GETTING MY HAIR TRANSFORMED AFTER LOCKDOWN @ LEMONADE HAIR COMPANY

The world finally feels like it’s getting back to normal! I’m so happy that in the last week, I’ve had a drink in a pub, booked a tattoo appointment, but most importantly I’ve had my barnet attended to! On Wednesday I visited Lemonade Hair Company in Exeter. I wanted to take my camera and take some pictures so I could share the experience with you. I know it’s only a haircut, but after so many months of looking and feeling like absolute trash because of the dreaded rona, you can see why I feel like I’ve had such a massive boost! 

I was super surprised to even get an appointment with Katy so soon after the lockdown restrictions were lifted and salons were allowed to open. I snaffled a 10am appointment for my consultation and then we moved swiftly on to actually getting my mop sorted out. Lemonade Hair Company is very central in Exeter and easy to find. It’s a bright and welcoming salon tucked in opposite Boots. I love when a salon is so nicely decorated; my favourite thing is the hanging ivy/plant thing above the sinks. It’s basically what I want my bathroom to look like. It’s a really clean and tidy, very minimal space. I felt really welcomed there, and despite not being able to do teas and coffees because of Covid rules, I still felt really comfortable for the duration of my visit. 

For those of you who haven’t seen/heard me griping about my hair in the last 6 months, here’s some piping hot tea. My last trip to get my roots bleached ended in around 50% of the lengths of my hair being burnt and broken off. I suffered some really terrible damage which has never happened before - even though I’ve been having my hair bleached for over 10 years. I believe it’s due to seeing a different hair stylist who wasn’t familiar with my hair, and it just went really really wrong. So I’ve basically been walking around with a particularly fetching mullet since lockdown began. 

My roots grew substantially long, meaning that my melted-off strands around the crown of my head had actually grown around 3 or 4 inches, so weren’t looking too severe now. I knew it was super damaged and was really stressed out about not being able to have bleach on my hair again. I was hoping and praying I wouldn’t have to go brunette, have a Karen haircut or just shave the lot off. For my consultation I explained I’d ideally like to keep as much length as possible, blend the broken bits in better with the long bits, and go for a pastel pink or purple shade. No problemo!

Firstly, I had the layers cut into my hair and the raggedy-ass ends of my broken, frazzled bits tidied up. This had made the broken bits blend much more in with the length of my hair, and so I’m not rocking the quite-so-obvious mullet any more. I’m a big fan of Joe Exotic, but not to the point I’d emulate his hairstyle unfortunately. I know Katy really wanted to do a more creative, shorter cut on me. But she and I have been having this argument for years and years and years now [I think about 7 years!] Because I’m super precious about having my hair cut. In 7 years, I think I’ve let her cut it twice. I know it’s very naughty and I’m very sorry, but I literally have nightmares about having short hair, so I wasn’t here for it. I’m sure it’d have looked lovely; she was sending me some really cute inspo pictures throughout lockdown, but I’m a problem child and decided to keep as much length as possible.

Then we started with the bleach, trying to make sure there was as little banding as possible between the already-bleached hair and my really long regrowth. This means that the lower part of the regrowth was painted with bleach before the very newest part of my regrowth. The hair processes faster with the heat from your scalp, so to avoid any weirdness, this is how it’s done. Don’t ask me why, I’m not a hair scientist. I always have the bleach just painted onto my hair. It lifts really nicely but even though my hair is thin, there’s quite a lot of it! I was left to allow my hair to lighten for around 30-45 minutes with an extremely stunning tin-foil hat on. 

Then after rinsing and shampooing the bleach off, we chose the colour I was going for. I originally wanted pink, but when I saw the shades in the book, I fell in love with this beautiful lavender shade. We decided to mix Silver, Grapefruit and Raspberry to create a cool, icy, pinky purple tone. I literally could’t be happier with the colour! This was painted on to my roughly blowdried, newly white-blonde hair. There was a tiny bit of banding and slightly yellowy tones to my hair, which is to be expected due to the length of time its been since I had my regrowth done - plus the state it was left in after my last trip so a salon. When we rinsed the toner off, Katy realised there was a bit that hadn’t taken quite so well, so she mixed up a bit more toner with added Violet [a darker purple] to disguise it and blend it with the rest of the hair. 

That was rinsed off and it looks absolutely amazing! So I had it blowdried using various milk_shake products. The Whipped Cream is probably my favourite because it smells like you could eat it. Literally, it smells like vanilla and it’s applied as a foam. It’s protective and nourishing for your hair and leaves you smelling like a cake, which is always what we want. I was still a little bothered by the two chunks at the front of my hair; on each side my hair was long, then had some missing, then went long again, so these were trimmed into more of a gradient which blended it together and made it look more deliberate. I wanted a few waves to complete my beautiful mermaid transformation, and then we were done! 

I left the salon with suuuuuch and unbelievable spring in my step. It’s honestly such an amazing feeling to have your hair done, and have it looking so incredible after so many months of stressing that it’s all going to fall out. Luckily, Katy said it wasn’t actually as bad as I’d been so worried it had been, but that it was a really good thing to have given it a break for 6 months from the bleach. I’m so pleased with the colour - it’s beautiful and very *me*, exactly what I’d want. A couple days after going to the salon, I washed it using the Bleach London Rose Shampoo and Conditioner to give it a slightly pinker, warmer hue, but if I want to tone it slightly ashier again, I can use my purple shampoo. I’m just honestly so pleased with it, and can’t recommend the talented Katy enough. She’s always looked after my hair so well and has always worked with me to get exactly what I want. It’s going to be a long process to get my hair back to the condition it was in before it became so damaged, but we’re getting there! I’m just so happy with the incredible transformation from my lockdown hair to post-lockdown hair!

Lots of love,

Jasmine x

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