the pros and cons of being blonde

I'm going to start off by saying, I am not a professional hair stylist. I do work in a hair salon, and do have knowledge about professional products. BUT this is my experience, and my experience only, take what you want from it :)

I am naturally a level 7 (dark blonde) before I started working in a salon, I usually just went with blonde foils, which kept my hair healthy because I only got it done every couple months. When I started working at the salon, I was a dark reddish brown, and decided I wanted to go all over blonde, white blonde.

We started by stripping my hair (bleach), if you were going to a salon, it would be called a colour correction and can cost upwards to $200. Once my hair was bleached, I was a copper colour. I kept this colour for a few months, to give my hair a break before we bleached again. After a few months, we bleached it again, resulting in me having to cut off about 6 inches of my hair that were damaged.




This is me on the right, in November of 2011. I had a full head of blonde foils, and long healthy hair.










Then, I dyed my hair dark reddish brown towards the end of november.












After Christmas, I stripped my hair, and had to cut half of it off.












This is my hair now, this was taken in July of 2012.









I am completely blonde now, after about 5 months. I love my blonde hair, but have come up with a pros and cons list.

PROS:
-blonde is nice for the summer
-I can wear any of my lipsticks
-blondes have more fun?

Okay, I can't really think of many pros to being blonde. I mean sometimes blonde can make you look younger, but I don't think it does for my case. It could also just go with your skin tone better, but from my experience, brown suits me also.

CONS:
-DAMAGE, DAMAGE, DAMAGE
-cost of hair treatments,etc
-cost of getting it toned
-roots!!

Clearly the cons outweigh the pros, in my case anyway. I recommend, that if your heart is set on being blonde, don't rush it! take your time becoming blonde, your hair will thank you. Start off with foils and keep getting more, it will look more natural and will not be as damaged.

It's also good to know what your natural colour is before you go blonde, my hair is naturally ashy, but it pulls yellow, (apparently if you have irish heritage it will do that) because of this my hair looks pissy after about 2 weeks, while I am more of a fan of the white blonde, on myself. So the maintance for me to keep my white sandy blonde is super high.

OKAY so, I am going to post some pictures of the products I use in attempts to keep my hair healthy while it is still blonde. I recommend using professional products, especially if you are blonde.

Firstly, I shampoo my hair twice. The first shampoo removes products, dirt, etc, the second shampoo actually cleans the hair. Currently, I am using a few different shampoos. I am using Joico K-pak reconstruct shampoo to repair damage, I quite like this shampoo, it has a good lather. I also sometimes replace this shampoo with Sebastian Light Shampoo (great for fine hair), I love Sebastian products, they smell AMAZING. For my second shampoo I use purple shampoo, which is a toning/brightening shampoo for blonde/white/silver hair. My favourite purple shampoo is AG Sterling Silver, it is very pigmented and lathers purple, also smells amazing. Purple shampoo is not meant to be used every time you shampoo, but I do anyway. I also leave it on for about 1-3 minutes.

 

Second, I use treatments on my hair instead of conditioner, because my hair is so damaged. Currently, I am using Joico K-pak reconstruct deep penetrating reconstructor. I hate this treatment, I am only using it to finish it up because I don't like to waste products. It smells terrible, like rotten bananas or something and the texture is super weird. Usually I use Sebastian Penetraitt Masque, which has been my favourite treatment that I have used. The moroccan oil treatments are amazing as well. Also, about once a week I use the Redken Extreme Strength Builder Plus. This is a nice treatment, but does contain a lot of protein, so definitely don't use this too often. As too much protein can crack off your hair :)

Lastly, once out of the shower, I use a leave in treatment, I switch up between Moroccan Oil Light and It's a 10 Miracle Leave in Lite. Both products I absolutely love, the whole range of It's a 10 and Moroccan Oil is fantastic and I recommend it for everyone. It's a 10 is a bit more affordable and all their products do so much that it can cut down on the amount of products you need in your hair.

Stay away from: volumizing shampoos and conditioners, if you have damaged hair, this will just dry it out even more.

Okay, enough from me!
I hope this has helped anyone who has been on the fence about going blonde. I love being blonde, but you have to be prepared for the cost of maintenance.

xxo

Cait