Hair today, gone tomorrow

I am so punny. I have been putting off writing this post for a while, it’s about a week and a half old. Last Tuesday I got my hair cut. I’ve actually been growing it for a while, in order to donate to charity. I originally wanted to donate my hair to ‘Locks of Love’ an American charity but because the postal system is so finicky, I decided that sending it within Australia might be a better idea. It probably took me the entire time that I was growing my hair to actually find an Australian organisation to donate my hair to. The Princess Charlotte Foundation is one that raises awareness and money for alopecia sufferers, particularly focussing on young girls, most of whom find the sudden hair loss understandably quite traumatic. They have a side organisation called “Tresses for Princesses” where people can donate their hair to be sold by the foundation to people who make wigs for medical hair loss. The money that the foundation makes is then used to buy wigs for those unable to afford them.

This is my before picture, please forgive the squinty expression on my face. And also note the shopping trolleys in the background. My dad will not be hired to be this blog’s full-time photographer.

Looking at this picture actually shocks me at how long my hair was. It’s crazy! Must be getting used to my new haircut.

And this is the moment of truth:

Probably just as well you can’t see my face. I put on a brave face because everyone in the shop was freaking out and watching me, but inside I was squealing!!

I actually didn’t mind this haircut. This is what I looked like straight after Wendy the hairdresser chopped my ponytail off. Oh, and this is 40cm of my hair.

And this is the finished product.

And this is me and my hair, just chilling in my room.

And I now have instagram, I feel like I am finally a blogger. Seriously, that was a big week for me- new haircut and I got my very first fancy phone. I am a whole new person!

Back to regular scheduling

Well my life should be somewhat back to normal now. I’ll try and get you up to speed. For the most part, assignments and exams are over. I only have a teeny tiny few left. Am trying to remember that I *do* have things I still need to do. It’s so easy to just slack off.

Everyone’s been posting their gorgeous Autumn photos (I’m particularly giving you the side eye, Gentri!) so I thought I’d post a Spring photo. I didn’t take this one but it’s such a beautiful photo. I pass ones just like this when I go for a run. And these jacarandas smell so beautiful too. Sort of like jasmine.

For someone’s talk for class, we got to make these grass heads. Look at his little hair!! That was taken a few days ago and he’s changed so much. Kids, they grow up so fast, don’t they?!

We finished our puzzle! This is a super old photo. I feel like Boy Roomie would want you to know that. That it hasn’t taken us this long to finish it. Haha, just saw his finger in the picture pointing to our completed puzzle!

In other news, I was bored in class so I coloured in the tips of my hair with a highlighter.

And now I really want to dye my tips. It won’t happen but it was fun for a day. I found this next picture on Pinterest. This would be my dream!!

And then I spent way too long trying to find the perfect short haircut for me, thanks to Pinterest. As a result, I'm kind of stalking Dianna Agron (aka Quinn from Glee)... I'm now obsessed with her hair!

Another Post About School!

I'm sorry, I know I must sound like a broken record when I talk about school! Especially when most of my recent blog posts have been about it. But at the moment, this is pretty much all that is happening to me. I go to school, come home, do my assignments. Thank goodness tomorrow is Blu Ray Tuesday and I can have a night off. Which means that in order to have my night off, I'm going to push through the sleepy barrier and hopefully finish my gigantic assignment tonight.

(And yes, I do realise that I am wasting precious assignment time by being on blogger! But man, I need a break from writing about vaccinations and behavioural enrichment!!)

I decided that Monday might be my 'hair post' day. Today I went with something sort of new, two loose fishtail braids.

Day 30: And I Cut All My Hair Off!

Ok, I kid, I kid. But this is good practice for short hair. Also, what is my t-shirt doing?

I just put my hair into a loose bun and pinned it underneath the loose hair.
I gotta admit that this style didn't hold very well. By the time I walked the 15 mins to school, it was all falling out. I kinda hoped that it looked like this:
Instead, it actually looked like this :
So that's it, guys! No more hair posts :( I still have a long way to go though before my hair is long enough to cut off. It'll be weird not obsessing over what style I'll put my hair into each school day. Might do a weekly hair post though. Don't want to lose my braiding skillz!

Day 29: Braided Scarf

Today went from bad to worse, luckily just with my hairstyles. I had a super awesomely exciting hairstyle to try out- hair taping. It's a lovely Ye Olde Worlde hairstyle and I was so looking forward to making it work.
I got up super early to have enough time to do this hairstyle. So far, so good. I had to adapt it a little coz my hair isn't quite long enough to do this style properly.


And then the usual happened. Disaster struck!






I'm not quite sure what happened but the ribbon got tangled and I don't have eyes in the back of my head to see exactly where I was going wrong. I would still love to attempt this style but I will definitely need a wingman.







So I had to do something else. This was the style that I was originally planning to end on, it just got pushed forward a few days. I think it looks really nice and I got tons of comments on it.

Also I realised while looking at these photos, I am dressed as Superman today.

Day 28: In Which I Invent A New Hairstyle

As stated yesterday, I probably didn't invent this hairstyle and I'm sure one of you will know the actual name of it but I get to say I invented it because I came up with it yesterday by playing around with my hair. I feel like it needs a name of my own making but my brain is obviously tired from inventing hairstyles and can't come up with a name. Any takers?

I actually took another photo of it tonight so you could see that there are no visible bobby pins or hair ties in the hairstyle.
So here we go, my very first hair tutorial!

Step One- Pull your hair into a ponytail, can be high or low (first picture is of a higher ponytail) and then twist it into a bun and secure it with a hair tie.

Step Two- Kind of mash your hair in the bun to flatten it a little and try and pull it away from your head so it's not so tight.

Step Three- This is where the magic happens, you just roll your bun under and up. Ok, wow, I am NOT explaining this well- I guess this is why people post video tutorials. It might take a couple of goes before there is enough 'give' to be able to roll your bun underneath the loose hair. And then the bun is twisted and stuck, hidden underneath the rest of your hair and you have a seemingly fancy hairdo that takes all of two seconds!

Wow, I re-read all that and it was an embarrassing ramble. Let's see what the internet has to offer. Ok, well apparently someone else invented this look in middle school... whatever! But they have put much better instructions PLUS a video AND they don't use any hairties so I will totally give them some props and you can go here to read a much more conducive tutorial if you wanna try this look out for yourself :)

And in other news, look what arrived in the mail yesterday but I got to try it out today!
My headband from Jen!! Jen is going on a trip to Ethiopia to help victims of sex trafficking (she's super pretty AND saving the world- awesome combo!!) and she's doing a little fundraising to help get her there. The headbands come in different colours and it took me a while to choose which one I wanted :) I can vouch that they are really cute and you can go here to read more about Jen and her trip AND most importantly how to order a headband.

My Study Day

My study day went awfully!! I did about zero per cent of study. BUT I did get to put my nursing skills into action. Here in Australia we have a delightful creature called the cane toad. Ugh, just googling them makes me go ew!

They look gross and they also secrete a harmful toxin on their skin. They were introduced to Australia and are such a pest. Not only because they eat food that should go to the natural wildlife or because they get eaten by the natural wildlife, who then die because of the poison but because our dogs and cats also eat them, get poisoned and then die.

I was watching 'Underworld' (not recommended... I love the idea of werewolves but I've yet to see a great CGI version of them!) and there was a climactic scene where a guy is changing into a werewolf. There is a pitiful growling that sounds absolutely pathetic, not the noise you would expect to come from a werewolf, when I realise it is coming from Nilly outside. I leap up from the sofa because I think she's spotted another creature that hangs around our garden, a blue tongue lizard.
I always have a heart attack when I see the one that hangs around our garden... and then I see its little stumpy legs and realise that it's not a snake and breathe a massive sigh of relief. They're quite shy things but if attacked, will put up a good fight. They have nasty bites, not poisonous but they've got really strong jaws.

Anyway, Nilly is standing guard on the patio, growling and thinking about descending the stairs to get at whatever she is growling at. I look and see that it is a giant cane toad. It was honestly about half the size of little Nilly! I scoop her up from the steps and feel her gums. The poison apparently feels very 'tacky' and coats the gums of animals that try to eat it. Her gums feel normal but I still rinse them thoroughly. I was so excited because I knew exactly what to do (but only because I knew Nilly was in no danger whatsoever!)

I came up with my last three hairstyles. Very exciting because I invented one of them! I'm pretty sure a quick google search would come up with thousands of hits of this style but I came up with it by myself. So I'm all prepared to go out with a bang!

Day 27: Vive La French (Braid) Revolution!

I'm continually impressed with my French braiding skills! I've tried this style before in the past but it took me so long and it never looked very good. Since starting this hair challenge, I've gotten so much better at doing my own hair. This braid took me about five minutes, where it used to take me 15 minutes and I'd have to redo it about three times. I showed my mum my blog on the weekend, just the hair pictures and she was a little sad because she was like "I never was any good at doing your hair when you were little". But we decided that ultimately it was a good thing because it meant that I had to learn how to do my own hair. Lol, it only took until I was 25 before I learned how to do nice things to my hair! It really is just practice.

I was going to do some fancy things with my hair but I ran out of time. August 1st, I promised myself that I would get back into running. It's probably been about three months since I last went for a jog and ooh, it was hard getting out of bed this morning. Because the last time I went running, the weather was warm, I only had my running shorts with me and I felt so silly wearing them this morning as I ran through fields with mist on them. And by 'silly', I mean 'freezing'. When I got home, I could hardly use my hands to get the key into the lock to open the door as they were so cold!

And so because I went running (and by 'running', I mean 'shuffling along the street'), I had much less time to do my hair, plus I had to wash it, so I just went with a good old French braid. I can't believe I haven't done that before!! And I only have THREE more days of my hair posts. I have to make them good. I sort of know what I'm going to do for them, but I'm going to actually practice them to make them perfect :)

I have a day off from school tomorrow and I have so much organisation to do. My desk is an absolute mess, I have paper everywhere and I have been getting tension headaches probably twice a week since I've been back at school since the holidays. I need to get my life into order!!!!! Fingers crossed, I actually do that instead of sitting on facebook all day. Also, girl roomie was home sick today... and I don't think she will be well enough to go to work tomorrow either. We are terrible TV junkies together so I hope she doesn't lead me astray!

Day 26: Getting My French Braid On!

I feel like this hairstyle would have been cute on an 8 year old version of me. Shame I am more than triple that age!!! Never mind. I was so excited that I actually *did* this. This was my second ever attempt at french braiding and it looks pretty darn good!

In my awesomeness, I missed a teeny bit of hair (not that you can notice in the pictures) so I curled it and pretended it was all part of the plan. This challenge, if nothing else, has taught me to embrace my mistakes!


Also, please take note of my CENTRE parting. I spent a lot of time making sure that my parting was in the centre, got it there, but somehow whilst doing the braiding, my parting moved a couple of inches to the left!! Sorry for the flash-arama photo!

In the real world, I am feeling SO much better!! Not sure if it's because the sun is shining and I can feel winter losing its grip or because I went to the doctor and got some magic pills and great tools to deal with stress and anxiety or because I'm spending more time with God or maybe it's because my hairstyle's youthful optimism is rubbing off on me. Lots of options... I think it's a combination of them all.

And as promised Abigail... here are my Night's Watch boots! I lovingly stole them from my mother when I went to Canada. I didn't think she would need wool lined boots whilst in Australia. Although I am getting tons of use out of them now I'm back in Australia!!


And here is their more attractive cousin on TV :) Also, please note Professor Snape in the background... I feel like it all makes sense, maybe he spends the summer holidays at The Wall? He would totes fit in, wearing black and all!

Day 25: Side Ponytail Combo

I swear it seems like I'm starting my posts the same way recently! I again would like to thank Cute Girls Hairstyles for their inspiration for this post.


This really is a super cute look. I did fumble it up a bit and to make matters worse, I took the worst photos in the world to document it all :)

I think in the photo on the left I had my hand half covering the flash... and the one on the right was so awful that even in black and white it still looks bad!















It's really starting to get close to the end of my hair challenge, which means SHORT HAIR IS LOOMING!!!! I'm trying to look into other options for my hair as I've heard some things about Locks of Love who I was originally going to donate my hair too. They do perform a great service but I've just heard a few things about their ethics. I have found a little Australian charity that does the same thing but they want REALLY long hair, I'd probably have to shave my entire head! Oh well, it's not like I have to cut my hair off right this very second. I did say September originally, maybe my hair will be long enough then. OR I could chop it all off to celebrate finishing my vet nurse course. Um... and now I will stop thinking aloud :)

Abigail- I'll do a little post on my Night's Watch boots. I want to find a screencap of the boots on the show... but they really don't show a lot of shots of their feet. Seriously, I get that acting is all about facial expressions but would it kill the camera to pan to their feet once in a while?! I'll go through the episodes on my computer and try and get a good picture.

Day 24: Waterfall Braid

This is the style that I saw really early on in my research for hairstyles for this challenge and I never thought I'd be 'professional' enough to master it. You know what? My first attempt wasn't too shabby!

I got the style from Cute Girls Hairstyles which is seriously my go-to site for hairstyles, even though I am not of 'cute girl' age :) However, the picture I chose to go with this post is from a new blog that I discovered called Sea Creatures and I couldn't resist purely because there is a puppy in the picture!!

And here is my attempt. This was my very first attempt and I actually wanted to try it again but then I was afraid that any other attempt wouldn't be as good, so I left it as is! I'll stick with beginner's luck!
You can't really see the 'waterfall-y' bits in my hair but trust me, they're there. I also didn't go as far back as I should have. I did the other side too and then brought both braids to meet in the back. I can't wait to try again.

I wore my coat that makes me feel like I'm off on a quest, Lord of the Rings style, and my boots that I saw someone from the Night's Watch wear in Game of Thrones. I had my hair done like a noblewoman. I was in my own little fantasy novel as I walked to school, I felt like a badass maiden. I feel like every day should start like that!

Day 23: Slide Up Braid

It seems like mums always come to the rescue. Even if it's not my own mother. The mum who runs Cute Girl Hairstyles once again saved me. I mean, she sorta got me into trouble in the first place so it's really only fair that she should save me! I was trying to do a super fancy braid (and finish my entire booklet for class at the same time...) and it just wasn't working. It's a style that I have been hankering to do but I just don't have the skills/time. BUT it will appear on this site hopefully sooner rather than later.

Instead I found another one to try and once you see it, you'll see exactly why I was taken with it. Look how cute and perfect it is and you can find out exactly how to do it right here.

The real deal is a lot better than my stumpy attempt :) But my attempt makes me smile, so it's all good!
My version just looks like a braid gone wrong. I don't think the style is meant to be for a giant side braid like I did it. On the website, they'd done just a single much smaller braid... I think that'll be the way to go next time. And whilst trying to find pictures for this site, I found another braiding website!!!!!!!! I think I'm going to go out in a BRAID of glory... geddit... like BLAZE of glory?!?!? Yep, I'm pretty funny.

Not sure when my next post will be, as I'm pretty busy with work and will be doing family stuff dis weekend. On Friday night I will be working at the Animal Emergency Centre from 6pm til midnight. I'm actually really, really nervous! Surprise, surprise!! But also excited because I will have lots of cool stories and will get to see lots of cool things. I'm just worried about standing around like an awkward ninny and getting in the way whilst everyone is rushing around saving lives. But everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?!

Hope everyone has a story worth weekend. (Anyone else listen to The Moth? If not, it's a great podcast and definitely you should check it out!)

Day 22: Hair Clip Time :)

This is how I intended to do my hair. I did it, took a photo and then toddled off to make breakfast and by the time I reached the kitchen, my hair had tumbled out of the hair clip!

So I redid it and on a side note, this is the face back of a head of someone who passed their Pathology test. HUZZAH!!! (Sorry boy roomie... I know you hate that phrase!)

Thanks to everyone for all their lovely support re: my freakout over EVERYTHING in the world. Sometimes I get quite emo. I apologise and I promise to bring rainbows and puppies to the next few blog posts.

And thanks for the hair suggestions... I look forward to trying them out. Katie, I'm planning a twist on an old schoolyard classic and Sarah, you said that hair tutorial was easy! Dude, that looks hard, I'm not too good at french braiding but I shall give it a go!

My teacher told us a terrible dad joke which made me giggle so much I made *him* laugh! And we'll leave it on that note.

Why are pirates so angry?
Because they ARRRGGGGGGHH!!!

Day 21: Inside Out Ponytail

Now in *my* day, this was a very cool primary school hairstyle. I haven't seen anyone wear this probably SINCE my primary school days but it looks so pretty and is such a great twist on a regular ponytail if you want to jazz it up a bit.
Also in my day, I swear this hairstyle used to be called something else, it was like French... something. Can anyone remember? In this picture I am wearing my 'Robin Hood' outfit. And I am doing this weird awkward pose to make sure all my head fits into the frame. Sort of the Hunchback of Notre Dame meets the Merry Men.

Does anyone have any hairstyles that they think I should try before this challenge is over? We've got two more weeks to go.

It's my big fat Pathology test tomorrow. Ugh. I actually have a headache (I think it's stress induced) and my body keeps going into panic attack mode. I don't know why my body likes to do this to me, I'm honestly not that stressed about the test (even though I probably should be!). I'm making an executive decision and am heading to bed with a good book. I figure I'll get up early tomorrow and read over my study notes.

Day 20: Shove All Your Hair Into A Headband

Catchy title, no?

Wow, this morning was a disaster. I can't seem to get my act together after my holidays. No matter how early I get up, there isn't enough time to read my Bible and spend some time with God *and* do my hair nicely. And since I made commitments- I have to keep them. I'll try rolling the alarm clock back some more :(




















I confess that I didn't actually like this look to start off with! It felt really 'look at me, look at me' purely because my headband was very tight and kept reminding me that I was wearing my hair in this style. It actually looks a lot better in the photos than it did in my head! I think I must have been remembering it wrong! Also due to the fact that I was running late, I didn't have much time to play with it, or even redo it. I would have loved an extra five minutes in order to try again with it. AND then my camera kept turning itself off because it had no battery. Frustrating!!

And I felt a bit like I was wearing a maid headpiece, you know one of these things??
I think I've been watching too many period dramas recently!

But then the day looked up because as I walked out of my front gate, one of my friends from school was actually driving by and stopped to give me a lift. Awesome!!

I'd definitely try it again and it is a great way to keep hair out of your face. Looks hard, but is very simple. And I got lots of compliments on it. I'd like to try it with a different headband as this one kept slipping up which made my hair kind of clump upwards... ok, that didn't make sense so I'll just direct you here to Gentri's guestpost on the Sloanbook which is where I got the look from. And Gentri will give you help on how to do it, much better than I could! And if I am brave enough, I'd love to try the Lady Gaga 'bow' look!!

Day 19: Herringbone/Fishtail Braid

I love this style of braiding! It looks super professional but is so, so easy to do.

And if you look somewhat carefully, you can see that I missed a giant chunk of hair into the braid. I am pretending that I am eccentric and whimsical :)






Second day back at school was so much better than the first day. Even though it was still information overload, it wasn't as daunting as yesterday. Today was tough because it was really cold and the teacher turned on the heater, which I sit directly under so it was basically like he wanted me to fall asleep in class. Then he was talking about how we all looked like we were falling asleep, he was like "I could do anything and you wouldn't notice" and then he waved our exam paper for next week under my nose AND I MISSED SEEING ANYTHING ON IT!!!!! Haha!!!

And I forgot to say, last week I got to help with my first pregnancy ultrasound! The mama looked like this, an absolutely gorgeous liver and white Border Collie. She had been mated but in my 'expert opinion', it didn't sound as if she was pregnant. Good thing I'm not the boss because mama had seven little pups inside!! I so hope I get to see more of her and that we get to follow her journey. I WANT TO SEE PUPPIES!!!!!!

Day 18: Bun with Braids

First day back at school and my hair was going to be fierce. I was going to rock my braids. I was going to be Gwen Stefani, man!

Instead I ended up wearing white girl cornrow braids and they looked so icky that I would have taken them out, except for the fact that I was like "No, the internet has to have it's 30 Days of Hair via me". I couldn't let the internet down.
Yes, that's right. I wore terrible hair just for you guys. I have no idea what my bun was doing and it's probably just as well I didn't study the picture too closely before I left because I definitely would not have left the house! It kinda looks like a dorsal fin. Like I am Jaws or something.

In other news, I have decided what dog I would like. Due to my obsession with Game of Thrones, I have decided upon a direwolf.










The pic on the left is part of my favourite direwolf scene but the one on the right I think is the most striking one.

Due to the fact that they don't exist, I will have to placate myself with a Northern Inuit which is the breed of dog that plays the direwolves in the show. They seem to have great personalities and are smart as well.
















These photos are courtesy of the Northern Inuit Society website which I have spent far too long on today. Unfortunately these dogs aren't for sale in Australia... yet!! Probably just as well as I don't think I could really buy a dog, it would be too embarrassing after all my big talk about animal shelters :)

But it's nice to dream!