How to Get and maintain Beautiful Blonde Hair At Home

Everyone wants to have beautiful, silky, healthy blonde hair. Heres how to do it as safely as possible...and at home!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Blondissma Bleach by Loreal or another bleach.
• OR a Frost and tip/glow kit by Revlon
• A purple coloured shampoo and conditioner (Blonde Me is an excellent brand)
• Heat Protectant Spray
• Deep conditioning treatment like Redken's Real Control Intense Renewal
• SPF hair spray
• Demi-permanant hair colours or toners
• A skilled friend

1. How blonde your hair will go how quickly starts with your base colour. For black hair, doing this at home is not recommended. Also, the overall tone of your hair (red undertones, neutral, or ashy undertones) will determine the initial outcome of your blonde hair will be, this is what the toners and demi-permanants are for.
   
   So to first start off, determine the current colour and tone of your hair to visualize what your outcome will be. Also, choose a desired blonde tone. Do you want a strawberry blonde, maybe a neutral beige blonde? Or what about sexy cool ash blonde?
   
   If you have brown hair, especially hair with red undertones, be prepared to have orange hair once you rinse your soloution out. For brown hair I recommend to use the option of the Frost and Glow/Tip kits by Revlon to work your hair up to blonde. Highlights can gradually be added every 3-6 weeks, and you can gradually do more until most of your hair has been highlighted.

2. Now it is time to apply the bleach or highlighting solution. Make sure to follow the instructions included with the product for maximum results. As I mentioned earlier, with darker brown or red hair, I recommend using the highlighting kits and working up to a full head of blonde hair.
   
   For a lighter brown, or a lighter red color you can apply the bleach solution to your entire head, making sure to follow instructions. Make sure you purchase enough to cover your entire head. If you have long hair, make sure to buy 2 boxes or you'll end up looking like a leopard!
   
   Once you rinse out the bleach solution your hair will feel very crunchy and also will not be the desired colour you are looking for. It is likely to be yellow or orangeish.
   
   Make sure you buy an actual "BLEACH" or "LIGHTENING" system, rather than just a blonde one, otherwise your hair won't have changed at all.
   
   Also make sure to use your conditioning treatment that comes with the bleach kit, this will help your hair restore itself.
   
   If your hair is left orange, either apply the bleach kit again if your hair isn't brittle, or go with a cool tone demi-permanant and go with strawberry blonde for 4 weeks before attempting to bleach again.

3. Now we want to change the tone of the blonde.
   
   After bleaching hair, you never want to leave it blank, that's not the intention of bleach, you must put something on top of it.
   
   Using a permanant dye most likely won't do any good, because your hair now has little or no pigment, that means that the dye doesn't have anything to grab on to, so it will fade quickly.
   
   What you do want to do is apply a demi-permanant shade on top of your newly lightened hair.
   
   A demi-permanant washes out in 20-30 washes, but is much safer on your hair than permanant dye...it also deposits pigment to your cuticle so when you color in the future, the color has something to grab on to!
   
   Demi-permanants are very effective at toning the hair, so we want to choose one that is the correct tone.
   
   If your hair bleached out a yellow or SLIGHT orange shade, try a dark blonde warm toner (to make the color more appropriate until you can re-bleach) or counteract it with an ASH or a cool blonde toner(demi-permanant) if the yellow undertones are light enough.
   
   If your hair color has a beige undertone, and you want a cool tone use an ASH blonde demi or something else that mentions COOL in the name. P.S. Cool means blue or grey undertones...but not serious...not noticeable.
   
   If your hair turns out cool, and you want it neutral, use a warm toner to balance it out.
   
   There are basically 3 levels of color
   
   WARM
   Neutral
   COOL
   
   Cool and neutral are the furthest from each other, so they require TWO steps in order to achieve the other...ex. one application of cool demi makes warm hair neutral, two makes it cool. But not two at the same time...you have to wait until your hair is dry again, and then you can reapply.
   
   Warm counteracts Cool
   Cool Counteracts Warm
   Netral is a perfect balance
   
   You can play around with Demi-Permanants virtually as much as you like in order to get the right color. If you know your color wheel, theres no reason you can't achieve the perfect blonde color!

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure to use a deep conditioner every time you wash your hair for the first 4 weeks, unless you have extremely oily hair...then only once a week.
• Only wash your hair every 2-3 days. This helps your natural oils deposit on your hair and heal it back to health!
• Make sure to use a heat protectant spray anytime you use any sort of heat styling...this is a must for newly blonde hair especially. unless you want frizzy hay for hair, your best bet is to protect!
• Use an SPF spray out in the sun, otherwise that gorgeous hair will turn yellow!
• Use a purple-based shampoo to deposit cool tones into your hair to counteract any yellow creeping up (and it will!)
• Get a friend to trim your hair if you can't afford a hairdresser. Just make sure they're skilled! With newly blonde hair especially, you need to make sure all the split ends are trimmed and your hair can grow gorgeous and healthy
• May turn darker hair orange...a more gradual approach is recommended for those with dark hair
• Black hair is not recommended
• Those with fine or brittle hair should not attempt, as the bleach solution may be too strong and hair may fall out or fry.
• Make sure to follow all instructions that are supplied with the hair products.