Feeling Ombré

If you and I have never met in person and you don't know me that well (apart from via this blog), here's two little known facts about me: I am a hairdresser/ hairstyling manufacturer's dream come true, and I reckon I've had every shade of colour from blonde to black since I have been experimenting with colour aged 18.

Controversial as Courtney (pict source)

I've also had every length of hair conceivable, from Pixie cut à la Michelle Williams to long and thick brunette ponytails à la Lara Croft (Angie Jolie), via crazy grungey hairdos à la Courtney Love and urban gothic Christina Scabia. I've had every style under the sun too: from the Rachel cut (Jennifer Aniston in 'Friends'), to the straightened out Japanese-stylee, via crazy curls, multi-layered lowlight beach bleached look, chavvy big rolls up, 1960s back-combed bouffants à la Brigitte Bardot or classic ballerina chignons. As a student I did a stint of hairstyle modelling. I reckon I had all the credentials to up it by moving to Paris and turn my pastime hair modelling into a career. But I chose to move to the UK instead to embark into art school and that was more kinda cool and edgy!

These days I'm much more sedate as far as hairstyle goes, although I started off 2012 with a radical haircut after years of mainstream comfort zone shoulder-length. I'm now growing my hair back and I've embraced the ombré colour technique, shifting my hairdresser loyalties through the process as I am still to reach colour contentment. The main issue it seems is to stabilise the colour against sunlight and sea salt. Haha yeah I'm talking beach culture like I mean it but ermm I do happen to live by the seaside, no kidding!

Ombré starts off dark at the crown of the head and gradually goes paler as you move to the tip of the hair. But as I said, my gradience (if such a word exists!) tends to fade uniformally quick and so does the radiance! I'm confident that eventually I'll manage to find the right hairdresser with the right dosage, and until then I'm afraid you'll need to content with other models' photos!

Rachel Bilson (photo by Jeff Vespa via Harper's Bazaar)

(Pict source)

(Pict source)

International Women's Day 2012

If you ask me what a 21st century woman is, here is my answer... Woman is a celebration: from the artform to the more prosaic as breadwinner. Woman is a lifestyle: from the proverbial 'cook in the kitchen, maid in the parlour and whore in the bedroom', to daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend. Woman means business: from career to civil rights to trade unions, to politics. Woman is the five continents and the seven seas: whole, complex, diverse, and a spectrum of opposite yet complementing qualities: sensitive and strong, idealist and practical, visionary and grounded, independent and dependable.

40 is the new 30 and Jennifer Aniston is it! (picture source)

I'll leave those 'primal' eye-for-an-eye angry frustrated tomboyish feminist answers to ladettes and the likes. This doesn't mean that I live under the thumb. Far from it. But in this day and age, gender issues in our Western societies perhaps do not have the same connotation as they did forty years ago. By the same token, I will carry on despising the misogynist macho types out there (I sadly personally know a few of them) who show women no respect, and believe their role lies in satisfying their every need. These very men who also encourage directly or indirectly through their attitude wage disparity across genders to perdure to this day.

One for all, all for one! (source: Sometimes Sweet)

I'll also carry on waging war against those sectarian religious beliefs that totally undermine women, forcing them into loveless mariages, stripping them off their personal, intellectual and financial freedom, squashing their pride, mutulating their feminity at its core to turn them into scared, submissive baby-making objects.

Tomorrow 8th March is International Women's Day, and La Baguette wanted to celebrate this event in its own special way, with a photo montage of the modern woman and what it represents (pay attention to the captions!), and to show us ladies that in a certain way we actually never had it so good... Yes the world is changing, and yes the financial climate is far from rosy, but it is up to us to keep seizing those opportunities that will make life what we make it. Yes we can!

Be yourself and be kind to yourself (yours truly on a good day!)