I’ve always wanted blonde hair, and since my natural hair color is a dark brown, my journey to sun-kissed hair has not been without some challenges. I’ve styled both professionally and at home, and at the end of the day, I find that achieving high-shine blonde hair at home is perfectly possible, but only if you’re willing to put a lot of time and effort into getting the perfect blonde. of an orange mess with spots.
So here’s my hard-earned advice if you want to go the blonde route.
Choose your shades carefully
Lightening your hair away from its natural undertones (warm for golden blonde, cool for ashy blondes) means that you may end up having to do a great deal of color correction to fix it. For example, you will need special shampoos to remove yellow hair after bleaching. You will also need to apply toners to avoid an unwanted copper hue while maintaining the golden tones you are looking for.
Generally speaking, ashy blondes require more maintenance, as most of the pigment that you will remove from your hair has warm / orange undertones. Minerals and hair products also tend to oxidize in hair, creating a coppery hue.
If you are looking to achieve silver or white hair, you will need hair at level 10 or as close as possible, with no warm undertones. If your hair gets naturally hot this can be a struggle and require constant maintenance.
Keep your hair healthy
If you decide to go blonde at home, it is important that you give your hair as much extra love as you can, and a little more. Bleaching and lightening open the cuticle and remove proteins from the hair, which can end up looking and feeling like straw.
Before turning blonde, take advantage of treatments with nourishing oils and deep conditioning masks suitable for blonde hair. To keep damage to a minimum, it is important to avoid bleaching overlay when covering regrowth, so be sure to apply the lightening mixture carefully only to hair that is not yet to the desired level. Anything beyond two notches above your natural hair color will require heavier maintenance.
Can you go platinum at home?
To be fair, getting full platinum with bleaching at home can be a bit risky for someone who is not a professional hairdresser or has been practicing for years. This is because to reach hair level 10, you will need to remove all pigment from your hair. Then you will have to apply the appropriate blonde tonic to achieve the desired final color.
If your hair is naturally dark, that means removing a lot of pigment to neutralize the naturally occurring orange and copper undertones. Doing this at home generally means having to bleach your hair multiple times because otherwise the damage would be too great.
Hairdressers have products like Olaplex or L’Oreal Smartbond, which minimize damage and allow for a more intense lift. Therefore, I would not recommend it, unless you have a lot of experience with bleaching, have very good hair and are not risk averse.
If you are coloring your hair more than 6 levels above your natural hair color (going from dark brown to light blonde, for example), be careful. Unless your hair is in incredible health before you start, the damage may be too great and you risk getting an unflattering chemical cut.
Most people who do these types of drastic hair transformations wear their hair in a lob or bob, over the shoulder. This is for a reason, keeping long, bleached hair healthy is incredibly difficult. Natural-looking blonde hair often requires more complex techniques like balayage to add depth and texture to the hair.
Maintaining blonde hair is significant, but on the bright side, bleaching will make your hair texture look thicker and more interesting, and your hair will become your best accessory. I think everyone should go blonde at least once in their life and try it.
