Hair, or lack of it is one of the reasons I started blogging in the first place. Since losing my hair, it’s made me obsessed with looking at people’s hairstyles and I find myself longing to be able to brush my own hair, wash it, dry it, straighten in, curl it…all the things that when I had it, I found a drag! Hair was always the feature that I loved most about myself so I find it so hard that I no longer have that, there really isn’t much I like let alone love about myself now.
Over the years I have had so many different styles so I thought I’d take some time to look back at the good, bad and ugly decisions I’ve made and share them with you!
So here I am, age two, blissfully unaware of the child abuse my parents have inflicted upon me!! As Jack said the other day, it is like they picked up the bowl from the table, plonked it on my head, cut round it, placed it back on the table and poured my cornflakes in! I have to say though, when watching back video footage of me dancing to Kylie, this hairstyle does have the most amazing swish about it that no other hairstyle could produce – every cloud!
As you can see here, over the following year, I just grew the hair out into a mohawk/the most incredible bowl hair cut you ever did see – simply horrendous!
Ah, age 4 and the hair is slightly better, grown out in a softer style with a much improved fringe. However….let’s talk about the outfit choice. Wow. I mean, I am obviously suitably happy with my clothes, the pose oozes confidence and just look at the stance and the hand! Yes, I do believe I styled that out beautifully even if it does look like Maria from The Sound of Music has pulled down more curtains to create this atrosity!
Two years later and I have to say, the hair is looking good! I loved having long hair, mum enjoyed crimping it and I remember loving laying at the end of mum and dads bed with my hair hanging over the edge and Dad brushing it with my much-loved orange brush, pretending to be Vidal Sassoon! I often just wore it down but I did like having pony tails and occasionally rocked some bunches. It was the 90’s!
Not being one to keep a style for long, by my seventh birthday I went for the chop! From long locks to my first ever, grown up, silky bob! From then on, the trusty bob often became my go to hair cut, it’s always suited my face shape – so I’m told – and I always found it quick to wash, dry and style. I loved this cut and was thrilled at my choice!
Oh good lord. What. Was. I. Thinking?? Why did my parents let me do this? Why did my hairdresser let me do this? Oh the shame! From my gorgeous bob to this. At this stage of my life, let’s just say I wasn’t yet ‘developed’ and I will never forget the day the balloon man at Stone Park Farm said to me, “Yes young man, what would you like?” I died on the spot and from that moment on I regretted this hair style.
Then I stumbled across this little beauty! Mum used to take Jack and I to have professional photos each year when we were younger – what you can’t quite see if the very fetching waistcoat I was wearing over a white shirt, I was so classy! The hairstyle is gradually starting to grow out and yes, it is in great condition but I look at this photo and see a nine-year old styled as a forty-year old woman!!
Luckily, and ironically, my hair always grew super fast so by the time I was almost ten, the hair had grown out and the trusty bob was back – hallelujah! (seriously, I was such a poser though wasn’t I!)
I can’t believe I am actually putting this photo out there for all to see! There is literally nothing positive about this photo! The hair has grown again but is just hanging there with the most hideous, neon, looped headband ever to grace this Earth. Then we move down to the braces – I was so uncomfortable with those on and remember really not wanting to go to have these photos done but I’m glad in many ways because otherwise there would be no documentation of this stage of my life. I won’t even comment on the top apart from saying , 5, a fan before they even became a band!
I was such an awkward teen! I felt awkward in my body and awkward in my style but this night I was going to a party and clearly figured that shoving a fake white flower (all the rage in 2002) in my hair was going to make everything better. It didn’t.
Now, finally, these are photos I can look at and think, yes, I got it right here! I had lost a shed load of weight, had my highlights done and went from a long bob to a graduated bob which has to be my all time favourite. I had also discovered straighteners here which changed my life!
2008 saw two very different styles (as you can tell, I really am one to experiment with my hair which is why I miss it so much!) I went from very light blonde to a gorgeous chocolate colour. However, that didn’t last long, I had got quite fond of my blonde hair and I missed the graduated bob too so, I changed it back again! I was lucky here because I had vouchers for a make over day so I had the colour and cut included in the day and they did a really good job. That is something I really miss and something I took for granted at the time – actually having my hair done and having control over it and being able to make choices. I loved being able to reinvent my image and I loved having my head massaged and being pampered.
A year later I let the bob grow out but had a wispy fringe cut in – thicker, fuller fringes were okay for me when I was younger but they aren’t for me now. This style of fringe didn’t bother me too much and on days that I didn’t want it, I was able to simply clip it back – perfect.
Here we go again – you can see the pattern here can’t you?! Blonde to brown, short to long, fringe to no fringe – I really did like changing things up on a regular basis! I do enjoy having darker hair, I’ve never been brave enough to go black. It is much cheaper to maintain as you don’t get the whole root problem but I have to say, having lighter hair is my favourite. At one point I did go short and red at uni, sadly there isn’t any photographic evidence of this, or that I could find at least and I have to say, I’m quite glad about that!
It seems like the art of crimping came back into my life in 2011. Only for fancy dress purposes of course but actually, I quite liked it! My hair here was long enough to put up in a pony-tail which I quite enjoyed but also, I purchased the doughnut rings and experimented with using them. I may like to change my hairstyles and colours frequently but don’t let this fool you, I was never very good at the actual styling. I mostly went for a side clip, the occasional poofy back clipped fringe thingy-ma-bob and when I was feeling especially creative, would pop in a bow, I know, get me! So using the doughnut was a challenge. I did achieve the required look a few times but the time it took to get there wasn’t worth the end result! At one point I did spend some time learning how to curl my hair using straighteners which I grew quite fond of. It was nice to have a bit of volume and I enjoyed mixing it up.
Then we come almost up to date. When I moved to Dubai it became clear quite quickly that hair was going to be an issue! The weather meant that keeping any style for a prolonged period of time without using a ridiculous amount of products was quite unobtainable due to the heat! But also, finding a decent hairdresser was like finding a needle in a haystack. Amongst our group of friends we had several disasters and tears shed over the most hideous cuts known to man. Frustratingly, once I did find a good one who did my highlights and styled it beautifully, one month later it all fell out! Blinking typical! I loved living just down the corridor from my friends though, especially friends who knew how to do pretty things with your hair! I became quite accustomed to a french plait!
This is the last photo I took before my hair started to fall out again. As you can see, I really didn’t do much with my hair in Dubai and the trusty hit clips could be found most days keeping my hair out of my hot face! Also – please note that we are very happy in this picture because we are at the most amazing cinema with blankets and reclining seats! One of the things I miss most about Dubai!
So there you have it, the history of my hair! I have only included this one photo of the last year or so – I am currently styling out my Lidocaine patches like a badger – much easier than doughnut rings and curling tongs! But if you’re new to the blog, check out my post called, ‘Hair today, gone tomorrow’ under the category titled ‘Alopecia’ to fill in the blanks.
At the moment I do still have the hope that one day my hair will grow again, whether that be next week, month, year or decade. One day I will learn to properly style my hair and not worry about spending money to treat it like it deserves. Look after your hair guys and gals, because like many things, you don’t realise how much it plays a part in your life until it’s gone.
Have a fab weekend,
#hairlesshannah
Bald blogger, Hairless Hannah 