Hair Extensions: The Break Up...
Hi everyone!
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks but I just haven’t got around to it. My final assignment is completely finished, so I have officially completed my degree. Scary stuff! But that does mean that I can jump back on the blog waggon! So i thought i'd share a little something and throw in some cringey photos for good measure...
Anywho, recently I’ve made a bit of a change. To anyone else, it is not an overly noticeable one. But basically, I have ditched the hair extensions. Not a big deal you may argue? Well no, in the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal, but for me it was still a pretty big thing. I’ve worn clip in hair extensions, nearly every single day for the past 4 years. They’ve become a bit of a comfort blanket for me. I was quite content, every single day to spend over an hour sectioning, clipping all the wefts of hair to my head, blending my extensions in with my naturally wavy hair. I never saw a problem with it, it just became the routine for me. I even wore my extensions to the gym, utterly convinced that my hair (even in a ponytail) wasn’t long or thick enough to look attractive. It’s the gym for goodness sake, nobody cares how thick my ponytail looks! Anyways, after 5 years of my mornings revolving around wefts of hair, one morning at home over the Easter break something snapped. I just could not justify spending all that time and effort just on clipping my hair in only to take it back out again and pop it in it’s little storage bag to go to bed, just to repeat the process over again the next morning. So I embraced the natural barnet, and I’ve gotta say, it’s not been that bad…
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| (Left to Right: First year of Sixth Form // The Summer Before University // Just Before My Second Term of University) |
As you can see from recent photos on here, my hair is by no means short. It’s not quite long enough for me (but then I’m not sure I’ll ever be happy with it) but it’s not the straggly shoulder length mess that I’d convinced myself my hair was without a little help from the fake stuff. My extension obsession began not long after I first met Dan, we were going to a fancy dress party, at the time my hair was a little past shoulder length. I wanted to be Dorothy and on a bit of a whim, in order to achieve the long ribboned bunches from the film, I bought some cheap synthetic hair extensions. From the second I put them in I was hooked. I could have long, thick glossy hair in seconds. I could do nothing with them, being synthetic I couldn’t apply heat whatsoever, so my own wavy hair had to be straightened daily to match the extensions. Looking back, I looked absolutely awful. In my head I had the best hair EVER. Anyways fast forward a year or two and i’d got myself some real hair extensions, had finally got to grips with making my hair blend effortlessly and it almost felt like a bit of a secret. Whenever someone complimented me on how lovely and healthy my hair looked, I thanked them and felt a little bit of pride that all the effort was paying off. I then made the crazy decision to bleach my hair. I was going through a tough time, my mum was really poorly, I was desperately unhappy and quite simply I didn’t want to be myself anymore. I wanted to be an entirely new person and find out whether blondes did really have more fun. So I took myself off to the hair dressers at 8am on a Saturday, sat down in front of the mirror and remember thinking to myself ‘Sophs, what are you doing, your hair colour is lovely’ but I pushed that aside and took the plunge. I emerged 6 hours later, not the platinum haired Playboy Bunny colour I’d imagined but a kind of dull strawlike colour…
Anyway, after me and a friend (who’d also recently gone bleach blonde) spent an entire day locked in her bathroom with a box of 'Be Blonde' and a tinting brush hair was finally white that I wanted, I was happy. I bought waist length 22 inch platinum extensions, backcombed my hair to within an inch of its life and wandered around thinking I looked like the Scene Queen that I was striving to be. My mum sadly passed away and the sadder I felt the more I turned to fakery. Orange tan, massive hair, far too much make up….it was horrific (think Snog Marry Avoid on acid...) I look back now and know that wasn’t me in the slightest. I still dressed like this when I arrived at university, so when I met all of my best uni friends I looked like a completely different person. In fact my student card is still me, bleach blonde, backcombed and slightly mardy looking. I then decided to do the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done hair wise and order 26 inch hair extensions… in my head I looked like a mermaid, I had platinum blonde, shiny hair that fell past my waist. All I needed was the shell bra and fish companion and I was set. In reality they looked HORRENDOUS. Even when I decided to go back to a darker colour, I spent hours and hours putting the red pigment back into my hair with a pillar box red dye (turning the white tiled bathroom into something that wouldn't have been out of place in a horror film...) I bought extra dye to do my extensions. I loved the colour so much I didn't bother putting the brown dye over the top and so I had bright red, waist length hair like Ariel from the Little Mermaid for a few weeks…we won’t go into that though…
Skip forward a couple more years, and as cheesy as it sounds I’d ‘found myself’. I’d gone back to brunette, stopped slapping on the make up with a trowel and started dressing in a way that actually suited me. But as old habits die hard, straight after my hair was dyed back I left the salon promising my dismayed hairdresser that I would look after my bleach damaged hair as I walked out of the door and went straight to the extension shop. I absolutely hated my hair without them in. The only time I’d go out without them was if my hair was up. Up until now, even when I went for ombre dip dye, I spent hours bleaching the tips of my extensions and when I got rid of the dip dye, the extensions came too. But sitting at my dressing table at home at Easter with Dan patiently waiting for me to get ready for a shopping trip to Exeter, I just could not be bothered. My family have been telling me for years that my hair is long enough on it’s own, in fact my hair was actually only about half an inch shorter than my extensions, but I just didn’t buy it. ‘You have to say that…’ I replied every time. But anyway, it’s been a few weeks and the extensions have remained in their little bag, in my drawer. Untouched. Even on a night out last week I didn’t find myself reaching for them. Nobody recoiled with horror as I walked in with my natural waves. It’s amazing the amount of time that i’ve saved myself every morning! I’m a bridesmaid at my aunties wedding in August and i’m hoping that by then, my hair will grow the inch and a bit I think it needs for me to be (almost!) entirely happy with it. But for now, sorry hair extensions, this time it’s really not me, it’s you…
So glad you've finally listened you beautiful thing. Love you x
ReplyDeleteThanks lovely <3
DeleteI think you look a lot better without the extensions, you never needed them anyway your beautiful enough without them!
ReplyDeletehttp://thelipstickthegirlandherwardrobe.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks so much thats really lovely! Love your blog by the way! xx
DeleteGreat post I used to always wear hair extensions but started to give up as they got in such a mess and became hard to manage, your look super pretty x
ReplyDeletewww.krystelcouture.com ♥
Thanks so much! I know they just became such a nightmare I just gave up! xx
DeleteAwww, looks like you're handling the break up very well :-) I bet it's hard to part with your extensions though. I have two sets of clip-in extensions and knowing how my hair looks with them makes me feel awful about my natural hair without them.
ReplyDeleteIt's been so much easier than I expected actually, I don't miss them at all! xx
DeleteCan see why you gave them up!! Can't really be bothered to even try them myself!!!!!! Fancy following each other via gfc? www.framecake.blogspot.co.uk
ReplyDeleteIt's not until you go without them that you realise how much of a faff they really are, i'm not surprised you can't be bothered to try them, they're a hassle! xx
DeleteGreat and honest post, really enjoyed reading it :) xx just followed you on GFC
ReplyDeletewww.Lifeasizzie.blogspot.com
Thanks so much =) glad you enjoyed reading it, i've followed you as well =) xx
Deletegreat hair...i like it!!!
ReplyDeletehair extensions
Thanks =) xx
Deletegreat post! would you like to follow each other in gfc and bloglovin? let me know!
ReplyDeleteThanks =) glad you enjoyed reading it =) xx
Deleteloved reading this... your hair looks naturally so long and thick, i'd love to have your hair so embrace it gorgeous girl !!
ReplyDeletewww.hifreckles.com
This is such a lovely comment, thank you! Definitely embracing it now! Love your blog! xx
DeleteI'm exactly the same now, I missed them to begin with but i'm not bothered at all anymore! xx
ReplyDelete