A Bit Of A Do

When I featured the new #FaceOfRegis and their Rock, Lock and Load competition a couple of weeks ago (which doesn't close until 3rd January 2012) Regis Salons invited me to have a cut and colour by way of a "thank you".

My hair hasn't been its natural colour since I started going grey at the age of 21 and I've probably been every colour you can think off (apart from green).  I've had bleaching disasters (think along the lines of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland), had to go to work with a dye stain down the back of my neck after home colouring sloppiness and I've had every length of hair going from one extreme to the other when having it cut (from shoulder length hair to clippered at the back in one fell swoop).  I also don't mind experimenting with styles but it never looks the same after the day I step out of the salon.

Before.
Happy on the inside...

More recently, I have kept my hair short with a heavy fringe and have coloured it myself.  I tend to use dark tones (black, black/blue, violet, red tone) - you know, a little bit of colour but without too much in-your-face-ness.  I'm also very wary about anyone cutting my hair - you do short hair wrong and it's a long time before it looks any different.  I've only been comfortable with two hairdressers in my life!

So I went to the Regis salon at Bolton with an open mind.  After all, if it went horribly wrong then I didn't have to go again, did I?  I had no idea what colour I was going to choose for my hair (one colour, two tone, highlights...?) but I did want a slightly different style.  

Jemma - my stylist for the day - talked me through what colours would and wouldn't work and we agreed on something a little different (for me, anyway).  Then Nigel - another stylist at the salon - pounced on me and wanted to know all about blogging so I gave him my equivalent of the Winston Churchill We Shall Fight Them On The Beaches speech and told him not to start one for freebies, but to find your voice and your niche and remember about content.  If he starts one ranting about bad customer service in well known supermarkets, it's all my fault.  Sorry in advance.

Halfway though.
Not bad colours actually.
Maybe next time?

Jemma took me through each stage of my 'change' explaining about the way my existing colour was being lifted, the conditioning treatments she was using and settled me in with plenty of cups of coffee, glasses of water and a copy of Marie Claire (a proper luxury for me - time to read a glossy magazine in peace).   It was also a great chance to do some 'people watching' - an enjoyable pastime of mine which is even easier when you have a mirror available.

And then it was time for the final cut and reveal.  Jemma took my heavy fringe away, gave me a mini-masterclass in how to dry and style my hair and told me that if I wasn't happy with the colour I could nip back to the salon and she would change it for me.

In all honesty, the colour is more copper than I originally thought it was going to be - we went for a deep purple with a red flash - but, you know, it looks way better than the red would have done, I think!  And something happened to me this week that has NEVER happened before.  The woman in the petrol station mentioned how lovely my hair looked.  Now, does that mean I normally look like shite in the morning or this really is the best cut and colour I've ever had?  I know which one it is *wink*

So what do you think?  This is the picture I've entered into the Regis Rock, Lock and Load competition on their Facebook page.  I'm liking the new look and will probably change the flash colour with each season.

ROCKING my new cut and colour.