You all know me by now, a self confessed hairdye addict. I shared last year my ventures in going red (read my Seeing Red Garnier Olio Dye in 6.60 review here!) and you all seemed to go crazy for it so I thought it only fair to share this venture with you YET AGAIN as my hair history seems to repeat itself. This time, we've got a budget friendly dye in the form of Superdrug's Colour Vibrance hair colorant in the shade Fire Red 8.45. Do not be fooled by the gingery/ orange hues depicted on the box, this dye like the name suggests is RED.

I was actually going for a gingery/ red look and ended up with pure red. It was a happy accident however as I have now grown to love my red hues once again and will continue to rock them until I get bored and want a new colour. (Ignore the poor quality images and the hot root look. I took images on my phone as I didn't have my DSLR to hand and the lighting is a little off in the after photo. The before photo makes my hair look darker than it originally was and the colour in the after photos was actually consistent throughout)

I am a bit of a self confessed-hair dye addict and I do think the addiction gets stronger when I have my dark hair. Chocolate Brown always seems to be one of those colours I find QUITE hard to achieve (along with things like dark violet, the right tone of red and the forever difficult blonde)

I recently picked up the L'oreal Casting Creme Gloss in 535 'Chocolate' after seeing it through The Sunday Girl's blog post due to the warm hues it added to her hair. Dark brown hair without any warm tones can just look a little 'flat' and especially after being very bleach blonde, warm toned dyes come in handy in making semi permanent colours last a little longer. I'm quite the fan of L'oreal Casting Creme gloss dyes are they are semi permanent promising to last up to 28 shampoo's without damaging your hair and offering conditioning colour. I have to be honest and say I think they do live up to their hype and as they contain no ammonia, I find they do not show any visible damage and leave a lovely soft, shiny and even colour result.

Application of the product is very easy. You apply the dye to unwashed, wet hair which I find allows the product to be spread evenly through your hair, making sure you get an even application. Once applied, I like to put a shower cap over the top to protect the colour from transfer onto anything and leave the dye to develop for 20 minutes. The colour result is always super shiny and even and I love the result. The chocolate 535 is another shade that has not disappointed and although the result was a little darker than the box depicts, I loved the result. Please do not use the box as a 100% reference and research beforehand the colour spectrum (level 5 is described as a medium brown. 10 being a platinum blonde and 1 being black)

Due to only being Semi permanent, if you're unhappy with the result it will wash out in  28 washes or so. This is why I think L'oreal casting creme is a great product to use and experiment with. My next colour will be Plum 316

What do you do when you find out that all along, you've been using the wrong type of shampoo and conditioner and causing your hair more problems than help?! Change it up of course.

It's been a long time coming for me to finally discover my actual hair type but there is a reason behind this madness. For as long as I can remember, I have consistently dyed my hair. It's been a horrible I've had ever since my mum used to let me get highlights at about 10 or so to add some lighter blonde to my ever darkening blonde hair. Previous to this age my lovely blonde locks were bright, shiny and super light but sadly with age .. they just grew darker and darker. I got highlights for a few years until I decided at around 14 I dyed my hair red only then a few months later to get all my hair cut off and dyed jet black. This is where my love affair with hair dye began. So since around that age, I have always been known as the girl who dyes her hair to much. Never happy with the colour I had, I used to experiment with box dyes, bleach and professional colouring until I get to around 3 years ago and decided I wanted to be blonde again. I've flitted around with the shades of blonde and swapped it with a little temporary pastel colours but ultimately, I have remained a blonde. The only problem with dying your hair lighter blonde when your a natural 'dirty blonde' is the roots issue so when recently getting my blonde re-freshed, I've had roots painted in to help me grow them out and not make them look too 'ratchet'. Where I now have a subtle ombre going on, my actual roots are grown in now and my natural hair texture has come back. This is where my problems began as I realised I've been using shampoo and conditioners aimed at 'dry' hair when really .. I have oily/ greasy hair! 

With the summer months approaching and humidity dawning upon us, my hair has been one hot mess. Dry, frizzy ends from the bleach but oily roots from my natural hair type. My 'dry' aimed products just weren't cutting it anymore and I went to the one woman who could help me with my dilemma - my mother. My mum has always suffered with greasier hair so I don't understand why I thought I wouldn't. Mums recently dyed her hair more now in the last few years so doesn't have to tackle the issue as much as I currently am but she recommended the new Elvive Clay shampoo as it's aimed towards Dry Ends and Oily Roots. Could this be the answer to my prayers? I ran straight to boots after her recommendations and picked up the Re-balancing shampoo, Conditioner and as the products were on offer, I also picked up the pre shampoo masque treatment. 

The products are aimed towards removing the oil from our scalps that produces and builds up, causing our roots to become visibly greasy and weigh down our hair. Over-washing your hair to try and combat the problem can leave the hair feeling striped and can leave the fibres dry. It's a never ending vicious circle and finally, these products are here to save the day. By using 3 types of Refind Clays, L'Oreal have managed to create its first re-balancing range that helps to keep your scalp purified for 72 hours. 

My favourite product from the range has to be the Pre-shampoo treatment masque. You apply the product just to your roots using your fingertips and massage into your scalp. The clay masque helps to deeply absorb all the excess oils and impurities and after 5 minutes, can be washed away ready to apply the shampoo. Then follow with the Re-Balancing shampoo and conditioner and you're ready to face the day. This range has been an absolute godsend to me and I was converted originally to the Dry Shampoo from the Clay range, now with these products in my arsenal I am ready to never see Oily roots again. I can only hope that Elvive continue to produce this range forever. 

By now you probably know I'm a 'no brass' warrior when it comes to my hair. As soon as I see a yellowish cast on my hair I go hard on it and apply everything I have in my arsenal. Which is vastly growing as of lately as the drug stores just keep bringing out new products that are just so darn good. A new product on the market you may yet not of heard of is from those bargain critters 'Smart Beauty' called express-colour. It's a conditioning toner that helps you preserve your colour between salon visits and can also help blend out greys. Now it's not only available in a few blonde shades such as Ash Blonde, Honey Blonde and Platinum Blonde but they have also made colour versions for other hair addicts such as Chestnut Brown, Copper Brown, Mahogany, Rich Red and Warm Brown. I wish they would introduce a few Pink toned shades and maybe some fashion colours as this product is brilliant. 

Each bottle boasts up to 6 uses dependant on hair length of course and each application can last for up to 3 washes. The Blonde Colour Refresher will help to neutralise brassy tones for a cooler blonde result to the hair. The packaging contains a handy colour chart to see if your current hair tone is recommended - ideal colour use for this product would be light blonde to platinum blonde. The formula is ammonia-free and peroxide-free and is suitable for weekly or even daily use - daily application will intensify the final result.



I love this product for a quick hair refresher however, I do have to be honest that I don't think the mousse would be quite intensive enough for someone suffering from super brassy locks. But for someone like myself who likes to maintain a more cool toned blonde and has short locks, this product is very cost effective and I would repurchase. You can purchase the Live XXL Mousse from Superdrug currently on offer for only £2.79

Trying to buy hair extensions when your hair is more of a 'unique' colour can really be HARD. 9/10 you will have to get a light colour, generally a 'lightest blonde' or 'bleach blonde' and tone them to your preference. Now most wouldn't say I have a 'unique' colour but the problem I have is the ends that have been lightest the longest love to soak up any toning shampoos so I have extremely light (sometimes white toned, sometimes lilac and sometimes just odd) ends and slightly warmer roots from touch up's. 

Hairtrade kindly sent me over some hair extensions* to try out in 'lightest blonde' which I knew when I opened the package they were the correct lightness but would need to be toned. They actually sent me over the 'Quick Fit' version which I have never heard of and in the past I was quite an avid wearer of hair extensions. It's a handy new way of wearing hair extensions to blend them in easier. Note, it's not perfect for us short haired ladies (my hair was longer when I agreed for Hairtrade to send over the hair extensions so this would've been okay back then .. opps for hair cuts!) as my shortest layer only just went over the top of the wire. If you're not familiar with the Quick Fit system check it out on the site here From £69.99. The extensions did lack instructions but if you check out the site there are instructions on there or you can google 'Halo Extensions' and you'll find easy tips on how to fit them.

After being a bit of a drama queen and fretting that my newly touched up roots looked too dark (everyone convinced me they were not but alas, we always think what we want) I asked my hairdresser what I could do to my hair myself to blend my roots better as I could not afford to have professional colour just yet. She advised I just needed a few highlights to break the colour up and it would blend perfectly after a few more washes with my trusty silver shampoo. 

I thought 'I'll buy a highlight kit and get my mum to lovingly do a cap of highlights just around the roots'. My mum HATES doing caps and I could tell she really didn't want to do it so once I got back to my house, I took it upon myself to just paint some highlights in. I ended up bleaching all my roots and I had a horrific yellow aftermath to deal with however my roots were the correct level of lightness. I panicked a little and didn't know what to do as leaving silver shampoo on it for 10 minutes did nothing. I ran out to the shops with my boyfriend and picked up the Loreal Paris Prodigy hair dye 9.10 White Gold which is actually a gorgeous light blonde shade with a touch of ash to it. It fixed the botched job and got rid of quite a lot of the bleached look but even still my roots were a teeny bit yellow up to the rest of my toned hair.