Another hair growth post, and an apology...

I'm very sorry for not posting in over a month. I really didn't realise it's been that long! I've been very busy, trying to sort out my life and working.

Here's some pictures of my hair...

                                                                                         

To the right, we have June 4th 2012 and to the left, April 28th 2013, with braid waves, so the length is probably not quite accurate.
If you can see on the ends of the one from this year, they're very dry. I'm still having issues with an oily scalp and dry ends. It's got a little better, but I'm thinking of investing in a boar bristle brush to help distribute the il more evenly. I was wondering if the ends were just very badly split, but I went out into the sunlight the other day and although they were worse than they were a year ago (being longer it gets caught more now), they're not all that bad, just really, really dry.

I will post more about this another day as I am trying to find a way of remedying it. I've tried oiling it heavily and leaving it for 48 hours a couple of times, but that doesn't seem to do much.

Thanks for reading :)

A year down the line...

I've been very busy recently, so I didn't realise last month that I have now been taking pictures of my hair length for a year! Although I've been growing it out for 3 years now, it's only in the last year that I've really started to take far better care of it - almost religiously. In 2011 I joined the Long Hair Community forum, where I've found lots of amazing tips and hair care ideas.

So, here's a year progress...

And if you're thinking that's not all that impressive, here's a picture from May 2010, a few months after I cut it into a bob...


















I think these things have helped the most:

• Micro trimming and S&D
• Oiling, I like coconut, but baby oil was good in the summer
• Protective styling at night, I used to just put it in a pony tail or not both at all
• Tangle Teezer I was using a widetooth comb, but I think even that was too brutal for my fine hair
• Being gentle with it!!

I haven't let any one cut my hair for me in 4 years, but even with trimming it myself I think I either wasn't doing it regularly enough and my splits were getting to far up my length, or I was doing it too often and cutting off most of my new growth.
Protecting my hair from splits has also helped a lot. I don't have to cut off as much hair because I get the splits early with S&D and there just aren't as many to begin with.
The only problem I'm having now it dryness on my ends, but oiling it helping with that. Problem is that my roots/scalp is really oily, so I can't over condition that because it'll look dirty within a few hours. Now that it's longer though I find it easier to condition the ends without getting it on my scalp.

All in all I am really enjoying having long hair, it's the longest it's been since I was 12!!!

Thanks for reading :)

2 Day hair oiling experiment

So this week I'm working in the kitchen. For this there's not much point in washing my hair when I normally would because a) people don't see me and b) after one day of my hair being up, in a hot greasy kitchen under a hat, it looks like it's not been washed for a week anyway.
I decided last night that I would oil my hair. I have done this before, but only leaving the oil on over night and washing in the morning. I do oil my ends every time I wash it, but not very much, enough so that it doesn't look greasy and the ends are protected. This time I will leave it on till tomorrow afternoon, by that time it will have been on for 48 hours. I'll apply a little more to my ends today as that have been getting really dry recently.

There's not really might point in me posting a picture of my oily hair - it doesn't look very nice - so I'll just tell you what I'm using.

I use the Superdrug coconut oil on my ends normally and I really like it so I've used that this time, just in a larger quantity. I've also mixed in some Tea Tree oil and applied that to my scalp. As I've said in previous posts, I've been having problems with oil control on my scalp and Tea Tree is meant to help with that.

I will update with pictures and news of how my hair reacted to having the oils on it for so long.

Thanks for reading :)

I heart Dr. Martiens

I really do love them! Unfortunately the pair that I have currently are used for work, and because they're used for work they're wearing out quicker than they would because of all the alcohol that gets spilt on them. They were bought for me by Jorge and are black classic style but with slits in the side. Cool, but not good for walking in the rain!

I love these Triumph style ones, but at £150 I can't justify buying them. I've got my DM's from eBay in the past, so I think I will have a look on there. Either way, I've been eyeing these for over a year now and I think it's time to treat myself!! 

Thanks for reading :)

My dream bedroom

I am a little bored in my break today, so I thought that I would look through the Next website and pick out things which, in an ideal world, would come to live in my bedroom.

1. Isabella® Armoire - I would personally like to take the shelves out of this, put in a hanging rail and use it as a wardrobe. I like the idea of having my cloths away, but still being able to see them. It seems like a really unusual thing that I haven't really seen before.
2. Antoinette Silver Ottoman - This is just something handy to put at the foot of the bed. A little bit of extra storage plus somewhere to sit if you need it.
3. Simpson Dressing Table - Doesn't look that much in this picture, but the whole thing in mirrored and looks lovely in person! I think you need to be really careful with a piece like this because it has a danger of looking rather retro. Retro in the 70s mums bedroom way, not in a good way. when I was a kid we had pieces like this that my mum had had for years and they did not look cool/modern. It just looked like we couldn't afford new furniture! However it is lovely, and I want one!
4. Antoinette Bedstead - My idea bed is really falling apart now. It is held up by books, need I say more. This one looks like, sturdy and again a little unusual. I like big iron cast four post beds (the kind in Bed Knobs and Broom Sticks), but the ones I want are so expensive that it makes me want to cry. This is the kind of thing I am looking for at the moment and it's very very pretty.
5. Geo Jacquard Pencil Pleat Curtains - These would just tie to room together, there's not really much to say, but I like them. The look sleek. I love loooong curtains, but I have been known to trip over them. These are a good length and aren't too dark so wouldn't make a room feel claustrophobic.
6. Paris Print Bed Set - I feel like this bedset would go nicely with the bed. I love prints like this and te colours are muted to go with everything else!

And there you have it. Unfortunatly all these would set me back around £1657. That's around a months wages, so I will not be placing an order with Next any time soon, but it's nice to dream!!

Thanks or reading :)

Cheered up by hair!

Oh dear, I don't feel too good. That's the reason that I haven't posted a lot in the last couple of weeks.
Jorge's Nan also died recently and we're off up there at the end of the week and that has taken it out of me a little. Although I myself am not upset, I am around the family who are - understandably - upset about it and it's a very emotionality draining time.

Anyway, enough of that! Here's how my hair is doing this month.

I am very happy, although it's not grown too much compared from last month, it has grown a lot compared to last year!
The picture doesn't look too good because my hair hadn't completely dried but it was the only time I had to take one and it does show length quite well.

Nightwalk dupes.... Display shoes!

I knew when I bought these that they would be mainly for putting out on display. They were £25 from BooHoo.com (link) and I really couldn't resist after seeing the Jeffrey Campbell originals this summer.

They're actually a lot higher than I thought they'd be, but that's just something that you accept when you shop online. Surprisingly they're not all that hard to walk in, just like wearing normal heels but not being able to put of your weight on your heel.

Like I've mentioned in I think every post I've made about high heels, I am rather tall already. And having a boyfriend who's not all that much taller than me means I can't really wear 6 inch heels on a night out. If we're out together that it.

Although, these make me over 6 feet tall and though I do go out in heels of that hieght, I do have to be in the mood to tower above most people!

That being said, I don't think these are something I'd wear if I was going out clubbing anyway, just because I can't put my weight on my heel, and with a few drinks in me I don't think I'd be very stable in them.

They are very nice though, well made and not bad for the price!

Thanks for reading :)

Scalp grease problems!

My hair has always been greasy, always. However in the last few months, since it's got longer, it's started doing something which I've never experienced before; it's oily at the roots but not on the length. Meaning that after about a day, my roots could do with a wash, but my ends are good for another 2 days!

Now, I know that some people wash only their scalp with shampoo, because that's the bit that gets greasy, but I can't seem to get the hang of it. I only put shampoo on my scalp, but it runs down the length and by the time I've finished I've got really dry ends and a clean scalp and I end up having to coat the length in coconut oil and I don't like how that makes it feel. It's infuriating! Here's what it looks like on day 2:

Actually doesn't look too bad in photos :s

Excuse the funny face, I've just got back from work and I have a head ache!

So, what to do? I need to find a way of stopping my scalp from producing so much oil. Because I'm on my feet a lot for work and running around I sweat quite a lot (ew!), but even when I have a few days off I still have a problem with it... Anyway advice? I've tried CO (conditioner only) washing for a few months, and although it works for the odd wash I can't use it long term, my whole head is just a giant grease ball!!

The most useful thing I've found. is trying to shampoo only the roots and putting conditioner on the ends at the same time. Then wash all that off and condition the whole head. But even then I get an oily scalp after about a day! Ahhhh, it's driving me mad!!!

Thanks for reading ;)

That Dieting Thing #4: Soup is not the way forward

So, eating just soup didn't go too well. However I am still eating healthy/'diet' foods because I do need to lose weight. I've discovered the magic of Tuna again, with low fat salad cream it's lovely and I'll just eat a bowl of the stuff. It's worth taking the hit on sugar because the Tuna fills me up!

Another one of my favourites id egg sandwiches. However bread is not so good if you're on a diet, so I've been using low calorie wraps, which I actually prefer to bread anyway!
All in all everything is going good. I haven't weighed myself yet because I don't think you should do it every week. I'll do it every month and although that may be bad because I don't get the motivation to carry on because I can see I'm losing weight, it does mean that when I have a bad week and don't losing much/anything, I won't be tempted to give up there and then!

Thanks for reading :)

That Dieting Thing #3: Am I getting fatter?

This is how I feel! Just eating soup didn't go too well. Jorge's mum refused to let me eat just soup and has bought me Special K cracker crisps. And when I was buying ingredients to make tomato soup I picked up some snack bars from the range too.
I know they're not hugely good for you, and full of sugar, but I thought they would be better then chocolate and would help get rid of my cravings for. And that they have done! I haven't eaten any chocolate in almost a week now, and although I would like some, I don't feel like I need it. The cracker things are nice and they're a replacement for crisps. I'll have a few when I want a little snack and they fill the void which means that I don't end up just going and getting a bag of normal crisps, yey!

Everything is going quite well. I fell down a bit yesterday, as we were out till 5am on Saturday - after I thought it would be a good idea to go back to a friends after we'd been to the pub - so I was very tired when I woke up and could still feel the alcohol sloshing around in my stomach (and my blood stream!). That would be a lot of weight put on that night, but in the morning I had a bacon sandwich and two bowls of thick soup which I didn't really need to eat, I just wanted. Haha

Today has been good, but I don't feel like anything is moving. I always feel like this and I think that is way I normally give up so quickly. I feel like I'm doing loads, but when I look at pictures or weigh myself nothing changes and that is disheartening!

Does anyone else feel like this?

Thanks for reading :)

Radox Shower Smoothies

I'm not normally one to go for these sorts of things. I have enough shower gel from Christmas and Birthdays to last me until the next one comes along. It's not like I'm sparing with it either. I have loads of soaps too which last longer then gels so I'm never short of personal cleaning products.
So, the point was that I don't care what my shower gel smells like, as long as it cleans me. However, this stuff is amazing! It was another Christmas gift, but I would consider buying it again when I run out.

It smells lovely. I'm not good with describing anything, particularly smells so I won't bother trying to go into detail. But I can tell you that is smells smooth and like berries.
Now the sent in lovely, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't like this half as much if it weren't for the texture and consistency of it. I can only describe it as feeling like cream. Thick, luxurious creamy, smelly, lovelyness! There are little seeds in it, so I wouldn't recommend washing your more um, intimate areas with it, but even these aren't grainy or annoying, just nice.
Something else I find odd about it is that it doesn't lather like a normal show gel. No huge bubbles, just a thick foam. I can only describe it as being like foam on a Cappuccino!

Normally I don't like these little signs on things that smell good, but in this case, it is like rubbing a smoothie over yourself and it does smell awfully good!

I'd defiantly recommend this to someone who doesn't like/doesn't have time for baths but still wants to relax a little and feel like you're pampering yourself a little!

Thanks for reading :)

I apologise for the lighting of the photos in this post, the light has been horrible but I won't get any other time to do it this week.

Apparently I dress funny...

... I don't think so!
 I'm not normally an 'outfit of the day' kind of person, but I liked what I wore today. Nothing special, just gone out to do the washing and see a friend, but I liked how I felt in it.

Top and leggings: Primark
Coat: Izabel, Christmas present from my mum
    Boots: Doc Martins, from Jorge a year back.
    Bag: Henry Holland. I will do a separate post on this as I loooove it and got it in the sales xD

Thanks for reading :)

That Dieting Thing #2: Pigeons, People and Puggies

I don't have anything beauty to post photos of today, so I've posted some photos I took to document my day. Please enjoy them.

I've been thinking about this whole soup diet thing, and although the contents of the soup I've been eating these past two days isn't in itself what you would consider 'diet food', it is mainly vegetables. Now, I'm awful with eating fruit and veg. It's not that I don't like it, I just like chocolate and crisps more. But only allowing myself to eat soup, and fruit for sweet things, I've realised that this could actually make me feel better than I normally do. I certainly feel better!

I've also come to realise something. I think I may have a chocolate addiction (I don't even know if that's possible, it may just be sugar). I've been eating chocolate almost everyday for probably about 5 or 6 years. How I'm not the size of a house is a wonder, how I managed to be underweight in that time is even more of a mystery! I realise that this is a very bad thing and in the long term could affect my health so I need to cut it out. 

So far things are going well, but then I'm not very far in and I'll probably be very angry by this time next week. However it is making me realise how much I eat normally and how much I really need.

Thanks for reading :)

That Dieting Thing #1: Jumping on the dieting bandwagon

I know in the new year a lot of people aim to loose a bit of weight and shift those pounds put on at Christmas. Now, I've never been one to jump at this. Yes, I gain a little bit of weight at Christmas, but I've always worked it off by the summer without really trying.

However, last January I passed my driving test and got a car. Now instead of walking everywhere I can drive and this led me to not lose last years winter weight. I am now the heaviest I've been in years, at 179lbs. I try not to worry about my weight, but I've had a little bit of a complex about it for about 10 years now (I blame the media) and I find weighing this much really embarrassing. Don't get me wrong, I know there are people who weight a lot more than myself and who suffer health problems because of that, I'm not saying I'm a huge fatty, I just feel uncomfortable in my own skin. 

Anyway, after that long ramble I'll get to the point. I'm going on a soup/liquid diet. I'm shit with diets, I mean really really bad, but I like soup and it's one of those fad diets that I hope will help me lose some weight and give me a kick start. I'll be posting about how I get on, but going by other attempts, it won't last long :(

I'm not just going to eat the tins of soup that I stacked under my bed, I will be making some too as I know how much crap is in tins.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to try and cut out some of the booze that I consume. Working in a pub it's quite normal for me to have a drink after work with my colleagues two or three times a week. That's not always a binge session, but alcohol contains so many calories, as I'm sure you know, not to mention all that sugar in mixers and don't even get me started on ale!

Anyway, tonight is my last night of drinking those lovely fattening drinks. Here's to Malibu and Cherry Coke. Cheers!