Tuesday 31 March 2015

the Lob, the Clavicut, and me.

Other working title: "How I fried my once perfect hair and the road taken to get it back to what it once was", also working title: "Fuck you, box hair dye". LAST working title: "please, learn from my mistakes; do as I say, not as I do". because, seriously.

unnamedUnless you have been hiding under a rock, you've heard all about the lob, or as I once heard it being referred to "the clavicut", because the style hits just at your clavicle. toted as one of the most versatile cuts, it's been everywhere - from I feel like a new celebrity daily debuting it on instagram, to some of my favorite bloggers & fashionistas.

Now on to me. Remember when I was so proud of re-virginizing my hair? Yea, I promptly ruined that title for myself. My problem is two-fold: I get bored and antsy, and I never learn my lesson that when it comes to hair, being bored and antsy and spontaneous doesn't always work, In fact, when it's a DIY job, it rarely works. So cut to last March, and I have my beautiful highlighted once virgin hair that is long, thick and healthy - but has some roots coming in therefore I was getting itchy for a shake up. Jake & I were talking one day and he mentioned off hand that he really likes dark hair, and wondered what I would look like with it? Well, being the lovestruck dummy that I was, I thought "Well if he likes dark hair, why not dye mine? I've had dark hair before and loved it, why not go dark again?" mistake #1. Sorry babe, but I shouldn't have listened to you. Mistake #2: DOING IT MYSELF. Because level 8-9 blonde hair is not going to take dark dye nicely, if it's even the right shade (because those boxes LIE - "light golden brown" my ass), more often than not the first application will turn out a mousy, ugly redish brown. Now a smart, rational woman at this point woulda thought to herself "oh, this was probably a bad idea. I should phone my hair stylist, let her yell at me and then have her salvage it" - but not this lady. No no, she dyed it twice more, to achieve that lovely dark dark chocolate brown. Which is not to say I didn't like it, I did! It was shiny and lovely and in my opinion really made me eyes stand out. Problem was that I had now deposited some serious damage into my hair, and it was dry and getting frizzly, and since my hair was so porous from being so light, was fading faster than I would've liked, so - you all know what I did next, do I even have to say it? I dyed it again. At home, again. To quote my girl who has seen me go down this road so many times "Brianne! Do you seriously not learn every time you do this to yourself!? When has this ever turned out well for you?! Fuck sakes". To the point that Danielle, to the point.

So now we get to the fun part. 4-5 months after I’ve dyed it, gotten it professionally done finally and had my hair pretty much settle, the blonde memories come flooding back. The, “my blonde hair was soo pretty” nostalgia - those get ya deep in the heart strings. So I promptly texted Candice (hair guru) what we could do to take it back to somewhat it’s former glory – did I mention I had gotten it dyed not even 2 weeks prior by her? I’m sure she wanted to punch me. But, still I made an appointment for a few weeks later to start slowly – I full well knew this was going to be a long process -  with some ombre and balayage painting and well, no surprise – it didn’t lift much. 2-3 more lightening processes, Candice specifically telling me she wasn’t going to dye my hair dark ever again, cursing the makers of Nice & Easy and the color deposits they leave behind, praising the gods that invented K-Pak treatments, and my hair had gotten to the point where I either had to leave it as is, or chop it off to allow my hair to get some of the health back and continue on lifting. Thankfully, all of the stages my hair went through I really liked, but my eye was on the blonde prize.

Enter the clavicut.unnamed (1)

Now, I’m not going to lie, I was super nervous to chop my hair. With all the breakage, it wasn’t even that much of a chop, 3 inches with some weight taken out. But we ladies, for me atleast, a lot of my confidence lay in my strands. I feel sexier, prettier, skinnier (? Don’t judge, I know I can’t be the only one) with long hair. But, you guys. This cut. There is a reason it is so damn popular: it fucking rules. First day hair, second and third day hair, braids, it all works with this cut. Quite possibly one of the most versatile and fun hairstyles I've had in a while. I can even do some fantastic little up-dos with it that appear much more difficult than they actually are. unnamed (2)Moral of this long winded story? Get a lob, or a clavicut, or whatever you want to call it, get one. Just don't fry the shit out of your hair first - no bueno.

Wednesday 25 March 2015

what's next.

unnamed (5)It's been a while, and the honest answer to why that is, is because I've been struggling to figure out the direction of this blog - and if I even want to continue on with it. Feeling like I can no longer find or even have the voice that gave this blog life, that gave me the creative outlet to share my funny anecdotes, my love of fashion and styling, and just to have a diary of my early twenties in the digital era.

Lifestyle & Fashion blogging is an increasingly overly saturated part of the internet, so what makes my voice unique? What makes my style and my voice one that will stick out over the thousands of other girls who have a love of kimonos and stripes? I've been struggling to decide if this is something I still want to do and if I decide I do want to continue with it, what is the certain thing that makes me unique and interesting? To be frank, I don't know that answer quite yet.

I've been reflecting quite a bit over the last several weeks and months, and I realize that this is a pretty accurate depiction of what my life looks like at the moment: pretty undecided. Do I want to stay in the career I'm in, is it enriching my life or just paying my bills? do I even want to stay in this city or do I want to branch out somewhere new that isn't familiar? Since turning 25 I've hit a bit of a fork in the road, and don't know whether I want to stay on the path of comfort, familiarity and "easy", or go down the road I never take which is risky, unknown and not certain. I always had a picture in my head of what my life would look like when the quarter century number hit, but reality hasn't entirely unfolded the same way my vision assumed it would have; leaving me feeling like there may just be a different path more suited for me that my love of comfort was shielding me from looking into.

When you're 13 and looking up to the adults in your life, they don't tell you this about adulthood; sometimes the decisions that come with the responsibilities is enough to make you want to crawl back into your fort and hibernate for a little while longer. unnamed (1) unnamed (3) unnamed (4) unnamedSide note: this leopard print laptop case may single-handedly become the best purchase of 2015. 4 months in and not much has beaten it - yet.