back (but we wont talk about that) and it is still standing. It comes with the smooth nozzle that you can see in the picture but you do have to buy the diffuser separately if you have curly hair, also it can feel a bit heavy but if you're only using it for your own hair this probably wont be an issue.

Mid range buy: Diva Professional Rapida 3200 £49.99 Beautyexpert.co.uk

If your budget is a bit more allowing then I would strongly recommend the Diva rapida. This is a dryer that is the top choice of many a hairdresser up and down the country. This has a powerful motor which has been tested and proven to last at least 1000 hours, that's pretty much never going to run out if you only use this for your own hair. I don't know about you but I normally only dry my hair for about 15 minutes when I'm not doing it properly. This is another dryer which doesn't need to be used as hot because it has a 2000w motor but because it's super duper clever this one also has a heat regulator so it wont get hotter than 110 degrees. There is 4 heat settings though so you can choose the one that works best for what you are trying to achieve.  It has a 3 metre long cable so you can safely wander all over the place while drying your hair and it comes in a whole range of colours!

Luxury buy: Parlux 3200 compact £75.95 Thehut.com 

If money is no object and you want what is in my opinion the epitome of dryers, then look no further than the Parlux 3200. This dryer is just brilliant. It's super lightweight so no arm strain, bonus if you spend all day blow drying, For me I tend to regard the heavier dryers as good arm toning exercise but I also cannot be bothered to make myself swap arms so I would end up with one massive hulk arm if my dryer weighed a lot. It comes with two nozzles, one for speed drying and one for precision setting (great if you want super sleek and shiny curls). Again you have to buy the diffuser separately if you like the diffused look. There are 4 temperatures and 2 speeds as well as a cold shot button. The motor is slightly weaker than the Rapida at 1900w but you wouldn't notice the difference and the pro's definitely outweigh the cons. It comes in a few different colours and some super pretty floral patterns so there's something for everyone. It also has the salon length cable so you can roam free while drying.

I hope that you have found this helpful, overall I would say that all of these dryers are wonderful and I would recommend any of them. If like me you are really strapped for cash all I would say is buy a dryer which is meant for professional use. It may cost you that little bit more but they are designed to be used constantly by hairdressers day in day out, so if it's only for personal use it's going to last years. Please let me know if you think there are any other dryers out there that you love, or that you would like me to review. Also if there are any other hair tool reviews you would like to see please tell me and I will give you my thoughts.

Hope you all are doing well, speak to you soon!

Fraulein 38 make up brushes review.

So since I'm a bit pathetic when it comes to doing my own make up, (images of a child finger painting just about sums it up) I thought it was about time I upped my game and bought some proper tools. A quick trip to Boots revealed that one brush was going to cost me about £12 (yikes!) so to the internet I journeyed!

I came across the Fraulein brushes on Ebay and after musing of a few different sets I went for the biggest (24) because why not. The whole set cost me £13 with free postage which compared with £12 for one brush is pretty cheap! They come in a faux leather roll case which has a flap to keep the brushes covered and clean when you aren't using them. The photo of the black set was borrowed from Nataliesbeautyland be sure to check out her blog when you get a sec.

The first thing I noticed when I got this set was the strong plastic smell. Some people might hate this, I happen to love it! It reminds me of school swimming bags and arm bands. However if you don't like this smell I would suggest leaving the brushes unwrapped somewhere to air out and it should dissipate in a day or so. Individually all the brushes are very soft and none of the bristles have come out even when I let my cat play with them (I clean them after obv but it's a good quality test!). 

For me being a make up novice these brushes are excellent quality, they aren't harsh on my skin and they are excellent value for money. I'll keep you updated on how they hold up as they are brand new right now. Please let me know if you have tried these brushes and what you think of them or if you have any other brushes that you recommend.

Nail Art: Konad Stampers review

I'm a big fan of nail art. When I had a lot more free time I would sit and freehand designs onto my nails and I could easily waste 3 hours or more on doing my nails. Not that what I was doing would take a professional 3 hours, I was just a bit rubbish!

So because I just don't have the time to spend on my nails any more I started looking for a quicker way to get the designs I wanted onto my nails. After doing a bit of research I stumbled onto Konad stamping. Seemed like a simple enough idea, you paint the special nail polish onto a stencil and then scrape off the excess and stamp. I ordered the Gold set but I got it off Ebay because it's quite expensive (it retails for about £47 on Amazon). There are a lot of other kits ranging from the really small which come with two polishes and plates up to the gigantic pro sets which have around 20 polishes and all the image plates. 

The kit comes with 7 large bottles of polish, 8 image plates with a variety of different designs on them, a stamper, scraper and image plate holder. You also get some bonus rhinestones.

Please excuse my messy plates and scraper, I decided to take the pictures after I'd had a play!

So it took a bit of getting used to before I could get the technique right, I suggest having some cotton buds on hand so that you can remove mistakes and smudges from your nails. It suggests in online tutorials that you should roll the stamper across your nail, when I tried this I kept stamping way off centre and ended up with some pretty wonky designs! So after trying for a little while to get the knack this is what I came up with.

Still a bit wonky and a bit messy but overall I'm pretty pleased with them. It took a bit of time to get the knack of doing this but once I'd got it sussed it really doesn't add very much onto the time I would spend just painting my nails plainly. If it wasn't for the high price I would recommend this product whole heartedly and if you stumble across it on Ebay for less I'd say go for it! It is a lot of fun!

Good shampoo on a budget

Good Afternoon to you!

I know it's a bit of a hot topic but I'm going to throw my two pence worth in on the Salon vs Supermarket shampoo debate. I was sceptical at first but after studying the effects on the hair and trying them for my self I have come to the conclusion that salon shampoo is the way forward. For me, the biggest factor was that the cheaper shampoo contains silicone which coats the hair to make it shiny and isn't strong enough to get into the cortex of the hair and properly clean it. 

However as I discovered the process of changing to a high end shampoo is one that takes a little perseverance. For the first few washes the silicone was coming out of my hair and my hair didn't feel so great but after sticking with it I now have lighter feeling, soft and manageable hair.

The shampoo I currently use is Absolut Repair by L'Oreal, which is designed for hair which has been damaged either through over styling or too many chemical processes. It's the strongest of the repairing shampoo's that L'Oreal make and really nourishing to my hair, I would highly recommend this to anyone who maybe bleaches their hair or people who straighten or curl their hair a lot.

So onto the budget part. I know how expensive salon shampoo is and for me particularly it's hard to justify buying luxury items. I'll not go into much detail but essentially both me and my partner have to live off his student loan which is not a lot at all. So I had to do my research when it came to buying my shampoo, I worked out that my old shampoo lasted me about a month to a month and a half and cost about £3. I went to my local Sally's and discovered that I could get the L'Oreal professionnel shampoo was £21 for the big salon size bottles. It's expensive but the big bottles last me about 9 months to a year. You use so much less with salon shampoo as it's a lot more concentrated and the bottles really are huge so I'm actually saving money over all by buying the expensive shampoo. I would encourage all of you to go to your local Sally's (on their websites it tells you which ones are open to the public) and have a look at the shampoo on offer. You might just save some money. :)

Oh My Goodness!

I only got the place on the creative team! I was out in town sock shopping, because I live a super exciting fast paced life, and my phone went off. They company left me a message saying I had made it and gave me all the dates that we will be meeting. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of the process and when we go to the competitions!

So excited!!!!

Nervous Times!

Good afternoon to you all,

Very exciting and nerve wrecking day today. I had an interview for a creative team run by the salon that owns my training school. "What on earth is a creative team?" I hear many of you cry, in essence it's a small team of hairdressers who are considered to be at the top of their game who design all of the promotional pieces for their brand. So like all the posters of models in salon windows and pictures for hair magazines as well as entering the big hair competitions like the L'Oreal Colour Trophy.

So I was very nervous but my interviewers were very nice. They told me they really liked my application and asked me lots of questions about my ambitions and where I want to get to in life. Hopefully they were suitably impressed by me and I should here back in the next few days so fingers crossed!

Updo's with a difference

I love pin ups.

I love dreaming up new ones. I love doing them. I love taking my time over them and fussing over every little detail. Whenever I get bored I like to sit with my dolls head and try out new things, I would try on real people more often but my models need a lot of time and a lot of patience!

Currently I am recovering from a cold and on a recommendation from my tutor I got some Sudafed tablets and after taking them I have been climbing the walls all day. I know the caffeine is supposed to boost you back up to your normal energy levels but it's catapulted me way past that. So in my caffeine induced mega-hyper state I got out the dolls head and I was determined to replicate the butterfly hair/headpiece I had seen on Jean Paul Gaultier's latest runway show. I haven't figured out how to use images with out getting sued yet so unfortunately you'll have to Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about but trust me, it's fantastic.

Five hours later.... I realise that I just do not have the resources right now to make this hairstyle happen. So kind of sticking with the butterfly theme, my long suffering dolls head ends up with Papillon dog style ears.

Not my finest work but definitely a good insight into the very crazy things that Sudafed can do to your brain...

Good afternoon and Welcome

Good afternoon and welcome to my blog,

I have decided to put some of my daily thoughts to paper (or word document in this case) and start a blog focussing on hair, beauty and anything else that takes my fancy along the way. As a hairdresser I'll be adding in a few tutorials along the way so let me know if there is anything you would like to see. 

See you anon!