So your a natural brunette with an inner Blonde just aching to emerge in her fair-haired glory? You've seen your fave celebs go from raven black to platinum blonde over night and back again...twice...and you feel ready to embrace your lighter side? Well the reality is that the journey to becoming a blonde is not one for the faint of heart!

Everyday we help make hair dreams come true by transitioning dark haired beauties to show stopping blondes and so we know how important it is to be fully informed with all the important things you need to know to make an informed decision and know what is involved in becoming a blonde...and what is involved in staying a blonde...because it isn't just a hair colour...its a way of life!

 

While hair inspiration photos are great for giving your colourist an idea of shades you like, its very important to keep in mind that those photos only show the end result. They don’t show what the person’s natural colour was originally and more importantly the complete process that person had to take to achieve that colour. 

 

It's much simpler to take someone who is already blonde and make them blonder and tone it interesting colours, but if you hair is brown it is not realistic to expect to can go to a pale blonde in 1 or 2 sessions. To achieve some colours it may have taken multiple sessions over a period of 6 months to a year to achieve that effect, because even the world's most talented colourists are not magicians and have to work with the natural science and limitations of hair.

For example, if you are brunette (light or dark) and want to go blonde – the natural stages of lightening will see the hair  lift through warmer 'reflects'  before the hair can be lifted to a 'blonde' colour because that is just the way mother nature designed hair.

In reality there are no miracle short cuts to going from dark (brunette) to blonde. It is a journey and usually it is a long one if you want your hair to be in good condition. There will always be a ‘warmer’ transition colour and ideally the hair needs time to ‘rest’ in between (a minimum 4 weeks, at best 8 weeks is recommended) as it is a natural fiber that if pushed past it’s limit it will either snap off or jellify. Olaplex to help us to get hair lighter faster without causing as much damage, but they to have limits as they are a magic wand that allows us to bend, but not break all the rules to lightening hair.

Everybody’s hair is unique! The more your hair dresser knows you and your hair the better equipped they are to determine how your hair will react to colour, especially since your hair’s past will greatly affect your journey to blonde. If you have coloured your hair in the past, even if you have ‘remove’ the colour ages ago’, there will be a hidden residue – especially if it was a store bought box dye. This hidden residue can affect how your hair colour will lift. If you have dyed it and lightened it in the past and you have dyed it dark again and now what to go lighter, you can’t automatically expect it will lift again in exactly the same way. This is because all your hair history adds up. Keep in mind that the longer your hair the older it is. If you have hair past your shoulders it is anywhere between 3 -5 years old, and if it’s past your bra strap around 5 – 10 years! So any colouring of lightening down over that time will have left its mark on your hair, whether you can see it or not.

 

Whether you’ve started the journey or have arrived at your dream blonde it doesn’t stop there. Being a (not natural) Blonde requires a commitment to maintenance to keep it looking gorgeous!

 Lightening your hair strips the hair of it’s moisture and makes it porous and brittle, so your best friend in keeping your blonde hair healthy are Olaplex Treatments – both intensive in salon services and #3 Take Home treatment. Olaplex is the only product on the market that actually repairs the hair’s structural bonds (those same bonds that chemical lightening break down) One thing to know about Olaplex treatments is that while it is fab at repairing hair, the treatment is not designed to make your hair look shiny and smooth like other treatments do. It will add more movement and ‘bendability’ back into your hair, but it has a somewhat matte finish. 
Buy Olaplex number 3 here, or check our Hair Repair page here to book in for a treatment. 

 Daily Hydration

Just like you need to drink water every day, your hair also needs daily hydration. We recommend using a serum or oil every day on the mid lengths and ends to keep them moisturised and silky. You will want to avoid the ends of your hair ‘drying out’ and getting brittle which lightening hair will tend to do. You will find if you are not moisturising your ends enough they will get brittle….and this can lead to split ends and breakage. We recommend Ends Doctor or Mythic Oil as daily dose of extra hydration and to smooth downs those fly aways.

The next thing to know is that no matter how gorgeous your blonde is when you leave the salon, over time it will go ‘brassy’. It happens to everyone and is simply due to elemental factors. The best you can do is to take steps to prevent your hair from going brassy for as long as possible. Your best helper will be Fabuloso Platinum Conditioner because the violet tones neutralise the warm brassy tones, but just remember not to go too heavy with purple conditioner as overuse can make your hair appear darker and with extreme over use it will turn your hair purple! So just follow the instructions on the bottle and banish that brass.
Buy Fabuloso Platinum Conditioner here.

If you love to blowdry or ghd your blonde hair you will want to protect your precious locks from frying already colour stressed hair within an inch its life! We recommend applying leave in serums or sprays with heat protection to keep your hair safe from scorching irons and curing wands! We love LEAVE.IN REPAIR by Kevin Murphy  which doubles as a leave in conditioner and  uses anti-ageing skincare research to restore your hair.

Another way to stretch out your beautiful blonde is to make sure the ‘toner’ lasts as long as possible. The toner is a translucent ‘tone’ that is put on at the basin after your hair has been lightened. It creates the unifying tone of your hair. Think of it like a ‘filter’ you would use on a photo to change the overall tone of the colours. Your toner is a semi-permanent colour and it washes out after about 10 washes (a lot less if you are a beach or pool lover!), so one way to keep our blonde looking fresh is to make your toner last as long as possible.

 You can always pop into the salon for a toner top up between full colour services. Ideally these quick sessions can be combined with a professional strength treatment such as Olaplex to give your hair a gorgeous boost to keep it going that extra mile. See our services here. 

Some more tips for making your toner last is to use sulfate-free shampoo and conditioners like our Kevin Murphy range as these are gentle on the hair so it won’t strip away the semi-permanent colour. Another secret that every fashionista who loves her blonde has in her beauty kit is a bottle of Dry Shampoo to help stretch out days between washing. It has the double benefit that with less washing there is also less drying which means less stress on the hair from heat styling. Ideally we recommend that washing your hair 2 times a week should make your blonde last between salon visits.

Ready to start the Journey with perth's best hairdressers?

Got Questions? Please feel free to call us, Claremont: 08 6161 2307 Subiaco: 08-9388-1728 to discuss all things blonde.