Hairspray Vibes with Simply Be

I have mentioned my love of the 60's far too many times to regular readers and I guess it no surprise I am still feeling them.   So when Simply Be offered me a dress from their amazing Day Wear selection, despite the fabulous selection it was already pretty much a given I would pick this high necked Geometric Swing Dress, that made me feel a lot like Tracey Turnblad and I should be dancing on the Corny Collins Show.

As this is such a bold print I kept my styling simple with Black Opaques from Primark, I cannot recommend these enough as the XL fits my size 22/24 bum perfectly and they are mega cheap.  My fun ice cream clutch which is very old from New Look came out, you can't get these in New Look now but rip offs are all over E Bay and silver chunky Sandals from River Island a while ago.

I found the dress super comfortable and perfect for this outing to the cinema to see Suicide Squad. The length was great and I found it to be quite a large size 22, so if you wanted a more snug fit you could size down.

Hair and make up I kept it simple with a side pony which is a style I am feeling at the moment with the heat.  For a night time look I would try and do a beehive and put more eye make up on as I feel the dress could easily be styled for a night time look, but here I kept it simple with basic make up and a Limecrime rip off of their pink velvet from Wish.  

*This item was gifted to me but the opinions are all my own,

A Rose Like This OOTD

As I wrote about on a earlier blog I attended Curvy Convention which apart from babes, the catwalk models (no so much the clothes) and a few brands was well a bit underwhelming.  However, after spending a long time with the ever wonderful Perelandra I headed to blogger babe and plus size designer Rosie's stall where I saw a fabric of great loveliness with retro swimming ladies on it. Regular readers know I am all about the fabric. so like a dress of dreams I tried it on and god damn it was a perfect fit, so there was never a question it was coming home with Mama.

Luckily I was meeting up with my oldest bestest pals so the dress didn't have to sit in my wardrobe like Miss Havisham too long.

I teamed it with my trusty denim jacket and with a nod to summer a ice cream bag I bought in the New Look sale years ago.  The dress itself reminds me of the 80's with the think black band reminding me of my cheerleader style dresses from back then and 90's grunge with its vintage fabric, leather style edging on the collar and sheer sleeves.  Remembering the 90's I teamed it with clumpy shoes.

With my hair I went sort of big with a Victory Roll. Make up wise I went with a strong eyebrow and lip with Stila's long last lip stain in Aria which I highly recommend as it does not budge.

I cannot say how talented I think Rosie is, there are so many Rosie Originals she has made that I would just love in my wardrobe but for now finances dictate I will have to be satisfied with this beauty.

Great Lengths - Or adventures in hair extensions.

The eagle eyed among you my have spotted that around December my hair had a sudden growth spurt, of course this wasn't natural and owed more to head of Meccano (Micro rings) holding beautiful hair not belonging to me to my own.  I have always played with my hair colour and the only thing I had never done was extensions always believing I was a short haired girl, then  I did a photoshoot with the genius that is Chiara Aprea who popped me in a beehive wig and ever since I have longed for long hair and my own hair just wasn't playing ball fast enough. So I booked in for extensions which took me from a jaw length grown out crop to shoulder length hair.

I did everything right got recommendations saw a couple of people and got a head full of micro ring hair extensions,  The beautiful colour doesn't really show on this picture I took on day one but you can see it better on this my hairdresser took.

I'm not going to lie going from fine short hair to a mane, my husband used to go "Put em up, put em up." like the lion in Wizard of Oz at me quite a bit to illustrate my mane was strange.  Blow drying went from a 5 minute blast to 15 minutes, oh it's still not dry never mind, and styling was difficult where my hair was pretty short it could be tricky if I wanted it up to hide all the bonds.  However, I loved it.

I had my maintenance which was pricey too but I loved it, so didn't mind  Then 10 days later disaster struck there was a incident at work and loads of my extensions were pulled out.  My hairdresser is very popular and I couldn't get in and I couldn't live with a patch of hair just not there, so I googled micro rings and my home town paid £30.00 to get them put back but the bonds felt different and still the extensions were falling out and I felt like it just wasn't quality work.  I tried to get in with my hairdresser but she couldn't fit me in till after my birthday, so the impatient Aries I am I sought out options.

I got recommendations and saw 2 people the first person said she would take all my extensions out but because I was walking around with her name on my head she wanted to use her extensions and me to buy new hair.  The second said she would take them all out and it would take about a hour and a half to put them back in so would cost about £90.00 I liked her so I booked.

On the day it ended up taking nearly 5 hours but before she started she got me to sign a disclaimer as she is trained in Balmain extensions and mine were Remy.  She did mention she couldn't guarantee the bonds but I didn't think to much of it.  I found out from the geniuinely worried look on the girl's face that the lady who put in my extensions that had been ripped out had used bonds that looked like they had been used before with no cushioning to protect your hair, and if they slipped had put another on top!  Leading to moments where she thought they may not come out.  So despite it costing double what I had been quoted I was happy as I had what looked like a good head of hair.

And for my Birthday a few days later manged a beautiful mini beehive.

I'd like to say the saga ended there but it didn't.  My hair continued to fall out at a alarming rate about 10 micro rings again.  I went back to the hairdressers who said I think it is these bonds I did say I can't guarantee them and as I had signed a disclaimer I had nowhere to go.  She offered to put them all in again but if they were all going to fall out in 10 days what was the point.  I am going with she didn't know.

As I was skint having used my birthday money and more to get them done.  I am left with my natural just shorter than shoulder now length now hair, that just feels as insubstantial as Olive Oyl.  As I am not happy my lovely hub has said just get them done.  So I am going for a consultation with someone who i have seen recommended quite a bit in another town as my original lady is booked till July and doesn't do taped ones.  So wish me luck.