Polly Put The Kettle On

Dyeing my hair from dark brown to blonde

I'm writing this in hopes that it will help someone else to achieve their blonde ambition. Unless you have tried it, dyeing your hair blonde, especially from a deep bottle-dyed brown shade, is a truly terrifying experience. You wait for the time to pass between dyes desperately trying to keep the screaming, panic voice in your head quiet. It is that bad!

So, some info on my hair prior to dyeing. My hair is naturally an insipid, muddy-water brown / faded dirty-fair. My response to this was to dye it Medium Brown 05 - I wasn't particularly loyal to dye brands, I simply chose the one that was on special offer in the super market, but always in colour 05. That was until my cousin, who has naturally very dark brown hair, pointed out that my hair was darker than hers, almost black! I hadn't realised that these dyes build up, so that over time you get very dark hair.

This was when I made my first mistake. I bought my next dye in shade 04 and for the next 6 months I had this colour at my roots with the heavy, nearly black shade at the ends. I looked ridiculous. Then I completely stopped dyeing my hair, so that the very top of my roots was a lighter colour again. Now I had tri-coloured hair.

(Please excuse this terribly unflattering pic, it's the best illustration of my weird coloured hair!)

This is when the thought first occured to me to go blonde. I had, in the past, had highlighted blonde hair. I loved being blonde. It made me feel like the superhero version of myself, I think particularly because, after going through a traumatic experience in my teens I changed my hair colour to change my life - and it worked! So I had fond memories of the power of blonde, but that was because I was willfully blocking out the hours of salon maintainance and the expense (I couldn't stand even the slightest hint of dark root, so needed to go every 6 weeks and, with very thick hair, each trip to the salon would be over 4 hours and cost over £100)

I knew, for certain, that if I was going to go blonde, then I had to be able to dye and maintain it myself, but I didn't really know how possible that was. Then I was looking on the Beckermann Biteplate blog and found out that their whole family was dyeing their hair blonde with this.

(Loreal Excellence Creme 01 - this is the UK version of the box)

Now that I knew it was possible, I also knew that, no matter what shades I went in between, I would soon be blonde. 

I went to the shop and bought my provisions (this was where I made my second mistake) - 

• 2 x Loreal perfect blonde prelightener

• 1 x Loreal excellence creme (shade 01) - this was my third mistake, as I needed ash blonde to cool the brasssy tones.

By getting my provisions wrong, I endured a lot of embarrassing times heading to the supermarket with a hat on!

Pre-waffle

I did this through trial and error but, hopefully, using my experience as a guide, you should be able to avoid my general lack of preparation and mistakes. Although, I do want to add the caveat that I don't take any responsibility if your hair goes orange and falls out. I'm only offering a guide based on my own experiences. And, of course, do a strand test, follow the bottle instructions, etc. Phew!

Okay, so first things first, prepare to go orange, especially if your hair has previously been dyed a dark brown shade that incorporates tones of red. Yes, weirdly, that includes medium brown shade 05, but not shade 04!. You will just have to accept as part of your journey to sumptious blonde, you will have to look a little like Ronald McDonald. Just prepare yourself.

Now, when I say dye your hair blonde yourself, what I really mean is that, for this first time, you will need a consoling and comforting helper to both apply the dye and mop your tears when you emerge from beneath the towel with an orange wig on. Pick someone who is completely unflappable!

Top Tips

I cannot recommend enough having an application brush and bowl, this allows your helper to paint the dye onto the darkest areas first. Over time, the method that we found best was to dye from the underneath - sectioning the hair into an inch strip and pile the rest in a bun on top of your head; paint the dye on only the very darkest section, completely avoiding the root area; work up in sections until you are at the top of the head; after 20-25 mins, apply the rest of the dye to the roots and allow to work for the next 5 mins before washing off as normal . DO NOT, whatever you do, start at the roots, or you will be sorry! The hair there is less dye treated and responds to the bleach more strongly.

Another top tip is, no matter how tempted you are, don't exceed the dye time (usually 30 mins) on the prelightener. That way your hair will emerge healthy and undamaged. Exceeding the time doesn't actually dye your hair any lighter, as the dye stops activating around then, but it can still harm your hair.

Don't waste time with colour stripping/removal products, like Colour B4 or Color Oops/Zap. I used expert strength Colour B4 3 times, trying to get rid of the last of the orange from the ends of my hair. It looked like it worked when I came out of my 20 minute shower. That was until I woke up next morning to see that all of the colour in my hair had redeveloped back to orange again. It was a waste of time and money, and did unnecessary damage to my hair.

Choose a weekend when you have no where to go and nothing to do, and where you can spend time dyeing your hair many, many times. You will not achieve all of this in one day, unless your hair is naturally light brown, with no previous dyes, in which case why are you reading this? It should be a snap for you. Expect to go to bed with orange hair and start again in the morning, emerging by the end of that day with gorgeous blonde hair.

Preparations

You will need:

• Your good helper
• 4 x Loreal prelightener (if your hair is as dark as mine)
• 1 or 2 x Loreal lightest ash blonde 03
• Application brush and bowl
• Hair clips to hold up sections of hair
• Vaseline (I heard this is good to stop the dye from burning your face - but I found these Loreal dyes very gentle and easy to use.)
• All your courage

Method

I can't really say how many times you will need to prelighten your hair. It is more a question of how many it takes to get your hair from it's very darkest to the colour of a peeled banana - that is if you are wainting to attain the light blonde colour that I was looking for. Either way, this is the best shade to attain, even before you dye it to a darker blonde shade, as it ensures that all of those pesky red tones (the ones that create the brassy, orange look) are banished forever.

Start the prelightening process, working from the bottom up, as described above. Really make sure not to go over the maximum time on the instructions and to use that super conditioner after you have rinsed the bleach out. Dry your hair and assess the results.

If your hair is the colour of a peeled banana then put the Lightest ash blonde through to cool down any remaining red tones. Otherwise, repeat the prelightening process until you achieve this banana shade. It took me four goes, painting onto the ends, but I only bleached my roots twice - that's the beauty of the applicator brush!

You may have to go to bed in between the dyeing process. If you cannot bear to wake up to the shock of orange hair, you can put the lightest ash blonde through your hair in between processes. I found that doing this actually helped the condition of my hair, as the prelightener is harsher and the excellence creme seems to add nourishment and condition to the hair. So don't be afraid to do this, especially as it could save you a shock when you glance in the mirror in the morning!

I think you get the picture of how it works now. 

Maintainance

This is the easy part. Now that your hair is the perfect colour of blonde, you need never, ever dye that part again. All you have to do is dye your roots, as they come through (for me, every six weeks) with the Loreal excellence creme shade 01 - or whatever your shade choice is.

I have found that the lighteners in this dye are enough to take my hair to the correct blonde shade after it has been dyed twice. This creates a more natural look, where your roots are a shade or two darker than the rest of your hair (as they would be if your hair was naturally lightened by the sun) and also helps to tone in your roots as they start to come in. This slightly darker section is lightened to the light blonde shade, as your natural roots are lightened to the slightly darker blonde shade, during dyeing, so that you always have natural looking, light blonde hair.

Voila! Go forth and embrace blonde!

(Sorry about the poor quality pics. I blame the bad lighting and not my good self!)

Finding my style!

I haven't been able to express myself through clothes in a long time, only now I can. Heehee!!

I thought I would start to put together looks that I love, so that I can find some sort of personal style that I'm happy with. Don't worry if you hate it. Blame me.

There have been many years in which I haven't even crossed the threshold of a normal clothing store. I don't know simple things like what shopping at Next, Monsoon or H&M says about a person. These are points of reference that are entirely blank for me. On the other hand, I could comment on the precise socio-demographics of other types of stores - but that is an intrusion of day-job geekery on my happy blog. No, no, no.

This is simply me exploring. Playing in the dressing up box, if you like. So this is my look for the first sunny, not too windy and definitely not with ominous rain clouds, type of day - really, the first true day of spring.

You can click for links to the gorgeous Dutchie bike, the silk Boden dress, the Brora cashmere cardigan, my Cambridge Satchel Co. batchel would be embossed in gold (initials or Polly...Hmmm?), the Michael Kors white ceramic watch, the River Island red sandals and the super cute fox ring. (I think I irrationally love this because it looks just like our old dog, Twinks, who passed away a few years ago. He was a pomeranian but with the same attributes as Lyra's daemon from His Dark Materials. I still miss him daily.)

 

The only thing I'd add is that my Dutchie would have the big basket on it, like this.

Can't you just see the wind whipping through my hair as I ride down to Musselburgh for a Nutella icecream from Luca's?

 

In the Soup

I have pretty much always had a dodgy tummy. I was extremely lactose intolerant as a baby and had to be fed goat milk formula and from there my problems have developed. Through the years, my tummy would randomly reject foodstuffs that had previously been favourites. Sometimes resulting in explosive results - if that's not too much info. It was bad. I started to become one of those crazy people with lists of intolerances and allergies. I was convinced that I had IBS. It took having weight loss surgery to show me that I was wrong.

(you eat dinner, whilst we eat you!)

It turns out that for years a tiny bacteria, called H. Pylori, has been quietly burrowing into my stomach lining, randomly causing inflamation and vomiting. A lesson in how the mighty tree is felled by the tiniest insect. 

I still have it. I cannot, it seems, get rid of it, despite the intensive, triple-therapy, nuclear treatment. This thing just refuses to die. (And on my two stays in hospital, since my surgery, it almost looked like, in the battle between me and H. Pylori, it was killing me.)

It's gotten a little better now - the little bug will allow some things into my tummy - and so I have become very acquainted with the joys and follies of all things soup, as that is what I am now mostly constructed out of. 

I like to think of myself as a bit of a foodie, but during this time of starvation, dizziness and puke* the last thing I wanted to do was cook. So I tried soup from a can. Heinz, Baxters, Campbells, Grannies, et al. All had to be blended and sieved as my tummy wouldn't tolerate even a whisper of texture. But how long can a person live on canned food? I guess it's a good test for bunker-living after World War III, and I am at the cutting edge of the research.

Through all this, I had gone from being a comfort eater - one who consoles, rewards, and indulges in grub of every kind - to a girl who could hardly eat 300 calories a day or drink 1 litre of fluid and who ate the same soup day after day.

Now, I'm not denegrating soup. I love soup. My family has its own special lentil soup, which I only recently learned and will share with you. I promise it will warm the cockles of your heart.

I ate this soup at Granny's house, I ate it at Auntie Ellen's house, I ate it at my big cousin's house and even in my own, when Mum would get a sudden urge to make it on a cold day. We ate it every Christmas dayand New Years day. But I never had the recipe, though I did try to invent my own version, until 2 weeks ago, when Aunt Ellen finally handed over the goods.

My version involved sweating vegetables in a knob of butter for 15 minutes, before adding the stock and the lentils - all very worthy. My family version is much more simple, cunningly clever and just a little bit trashy. There are no herbs. You don't need to make your own stock as it uses these.

All 8 of them! I, personally, would opt for 6 max, due to their insane salt content, but that would be to pollute the family recipe and I have to admit that it tastes better their way. It uses only a handful of ingredients that are simply popped in the pot and boiled for around an hour. So how come it tastes so bloody brilliant?

I also learned a top tip that I'd never come across before - If you want your veg to be melty and soft, don't saute them first, just plop them into the soup water and let the magic happen. Frying them first seems to make them retain their bite. Since learning this, the blender is no longer necessary for my annoying tum! Everything gets perfectly mushed in me gob.

Simple Scottish Lentil Soup

• 3 or 4 carrots, diced small
• 1 large white onion, diced small
• (I add a few sticks of celery diced into the same size dice - my family don't)
• 500g red lentils
• 8 Knorr ham cubes
• Plenty of water to make a good, big pot-full.

Method - Chuck everything into a big stock pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for around an hour. Eat topped with lots of pepper (my way) and some nice crusty bread (I wish this could be my way - maybe some day).

What do you mean, that's too much pepper? There's no such thing as too much pepper! It looks a lot less when it's all stirred in.

(Note how I try to fool my brain that I am eating a proper amount by scaling everything down - a tea cup is my bowl and a tea spoon does the honours nicely!)

*This is only my experience due to H. Pylori. Most people can eat what they want after 2 months recovery from surgery. In fact, Brie ate chicken six weeks out!

Everyday is Like a Sunny Sunday

Despite having to face a home move pretty soon, we are still blessed to live in an incredibly beautiful place, so we thought we should enjoy it and go out for a walk.

Sequoia avenue looked especially beautiful in the low winter sunlight. Yes we do have Sequoias in Scotland - though these are the first I have ever seen!

They towered over us and went on and on forever, or so it seemed!

Obi, our lovely neighbours' dog, came along too, which always makes me feel happy. Is there anything better than a walk in the country with a slobbery and excited spaniel?

Carberry Tower managed to look very squat and sombre, probably because all of the softening leaves that are there in spring and summer were gone. 

And the pond was filled with sludge and duckweed - though also cute ducks that were hiding in the Iris fronds.

It was starting to freeze over in places.

Obi pointed out some snowdrops that were popping out to say hello, at the back of our house.

We imposed on a blackbird enjoying a bath.

And I had such a good time that I took to tree hugging.

I wish every day could be a sunny Sunday!

 

Save The Day And Carry On!

Our lives are pretty chaotic right now, which makes planning for anything difficult. We both know that, ready or not, we will be moving house by the end of March, if not before. Moving is crazy, at the best of times, but is more complicated for us as we have 5 cats (6 including our neighbour's cat who lives with us most of the time) and only a tiny, baby-blue fiat 500 to transport them in. I am already dreading the squeals and squalling.

But plan we must as we will get married some time soon - date unknown - so we can't ignore the details forever.

Which brings me to save the date cards and invitations.

I want to go handmade and simple. So, being crafty, I opted for a linocut design that could easily be stamped on multiple plain cards. I also love the KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON WW2 poster, so I've used that as my inspiration especially as we want our wedding to have a vintage, make-do-and-mend, thrifty feel. 

I put in some work trying to find the correct font for the poster, so that I could change the letters and trace around them. Then I realised that I was being very dumb when I found this - The Keep Calm poster generator.

So I promptly made this.

Then I traced it, putting the drawn side down on the lino and rubbing so that I was left with a perfect reversed impression of the design. After that I spent many hours gouging until I made this.

Next step was getting very inky fingers. I still need to mount it onto wood for the final stamp as it is very unwieldy to use. Plus, I'm not 100% sold on the mottled ink effect. Hmmm. I should really decide about that before going on to make the date stamp (date depending) and the mini KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON that I want to be able to stamp onto the back of the card (so it makes sense for those who are unfamiliar).

Here are my inky tests.

Not 100% successful, but not bad either. It is some small progress.