The Perfect Blonde Balayage from Live True London.

Its about time that I started talking about my hair, isn’t it?

Most of my Instagram comments mention my hair in some way.. regardless of what my actual post is about. I guess its the length that catches the eye but also the current gorgeous colour. I take absolutely no credit for any of it because Paco is the one that made it look so rich and healthy. Taking my hair from lions mane to princess tresses..literally.

Me and hairdressers haven’t got on for quite a few years. I had a pretty botch job in a walk-in salon 4 years ago that completely put me off. My hair was pretty damaged and when I asked for a trim with layers, they cut a few inches off. I was left with such choppy layers that you could see chunks of hair missing. It resulted in hair extensions being a permanent fixture for around 18 months after and refused to cut, dye or style my hair. To be honest most of the time that this blog has existed was after the bad cut so my signature style of ‘natural waves’ is all you’ve ever really known. But lets move on from that..

.Around 8 months ago, I was contacted by Live True London to pop in and get my hair cut and coloured. You can already hear the alarm bells ringing in my head, right?! The first time my hair has been touched since the nightmare incident but I said yes. If I didn’t face my fear, I’d end up being Rapunzel before I hit my thirties which isn’t a good look for anyone.

The Live True London in Vauxhall has a really cosy, industrial vibe that I love and it feels more like a loft studio than a salon, perfect for phobics like me. Its a fairly small spot so its not intimidating at all and the communal space in the middle is fab for getting work done to distract yourself.

So.. the first trip was when I met Paco and explained that my overgrown, unruly mane needed taming and we achieved a gorgeous balayage fading from my natural hair into a caramel blonde. Not too light, but a big change from before. This time, 5 months later, we decided to go even blonder and take out most of the weight. I’ll admit, I actually trusted Paco so much that I gave him almost complete freedom to take it lighter.

The process of balayage is actually super lengthy. It takes around 6hrs  to backcomb, bleach, brush, tone and cut..etc. As well as the additional Olaplex treatment which helps to seal hair follicles and prevent further breakages. I honestly put half of my hairs amazing condition down to this treatment – its amazing!

Forgetting the slightly different angle, this is the before and after with absolutely no editing. You can see that my hair was quite shapeless and copper toned before. The balayage had grown out over my time travelling and the 6hrs to transform it was so worth it. The finished colour is much lighter and cool toned than before. My hair is overall much lighter with so much weight taken out that it is much easier to style. I’ve never quite been able to achieve these curls again but its just a dreamy colour and I love it. I already can’t wait to get it lightened further..

If you’re thinking of getting your hair done.. or live in London (or are super scared of hairdressers like I am) then Live True is where you need to go. I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere else and I couldn’t recommend them more. If you do go – make sure you ask for Paco and tell him I sent you because he’s a bit of a magician.

Thank you Paco and Live True for giving me dreamy hair and curing my phobia – I’ll be back soon!