Your hair is your crowning glory!

I have had so many letters and emails about the days of writing the Beauty Thread.  Thank you to everyone who wrote to me over the last couple of years. You helped me decide that DIY beauty treatments are going to be in my blog again.

Lately with all the hot weather I have been swimming most nights. In a chlorinated pool which is not great for hair. But it makes no difference as I know what to do is it is fine. (unless you count aching legs from swimming so much!)

To write this I thought I had better get an update on hair services pricing. I averaged out a few salons I used to like and got quite a shock while getting myself informed on current prices! Now there is nothing wrong with using a salon. Getting your hair to suit you, in good condition etc is a wonderful thing. It affects how I feel and I know thats the same for most women. Also having someone do your hair for you feels beautiful and is relaxing and pampering and beautiful!

So my tips are if you need to save money, have no time to get to a salon etc. This can happen very easily when the kids are little. In fact this is the time many women cut their hair off as they just cannot manage everything.

My girls work in the beauty industry and have to look very well presented and stylish as part of their work. They have both worked for numerous companies Revlon, Lancome, Napoleon Perdis ... Lucy is quite high up in NP as a creative director. Very handy for me. I have picked up so many tips and insider secrets from them.

None of us ever go to a hair dresser. And according to my calculations today this must save us all at least $6000 a year! I am posting a couple of basic shots that show hair! so you do not imagine we all look like wilderness girls lol

Chloe and I cut our own hair and colour and I do a conditioning treatment weekly. Chloe (not a hairdresser or any training!) cuts her sisters hair and Lucy is particular! 

Actually Lucy is very particular! She always looks beautiful. She will kill me if she reads this.

Before making any decisions based on the condition, manageability, lack of shine (or anything else) of your hair you need to get all the years of conditioner, hair spray, products that build up in your hair. This makes your hair dull, un manageable and ick. You can buy special products for this but Apple Cider vinegar works so perfectly I cannot imagine shelling out money for this. Wash you hair and for the first time use at least a cup of Apple Cider Vinegar through your hair. try to get it on every strand and rinse. Then go ahead as usual. I do it weekly with about half a cup of the vinegar in a jug of water. Now and then I will do a full strength one. There were times I considered cutting my hair because it wasn't going "right" and this fixed it. Nothing wrong with it except product build up! So do this first of all.

So really the thing is trimming your own hair is ridiculously easy. There are even free hair dresser instructional tutorials on you tube. I began with my bangs as actual hair dressers always cut them too short and that drove me crazy. Bangs are very flattering for most women. As are layers around the face and softer colours around the face. 

Colour is also ridiculously easy. The actual process is terribly easy these days and very good quality products are on the shelves. I have fine hair. A colour gives me more volume and shine. Even if I coloured my hair my exact present shade I would do it for the shine and texture improvement. Read the pack thats about it, if unsure phone the number on the pack. That sounds over simplistic but seriously that is it. Choosing a colour is a much harder thing. Over all a general guide is to go lighter and softer as we get older. If we knew everything when we were young we would keep a snip of our hair from when it was our personal best colour. My niece Alex a few years ago when she was about 13 had the most glorious honey hair. I told her to save a sample of it as when she is older and darkens this sample will give her the perfect shade to go back to. Perfect for her as it is natural. 

When I was little my hair was basically white. It looked like I had none for a while! Then it was really light blonde then medium blonde in later teens. Now it is mousy blonde which I feel blah in. So for me I have lightened to where I was in my early teens. Doing this, staying in your own natural colour range, is a big help. It will work, suit you and be not too hard to maintain. As I do it fortnightly this is where it would be costing me too much time and too much money at a salon.

The next thing is hair can make you look younger or older. I am 51. Dry hair is my most likely big problem. So I do deep conditioning treatments at least once a week. And to swim I put my hair up with conditioner through it. So with the conditioner and the warmth I basically get a treatment every time I swim. But I swim without going under the water... if you want to do that then do all this and wear a cap.

My conditioning treatment is simply warm oil massaged through to the ends and kept on for at least half an hour. You can use olive oil. I do like nut oils ie almond oil or something like that. Coconut oil is good. You can wrap it all up in plastic or a shower cap. There is a great product called Wondercap that comes from NZ I think. It is like a shower cap except you heat it in the microwave. I love this! The warmth makes a huge difference. This is as good or better than any salon treatment. Doing it at home could mean you can leave it on much longer too. Of course you look fabulous while doing this so I figure I might as well have a face mask as well. 

When finished wash it out with warm water and shampoo and condition and style as usual. If your hair is really dry it may take a while to get it back to beautiful healthy hair. But you will. Then healthy soft shiny hair is lovely. Girls with dark coloured hair can achieve amazing shine which I envy. But whatever colour we have healthy hair just is the best thing you can do.

I am very big on eating heaps of protein. That is a big thing for your hair. Eggs, nuts, oils, avocado... just like we used to give the dogs cod liver oil so their coat was shiny... we are no different!

Ok I know this is basic but it's a start. My post will be too long! I am happy to answer any questions or at least point you in a helpful direction. The point is there is so much you can easily do yourself and each thing is a massive time and money saver. It is never necessary to give up on your hair due to time or money. And having it in a way that makes you feel good has a million benefits!

In answer to Kaye... 

Kaye no I don't do any foils at all. I have natural variations in my hair. So I have lighter darker and some that are reddish too. So when you colour each of these takes the colour yet turns out slightly different and so you have subtle variations on a theme which is really good and better than one flat colour. Most people have some variations if you look closely in the light. So you will keep the variation when coloured too. Lucys is great... recently I took this to show her as we don't see the top of our heads very well and I was impressed by all the lovely tones. And she does her one colour throughout no highlights or low lights it just happens naturally!

I love it. So nature and colour combine to get this effect and I think sticking to your colour or a colour you once were helps with this effect.