Now that you’re legally blonde, it’s gonna be so much fun! But we know it can also be a lot more work to keep it bright and healthy. So we wanted to give you our five tips to a brighter, better, blonder you.
Your blonde deserves the best!
Now that you’ve invested in your hair at the salon, it’s time to invest in your hair at home. Think of it this way, if you bought a $200 fancy shirt, would you just throw it in the wash with No Name $2 detergent and on high temp drying cycle? —-> This means it’s time to upgrade your shampoo and conditioner to match your upgraded hair.
Our top 3 top favourite blonding shampoos and conditioners:
Redken’s Blondage shampoo & Conditioner. Every blonde needs this in their shower! Every blonde will yellow over time due to the sun, undertones in the hair and other external factors. Purple shampoo removes those unwanted yellow tones at home to keep your blonde looking bright. Recommended use: Cooler blondes use every wash; Warm blondes once every 2-3 washes or as desired.
Redken’s Extreme Shampoo & Conditioner. Every time we lighten the hair, we are breaking protein bonds in the hair by up to 30%. Protein is what keeps the hair strong and healthy, so without protein, it just breaks off! Extreme shampoo & conditioner is PACKED with protein to help prevent breakage and keep the hair strong. (For the cool blondes that use purple shampoo every wash - Blondage is packed with protein too!)
Redken’s Extreme Lengths Shampoo & Conditioner. OK, so this one is for the blondes who not only want healthy, strong locks, but also want to add more length! How often as a blonde do you feel like your hair just stops growing? Well. it hasn’t stopped growing from the root (otherwise we wouldn’t have roots!) but your ends are becoming dry and brittle causing split ends. Extreme Lengths is not only packed with protein to keep the hair strong, but is infused with Biotin as well to encourage growth. Plus, we encourage getting the leave-in treatment to pair with the shampoo & conditioner to increase your length, it acts like a bandaid to ensure maximum strength and prevent split ends.
2. Hot damn, your blonde
Our hot tools are our best friends, but it can be our hairs arch nemesis. Every time we put heat to the hair whether it’s a hot tool, blowdryer or even hot water, it’s swelling the cuticle of our hair, causing your toner to fade (meaning your blonde is getting brassy) and can cause damage. Make sure to set your hot tool at no higher than 350 degrees. Above 350 degrees is where the heat starts to break down the colour molecules in our hair. Also, try putting your blowdryer at a lower temperature if you can. And don’t forget about heat protection! (Check out our blog post on heat tools!)
3. Bye, Bye Blonde.
Yes, your blonde can fade! As we said above, every time you wash your hair or apply heat your colour is fading. This doesn’t mean the stylist did a poor job applying your colour, it’s just your toner (you know, that thing we apply at the sink) slowly fading out. Especially for our cooler blondes that tend to go warm a lot quicker, we always recommend getting a toner touch up at 4-6 weeks after your initial appointment to keep your blonde bright and help keep your appointments stretched out if you’re on a budget. You can book this under express colour, plus at this appointment you could add on a treatment or haircut to remove any split ends and keep the hair looking and feeling healthy!
4. Treat yo' Self
For our long locks babes, think of how long that hair has been on your head! Anything below your shoulders has been on your head for over 2-3 years! It’s been through good times and bad times, and it has stuck by your side, but you can’t expect it to hold on forever. Your hair deserves a treatment every now and then, especially since you became blonde.
What’s in a treatment, you ask? Have you ever felt like you tried so hard to eat your fruits and vegetables every day, but you go to your doctor and they say you're deficient in B12, so now you have to take a supplement every day? Well a hair treatment is like the supplement, it's packed with all the extra nutrients that you’re hair needs that it isn’t getting from your every day shampoo and conditioner. For a blonde, we put our hair through such a process that our every day shampoo and conditioner probably won’t give it all it needs. There are a million and one different treatments on the market, and everyone’s hair has different needs, so we suggest asking your stylist which one they would recommend for you!
5. Do you lift?
We get asked all the time what happens to the hair when it’s being lightened, so we thought we would give you the Coles notes to help you better understand the process.
Our hair has natural undertones starting from red to orange to yellow, so as it is lifting you will see it go through all these different colours. This is why you can start to see yellow in the hair. Some people have thicker cuticles, so some undertones, such as orange, can be more prevalent, making it harder to go super light and cool.
Why purple shampoo? Let’s go waaayyy back to elementary school when we learned the colour wheel. Purple sits directly opposite from yellow, therefore they neutralize each other out!
What’s a toner? A toner is a demi-permanent hair colour we use to neutralize unwanted tones (such as the yellow), or to enhance them (let’s use that yellow/orangey undertone to create a vibrant copper!) It is not a permanent colour, so it eventually fades out but it’s super gentle on your already delicate blonde and makes it look super shiny! We have over 100 shades to choose from, so each toner is unique to you!
Why is it so hard to go blonde after box colouring? Box colour contains different ingredients than professional colour to be able to address anyone’s hair. These ingredients tend to leave a heavy layer of pigment and coating on the hair that make it incredibly hard to lift out. This is why, for example, someone who colours their hair dark brown, may take 2-3 applications to finally achieve a light blonde.
We hope this has helped our newbie blondes and O.G.B’s (original blondes ;) ) understand the process of becoming blonde. Remember becoming a blonde can be super fun, but it also takes a lot of at-home TLC to help stay healthy! Checkout our online store for all of our favourite blonde BFF products <3
XOX SJ Team
