how I got healthy hair

I havent had my hair cut professionally since May 2014 after a very bad experience. Nearly three years and my hair has thanked me for it. It isn't just me it has to thank though, but also my Mumma B. We have worked tirelessly to get my hair looking healthy and long after the last three years and I am so happy with how it looks now. It is long and soft and silky (when I decide to brush it) and despite how many products I have tried it has relished a little bit from all the changes I have maid to get here so here are some of my tips to get it growing and healthy. 

Washing 

I wash my hair every other day at the moment. I used to be able to go three or four days between washing but my hair appreciates a change to the routine every so often. I wash it in the morning and then let it dry naturally. If I am driving to work I turn the car heating up to full and let it blow my hair dry. 

Products 

I keep the products I use on my hair very simple too. I keep it to just shampoo and conditioner in the shower and maybe some dry shampoo if I need it. I am quite fussy about these though. My shampoo and conditioner in the shower have to Sodium laureth sulfate (SLS) free. I have been SLS free for over a year now which is the longest I have ever been SLS free for. It took a few washes to get to used to this as it dosen't lather up in the same way most shampoos do but my hair has never felt so soft or looked so shiney. I am constantly changing my shampoo and conditioners but I am currently using Faith in Nature Seaweed and Citrus Shampoo and Conditioner. I have been using the same shampoo for nearly two years now which is the Lush No Drought. It is a powder shampoo which again took me a while to get used to , but I find it has really helped my hair as I found the Spray Can dry shampoo made my hair feel like straw and dried it out. With No Drought, I put it on my hair before bed where I know it gets greasy. Brush it through and by the morning I am ready to go with no grey patches. It is also chemical free which is really good and much better for the environment than the spray bottles. 

Diet

The food that I eat is one that I have really noticed a difference with in the last few weeks since moving that has really affected the healthy of my hair. I used to eat a lot of processed foods before, pizza and chips was a weekly staple. And while I made sure I still ate my five-a-day everyday the processed foods weren't helping. Since moving out I cook all my meals from scratch so I know exactly what I put in them and it is balanced. As well as achieving well over my five-a-day everyday now my hairs growth has accelerated to over an inch in the last 6 weeks which is crazy growth for me. It is also meaning however that I have twice the amount of flyaways that I used to have because I have so much new growth coming through from on top of my scalp.

liquid gold

A month before my wedding I had tried absolutely everything I could to get healthy glowing skin and get rid of my acne scars. I was about to give up when I decided that my wedding was a good enough excuse to treat myself to a bottle of expensive liquid gold - Rosehip oil.

I have been fascinated by the oil since I first heard Miranda Kerr boast about how good it was in 2012. I would have tried it then but 15 year old me had little money and £20 was a huge investment for something I wasn't sure would work. How how I wish I had though. I would have saved myself 5 years of terrible acne problems if only I had found how worth it Rosehip Oil is.

It didn't take long for people (only really my mum and now husband) to see the difference it was making. The redness of my acne scars had dramatically reduced, my skin looked clearer and healthier and it has now been two month of using it, and I haven't had a single spot in those two months - not one. It has now firmly become something that I cannot live without, and my husband is now revelling in its benefits too.

I call it liquid gold because the colour of it is a glorious golden colour on your fingers that just gets absorbed in to your skin leaving it silky soft and not at all oily. Despite how pricey the bottle, just 2 or 3 drops a day on your face, morning and/or/evening lasts months. And it is worth it. It also works really nicely as a primer for your make-up in the morning. Don't wait so long to try it, I implore you!

Get yours here - http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/trilogy-certified-organic-rosehip-oil-60076391

snowdonia - easter break

Sam and I have been determined to climb a mountain for months. From base to summit. No help or trains. Just our legs. Walking. We nearly did in July in Scotland but weather prevented us. Again in Norway we tried twice. The first time we couldn't find the path. The second time the snow was waist deep on the path. So when planning our Easter break, mountains was a top priority. We decided to drive to Wales and climb the biggest mountain in Wales - Snowdon. We did very little preparation for this as we are already pretty well seasoned walkers and hikers. And so we climbed the mountain. 

We started on the Rhyd-Ddu Path which is apprantly the 'secret path' as it is the least used but it boast some amazing scenery and some very dramatic cliffs and rocks formation the nearer you get to the top and it does get your heart racing just a little bit. 

I took us about three hours to get to the summit which is about average. We ended up in the clouds and the thin air did make me feel a bit queasy and the steep uphills were pretty painful but we made it to the top where we enjoyed our Adventure Food ration pack. Such a huge sense of achievement knowing that we finally did and now are looking forward to hopefully climbing Ben Nevis at some point! 

norwegian honeymoon

Married life is great and we started it off by an amazing and totally unconventional honeymoon backpacking around Norway. We started off in Oslo and then got a train to Bergen. Seven hours on the most trhough rocks, rivers, mountains, through valleys and waterfalls and it was incredible. Then from Bergen we flew 400km into the Arctic Circle, to a place called Tromso and we saw the Northern Lights from our apartment window! Went husky sleighing which I 100% would love to do again and caught us some Cod that we ate for lunch! Norway was incredible and we love being married!

new things

Hello! And welcome back to my blog. It has been months of me thinking about writing a post but failing to actually do so I apologise. The last few months have been some of the busiest and most exciting months of my life. I left my teenage years behind, when I turned 20 in December, have been in the process of moving house, and then last month in February I got married to my best friend Sam! Then we were on our honeymoon and have been getting used to living together and being married. This also means that my name is no longer Bark, but now I am a Skeet. So welcome to the #theskeetadventures !

mumma makes

My Mumma makes me the best clothes! Like for real! She has made me so many dresses, tops, trousers, skirts and even my wedding dress (135 days till I get to wear it!) When we came home from Kirsties homemade fair last the day we both came home with another fabric for these skirts and so Mumma made us matching mustard corduroy skirts and I am in love with and literally wear it everywhere, work, pub, shops. It is such a go to outfit.

 I have also discovered that I have a great love for colourful tights. I paired this skirt with some navy tights today, but I'd love to pair it up with my burgundy, dark green, or white with grey spotty tights! Tights I have discovered are a great love of mine! 

cider apple and pear crumble

I love cider. I love apples. I love autumn. So today I felt I needed to make an apple crumble because it was the most autumnal thing I could think of to do. I'm also in the process of convincing Sam that I could produce an entire cookbook all about apples because I love them just so dang much are so versatile! 

ingredients: 

cider (I used Henry Westons because its my favourite to drink)

2-4 apples depending on size

2-4 pears (use the same number of apples) 

golden or maple syrup

cinnamon

sugar

flour

sugar

butter

- peel and chop your apples and pears, thin slices are perfect but don't be too fussy about it, then chuck them in a saucepan and pour the bottle of cider in with them (side note:use the whole bottle because it makes a delicious hot cider at the same time for you to drink afterwards. If not enjoy the bottle while making!)  add a dusting of sugar, a few pinches of cinnamon and a drizzling of golden or maple syrup. 

-let them cook on a medium heat and simmer away for a while until they go all soft. Drain the liquid out and drink it if you so wish (trust me it is the most amazing sweetest hot apple cider I have ever drank in my life!) 

-To make the crumble, I have adopted my mothers technique of just mixing it till it feels right. About a lump of butter, and a few handfuls of flour and get your hands stuck in making a good breadcrumb. Add some sugar and pour over your apples in the dish. 

-Cook in the oven at about 180 degrees C for about 15-20 minutes till it goes golden on top.

Serve with custard and ice and enjoy!

Annoyingly this was the only picture I took of it cooked and this was all that was left over after four of ate it for desert but mmmm it was good! 

protein flap jack bars

This post starts off with a very simple goal of mine that I have been striving for for years: My hair will be as long as mermaids on my wedding day. It will be. It has to be. I will only get married if I'm married and Sam will only marry mermaids (hes joking but its also his way of supporting me in my goals). However I am getting married in less than six months time and my hair is growing an inch an year. So I am changing my diet completely just to grow my hair. Its good healthy changes yes. Starting with increasing the amount of protein my body consumes. 

I'm not a big meat eater so I struggle to get the required amount of protein per day. On average you need a gram of protein for every protein you weigh. I weigh 112lb = 112 grams of protein.

Meat for me is a chore to eat, but flapjacks? I can live off them I love them so much. So I took an old recipe of my mums and mixed it up completely, to make it just as tasty, but far more healthy.

Ingredients:

175g // 6oz butter

2 tbsp honey

110g // 4oz brown sugar

250g // 8oz oats

2 tbsp whey protein powder (optional but best)

2 tbsp peanut butter (optional)

Melt the butter and honey together on a low heat. Then dissolve the sugar into it before mixing in the oats and whey powder. Add your peanut butter and lay it out onto a baking tray about 1/4 inch thick. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees C for around 10-15 minutes, until golden brown. Take out and enjoy!  Honestly I really enjoyed the raw mix, but it wasn't very practical. They make a great snack throughout the day or are a perfect edition to your lunch box.

summer wreath

I love flowers. I love having them every where - in vases, on shelves, hanging from beams, painted. I love them. The other day I was clearing out my room and found a DIY wreath frame I bought at christmas, and wondered "what if I loaded it with Summer flowers rather than Winter ones?" So yes, I did it.
You buy wreath like this at most craft stores. They are easier to come by at Christmas, but check out your local garden centre too.

Start off by picking your bunch of flowers. Try to have just as much greenery as flowers, and it will provide a nice background to put the flowers against. 

Decide what sort of style you want it to be like, either fully loaded, half done, or cresent. The best way to decide what you want, it just put the flowers and greenery and play around. See what looks good and what you like and play. There is no right or wrong way to do it. 

I really like the little bunch of lavender on one side and the drooping flowers really adds a another layer to it. The bright of the yellow flowers really adds a pop to it, like the summer sun and I love the greenery poking around. But honestly, just have fun and play around with what you like and what looks good and what you have in your back garden!

isle of skye

So it has been months of training leading up to this holiday but some friends and I finally hiked part of the Isle of Skye in Scotland!

I was feeling really rough the day we left, and I slept lots of the plane journey to Inverness and on the coach ride up to Portree on Skye. When I did wake up I was greated by the sight of mountains towering over a lake which we discovered was Loch  Ness, and sadly we saw no monster.

The first day I found super challenging and I had to tell myself more than a hundred times that I wasn't going to die, because I had convinced myself I was going to die. Clearly I didn't, but still, I have literally never been so terrified! We had to cross super swollen rivers, and walk paths that were like 30cm wide and hanging 100ft over a cliff down a rocky shore line with 10kg backpacks on when it was super windy and I was pretty ill too with some weird flu feeling thing which was hard. I did not enjoy that day. The highlight of the day was when we eventually made to a tiny little viillage called Sligachan, and we discovered there was a whiskey bar where we could get a hot meal, and the hostel we were staying at had a drying room. I was soaked through to my knickers and our hiking boots were swimming in water so it was needed.

The first day was a total shock to the system and scared me out so much. My back was in so much pain carrying my bag the day before and I was so wet and because of the weather, our plans for that day were cancelled, so we faced with the option of either hiking another 12 miles to our next hostel or getting the bus round to it. The group was divided, so when Sam and his best friend set off to walk the 12 miles, the others and I decided we did not come all this way to get a bus all the way. We wanted to hike something.

My foot kept slipping into the bogs...

We got a bus to a tiny little village and then hike 7 miles through a valley and crossed another swollen lake and planned to get the bus round to the hostel. It all started off well and we made it to the end of the valley where we discovered that because it was a Sunday, the bus wasn't running. We tried hitchhiking but got now where. Eventually we walked a mile to the next village to use the phone. We found a little cafe and manage to ring up and made it the our room for the night. It was a super cute tiny little apartment the five of us where staying in with the most amazing hostess and breakfast!
The next day we planned to hike a mountain to the summit, but because of the weather our hostess advised us to not go out too much today. We spent the whole day doing a 1000 piece puzzle and watching TV. It was actually a well needed rest day and we all probably needed it to dry off completely.

After a days rest we set out again and for the first and last time time that week we saw sunlight on the Isle of Skye! Honestly that day was magnificent! It was like paradise, and we all got really badly sunburnt but it was amazing.

We hiked through luscious green fields and mountains and beach lines and waterfalls and cliff tops and I would hundred go back to Skye again rain or shine just because of this one day. It totally made the holiday and it was so worth it just for that one day even though it rained 5 out of 6 days...