13 Big Truths About Blonde And Bleached Hair
I get requests for blonde hair more than ANY other hair color in the salon. This is hands down the most desired hair color, at least as my experience as a hairstylist. That being said, blonde hair can be hard to maintain. If you’re considering going blonde, or currently have blonde hair, then this post is for you!
You can watch my Youtube video correlated to this topic below.
***Since I’m sharing the products that I love to use with you guys, this page includes affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product through clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***
1. Bleached hair is the most high maintenance color
The reason I titled the section “bleached hair” is because not only am I referring to blondes, but I’m also referring to any hair color that needs to be heavily bleached in order to achieve the color. This can be bright reds or especially vivid and pastel colors. These colors are technically more high maintenance than bleach, and they need to be blonde before they can even become a pastel color.
And when I’m referring to high maintenance, I’m not just talking about how often you need to come in to the salon (although that is often as well). I’m also referring to the maintenance that YOU need to do at home.
Not only do you need to visit the salon frequently, but you need to take lots of extra precautions and measures to care for your hair at home in-between appointments to maintain the color as well as the integrity (health) of your hair. Well talk about those measures below.
To see my post on high maintenance hair color click here, or my post on low maintenance hair color here.
2. Blonde hair is expensive
It’s no lie that blonde hair is expensive, and it’s expensive for two main reasons.
First, you need to come into the salon relatively frequently in order to bring the blonde up closer to your scalp. You typically need to do this more often than you would with other hair colors.
Second, blonding services are the most expensive hair color services. Bleach needs to be used, and often times corrective color services are needed in order to get a clean and even canvas from the starting point.
The average time a client was in my chair getting highlights was right at 4 hours. Depending on their starting canvas this could go up or down, but bleaching services are usually long and daunting. I worked on my client for those 4 hours non-stop, and it was often absolutely exhausting for me to do.
Because these services are usually complicated, they cost a lot more than your average color depositing service did.
3. Blonde hair IS damaged hair
Even if your blonde isn’t visibly broken, it’s important to understand that all blonde hair is slightly damaged. Let me explain why.
In order to get to a blonde color, you need to remove pigment from the hair. This is called “decolorizing” which is a fancy word for stripping the hair. When bleaching the hair, you are literally stripping the color from the hair to lighten the color.
The outer layer of the hair (cuticle) opens up like fish scales so that the bleach can enter and pull the pigment out. When this is done, the fish scale-like cuticle takes a beating. Sometimes it won’t seal back up properly or some of the scales are damaged or removed.
Hands down, the hair is going to be more damaged after a bleaching service than it was before being bleached. There is no way around that fact, even if the hair isn’t visibly damaged. So it’s important to remember this if you have blonde hair, because your hair is much more fragile than it was before the bleaching service.
4. All blonde hair fades warm
I’m going to start this section off saying that all hair color in general fades warm. This means that as your toner fades away from your blonde hair, a yellow hue will be exposed. Let me explain why this happens.
When hair is bleached, the underlining pigment is exposed. The underlining pigment in all hair colors is warm (see the image below). When the corrective toner has faded out, you are left with the exposed underlining pigment in the hair.
If your hair has been bleached to the point where there is no underlining pigment present, it’s likely been bleached to the point where it’s severely damaged and likely to break off. Healthy hair contains warmth, and there is no way around that other than correcting it with toners.
Even if you leave the salon an icy platinum blonde, you’ll likely notice the hair begin to warm up with each shampoo. This is normal and not the fault of your hairstylist, it is simply science. And don’t worry, we will talk about purple shampoos later on below.
To learn more about correcting the underlining pigment, see my post here.
5. You MUST reduce how much you wash your hair
Since washing our hair fades the toner, you’ll want to wash your hair as little as possible to maintain the color you paid for. Since the cuticle has been blown open during the bleaching process, this means that it’s easier for hair color to fade or slip out as well.
And not only will your toner slip out of the hair, but moisture will too.
When we shampoo our hair, we are removing the natural oils and dirt present. The natural oil in our hair is what keeps our hair moisturized. So the more you shampoo your hair, the more you’re drying it out. When your hair is bleached, it prone to become more dry and brittle.
Washing your hair less frequently means leaving the natural oil present on your hair. Even though we hate it, the natural oil is amazing for our hair. It’s what lays down those fish scales (cuticle) and stops the hair from becoming frizzy and unruly.
The less we wash our hair, the softer, shinier, and healthier it will be. To help skip days between shampoos, see my post here.
You can find my favorite dry shampoo here.
6. Conditioning treatments EVERY single time you wash
Now, since our hair is prone to be more dry and brittle after being bleached, this means you need to take extra measures to replenish lost moisture.
Deep conditioners are formulated to penetrate deeper into the hair than regular conditioners are. This is important for maintaining the integrity of your hair so that it doesn’t break off. I recommend using a conditioning treatment every single time you wash your hair.
Personally, I alternate between a bonding treatment and a moisture treatment. Bonding treatments are formulated to rebuild the broken bonds in your hair. So this means that they are strengthening your hair, which is crucial after bleaching. That being said, they do not moisturize your hair.
So you’ll need to do both bonding treatments as well as moisturizing treatments to get the moisture deeper into the hair strand that your regular conditioner.
- Olaplex Bond Treatment
- Olaplex Moisture Treatment
- Pravana PURPLE Moisture Treatment
- Pravana Moisture Treatment
7. Leave-in conditioner is a must for blonde hair
Leave-in conditioners are for your hair what moisturizer is for your skin. If you’re like most people, you apply a moisturizer to your skin after the shower. Especially if we take a hot shower, our skin dries out significantly after drying off.
The same thing happens to your hair, except it isn’t as socially normalized to apply a leave-in conditioner to your hair as it is to apply moisturizer to your skin.
Since blonde hair is prone to dryness, you should not skip your leave-in conditioner. Yes you used conditioner in the shower, but that is rinsed off. You need something that is going to stay present in your hair throughout the day, like a moisturizing lotion will on your skin.
8. Not all purple shampoos are created equally
As a hairstylist that specialized in blonde hair, I can say with full knowledge that not all purple shampoos are created equally (see my video comparison below).
I’ve had new clients tell me that they don’t use purple shampoo because they felt that it didn’t work on their hair. I used this as an opportunity to show them how incredible some purple shampoos are, and in fact are nearly as strong as toners.
What’s important to keep in mind is that we each need different levels of strength when it comes to purple shampoo. Some of us are combating some serious warmth, while others only need minimal toning. This is also dependent on what shade of blonde you like to wear. Some clients actually love to have a purple hue to their hair, while others actually like some warmth.
I recommend experimenting with different purple shampoos to find which one is best for you. I’ll list my two favorites below. To learn more about customizing your purple shampoo, see my post here.
- Olaplex Purple Shampoo (Strong)
- Olaplex Purple Conditioner (Strong)
- Pravana Purple Shampoo (Medium)
- Pravana Purple Conditioner (Medium)
9. Quality products are a must
Now that we’ve talked about the importance of specific products, let’s talk about the quality.
Cheap and low quality hair products can actually do more harm for your hair than good. This is because they contain harsh additives and chemicals to dilute the product and give the appearance of making the hair look and feel healthy.
When in reality, they’re coating the hair, causing build-up, and actually stopping moisture from penetrating the hair strand.
I like to think of using cheap hair products as if you were at a 5-star restaurant putting Great Value ranch dressing on your food. It likely wouldn’t taste very good and it would significantly lower the quality of your meal.
If you want quality hair, you need to use quality products. To learn more about my favorite brands, see my post here.
10. Regular haircuts are necessary
You probably have heard before that haircuts will actually make your hair grow longer/faster. I want to clarify that this doesn’t mean that your hair will grow out of your head quicker. This means that when your ends are healthy, your ends are not splitting and breaking.
When you have split ends, your hair will gradually get shorter and shorter because each time you brush your hair, you’re breaking it off from the bottom. The split ends can travel up your hair making your hair shorter and shorter.
As we already discussed that bleached hair is more fragile, it is then more susceptible to split ends. I recommend getting a healthy haircut that will cut off all of your breakage and split ends, and then routinely trimming the hair very regularly to keep the ends from breaking further.
Personally I cut my hair once a month. Granted, I am cutting an extremely tiny amount off. But because I am cutting it so frequently, I don’t need to take much off each time. If you follow this method, your hair will grow nice and long.
To learn more about how often you should get a haircut based on your hair type, see my post here.
11. You need to avoid heat as much as possible
As you probably are aware, heat tools can be damaging to your hair ESPECIALLY if it’s bleached. Since your blonde hair is more fragile, it’s more susceptible to damage from heat. Not only that, but high heat will also pull your toner right out as well (see my video below).
If you’re going to use some form of heat, I suggest using a blow dryer. Blow dryers are better for your hair because they are indirect and diffused heat, rather than direct high heat from a hot metal plate.
And if you are going to use an iron, make sure that you not only turn the temperature way down, but use a thermal protectant. You can find my guide on heat tools here, and my favorite thermal spray below.
12. No messy buns allowed
Please don’t get mad at me for this one! I see you sitting there with your messy bun CURRENTLY as you’re reading this!
All jokes aside, messy buns are terrible for your hair! This is because wherever the hair touches the elastic is susceptible to damage. The more tension on your hair, the more it’s likely to break off. When you have your hair in a messy bun, there are 6 or 7 different points where the elastic is putting tension on the hair. This can cause breakage and make your hair appear more frizzy and unmanageable.
Low pony tails are also better for your hair then high ones. This is because the weight of the hair is much heavier when the hair is being held up high, rather than letting gravity do it’s thing with a low pony. There is less tension when the hair is lower.
To learn more about breakage and how to stop it, see my post here.
13. You must avoid the sun, chlorine, and salt water
Now as a blonde, the summertime is where you’ll really turn high maintenance. It’s best to steer clear of the sun, pools, and the ocean when you have bleached hair.
The sun not only fades your hair color (think of a black shirt left in the sun all day), but it can literally burn your hair. I had this happen to me once when I lived in Arizona. I floated down the river on a tube and by the end of the day my blonde hair was FRIED. The next day I had to do a hefty haircut.
When it comes to chlorine, it is technically bleach. So going into a chlorinated pool is like dipping your hair in a bleach water solution. It will pull the color right out. And while salt water pools are better than chlorine, salt water still fades your color and dries your hair out as well.
Because of all this, I always recommend going on vacation BEFORE you get your hair done. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen beautiful hair color ruined by a beach trip.
To learn more about how to deal with your hair in the summer, see my post here.
Blonde & Bleached Hair Conclusion
BLONDE HAIR IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. There’s a ton to be aware of if you plan on wearing blonde hair and keeping it healthy.
- Blonde hair is high maintenance
- Bleached hair is expensive
- Bleached hair IS damaged hair
- All blonde hair fades warm
- You must reduce how much you wash your hair
- You must use conditioning treatments after every shampoo
- Leave-in conditioner is necessary
- Not all purple shampoos are created equally
- Quality products are a must
- Regular haircuts are necessary
- You need to avoid heat tools as much as possible
- No messy buns are allowed
- You must become a vampire in the summertime
If you have any further questions for me on blonde and bleached hair, leave them for me in the comments. And make sure to subscribe below to make everyday a good hair day!
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