Since high school I've been saying I want to dye my hair blonde, but I'd never done anything about it. It was always something I'd do one day, and talk about seriously, but then would chicken out when I got to the hairdresser or if anyone expressed any doubt to me about how it would look.
This summer I finally decided there was no time like now. When was there going to be another point in my lifetime whe blonde with roots was in, and I wouldn't have to dye my eyebrows to match? It was finally this picture of Lucy Hale going blonde that tipped me to the side of yes:
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There is so much people don't know about going blonde and I wanted to share what I've learned these past few months:
It takes more than 1 session
If you follow the Kardashians on snapchat it might seem like you can go from chocolate brown to platinum blonde in a few hours, but for most people, you need to space it out a few weeks. When I finally got the courage to go in and dye my hair blonde, I was discouraged to find out it was going to take 3-4 treatments to get to the colour that I wanted.
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Blonde after step 1
Use Olaplex!
I couldn't have done this without Olaplex. Olaplex is a 3 step treatment where you get steps 1 & 2 in the salon. It's mixed in with the dye to prevent damage and breakage and keeps your hair moisturized and soft despite the chemicals and bleach that go into colouring. You take step 3 home to use once a week and every time I used it I could notice the difference.
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Blonder colour after Step 2, and Olaplex
Purple Shampoo is Your Friend
I had never really understood the term brassiness until I was dying my hair blonde and I started to see it happen. Using a purple shampoo every other wash is what helped prevent yellowing and get those white blonde pieces and cool tones I'd wanted.
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Blondest after step 3
It can be weird!
After colouring my hair, I felt like my whole face had changed. My skintone felt more pink. The makeup I'd been wearing looked too dark on my face, and colours I'd previously loved looked unflattering. It was definitely more of an adjustment than just my haircolour. I've had dark hair for so long it was so much of how I thought of myself. It caused a bit of an existential crisis to be regularly surprised by catching my reflection, or not noticing myself from the back in a group shot. A few weeks ago I came across a photo of me as a kid and it really made me miss my dark hair (and my old jean vest!) and I found myself thinking about dying it back...
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And so now I'm finishing this post at the hairdressers waiting for the dye to soak in. I'm so glad I did it, and now I don't wonder what it would be like any more. It was definitely more work than I thought it would be to maintain and keep it healthy. When it reached the point where I needed to touch up the colour again, I decided to go back to my natural colour, especially with the weather cooling off and dark fall colours coming back.
