Tuesday 26 August 2014

Maintaining Platinum Blonde Hair





Although I'm no stranger to dyeing my hair unnatural colours, most of the time I prefer to keep my blonde locks looking as clean & white as possible. I always get my hair bleached & toned at a professional salon. My natural colour is a very dark ash brown so it requires a lot of skill, time & effort to lift it to my desired level of platinum blonde. If you're considering going for a drastic colour change like mine then I would definitely recommend going to a salon as too many things can go wrong. Whenever I get my hair toned they always use a L'Oréal Professionnel Luocolor toner in either P01 or P02. P01 is slightly bluer and P02 is slightly pinker in tone. They both help to further lift the colour & make everything look more even. They also give the hair a lovely pearlescent multi-dimensional finish which makes it look shinier & healthier.

A few weeks after my hair appointment I start to notice some yellow tones creeping through my hair. A lot of things can cause brassiness including the sun, hard water & using hair products with sulfates. To help maintain my light ash blonde colour at home I use a purple shampoo & conditioner. As purple is opposite to yellow on the colour wheel, it cancels out brassy tones & refreshes the tone of your hair. I've been bleaching my hair regularly since 2006 & subsequently I've tried a lot of purple haircare products over the years. Different shampoos & conditioners contain different colour pigments which can alter the tone of your hair. Lee Stafford's Bleach Blonde products would always turn my hair pink (his Hot Shots 4 Blondes are awesome though!) & Clairol Shimmer Lights would always turn my hair grey. It just depends on what look you're going for really. In general I prefer a pure white blonde. For a clean blonde look I would recommend Provoke Touch Of Silver Twice A Week Brightening Shampoo, Fudge Clean Blonde Violet Toning Shampoo & L'Oréal Professionnel Serie Expert Silver Shampoo.

At the minute I'm using Bleach London's Silver Shampoo & Silver Conditioner. I actually think that these products are really brilliant. For just £5 you get 250ml of product and the bottles seem to last for ages. The shampoo is a very deep purple colour which knocks out yellow tones a treat. I love the bright white look it gives to my hair. It doesn't leave me with any random blue, pink or purple bits, the tone is very clean. It also contains wheat proteins & vitamin B5 to moisturise your hair. One of the things I don't like about purple shampoos is that they can often be very drying which is the total opposite of what anyone with bleached hair wants. This one is very gentle on the hair & keeps it feeling soft. When I used the purple shampoo alone I found that I needed to use it with every wash but combined with the conditioner the white tone lasts a lot longer. I adore Bleach London's conditioning products, they make my hair feel absolutely incredible. The silver conditioner is a thick blue-toned lilac cream. It's fantastic at both toning & hydrating. These products definitely work better when you use them together than just the shampoo alone. The one thing I don't really like about them is their scent. It's very strong & masculine and sometimes makes me sneeze. But for the price you can't really complain!

Of course if you use too much purple shampoo then any of them can add unwanted pigment to your hair. To balance things out I only use toning products every other wash. Be careful not to leave them on your hair too long either. I still want to make sure there aren't any brassy tones in my hair though. In between my washes with the Bleach London products I use a toning mousse. Color Wow are one of my favourite brands for hair styling products. I've been reaching for several of their products over Bumble & Bumble ones lately so that's really saying something. Their Brass Banned Mousse For Blonde Hair* is a wonderful dual-purpose product. Not only does this pretty lavender mousse counteract harsh brassy tones, it also gives your hair masses of body. It contains plasticisers for added flexibility & to eliminate stiffness, distinguishing it from other mousse formulas, which harden & stiffen the hair. It holds a style well without making your hair feel gross & crunchy. This mousse is also alcohol-free which means that it doesn't dry out bleached or highlighted hair. I love how bouncy this makes my hair look & it's the perfect stopgap between toning sessions. What are your favourite products for maintaining bright blonde hair?


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3 comments:

  1. This post has made me miss having uber blonde hair. high maintenance but so lush. Great advice :o) x

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