Blondes. Everyone wants to be one, okay, maybe not everyone. But most people at one point or another want to go blonde... duh, duh, duhhh.
Going blonde is hard because unless your hair is virgin (and lets be honest, very few of us have virgin hair anymore) the chances of you getting that perfectly platinum color AND maintaining your healthy, silky hair is DANG NEAR impossible. Lets get real, its gonna take longer than a 2 hour appointment with your colorist, in fact it may take a few of those appointment to get you there. So here is how I went blonde!
Here is my hair a week before my wedding in January, a dark red burgundy color. I had just colored it so it would be fresh for my wedding day!
Here is my hair 6 months later, this is all fade out from washing. I haven't colored it at all since before my wedding. In this picture I did add a few foils of highlights on top to try and hide my 6 months of roots, but that is all I've done to it!! This was really the best thing I could've done while trying to go blonde. It gave my hair a 6 month break to just be left alone. No colors, no chemicals. I also did very minimal heat styling. All I did was wash it every 3 days and let the red pigment naturally fade out. A reset if you will.
The first bleaching.. I hate this picture, but hey, it was the only one I could find! This was right after the first time it was bleached. It was right before the 24th of July (almost 7 months since I colored it)! I was super impressed! It went fairly light considering the red burgundy I started with, but as you can tell, it was pretty brassy!! I can guarantee EVERYONE going from dyed hair to blonde hair will go through this phase. It's hard, but you must go through it!! During this time I continued washing it only twice a week and very minimal heat styling. I also did a weekly deep conditioning treatment and used a good heat protectant, along with getting a trim every 6 weeks. It important to remember with hair that less is sometimes more. I would style my hair the same day I washed it and I wouldn't use a hot iron on it until the next time I washed it. I would just try to salvage any curl I had left for the next 2 days. This means you will have some bad hair days sometimes, but it will improve the health of your hair!
Gave my hair a break from bleaching and decided to try some fun temporary colors. This particular color was actually a colored conditioning treatment. I just put it on my hair in the shower and it made it this pretty temporary peach color. It lasted about 2 weeks before it all rinsed out in the shower, but it was a good way to give my hair a break between bleachings and it didn't drive me crazy to look in the mirror and only see the nasty, brassy blonde color! This was almost more of a way to maintain my mental sanity, so that I didn't give up and dye my hair red again! This brassy phase is seriously THE WORST!
This was after the second bleaching sesh at the end of November. We FINALLY got it to a pretty blonde color. This picture doesn't show it as well, but there are some pieces through out my hair that are almost platinum. I asked for a rooted blonde color so that I can let my hair grow in between touch ups and not have a harsh grow out line! I'm in love!!
So here are some important tips!
1) Take your time! Rome was not built in a day and neither are blonde bombshells! This took me almost 11 months. I could've done it quicker but this timeline was best for my hair type and keeping the health of my hair!
2) Take care of your hair through the whole process! Wash it less often to avoid stripping natural oils, get it trimmed regularly, use good shampoo and conditioner, use a deep conditioning treatment and heat protectant, avoid hot tools when possible and even silk pillow cases help to avoid breakage!
3) GO TO A PROFESSIONAL! Please don't try bleaching your hair at home. Bleach can take your hair from 0-100 REAL QUICK! Go to a professional who can help you reach your goal without all the damage! They went to school for this, they know more about the product and have access to better bleaches that can lift your hair better with less damage! We don't tell you this to take your money and in fact if you follow a guide line similar to mine it won't cost you very much at all!
