Why oh why do I look so bloody moody when I’m filming videos? I had always been under the impression that I had a rather cheery face – you know, a bit wholesome and healthy, friendly, the sort of face that might break into a companionable grin at the merest hint of a joke. But no. I have some serious resting bitch face going on. What a crosspatch. I can only hope that this is because filming videos can be long and hard(ish) work, and that when I’m out and about I have a warm semi-smile locked into place.

But I digress: here’s my new hair. Shorter, choppier, blonder. Many thanks to Mel (colour) and Kat (chopper) at Josh Wood Atelier (perhaps the coolest hair place I’ve ever been to) and to the rest of the staff who all took turns in babysitting Ted.

I didn’t style my hair for the photo above – I let it air-dry, following some top tips from Kat. (I need to dig out the list and do a separate post as I don’t want to mis-quote her, but she had some great advice for those who like to keep things strictly low-maintenance.) It was a sort of “scrunch dry” moment, really, except that I didn’t use a hairdryer, I just randomly scrunched and twisted at the ends when I remembered. One side of my head is actually naturally wavy – the other isn’t, which is handy. Despite this being the case for the past thirty-six years, I still haven’t quite come to terms with it and I think that I’m probably destined to have dual-personality hair for the rest of my life. It would only take a few seconds of tonging to correct the situation but I’m so lazy (and time-poor) that it simply never happens.

Maybe it can be my mid-year resolution. I always envy the writer Sali Hughes’ hair – she wrote a piece on how she styles it for The Guardian here – and she just dries it off and then does a quick waving session with the tongs, taking random strands and barely really curling them. Her style always looks great. Perhaps I’ll give her method a try – I have the choppy cut, now I just need to make use of it!

Anyway, in short: hair was air-dried then (this was the day after if I remember) I used some Davines Oi Oil* in the ends and a load of Colab Paradise Dry Shampoo* in the roots. On my face, The Ordinary Coverage foundation* in 1.2N, the Bobbi Brown Illuminating Cheek Palette* and a grey Endless Silky Eye Pen* from Pixi, smoked out and topped with a bit of eyeshadow to soften it. It was all pretty quick and haphazard, but lots of people have asked about the look and so there you go. Crosspatch face, demystified.