How Becoming a Redhead Boosted My Confidence

I don’t know how many of you know this, but I’m not a natural redhead…! When I went red, I went red for a very specific reason.

It’s no coincidence that becoming a redhead and starting a blog happened at around the same time for me – both needed a great deal of confidence. Yet now I think back I’m sure one couldn’t have happened without the other, but like the proverbial chicken and the egg: which came first?

I’ve just switched up my shade of red once again, and this time it’s because I’m collaborating with Clairol to promote the relaunch of their Nice’n Easy Permanent hair colour formula. I will admit I haven’t home-dyed my hair in YEARS, and to be honest I was somewhat trepidatious about doing it myself after relying on my hairdresser to colour my hair for so long. But I have to say I’m overjoyed with the results… my fears were unfounded.

So to home-dyeing scaredy-cats: Fear no more! Fabulous new hair colour IS possible at home. But first – why did I choose to become a redhead (and stick with it for so long)?

I shall tell you…

 

Becoming a redhead – the why, the when and the how

Here’s my hair (colour) history in 50 words or less: A natural brunette with red tones, I started dyeing my hair with henna (remember that smell, fellow henna users?) in my teens and have since been every colour under the sun (with the exception of rainbow colours). I’ve been brunette, auburn, blonde, ginger, copper, black and strawberry blonde – they’re just the ones I can remember.

But red is the colour I’ve stuck with the longest, and there’s a very good reason why: It does amazing things for my self-confidence.

It may seem a contradiction, but becoming a redhead made me far more confident because it’s impossible to be a wallflower when you have bright red hair… people ALWAYS notice it. And people always compliment it. I decided to go from brown to red around the time I started my blog in 2011 because I felt it would give me a unique identity if I were a redhead (and hopefully get me noticed and remembered more). I’d been red briefly a couple of years earlier, but I’d gone back to brown.

So if you’re a redhead you get a lot of attention, and that means you have to live up to the expectations that being a redhead bring (I don’t want to use the term “fiery redhead”, but that’s often what people think). I also knew that my love of colour would translate well on a fashion blog, and, well – bright red hair adds another colour to an outfit, doesn’t it?

It was a conscious decision to go red – and it worked. As with most fashion bloggers, I wasn’t super confident at first about posting pictures of my outfits online. But to “have great hair” was something I’d always longed for, and if there’s one colour guaranteed to make that happen it’s a beautiful shade of red. I started out with a dark red, and as the years went on I got gradually lighter and brighter. It’s no coincidence that as my blog grew my confidence grew, and as my confidence grew I switched up the shades of red more often.

What this basically boils down to is how confidence can be attributed to how you feel. Posting pictures of yourself on a blog can be a scary thing to do as you never know what people will think about you (they’re always going to judge you in good ways and bad)! Luckily I’ve never been bothered about what others think about what I wear. But I WILL admit I’ve always longed for hair that people would remember me for.

It may seem trivial, but there’s no doubt my confidence on the internet came partly because of having long, red hair which people remembered me for. I was recognised as a redhead. I’m being totally honest here, but I’ll bet there isn’t a single blogger out there [that posts pictures of themselves] who DOESN’T get a kick out of seeing great pictures of themselves on the internet.

We [bloggers] are all at least a tiny bit narcissistic – to run a blog you HAVE to be to some extent…!

 

Nice’n Easy benefits and the results

As you can see from the timeline pictures above I’ve been going more strawberry blonde over the last year or so, and when Clairol approached me to home dye my hair I thought I’d take the plunge and change the shade of red I have. My hair and my colouring suit all the very warm tones, so I chose 6R Light Auburn, hoping for a lovely deep coppery colour. Of course the base colour of your hair will affect the final result, but my hair has been lightened by bleach a fair bit so I hoped the colour would take quite well. I also had grey roots coming through – Nice’n Easy is a permanent colour and promises to cover 100% of grey (what a relief)!

So what’s the deal with this particular home dye? Home dyes have come a LONG way since I used to dye my hair black in the 90s, thank goodness – the formulas they use now are much, much kinder to your hair. Nice’n Easy has been relaunched as a result of the damage blocking technology, an allergy gentle molecule (that helps to prevents those without hair dye allergies developing one), Clairol has been developing for 10 years. There are also conditioners at every step, including a tube of ColorSeal™ conditioner that has a total of four applications for the dyeing stage and three subsequent washes to protect your colour.

Note: I did an allergy patch test 48 hours in advance as instructed in the leaflet to ensure I wouldn’t have any problems. Do not miss this important step and plan in advance for it if you’re home dyeing your hair!

So once it was all applied, rinsed and washed as per the instructions (all very easy and you only have to leave on the dye for 25 minutes), it’s time to see the before and after – the most exciting bit!

BEFORE – a light strawberry blonde with light ends and lots of grey roots coming through…

And AFTER!

I think you’ll agree this is a beautiful coppery red colour – I absolutely LOVE it. I think I’ve found my new shade of red for at least a while yet! It looks and feels shiny and healthy, and this change took less than a couple of hours. The range has so many shades of red (I actually ummed and aahed for ages trying to decide which one to try), and it proves that you can still achieve that feeling of a fresh new look and give yourself a confidence boost with just one box of Clairol Nice’n Easy, an old towel and a couple of hours to spare.

I’ll admit that my fears of home-dyeing are behind me (look how well my greys have been covered – that was always my worry)! It really CAN be so easy to give yourself a mini makeover in no time at all.

 

Can hair colour really affect self-confidence?

I’ve always believed that your appearance can make a huge difference to how you feel about yourself. “Get great hair” was something I set out to do many years ago, and being known as a 40+ redhead blogger truly gave me such a confidence boost every time I read that phrase in articles where I’d been featured. It’s widely accepted that feeling confident has a huge impact on your performance in all sorts of areas in life, so who wouldn’t agree that “new hair” makes you feel amazing when you rock up to work or see your friends with a new colour and you get to lap up the compliments?

Whilst I definitely wouldn’t say that appearance is everything (this is the girl who is more than happy to slob out at home in pyjamas or pop to the shops without makeup on), it’s fantastic to be the best version of yourself when you have to be on your game. Many, many factors have contributed to where I’ve got to in my blogging career, but I won’t deny becoming a redhead was a major one.

If you’re thinking of making a dramatic hair colour change, I say DO IT. Who knows what it might lead to…?

DO YOU HAVE A STORY ABOUT YOUR HAIR COLOUR AND WAYS IN WHICH IT’S BOOSTED YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE? COMMENT BELOW…!

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Clairol (click here for my full disclosure). All content is original, however, and opinions are my own and 100% honest.

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