Let's Talk About Hair

I was sent a press release yesterday about the new Bed Head Street Squad blog and it prompted me to have a think about my own hair trials and tribulations. I have already mentioned that my hair is in a bit of a state at the minute. It's grown quite long and this is more to do with hairdresser avoidance than it is a style statement but I feel like I'm at a tipping point with it. Do I continue to try and improve how it looks at it's current length or do I bite the bullet and go for the chop?

The Bed Head Street Squad. No frumpy hair there!

In terms of improving it's current state I have been using the Philip Kinglsey Elasticizer with some success. I'm not sure how often I can use it though and my hair does become tangled again between uses. I have considered trying one of the new 'split end repair' ranges. Both Pantene and Tresemme recently released haircare products specifically designed to tackle split ends. Having spent a while using SLS free products I do wonder if this would be a bit of a step back? L'Oreal are launching a new range of SLS free hair products called Hair Expertise in February which might be a better solution for me (London Beauty Queen posted about the range here). I have been using some sachets of Rahua Shampoo and Conditioner and whilst I really like the texture and the scent, I'm not sure it's the best fit for my hair in it's current knotted up state. It's something I hope to return to when my hair is better shape.

Another way to put off the scissors for a while longer would be to colour my hair again. For the past few months I have diligently stuck to touching up the roots only but reading Jack Howard's blog has made me yearn for glossy, all over colour. His description of French Brown sounds perfect and what most brunettes are striving for with their colour. I have a lot of personal experience with the 'orange cast' that Jack describes and it's one of the reasons I have often re-dyed all of my hair rather than just the roots.

Of course, I have plenty of reason to fear hitting the bottle! I'm not sure if you ever check my archives but the feedback on one old hair dye post is extremely interesting. When the foam dyes were initially released just over a year ago, I had the opportunity to try both the John Frieda Precision Foam Colour and the Clairol Nice'n Easy foam. The John Frieda was excellent and they have since expanded the line to include more cool toned browns. The Clairol foam on the other hand was a beast. If you look back at that original review you will see that there are 38 comments and a large proportion of those report a very similar experience. Black hair, stained scalp and a splattered bathroom! It's an experience I do not wish to repeat.

How my mop currently looks

If all else fails I know I could go for the scissors option. I am tempted to go for the chop and I like my hair in a bob but I can be such a fusspot about the cut. My bad experiences seem to outweigh my good ones. Do you remember last year's Rachel incident? I like my hair to be a little messy, it suits my personality (don't say anything) more than something very styled or structured. We can probably blame my inner Indie kid for my lack of interest in big hair! I do seem to struggle to convey this message to hairdressers and until I master this, I fear that I will always end up with frumpy rather than funky.