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!