ALL ABOUT THE HAIR

All thanks to LullaBellz I now have a beautiful luscious head of hair again, I have recently been taken off the contraceptive pill for certain health tests and with being on it for so many years of my adult life, I was unaware of such devastating side effects it would have on me mentally and physically. The past few months have been extremely hard, but now thanks to LullaBellz I feel confident again and much happier I am on the mend..

I have been wanting to write a post like this for some weeks now, discussing the problems I have suffered with coming off the contraceptive pill just to shed some light on it for other girls or perhaps some of you are in a similar situation to myself and we can give each other some advice perhaps?

I had been on a pill called Marvelon for 9 years now, and yes.. that is along time. It has always worked extremely well for me, and not just as a contraceptive. I originally went on the pill to help with my hormones levels, my moods and also my periods. I think I tried one other pill before Marvelon, but when you find the right one, you kind of stick together like glue from then on.

I would hardly get heavy period or stomach cramping and my hormone levels seemed very balances. Now I'm older, my specialist needed to do some tests on my fertility and needed to take me off the pill 'hormones' in order to make sure the blood tests results came back accurate.

Little did I know the hell that would unfold during the 3 months of being off a small 'pill' that my body and mind had been completely accustomed to for 9 years of my life. When are we ever told what effects the pill has on our physical and mental self? or if we ever wish to stop taking it at any point, the severity of the side effects?

The first month seemed very normal and I was more preoccupied with the blood results and just getting the answers I needed about my fertility, but then I started to notice a change in my mood, I was extremely low and had no motivation to work or 'get up and go'. I never really thought to do any research about coming off the pill, as doctors and specialists never mentioned anything to me and it seemed a very normal thing to do.. as surely you need to come off the pill when you want to get pregnant right? You would think this would be a very simple thing... Wrong!

For some women it's easy and they don't notice a thing.. 'the lucky ones' but for the rest of us, the drastic change in hormones and levels of Estrogen and Progesterone has a massive effect on our bodies. I was so upset that no one warned me. I started to notice my hair was shedding, first it started off with a few strands in the shower, which then led to hand fulls of hair. Then to waking up in the morning in a puddle of my own hair strands.

I couldn't understand what was happening at the start, as no one had mentioned that this was even a possibilility. Fast forwarding about 2 months, I had now lost more than half of my hair. It would come out in reems in the shower. This had been emotionally challenging, as I personally have tried for years to get my hair thick and healthy again after dying it many different colours in my early 20s. I had finally got to a stage of great quality hair that I could be proud of and want to show off naturally, but that had all changed. You start to realise how people suffer losing their hair through Chemotherapy. I started to have great sympathy for women who suffer with Alopecia. 

I was losing excessive amounts of hair, all because of the drastic fluctuation in hormones and my body and hair being so used to artificial oestrogen shall we say. Not only was hair a massive issue but also acne. The pill can act as a treatment for spots and blemishes, so when a women is taken off the pill, all that was being masked can come to the surface of the skin, and also with the changing of hormones, it has such drastic effects on the skin. 

With not only my hair loss and having to wear all my hair in a beanie for it would just fall out during the day, I also was forming acne on both my face and shoulders. With my job especially, being infront of a camera lense as a full time blogger, it was becoming extremely difficult to do my job. The hormones were also sending me crazy and I was extremely depressed. With everything on top, it was all becoming too much. 

I was lucky enough to have such amazing family and friends around me to support me, and the worst part has lasted only 3 months. I have had no choice now but to go back on the pill in order to regain the balance in hormones that I have been used to for so long, in hope that it will stop the hair loss and also the acne. I got to the point where I just couldn't cope anymore and seeing what drastic effects the pill was having on me was quite scary, as we don't really get taught enough about it, and there isn't 'hormone' checks you can have done so readily available at your local doctors surgury. There should be more to help women out, as we are such fine tuned machines and need such TLC sometimes. We need to be taught about the pill in school as well as Sex education. 

Now the fear is that I am stuck in this vicious circle where I am now stuck on the pill for fear of losing more hair and becoming very depressed. My goal is to now start feeling better when my hormones regulate again and start looking into this in more depth and hopefully help some girls/women out by sharing my experiences on my social platforms. 

This has been a great eye opener for me, and I am still struggling now as I type.. the hair loss is still happening but it has definitely slowed down, but honestly, I haven't got that much left to give. The acne is also claiming down but it flares up now and then so I can't get my hopes up. If any of you have any experience with this or can share some information with me that would be great.

So, when I received an email off LullaBellz wanting to collaborate, I felt like they came at just the right time. I have worn hair extensions in the past just to accentuate what I already had, but this time I was really in need of a pick me up and just something to give me the confidence to keep doing my job and feel sexy again.

The quality of the hair is amazing and I've always had pin straight hair quite naturally and with it being very thin at the moment, I fell in love with the wavy option to give myself that natural-looking volume. What I love about this hair is that you have the option to get it as one whole piece but also in 5 or 8 pieces. Giving you much more hair to work with and a much thicker/fuller look.

The 5 pieces come in all different sizes to suit all head shapes as you can see below and I loved that it gave me that flexibility to be able to put the smaller ones in my weaker areas.

I can't quite begin to describe just how amazing the quality of this hair is. It looked so full of life and bouncy when I opened up the packaging. The girls over at LulleBellz also matched my hair up by looking at my images on my Instagram, at first I was apprehensive as to whether the right colour would come, but I can tell you... the colour match was absolutely perfect, so if you are struggling to pick a colour match, just email them and they'll be happy to help! 

Please see some of the images below at the ''5 piece Super Thick Curly Hair Extensions' -

Thanks so much to LullaBellz for giving me that confidence again and feeling great! Can't rave about the brand enough, the hair is amazing and it is also super affordable. 

I have a special discount code for you guys, and for those of you who have got to the end of this post and read it all... :) Use code 'MONIQUE10' for a special 10% off the site and go grab yourself some amazing extensions for this A/W. Maybe a special pre-Christmas treat perhaps or a gift for a friend?

Thanks for reading guys and hope this was informative for some of you, if you have any questions feel free to ask me in the comments or use the email button on my home page to email my directly.

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