hair today gone tomorrow; taking care of my blonde hair, cos this queen needs her crown

I know I’ve told you this before ladies but I’m not a real blonde

It’s difficult to know what colour I would be these days if I did let it go au natural but I suspect (from the current state of my roots) that it might be white, just like my beautiful Mummy Bear. That’s one of the reasons why I keep justifying to myself getting it bleached blonde when I know that eventually it’s going to destroy my hair. That, and the fact that I have always loved platinum blonde hair and would name Marilyn Monroe and Gwen Stefani as two of my top female style icons.

We’ve long since come to associate a thick head of glossy lustrous hair with youth and vitality. We women are always on the pursuit of anything that helps us feel and look younger for longer and having a fabulous head of hair, whether you are actually male or female come to think of it, is right up there as a priority. It’s a household obsession with both Franco and myself having quite the line-up of hair care products between us!

Until recently I had been having my hair highlighted. A long, arduous and costly exercise that generally involved 4 hours sat in a chair with a numb bum whilst parting with £150 for the pleasure. Least I got caught up with all the gossip. Don’t know about you ladies but the only time I really get to read the trashy mags is when I’m sat in the hairdressers.

About 6 months ago now, and spurred on by my girl crush obsession with Victoria from the fab blog inthefrow, I decided to bite the bullet and instead go for a full route tint and overall toner to try and lift my hair to a paler shade of blonde. I really adore the icy Scandinavian tone rather than the brass band blonde mine tends to go when its ready for a re touch! 

I have to say that I have been delighted (until last week anyway) with the results and with the correct regime in place it’s not as high maintenance as I thought it would be (probably on account of all the natural white I do now have coming through!). Plus, it only takes 20 mins to slap the product on rather than hours doing the individual full head of foils. I figure I’m also making an environmental contribution too by saving on metres of bacofoil!!

There are a few tips and tricks though, and good products too, that you need to have in your haircare armory if you are going to manage the ultra-blonde look.

First up a good shampoo that won’t strip your hair of its colour. I use Kerastase Bain Chromatique Sulphate free shampoo twice a week and then I mix it up with L’Oreal professional silver shampoo once a week to help neutalise those yellow tones. This also helps give hair that on trend purplish undertone too.

I also use the Kerastase Chromatique Masque conditioner as I have thick as well as colour treated hair.  

Once a week I put a deep conditioning mask on my hair. I’ve been using Ogario Restore and Shine Hair Masque and it not only smells completely divine but it also leaves my hair lovely and silky smooth. It contains lavender and sage but also the lovely scents of lemon and lime oil. No split ends around here!

So far, so good.

I have two additional hair care splurges which I adore. I’ve mentioned one of these before in a previous blog post, No 1 Mermaid hair. It gives my hair a lovely lustrous shine and luscious tropical scent of the South Pacific. It really does make me feel like a mermaid!

I also have an oil from Show Beauty which is in a beautiful cut glass decanter and looks fabulous on my dressing table! Not the Limited Edition £199 Swarovski version pictured below I’m afraid but equally as jaw droppingly gorgeous. If my hair is feeling a bit parched I put some of this miracle hair elixir through the ends before and after drying and styling to tame my mane!! It’s a little bit like liquid gold! Love it and it smells amazing too. 

Here’s the rub………

A week ago I was sat blowing drying my hair and noticed lots of what I thought was lovely fresh new baby hair!

Then a friend who I hadn’t seen for a while remarked how nice my hair was looking now that Id switched up the style and had a load of new layers put into it.

Which I hadn’t!

I’ve been no-where near a hairdresser since September.

Which of course led to much fretting and almost self-administered hibernation ever since when I realized the full HORROR of the situation. Yes, ladies, my frickin hair has snapped clean off! I’ve gone straight past the split end scene and straight to the full on break-up!

So this week I have been religiously

• NOT heat drying my hair

• NOT putting it up into a ballet bun

• NOT brushing it vigorously whilst wet and

• NOT constantly playing with it and twisting it around my fingers whilst staring out of the office window trying to remember what I’m supposed to be doing next!

Instead I’ve had it soaked in Coconut oil and wrapped in a hot towel.

I’ve had a lovely overnight recovery mask on from Percy and Reed, I’ve been leaving it to dry naturally and just pulling it back into a loose pony for work.

The result?

Well unfortunately, the snapped hair aint gonna grow back any time soon however it looks and feels like hair again so phew, I can probably venture back out of the house.

The other great news is that I am currently working on a fabulous hair extensions range so I have been happy to personally wear them recently. I wear their light blonde.

Here’s me on Halloween night, hiding the frightful sight of my own spooky hair under my amazing Secret Extensions (the 18-inch Salon Edition in case you’re interested).

I am also super excited to be in pre-launch here in the UK for the award winning No4 high performance hair care range so more tried and tested on that coming in the New Year.

Meanwhile, I won’t be stopping bleaching my hair any time soon. Perish the thought! However, I will definitely be sticking with regular hot towel coconut oil treatments and insisting on Olaplex hair protection treatment next time I get my tresses treated! Which judging from my roots this evening, will be in two weeks time!

So ladies, the struggle is real. This fabfitforty year old is just like the rest of you – scrappy parched hair and doing her best to maintain the vestiges of her youth!

Much love and fabulousness,