In the deep mid-Winter...

Last time, I was waxing lyrical about my colour analysis training and the advantages of colour analysis. So, it was only right (and definitely expected of a trainee style advisor) that I too had my colours done. Wouldn’t be right to greet a client looking like I’d got dressed in the dark now would it?

I did try to colour analyse myself but it was tricky. Not so much the physical flipping of the drapes but the ability to be truly objective about oneself. We’re all quite good at looking in the mirror and screwing our face up because we don’t like what we see - so it’s mighty difficult to take a step back and look long enough to appreciate what the right colours are magically doing.

 

Luckily, Gail came to my rescue and I was able to 'model' for one of her other students. It was great to be on the other end of the process and to witness first-hand the experience from the ‘client’ perspective. If you work every day and/or do the morning and afternoon school run, with weekends being a blur of food shopping, housework & homework then just being told to sit down, let alone have your colours done, is, quite frankly, a luxury in itself!

 

I’ll cut to the chase - I’m a Winter. So, armed with my valuable ‘fan of Winter colour swatches’, I inadvertently adopted the stance of Inspector Clouseau with his magnifying glass and dived into my wardrobe. On close inspection, I discovered that my general day to day outfits were actually ok for the Winter palette. In fact if you were to sneak a peek into my wardrobe you’d think that you were viewing it on a black and white TV.  So, yes, note to self - I could definitely benefit from injecting my monochrome choices with some of the bright and vivid colours that the Winter swatch has to offer.

There was however, one major casualty of my new season prescription. This was my Whistles £300 brown (i.e. AUTUMN!) leather, biker jacket. It looks great with my brown leather boots. It’s so easy to throw on with any pair of jeans and top and ‘et voila’ - I am ready to rock, roll or just pop to the garage for some milk! And having paid for the jacket with a rather long haul of overtime pay, not only was it a very significant purchase for me, it’s also my fall-back (no pun intended) if everything else fails. In short, I love this jacket and this jacket loves me and I will not be seasonist! Help needed.

Calm down dear. Luckily there are ways, in extreme cases like these, when certain items can be rescued from season suicide. Please welcome on stage….the SCARF! As long as I strategically place a ‘Winter’ scarf between the offending ‘Autumn’ jacket and my ‘Winter’ face, then jacket and me, can continue our beautiful relationship. Yay, happiness ensues.

                                                               

So where were we? Clothes crisis averted - check. Make-up needs amending slightly - check. Ah yes, hair. It appears that my long locks (which I’ve been growing for one hundred years now) are also in the Autumn camp. The colour is too golden for my Winter skin and eyes and needs to be changed. I’ve been dying my hair since I was in my late teens. Back then it was for fun, just to add a little bit of oomph. But now I dye it because, well, if I didn’t, I think it would be totally grey.  No offence to those who carry grey hair amazingly well (Judi Dench and Helen Mirren, you are truly beautiful women) – it’s just I’m not quite ready to embrace the silver yet.

So I need to find a shade that brings me back to my Winter roots. To those who have their hairdresser mix the colour for them (I personally can’t afford that luxury every 4-6 weeks) or do not need to dye their hair at all (you don’t know how lucky you are) let me enlighten you into the world of shop-bought hair dye.

The colours read like a Starbucks drinks menu crossed with a Milk Tray selection box: Iced Latte, Chocolate Fudge, Chocolate Caramel,  Iced Chocolate,  Mocha Mucho, Rich Espresso and so on. One of those hair colours I just made up and I bet you can’t tell which one it is? And I also bet you can’t tell me if any of those colours listed would be the medium ash brown I’m looking for? So you see - quite a minefield. Lastly, nowhere on any of these gorgeous glossy boxes does it carry the warning that applying the wrong shade makes you look nothing short of Davina McCall’s ugly sister dressed for Halloween!

Luckily I found a ‘Nice n Easy’ shade that did the trick (or should I say treat!), and though I kind of miss my golden lights, the new shade does look better against my skin and clothes.

Cue slow motion hair-flick…

…and all because the lady is worth it!