Hair-spiration

I like to change my hair all the time, in the past 18 months i have rocked 2 pixie crops (one really short) an asymmetric crop (think Frankie from the Saturdays) a shoulder length one length style, the same look with a fringe and now i'm back to the look i always end up with, a jaw length bob with a full fringe (think Cleopatra). Along the way i have been many colours, Brown, Chocolate Brown, Reddy Brown, Red, Brown with Red stripes, Black and now Purple/Brown with a bright Red fringe. I have been all of these things because I get bored with my hair so easily! what i really want is long dark hair down to the middle of my back, but it always gets to my shoulders and then i want to lop it all off again! but this time i am going to persist and i will grow it, and i will grow it past my shoulders! I'm hoping that by chronicling my progress and hair woes on my blog it will make me stick at it this time!

so at the moment my hair looks a bit like this:

(i'm the brunette and although this photo was taken last year i'm back at the same style now)

I also have a red fringe, and its very red:

I'm loving this look at the moment as it has temporarily distracted me from how bored I am with my hair. So hair grows at about 6 inches a year so i'm hoping that by Christmas mine will just be at my shoulders, what i need to do then is resist the urge to cut it all off! i'm trying to keep my hair in really good condition so that i can keep it long as the hair will be healthy. My problem i that my hair is so thick that it grows really slooooooooowly and i get bored! so i am going to look to these three lovely ladies for some hair-spiration:

So its going to be a good 2-3 years to get my hair to this length but I'm going to keep these photos on my mirror as something to aspire to and hopefully with the help of my blog and a lot of will power and hope i will get my hair to my dream length!

Competition time....

So i got through to the final of my college competition, the brief was to create a day or night look using whatever inspiration we wanted. So as you can see from my previous blogs I have a love for retro styles, so I chose the theme of retro glamor for my look. I looked to celebrities like Amber Heard, Scarlet Johanson and Katy Perry who have all been working the retro look on the red caret recently.

I love the shapes involved in retro hair and there is something so sexy about a bit of red lippie too! so with all that in mind i set off to create my look!

I decided to create a quiff at the front as big hair is always good in retro hair as well as quiffs being one of the big trends in s/s 2012, so i back brushed the top section of the hair and then smoothed it all back and secured it at the back of the head with some grips.

I then created curls using the traditional pin curling technique, i didn't just want to create uniform curls i like the look of the organic curl you get when using the pin curling technique. Plus it is authentic to the era i was trying to create as I'm sure they would us GHD's back then!

Next I created a bow (see earlier blog for how to create one) I added the bow as retro hair tends to contain some form of structure but i wanted to keep this look more up to date and with people like GaGa wearing bows i felt it was the perfect combination of the retro structure and the modern twist i was looking for.

I styled the look with a leopard pencil skirt (classic skirt cut plus the sexiness of the print) a white shirt tied at the wait (50's style) black gloves for some elegance and huge shades and red lippie to create the retro glamour look.

There was 18 of us competing so the competition was pretty tough, and although i didn't win i had lots of fun preparing my model for the catwalk and it was a great experience should i chose to compete in hair competitions later on in my career.

Hair icon: Katy Perry

Hello, so its been a while since my last post but i promise to keep my blog updated more from now on! I'm going to post about my hair icons and who's style that i like. As a hairdresser you take inspiration from everywhere but as celebrities are in the news so much its easy to see there style evolution and many clients also ask for celebrity styles.

so my hair icon today is Katy Perry, i have been a fan of hers for a while as i really like the retro hair and fashion looks and she does them really well. I also like the way she is not afraid to take risks and create some really out there stage looks.

so here is a selection of my favorite KP looks:

 Here is the most recent photo of Miss Perry, as you can see she has ditched her blue locks in favour of a darker longer style. I must admit i do prefer her with darker hair. she has toned down the blue to a navy as well as rocking the dip dye trend with subtle purple ends. the look has clearly been created with extensions as she only had a bob the other day, so who knows whats next for KP but I'm really loving this look at the moment.

 For many years Katy was a long raven haired beauty and I think this is one of my favorite looks that she wore to Paris fashion week 2 years ago. I love the softness of the curls and how she has swept them over one shoulder. the colour really suits her as its such a contrast to her porcelain skin and blue eyes. A good tip if you want to make an impact is to pick a very contrasting hair colour to your natural shade just be careful that it doesn't wash you out.

 I love, love, love KP's hair like this, her short dark bob that she was rocking in the early part of her career is still one of her best looks in my opinion. It really frames her face well and the way it is styled still looks a bit retro but you can tell from the cut that if she wore it poker straight it would have a bit of a rock chick vibe.

 I'm not sure how i feel about Katy as a blonde, i know this is her natural shade but for me she looks much better dark. however having said that I do like this look on her, the sharp bob was such a contrast from the dark retro curls she had been wearing for so long. She is naturally very pretty and this bob just frames her features perfectly.

 Katy's pink hair phase whilst she was promoting 'the one that got away' has to be one of my favorite looks, i really loved the bubblegum hair hue but most of all i loved all the retro hair shapes that she was rocking. this one from the X Factor has to be the best one.

I didn't really know what to think when Miss Perry first dyed her hair blue but I have to sat this look has really grown on me. The one thing that annoyed me though is how bad her roots are, if you earn that much money surely you can afford to keep you roots in check?? however I did really like this look and the way she experimented with cool up do's during the blue hair phase. this look was one of my favorites as the quiff was bang on trend for s/s 2012 but she made the look her own as always.

The reason Katy Perry is one of my hair heroes is that she isn't afraid to take risks, she tries lots of new looks and colours. I feel that she may have the same mentality that i do, which is hair is just hair, it grows back, you can change the colour so you may as well have a bit of fun!