You can change your hair, you can change your clothes, you can change your mind, that's just the way it goes

With introductions over - if you haven’t done so already you can click here to read a little bit more about my story - I decided I’d change things up a bit (yes, so soon!) and instead of focusing on life in general I thought I'd tell you all the tiny tale (as it has occurred since the big move) of my new hair. Now this may sound like a silly subject to dedicate my post to but it truly is amazing how much this colour journey has affected me and, because of this, I believe it is a pretty necessary tale to tell.

You should know that I’m almost constantly bored of my hair thanks to it's delightful combination of flatness and straightness. I’ve recently tweeted back and forth with a few of the girls on the subject of hair - the result of one of such convos was my lovely friend Paige having a gorgeous haircut that can be seen here displayed under an ab-fab hat, as well as Ella, who's sweet chop really suits her (and check out that cheeky little shaved side!!)- so I felt that my hair tale was a good one to tell. First, a mini rant - my hair always gets to a certain length nowadays (note, when I was younger it seemed to fair surpass this) - lets call it sort of shoulder blade length - and that’s it. It stops. And may I just point out to you that it did this a fair wee while ago now. I’m talking months back. So I think I’ve been pretty gosh-darn patient. Unfortunately for my hair, fidget bum Tori has now appeared and, boy, does she mean business. She’s getting frustrated and she sure is not going to stand for it much longer! Now, I know there are probably things I can do to help it along, however, not only am I trying to restrict my spending, but I’m also very lazy when it comes to researching stuff for my hair. I mean, does anything truly work re: helping hair grow besides good, old-fashioned natural crap like eating right and making sure you get out in the sunlight?!!

But hey, I’m getting a little sidetracked here, for my intention is to focus on hair colour. At school I was a few different varieties; shades of red, dark brown and then my naturally - and of course, rather beautiful - mousey brown. After school I carried on 'embracing' my natural side until I realised, around the age of 18, that I didn't actually have to any more! Tori, I said, look what's out there for you! A plethora of colours that offer you something new and a little more - hell, a lot more - interesting. So I went for it, chose myself some highlights and, hey presto, blonde Tori arrived! She has since stuck around in various forms, from long and fringey to super-short, with the occasional slip back to mousey (when one was counting the pennies and trying to be good!)

But this all changed in October when I made the (instantly regrettable) decision to make a change. Bored of my blonde I decided I'd very much like to become a brunette. And boy did I! Unfortunately, it’s a colour that came from my - what are now known to be exceedingly incapable - hands. Near on black, I was very much in shock when I first viewed my handiwork (what a scary moment when you know that, after the rinse, even before you've dried it, you hate it but can't turn back time!) The shade was so dark that on one occasion, whilst sat in bed, I looked up and caught a glimpse of myself in our wardrobe mirrors, only to think that the little girl from The Ring (do not click if you are easily scared!) had somehow silently crept into bed beside me. As you can no doubt imagine, this was not good, I tell you - not good at all. But I decided - being a poor student and all - that I would just bloody well live with it; I’m the one who wanted it therefore I had to stick by the decision (giving myself the Mum talk!) And I did stick by it....for a short while! It was certainly a weird time for me because whenever I looked in the mirror I saw a stranger staring back for the colour was such a contrast to everything familiar to me. Not only that but my shade choice was terribly poor as it left me looking quite horribly washed out.

The interesting thing is - ok, I use that term loosely, for it may just describe how I feel about it - I actually felt less like myself after this change of colour than I did after I had 'the chop' (the results of which you can see below). Now, that was more than a little drastic for me, and in the end I decided it didn't really suit and chose to grow it out again (of course, I did go in with the vision of myself looking like Michelle Williams, which is such a purely idiotic and sadly incredibly rookie vision to dream up - do you have a face of dainty features? No Tors, you bloody do not, so obviously you were never going to look like Michelle, gah) but still, I lived with it. Yes, I had a few tears, but I still felt like me. However, as a (new and shoddy) brunette I very much didn't. The way in which I looked at myself, and felt in myself, had changed rather startlingly. I just did not feel comfortable; nor did I like presenting myself in this way to those around me (as awful as that may sound).

Thus, after a few umms and ahhs (and after the purchase of colour remover that, thankfully, I did not use thanks to a twitter convo with a couple of people who warned me the result may be something from the orange colour spectrum!) I made the decision to seek out the help of a professional. He was very kind and complimented me on my fairly even coverage and lack of khaki greenness (I mean, whuut?!) but told me that I would never have got the shade I had envisaged (chocolate brown - the colour of the bloody dye I bought!) due to my complete lack of colouring knowledge; I think it had something to do with the need to stain it orange first (hang on, hadn't I just tried to avoid such an outcome re: the colour removal thing?!) so as to add tone? Or depth? Regardless of which, he lost me at stain. Anyway, we chatted over things and seemed to come to some mutual agreement regarding what he would do (Tori - 'I want to look like Alexa Chung', hairdresser - barely covered audible sigh and roll of the eyes 'everyone wants to look like Alexa Chung'). It took two attempts but the final result is your pretty standard ombre; a soft, warm dark brown from my roots to my mid-section (ish) that fades (quite obviously not an English student) to a dark blonde at the ends. It'll be a temporary change, because I'm still not quite used to it some 3 months down the line. However, it is also an itch I can't currently scratch thanks to the fact that I am now living in a proper home that comes with its own bills and rent to pay for plus my additional needs such as food to live, but hopefully over the next few months I'll be able to go back and have the brunette slowly stripped out and the blonde put back in (although now I've said that *out loud* I'm a little bored of the idea - see? Hello, I'm Tori, and I'm a bored-aholic!)

A little hair story

Top row - 1) the longest and fringiest my hair has ever been! 2) au naturale 1, in New York aged 21, 3) fringey and short

Second row - 1) and 2) 2008, with the fringe gone - swept to the side and pinned back. 3) au naturale 2, travelling in 2010

Third row - 1) after the chop (growing out), 2) a little longer and a lot blonder, 3) travelling again, longer still

Bottom row - 1) before the colour change, summer 2012, 2) my disaster dahling, only captured in instagram format! 3) as I am now (still looking a little washed out - ref. below!)

The other thing that I've noticed since becoming a brunette is that, and stop me if this seems a little odd or, you know, completely wrong (which is more than likely when it comes to me) but I feel I should (or rather, could?) be carrying off some sort of 'stronger make-up look' (oh god, I'm sorry, I really am one with little knowledge of anything make up related included any technical terms). True, I've had to start filling in my eyebrows, at first with a pencil, which was just too fiddly and made them look ridiculously dark, now with the Mua Pro-brow kit, but other than that I've stuck to what I've always known, which is mascara and that is it (and its the same brand/type I've been using since I was at secondary school!) However, it doesn't feel right. I think that, now my hair creates this darker frame against my face, I need something (colour? I'm not sure what) to 'set it all off'. The brunette colour can, at times, bring out the worst in my skin. Also, and it may of course just be because I'm thinking this way therefore am no doubt drawn to making such assumptions/conclusions, I've noticed that a lot of brunette girlies I see nowadays tend to wear a heavier, more-defined (ugh, I hate myself) face of make up and wondered if this is because of hair colour coupled with skin tone etc? I've been giving this a lot of thought recently and wondering if maybe I should give it a try too? (cue future post, watch this space!) Sidenote - while I'm at it, a whole new wardrobe too if you please (cue future post two....) I feel like I could pull off something a little more 'dramatic', I just wouldn't know where to start! This is where you guys may have to come in.....

Anyway, enough of the words!! Tell me - has a hair colour/cut/style ever had a similar effect on you? Has it changed the way you look at yourself or prompted additional changes, such as a make-up or wardrobe haul?

(and yes, all you crazy cool kids who might be a-wondering about those lyrics, they are from the 'hand' of Miley Cyrus - the Queen of drastic chops and changes. It felt rather fitting)