The D.I.Y Ombre...

I really am a self-confessed 'try it at home' person when it comes to trying something new with my hair, it used to be a running joke when I lived at home the amount of times I'd change the style or colour - it was a new thing each week... Even I was surprised I had hair left. You'd think at the age of 28 I would've grown out of such madness: I mean come on, aren't I supposed to be all mature, sophisticated and classy? yeah, well maybe in my head, but a little part of me is going to begrudge paying almost £100 to have my hair dyed when oh look, £7 later I could have something completely different!

That being said lately there has been alot more difference in DIY hair styling - gone are the 'easy to do' block colouring jobs: there are more different colours, techniques and styles going round, ones that even I, a seasoned dyer, am scared of. One of these was going ombre. You'd have to be living under a rock or in a cave to not know what ombre is: to put it plainly its where your roots are darker/natural and the ends of hair are lightened, but all done gradually so it is more 'dip dye' effect than bad roots. And so, I wanted this new trend... me and my very short hair craved it, but with hair no longer than a pudding basin (and no, my mum did not cut it for me) there was no way in hell I was going to pay a little over £70 to have it done, but the question was, could I do it at home?

After ranting about it via Twitter and with pretty much 98% of responses being 'Don't do it' I got an email advertising the new Scott Cornwall Decolour Stripper and Remover products... and not only that but instructions on how to ombre your hair AT HOME. Yeah.. .we all know what's coming next - I tried it.

I used the Decolour Stripper as I have relatively dark coloured hair even underneath my hair dye - this will basically mean it strips the colour out. There is another product calle the Remover for recently dyed on fair hair. The full 'proper' process is here I had to do mine a little different due to how short my hair is. I simply washed my hair with a good clarifying shampoo as instructed by the directions on the box and towel dried. I mixed together the Decolour Stripper product and began the process. For me, I parted my towel dried hair as normal, shoved on the gloves and applied a small smidgen of the product on my fingertips ad gently applied to the ends of my hair - this was my first layer, I matched up the other side and tried my hardest to get it equal (anyone who's left handed will know how hard this is) then left this on for roughly 12mins.

After 12 mins I applied a little bit more further up, once again matching it to the other side - this was left on for nearing 15mins.

I then applied one more lot, again  little further up and this was my final set - this was left for another 12-15mins. Once the application time had finished I could already see that the colour had been stripped quite nicely so decided to rinse - I rinsed my whole hair and towel dried again, ready to get a glimpse!

I was shocked and happily surprised by how well the product had taken and the effect it had already, without even styling my hair  -granted there was a slight brassiness to it, but nothing close to what I imagined (yes I'd had a few horror stories before with bleach...) I was already thrilled - to think less than an hour ago my hair was boring!

Onto the next stage of getting rid of the brassy copper tones - I applied the Scott Cornwall Colour Restore in Cool Ash. Simply applying to the end of my hair and leaving for 20 minutes - literally that.is.it - SIMPLE! After the time was up, I rinsed away and with no need to wash again I simply blow dried . My mission to Ombre was complete ladies and gents, and here is the finished article:

Overall I am beyond and overly excited and happy with results of my hair. The fact that this product was literally so easy to apply is its main selling point and the results are brilliant - it proved to me I can do this at home, on short hair and get the type of subtle result I wanted. I would gladly recommend this product to anyone and everyone and can not hype it up anymore. It was a god send!

Go get yours over at the KMI Club HERE

*massive thanks to Scott Cornwall for the hints and tips and also KMI for providing the product - all views are my own and I am truly thrilled*