how to: get long and healthy hair!

As many of you may have read in my previous 'hair journey' post, me and my hair have a love-hate relationship. I cut off a lot of my hair (to just above shoulder length) a few years ago and ever since have been desperately seeking the perfect hair growing methods to get my hair back to its original state with long flowing locks! I am by no means an expert at hair growth, but the tips I will share with you today help me personally, so feel free to try them out and good luck with growing beautiful hair!

The main and most important tip for hair growth I feel is to have a heat ban. Whether it is a complete and strict ban or just cutting down on the straightener action, this will drastically help your hair to get it into good condition and consequently grow out nicely, without needing a million trims to banish those pesky split ends! I have been on a strict heat ban for about 2 years now after being a straightener addict and ruining my hair, and I now never use any heat (including hair dryers) on my hair except for the most special occasions e.g. Christmas, birthdays etc. I think this has really helped my hair to be healthy, strong and generally to grow quicker and fuller!


When growing hair, a lot of the theories for quick growth is to trim the ends of the hair every 6-8 weeks. For me, this just does not work at all, as having a trim that often just puts you back to square one after your hair has finally started growing. I generally get my hair cut every 2-3 months and by using no heat on my hair it doesn't usually need any more trims than that.

Of course, the old hair growth secret is just to be healthy. Fresh fruit, vegetables, and 2 litres of water a day will do no end of good with your hair growing plight! Try foods such as fish and nuts which have been linked to helping hair growth and try to avoid caffeine, excess sugar, fat and fizzy drinks which can be detrimental to your hair!


Find a fantastic shampoo and conditioner which really suits your hair type to get your hair into perfect condition. Also deep conditioners such as Aussie 3 Minute Miracle will help to soften and revive your hair, making it healthier and subsequently easier to get longer!

Be careful with the hair accessories you choose. Rubber bands are an absolute no-no, tugging on the hair and other heavy clips or bands may also pull on the hair and weaken it!

Don't wash your hair more than once every two days, this will enable the natural hair oils to restore the hair and by washing it too often you are stripping it of these oils. Use dry shampoo as a substitute for daily washes!

My dry shampoo-ed barnet!

Keep in mind that one hair can grown from 2-7 years, meaning that as your hair grows longer, a lot will fall out as it reaches the end of it's growth cycle! Some of the hair on your head may have seen up to 7 years of damage, so be gentle with your hair so that it can grow to its maximum potential!

And finally the only thing that can really help lengthen those beautiful locks of yours is patience. Time is the main factor in hair growth so give your hair time and space to grow long long long!

I hope I helped in some way with your hair growing plight! If you have any other tips or questions pop them below! :)

Alexander McQueen

After the complete shock of having the gorgeous Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of my home town Cambridge, wearing a stunning Sarah Burton dress, of the fashion house of Alexander McQueen, I thought it suitable to post a selection of images I saved on my computer ages ago from the McQueen website. I was so surprised yesterday because I had a post ready for ages and was just waiting to find the right moment to publish it. I feel like one moment in Alexander McQueen's showcase of runway exhibitions was just as unbelievably memorable to the general public as the fact that his name was associated to the wedding of this century. And to start this post off, here is it, from the Spring/Summer of 1999...



Although Alexander McQueen is sadly not with us any longer, his legacy continues through the work of designers such as Sarah Burton at his fashion house. Here are my favourite pieces from the Spring/Summer 2011 Collection.


1. Embroided Fin Mini-Dress - £3540.00 - Here.    2. Engineered 3D Koi Jacquard Knit Dress - £895.00 - Here.
3. Tan Folk Medium Tote - £950.00 - Here.    4. Flesh/Ivory Lace Knuckle Box Clutch - £1285.00 - Here.
    5. Red Samurai Skull and Ribbon Silk Scarf - £380.00 - Here.    6. Alexander McQueen Exclusive Multi-Skull Scarf - £290.00 - Here.    7. Military Fern Jacquard Knit Dress - £840.00 - Here.    8. Black Jersey Embroidered Top - £495.00 - Here.    9. Tan 3D Flower Wedge - £625.00 - Here.    10. Ivory Double Buckle Western Belt - £495.00 - Here.     11. Wide Leather Obi Belt - £395.00 - Here.     12. Obi Wallet - £345.00 - Here.

Kate Middleton Royal Wedding Dress Sarah Burton of the fashion house of Alexander McQueen














Posted first on this blog at 11:08

Night and Day


I recently made this collage on Polyvore with some of my favourite items from Topshop at the moment. 
The whole outfit is something that I would love to wear out at the moment. In the day time, I would put it with the red and gold sandals and at night put those caramel coloured bad boy heels on. I'm not much of a lipstick girl but ever since I saw Reese Witherspoon on the most recent Avon advert working some gorgeous red lipstick, I thought I would give it all a go. So first of all I am exploring it through an imaginary world of Polyvore and eventually I will get the courage up to wear it myself. Are you guys lipstick wearers? In the day time I have chosen a soft peachy pink colour from the Topshop make up selection for a cute look and a night time I have decided to put something a bit more adventurous on like Reese In the advert. I think the two tone bag is stunning for both day and night and it is just the right size for carrying all your little nick nacks around! As this is my first time using Polyvore, I didn't have time to note down the prices but knowing Topshop at the moment, I know that no doubt I wouldn't be able afford it all at once, but maybe just aspire to buy little things at once. First of all, I really want the red blazer, I mean this is the first time in ages that I have seen a blazer that doesn't have crazy 60's shoulder pads in it and its in an awesome colour that I am loving right now, so its understandable that it is almost top of my wish list; especially as its summer coming up and i'm experimenting with brighter colours. Which is your favourite item from here? And do you like these neutral tones and the brighter shades together?

batiste 'tones' dry shampoo.

A few years ago I was a huge fan of dry shampoo; it was a complete life saver when my hair was a huge messy grease-bomb and I just could not be bothered to wash it out. However after a while I started to notice my normal Batiste dry shampoo was making my hair look dull and almost grey (eeek!), so to prevent this 'premature ageing' of the hair, I switched to washing my hair more regularly, not using the Batiste product. However, when Batiste sent me their relatively new 'tones' dry shampoo I couldn't wait to try them out, hoping it would solve the 'dull' hair problem!

As I have a really weird hair colour- not really blonde but not really brunette- they offered to send me both the blonde and medium to brunette version of the tones shades, so I could pick which one suited my hair better.


Upon receiving them I immediately sprayed them onto plain white paper to see if their claims of a tinted colour was true...


As you can see they do indeed spray a tint into your hair, although when rubbed into your hair this isn't too noticeable, so no yellow barbie hair here!

These perform in exactly the same way as normal dry shampoo, making your hair fresher and a lot cleaner looking, while not leaving that grey 'granny' residue in your hair.

I found that the blonde version suited my hair colour more than the brunette version as it brightened up my hair colour, and the darker spray made it look more flat. I think the blonde version would be perfect for someone who wants to lighten their hair very subtly!

blonde version ↑↑

Overall I was really impressed with these 'tones' and they have definitely re-kindled my love affair with dry shampoo! A definite future re-purchase for me! :)

Palazzo Trousers

I'm sure everyone knows that the current trend for trousers is the Palazzo trouser.
The ultimate trend for style AND comfort. I don't currently own a pair due to lack of funds, but I would love to fit myself into a pair of these. Although they are at a higher price than I would have hoped, they will be a key item for all summer wardrobes. These gorgeous trousers can easily work it in the day time with a lose patterned top and sandals or at night time with heels and something a bit smarter.  Personally I would pick the patterned Palazzo's for night time and put a simple neutral coloured top with them so that the pattern on the trousers really stand out and then get the coloured plain Palazzo trousers for day time and maybe put a baggy top with a logo, image or catch phrase on it tucked into the top of the trousers. The selection below are my favourite items from a three websites online, Oasis, Topshop and New Look, all high street retailers. My favourite from all are the Oasis Wide Leg Crepe Trousers on the end as I love this colour right now with anything and also the Topshop Black Paisley Print Wide Leg Trousers as they remind me of some antique curtains I would love to have in my black and white living room in my house when I grow up. What do you think? How would you wear them and what do you think of the price?

     OASIS
          - Spot Printed Trouser, £45.00 - Mini Heart Print Palazzo Trouser, £45.00 - Wide Leg Crepe
            Trouser Black, £50.00 - Wide Leg Crepe Trouser, £50.00
TOPSHOP
- Pleated Wide Leg Trouser, £48.00 - Red Persian Floral Print Wide Leg Trouser,£45.00 - Brown Pleated Extreme Wide Leg Trouser, £48.00 - Black Paisley Print Wide Leg Trouser, £45.00
NEW LOOK
     - Floral Wide Leg Trousers, £27.99. - Crepe Wide Leg Trousers, £28.99 Super Wide Leg Trousers, £24.99. - Floral Wide Leg Trousers, £29.99

Topshop Dress

Many of you may know that I am a big believer in finding a bargain. Especially if it is a copy of something that I have wanted for a while! Now when I was younger and lived in Hertfordshire and Essex areas, we used to go to this amazing market (unfortunately not for vintage etc items) but instead for little bargains of accessories or 'cabbage' items - which are were a company over produces items and then sells them to wholesalers who sell them on to markets at a fraction of the pricee in order to make a profit on them. This market is called 'North Weald Market' and every time I go there I search out for the Topshop stall. Over the years I have got some amazing items that were actually in store at the time and I would be buying the items for less than i would be paying even with my Topshop discount when I worked there! Now as I'm not at Topshop anymore, it is really nice to find something you like every so often and treat yourself! The dress below is currently in the Topshop sale in store and I got it here for £12.50, which I was really happy with! I wore it out for a night with some friends and I matched it with my favourite wedges, a black belt and my obsessed necklace at the moment, I especially love the puffy sleeves in a thinner material! What do you think? Do you agree with buying copies for items that you can buy for half the price?





 The gorgeous personalised gift company 'Bags of Love' have decided to join with Clashing Time by holding a link up under the 'My Links' section to the left hand side of my blog. The company kindly offered a present for doing so and this is what I ordered. Sorry about the terrible phone image, but this is a small canvas to go on my wall in my bedroom of myself and my boyfriend on holiday in January. It really is the perfect size and its so clearly printed considering its on a canvas! If you want to have a look then please do, they do lots of other gorgeous little gifts, and as its my friends birthday coming up, I am going to get one similar to this sent to her!

my weekend.

I've seen so many of these type of 'life' posts on so many other blogs (namely the lovely Laura's) so as I adore reading them I thought I'd have a go myself. Let me know if you would like to see more of these slightly more personal posts!

On Saturday I met up with an old friend for a jolly little shopping trip into town, and despite having no money I still managed to pick up some cheap goodies while having an amazing time with my friend. Its so lovely meeting up with people you haven't seen in months, but falling right back into being comfortable with each other straight away!  


I picked up this gorgeous Aztec style jewellery from Primark which I could not wait to wear when the sun pops its head out again.

Snake Ring £2
Turquoise Bracelet £1.50
Necklace £2.50


While having a little snoop around Superdrug I just could not resist the 2 for £6 deal on Sleek Lipsticks. I picked up O.M.G (left) and Peaches&Cream (right) for the bargainous price and I could not be happier. They are the perfect bright, beautiful colours for Spring/Summer and have a lovely creamy consistency - win!

I also popped into LUSH, not intending to buy anything, but the lovely shop assistant gave me a free sample of Oatifix face mask, which is apparently good for dry skin. Previously I had not known they gave such generous samples- could that shop get any better!?

Here's a extremely attractive picture of me with Oatifix slathered all over my face. Although this looks reminiscent of if I had vomited all over my face, my skin actually felt lovely when this was washed off, so a possible future purchase for me!

On Sunday I visited my Aunt's house to celebrate Easter Sunday in style... with my crazy family. It was so pretty and sunny out I decided to crack out my new playsuit from H&M, which I love however has to be returned as it has a rip in the back! Sob, sob.


Cardigan Primark


Brown Bracelet Primark
Blue Ring H&M


Chocolate! NOMNOMNOMNOMMMMM!

Hope you'll had an amazing Easter weekend!

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