Bleach burns

A few years ago (Okay, really it was less than a year ago)I walked into a salon and told the unsuspecting colorist to turn my golden locks red, like a lush deep browny red, in anticipation of autumn. She buttered me up telling me how great my skin tone would look as a redhead and got to work with FOUR different colours. FOUR. For the love. I (im)patiently waited for the tints to do their thing and recoiled when the colours were washed off and my super red hair stared back at me. Don't worry, she said, it'll lighten when it's dry, she said.

It didn't lighten. I could have stopped traffic with that pillarbox red tint, but I did what most other britains do at the salon; I smiled, told her I loved it, agreed to model for their website, paid an extortionate fee and went on my pretty little way.

 The red soon faded to a husky pink colour because my previously barbie bleached hair had no clue what was going on and decided not to absorb the colour pigments. The caramel lowlights turned khaki and I was just a walking hair faux pas. I then returned to the salan (three weeks later) with my tail between my legs that I was not destined to be a redhead and that I needed my bleach blonde locks back right now please, thank you, please. She of course obliged, for a price, and worked magic to make me feel like me again. Five hours, four bleach baths and multiple bleach burns later, I bounced out of that salon feeling like me again. I'm not sure whether blondes have more fun, but I do know that they have more colour options when deciding what to wear- turns out red clashed with a tonne of my clothes too! That day I vowed never to tint my hair red ever ever again.

 All that to say, I have shingles. And, a week in, I am still in a lot of discomfort, my head feels like it did the time I underwent four bleach baths in five hours. I can't even brush it without wincing at the pain. I'm on a lot of meds to try and suppress it, which I am so SO grateful for, but I am SO ready for it to be gone. It's the last week of summer break this week and I had plans of school shopping with my little loves and late night trips for ice cream and the such but at present I've been stuck at home in an incubation period until the blisters stop weeping. For the love, it won't just be the blisters weeping if this doesn't clear pretty quickly.

 In other news, I am super thankful that we live in lots of beautiful countryside with no neighbours, as it's meant I've been able to take a stroll with the kiddos to harvest some more blackberries, I'm hoping for enough to make some bramble jelly, but we will see, as a big punnet has already been used to make blackberry and apple pie- an absolute favourite of mine. I've not ventured into the orchard this year yet, so I've no idea how the damson tree or apples are looking. Perhaps that will be my next little outing.