It's A Hairy Time...

15th April 2020 marks a momentous day for me…my hair cut was due on this day. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that my hair is my non-negotiable me time in my diary so I'm having my own little wobble about this. It will pass, I know. I'm being dramatic.

I have been going to my hairdresser Brian for the past 23/24 years religiously EVERY 6 weeks for a haircut. My appointments are booked in 12 months in advance and NOTHING takes priority over this hour of time.

Before Brian I used to see a guy in Loughborough who I started using in 1986 during my student days. That’s how loyal I am to my hairdressers – when you have short hair and you find one who is really good you don’t mess about.

In all of this time I have only ever once let someone else cut my hair and what a disaster I felt that was. It was actually probably not that bad in all fairness, but I felt that instead of my usual textured spiky cut it was a lot more even and uniform. A bit like a toilet brush or that drummer guy, Eric Faulkner from the Bay City Rollers (Google him).

The reason I missed my regular appointment with Brian was unavoidable, trouble was he couldn’t fit me in again until my next appointment came around. Like me, ALL of his clients are booked up a year in advance too, to get in with him you essentially need a cancellation, or for one of his regular to pop their clogs.

And, you’ll know this if you have short hair, for my style to keep its shape you just can leave it to chance – hence the random hairdresser who was recommended by my friend. She always did a lovely job on my friend, but her hair is the antithesis of mine. While her hair a long and wavy mine is short and very fine. I should’ve known better.

So here I am, moving forward into my 7th week…I’ve decided I’ll have to start being creative until we are out of lockdown. If you’ve been following my #scarfselfie* posts over the past few weeks, you’ll have seen that I’ve been experimenting with ways to tie them in my hair. I’ve also got a few hats in my collection that I can fall a back on.

However, I think for the first couple of ‘non cut’ weeks I’ll be able to get away with backcombing and lots of hairspray like we used to in the 80’s. I’ll be like a grey Siouxsie Sioux. Watch this space…Here's how it looks today.

From what I’m picking up on social media many of you are worried about having a silver parting and I totally get that. It took me ages to face up to the fact that my hair wasn’t actually dark brown anymore and let the grey become my thing. I had it purple for ages and used to have to do it every couple of weeks to keep the white halo of roots from showing – even though I did it myself it was extremely time consuming and became a burden. Embracing my grey has been quite liberating to be honest.

If you are thinking that this could be the ideal time to go for it check the support groups on Facebook – there are a few. They have all kinds of tips to help you with the transition. Personally, I went from using permanent colour to semi-permanent do the colour didn’t show as it was growing out. This is easy to do if you have short hair. It didn’t take that long. Once the permanent colour had fully grown out, I allowed the semi-permanent one to just fade until it was fully natural.

I kept it like that for about 18 months – then I did it purple again for mum’s funeral because it was her favourite colour. These days I play around with fun colours depending on my mood. Sometimes it’s magenta, sometimes its purple – last time I coloured it I did it blue. It’s faded now and I’m leaving it for the time being. Until I get bored again.

If you are worried about not being able to get your hair done take solace in the fact that we are ALL going through this together. One thing I will say is that your natural hair colour is ALWAYS going to suit you. As we age, we lose pigment in our skin and eyes too, so they are fading accordingly. What suited you when you were 20 isn’t necessarily going to still suit you at 50. You might look a bit like Morticia if you are still dying it as dark as it was then.

When you have a colour analysis your consultant should be able to advise you on what colours are going to suit you best. As a general guide don’t go more than a couple of shades darker than your current natural colour if you don’t want to look washed out without makeup. If having lighter hair is more your thing, to keep it looking more natural I’d stick with not going more than 4 levels lighter.

Also, bear in mind your natural colouring in terms of warm or cool undertones. This is one of the biggest mistakes I see. Your hair is always going to look best if you stick with your innate colouring. So, no ash blonde, platinum or the synthetic grey that is currently in vogue if you have warm undertones to your skin or are naturally honey blonde or have any kind of red tones naturally. Avoid the reds and golden blondes if you have cool undertones as they won’t sit nicely with your skin.

I read somewhere yesterday that home hair dye is starting to be in short supply so this absolutely might be the time to go for it. Let me know if you do – let’s share the journey.

www.lisanewportstyle.com

Lisa Newport : image consultant and colour geek. I work with savvy women helping you express your identity and hone the language of colour, image and style . I'm an experienced trainer and can be booked to speak and deliver workshops get in touch with me [email protected]