10 Reasons Why Lob > Long Hair.

Yesterday, I told you all about my new haircut. It's been exactly one week since I went for the chop, and I've already counted ten reasons why a short 'do is so much better than a long one...

1. You don't look like every other girl on the street.
Tumbling, brunette Kate Middleton-esque waves with the odd Zooey Deschanel fringe thrown in for good measure = zzzzzzzzz.

2. Hair flipping no longer comes with risk of serious injury.

Long hair is all fun and games until someone loses an eye(s).

You flip that short hair freely, gurl.

3. Brushing your hair no longer requires a day's planning...

... because it used to take so. Damn. Long.

4. ... and the prospect of washing and blow-drying your hair no longer brings you to tears.

Time restraints + long hair - it's not a combination worth dealing with.

5. It's so low maintenance.

An actual bob is a nightmare to style. Long hair is an effort to style, but also to wash.
But the lob? 5 minutes to wash, 5 minutes to dry, and you're good to go... and you can't help but feel a liiiiittle bit smug about it.

6. Come summer, you'll be feeling even more smug.

That beast sat on your head is no longer retaining all your body heat, so you'll feel about a billion degrees cooler than your long-haired pals, and your shoulders might actually get a chance of getting a tan.

7. You can freely use this Mean Girls one-liner.

Say goodbye to backcombing and masses of hairspray, because less weight at the ends = more volume at the roots...

 8. ... and less of that zhuzh-ing = longer lie-in.

Lob = the lazy girl's dream.

9. Bedhead is actually chic.

A lob manages to look even better having been slept in...

... can't say the same for long hair.

Oh dear. 

10. Taylor. Lauren. Rosie. Jenna.

Need I say more? I think my work is done.

Farewell, long hair - it was a blast... but short hair is so much better.

 

All GIFs sourced from giphy.com

The New Do.

If you'd told me this time two years ago that in 2015 I'd be sporting a long bob (or 'lob'), I'd probably have laughed in your face.

The impossible happened, and last Saturday I waved goodbye to my mid-length locks and hello to a shiny, new do. Truth be told, I've been thinking about chopping all my hair off for a long, long time, but was warned it would be something of a shock to the system to go from waist-length locks to barely-shoulder skimming ones.

Alas, I went for something more gradual, first doing this back in September, then this in December... by the time I walked into my salon last week, my hairdresser was mildly horrified at how much my hair had grown in length and thickness in less than 2 months. He rather enjoyed the fact that I wanted it all hacked off (my mother, a spectator of the great haircut of 2015, not so much), and after showing him several pictures of my hair-crush Jenna Coleman, he set to work.

I'm going travelling around the Caribbean and Central America for 3 months from April, so I asked him to cut it a little shorter than Jenna's in anticipation of it growing at its usual ridonkulous rate... I have trust issues with other hairdressers in the UK, let alone random ones on the other side of the world, so I wanted to make sure I wouldn't need a haircut until I returned home in July.

I'm just going to say it - I love my hair, and even my dear ol' Dad noticed I'd "done something new to it." and went as far as to say he liked it. My mother hated it, naturally, and the general reaction I've received from people I know is either: 1) sheer horror that I've cut most of my hair off followed by a rather unconvincing comment like, "Errr... it... looks ....nice..." or no comment at all, or 2) genuine approval... I'm rather enjoying seeing these extremes of reaction!

To be frank, the most important thing is what I think - after all, it's sat on my head and I'm the one that has to look at it everyday in the mirror, but I do wonder why people have such an attachment to hair; it's just hair... it'll grow back! I suppose it's a case of wanting what you can't have; I realise I'm very lucky to have a lot of hair which grows incredibly quickly, but I think this is all the more reason to experiment with different hairstyles and lengths!

I'm glad I transitioned to my lob in stages, and if you're thinking of doing something drastic with your hair's length, I'd definitely recommend you do the same thing. I'm still getting to grips with curling my hair (think I've watched about 400 'wavy lob' tutorials on YouTube), but the fact it's naturally straight means it requires minimal styling after just 5 minutes of blow-drying. I get longer in bed in the mornings, and my un-fussy hair means there's more focus on my clothes and makeup rather than the beast sat atop my head.

Best of all, my mother's finally given my haircut the closest thing to her seal of approval... she told me it was "growing on her." I'll take that... you win some, you lose some.

Instagram Catch-Up #3.

I've just finished an unexpectedly intense placement, and early starts and late finishes along with University work and regular working out pretty much left me next to no time to blog.
Seeing as I have been completely useless with blogging these last 6 weeks, I thought I'd give you a little Instagram catch-up and fill you in on what I've been up to instead of blogging... sound good?

Following my switch to a plant-based diet, raw chocolate Co-Yo has quickly become a vice...

... as has Booja Booja Dairy Free Ice Cream - the chocolate one is my favourite.

The rooftop view of Bristol from the hospital staff cafe... #PerksOfTheJob

Reasons I love Pinterest: it provides life motivation.

I've found myself browsing my photos from my 2010 trip to New York City... maybe 2015 will be the year I return to the Big Apple :-)
  

I've been sticking to my aim of working out 3-4 times a week - I even managed a full push-up the other day!

When February hit, it was time for a makeup change up - I went for a bronze eye with feline flick (quelle surprise) and a fresh pink lip.

A weekend at home meant a reunion with this little munchkin...

I found out I passed my finals in late January, and my parents got me a lovely congratulatory gift... I am now the very proud owner of a gorgeous Mulberry Del Rey (AKA my dream bag of many years). Unfortunately I'm not allowed to start using it until I've graduated in July... side eye emoji would go perfectly here.

 I loved this Pinterest find!

Me likey all da makeup.

When your phone autocorrects 'heading' to 'Hedwig,' you should probably re-assess your life (as a side: the 'doom' I was referring to was an exam... another reason I was quiet on the blogging front!).

Yet another Pinterest find; I love this Mindy Kaling quote (pardon her French, though).

A super fetch Throwback Thursday to when a kitchen table cloth was my style inspo.

In mid-February, my favourite YouTuber Fleur De Force released her new book - I've posted a full review here.

I had a lovely Valentine's day lunch date at Maitreya Social with my blogging buddy Rachel (whose photo I stole for my Instagram!) - she's written all about our food here... would you believe it, this burger was vegan, refined sugar and dairy free.

When February 14th rolled round, I made sure my Valentine* got me exactly what I wanted... some lovely bits from Rosie Huntington Whiteley's range at M&S.

(*N.B. my valentine = me)

 Credit: Calvin Klein

I managed to see Fifty Shades of Grey on Valentine's weekend (mini-review: I was expecting it to be rubbish, but found myself rather enjoying it - watch it before you judge it as it's completely not what I expected!)... naturally, Jamie Dornan was my post-Fifty Shades Man Crush Monday. Brb, just gonna go Google him for another 6537383 hours.

If you fancy checking out my Instagram feed, click here and make sure you give me a follow whilst you're there. If you already follow me, the eager-eyed of you may have noticed I missed out a prettyyyyy (all those Ys are necessary) big photo in that catch-up... I hate to sound a tease, but I'll be talking all about it on Friday, so make sure you check back then to find out more!

The Glam Guide by Fleur De Force.

When I stumbled across Fleur De Force's blog and YouTube channel over three years ago, the concept of bloggers/vloggers was completely unknown to me... a couple of years on, and YouTubers are the new breed of 'accessible' celebrity, with people like Zoella and Tanya Burr pretty much dominating the YouTube scene. I have to be honest and tell you that whilst I've watched some of their videos, they're not exactly vloggers that appeal to me as a 20-something soon-to-be professional. I didn't buy their books, and can't say I ever expressed much desire to do so... but it was a completely different kettle of fish when Fleur De Force announced she was writing one.

Fleur's grown-up, girlie attitude is, I think, much more akin to how I conduct myself, and when it comes to beauty she talks with great knowledge and authority, making her one of very few vloggers whose opinion I actually trust.

I pretty much squealed with joy when Fleur announced she would be writing a beauty, fashion and lifestyle guide, and another reason I was so happy to part with my cash was the fact she had made it very clear she was going to write the book herself... so I pre-ordered it that very day.

Earlier this month, Fleur's book finally launched, and thought I'd post a little review telling you how I've got along with it...

Glam Guide is broadly split up into several beauty, fashion and lifestyle chapter, with the latter covering aspects like health, fitnes and travel. The book itself has a gorgeous cover (making it a lovely prop on my bedside table, as well as a good read!), with sumptuous rose gold (Fleur's favourite!) embossed lettering on the front. The inside of the book is littered with stunning illustrations by Sally Faye Cotterill, a renowned beauty and fashion illustrator, along with lots of gorgeous colourful photographs of food, Fleur and her furry friends - I think the photo of Piglet lying in a suitcase quite literally turned me into the heart-eyed emoji.

Being a beauty obsessive, I thought I'd be ga-ga over Fleur's musings on hair and makeup - and whilst I did enjoy these chapters, to be completely honest they didn't really offer me much in the way of ground-breaking beauty tips. That being said, if you're a bit less clued-up about hair and makeup, there's some really good tidbits shared in them, and they're well worth a read regardless of where you are in terms of beauty-nerdiness. I actually found myself far more interested in the lifestyle sections of Glam Guide, and felt they had a little more of a personal touch, and giving greater insight into Fleur, her life and what she does away from the camera.

If I had to liken Glam Guide to another publication, I'd be tempted to go with Lauren Conrad's Style and Beauty, but Fleur's clearly put her heart and soul into making this book exactly what she wanted it to be, rather than a carbon copy of the other lifestyle guides available on the market. I love that she's included personal photographs along with chapters such as 'Life, Love, Dreams & Everything in Between,' which provide a really lovely touch amongst the chat about false lashes and fishtail braids.

Bravo Fleur: a job well done.

Glam Guide by Fleur de Force (RRP £14.99) is available at Amazon.

Valentine's Day at The Body Shop.

Whether single, or not, every girl loves to treat herself come Valentine's Day, and The Body Shop's new, limited-edition range seems to have provided me with just the treat I needed in time for February 14th.

First up, the Smoky Poppy Body Lotion,* which I've been slathering on myself like there's no tomorrow ever since I got it. Despite being a mere lotion, I think it provides all the sumptuous moisture of the infamous body butters. This is largely down to its Shea Butter formula, which is enriched with poppy extract - to be frank, I'm not all too sure what the poppy extract does in terms of formula... but in terms of the scent, I've no doubt it is key to the sultry, smoky (quelle surprise, when Smoky is in the title) floral aroma of the product. I've found this lotion to be so lovely-smelling, I've skipped on perfume since I've been using it, and I've loved using it on my body to nourish my dried-out winter skin.

Next up is a new addition to the cosmetics range in the form of the Lip & Cheek Velvet Stick in Poppy Red.* I'm a bit of a sucker for 'crayon' makeup, not only for the quick application process, but also the fact they often promise to be something of a multi-tasker. Unfortunately I've usually found that these products normally do only one of their two uses sufficiently well - in the case of lips and cheeks, I've generally found cheeks are well covered, whereas lips get flaky and dried out virtually as soon as the product hits the pout.

The Body Shop's try at a one stick wonder is damn good - the Lip & Cheek Velvet Stick is enriched with Marula Oil, and is highly pigmented (a little goes a long way here, ladies!) so looks gorgeous for a flushed Valentine's rosy cheek, and creates a nourishing wash of colour on the lips, without any feeling of dryness or discomfort. I can normally wear this for about 2 hours before contemplating a top-up of my pout - my preferred method is to use it as a stain on my lips during the day. It can most certainly be built up to a full-on red lip if that's what you fancy for February 14th; even if, like me, the only man you'll be seeing this Valentine's evening is a fictional character in a TV show... reckon Don Draper will appreciate my scarlet pout?

*PR Sample