Bringing my hair back to life with Charlie Miller Hairdressing

I've had quite the hair journey. Naturally, I have thick hair, it's very curly and growing up my mum would comb it everyday before school and it would hurt so much my eyes would water. By the age of 11 I my hair was very long, and looking back probably the best it ever looked. Then came a disastrous turn of events when my mum suggested I get a bob. I was 11 at the time and for some reason I went along with her idea that it would be "a change" and "something fun". I'll admit, when I left the hairdressers that day I felt fab with my new bob, but good things don't last forever, or in my case, not even a few days.

Shortly after my hair transformation I go swimming with my school (I'm still 11 here remember).  This was when I realised what a massive mistake we had made. 

Short curly hair + chlorine = not cute.

My hair got even shorter when the water hit it and seeing as I didn't have a live in hair stylist or even a pair of straighteners at the time I was stuck with very short and very curly hair. I'd post a picture but I've burned them all. 

Fast forward 5 years and I'm 16, my hair is finally long and is pretty healthy. Of course I decided to change all of that by going peroxide blonde, all in one sitting, at a not so decent hair salon. It was pretty yellow in colour and half of my hair had to be chopped off because the bleach had totally killed it. Don't get me wrong though I loved being blonde, I genuinely think I was more craic when I was blonde and I look back on that summer very fondly. I went back to brown in September under peer pressure from my family and wasn't half as fun anymore.

Fast forward 2 more years and my hair hadn't grown as much as I'd liked. It fell just past my shoulders and was my boring brown colour so I decided I wanted to try bonded extensions. I did a collaboration with Great Lengths and had them in for nearly 6 months. I absolutely loved them, they were easy to manage, never fell out and gave me some confidence back. When I had the extensions out my hair had grown quite a bit which I was delighted about and it also felt good to have my own head of hair again.

Wearing Great Lengths extensions

Present day and my hair is a decent length and I hope is in decent condition, it probably needed cut a long time ago but I will admit I've neglected it. However that is about to change! With Lost Village Festival under two weeks away I decided that I wanted a big change. The festival is full of style and character and I have been getting a bit bored of myself. So, Charlie Miller hairdressing and myself are doing a collaboration on my "Blonde Ambition". I will be going back to my fun, full of craic blonde self but it will be done properly, in a fabulous salon with stylists that know their stuff. I popped into Charlie Miller on South St Andrews Street today to start of the process and I had the L’Oréal  Smartbond process applied to my hair.

Basically what smartbond does is it targets weaker parts of the hair bond to strengthen and limit stress to keep the bond in tact. It improves the overall finish of your hair colour as this will take more evenly and it also reconstructs the weak ion bonds to reverse the feel of damaged hair. It won't affect the colour I will have put on as it adapts to it without affecting the lift or tone at all. 

Smartbond is added to your colour when mixed and applied as normal. This colour is processed for the usual time. When the colour is ready to come off the hair is rinsed without shampoo and towel dried. Smartbond is applied as a pre-shampoo all over and left on for 10 minutes. This is then rinsed and shampoo and conditioner is applied as normal.

After my smartbond application I had a blowdry ( and a gin and tonic ) with the very lovely Hayley at South St Andrews street and left the salon feeling very chilled and alot more glam. 

I'll be back at the salon on Wednesday to start the lightening process and I can't wait!

You can shop Charlie Millers amazing hair care range here