
Image: Ashley Chegwyn (supplied) I’m bit of a Rachel McAdams. I’ve had every hairstyle under the sun, and that’s since I graduated high school a year ago. But uni is the time for experimentation, right? Around the time of my 18th birthday, I decided my hair needed a change. I was no longer a high schooler – I was an adult who had this new sense of maturity that I wanted to display through my hair and the decisions I made about it. My long golden hair was no longer needed for a fancy up style I had planned for my formal and it was constantly up in a ponytail due to the extreme heat anyway.
22 problems only girls with thick hair will understand
So, I was ready to make the chop. Inspired by Taylor Swift’s bob (who wouldn’t be?), I went to my hairdresser with the following picture in hand and cut what felt like all of my hair off. The results? Something that suited the small amount of fine hair I have and could still be pulled back on days when I didn’t feel like holding a hot straightener to my head. But that wasn’t enough of a change. The next time I visited my hairdresser, I came up with the idea of adding a few red foils to change up the look a bit. If only I knew what I had started.
The Chop: “I suddenly decided to cut my hair. I blame Taylor Swift.”
I had become addicted to changing my hair. Over the red, I asked my hairdresser to put in a few more blonde foils, which meant I was now sporting a colour that looked kind of blonde but also kind of red. We also switched up my hairstyle, keeping it short but introducing a more concave shape. She gave me a few layers that I could texturise and add a bit of curl to, which suited the messy trend. And I didn’t mind the extra bit of effort that was needed in the morning to achieve that look.
Check out Ashley's hair transformation here. Post continues below:
Ashley's many hair changes...
That style only lasted a month. I mean, adding foils was something I’d always done. Why not try an all-over colour? Taking my desire for experimentation one step further, I decided to go platinum blonde. I loved it. It was lighter than anything I’d imagined myself ever doing and even earned me the nickname of Elsa (from Frozen), but it gave me an icy look that was suitable for the winter trends and brought out my blue eyes. Not to mention most of my uni lecturers and teachers picked up my name pretty quickly (how could you not notice the girl with the bright blonde hair walking into the room?) Looking back, I wish I hadn’t done it. My hairdresser hadn’t gradually introduced the bleach to my hair through foils, which helps reduce the damage that it can cause.