What You Need to Know Before Going Blonde: Process, Cost, & Maintenance

by Laura Collins2 January 2025Categories: Hair Color 1 Comment

If you’re reading this, you’re likely considering going blonde with your hair color. But what does that process entail? In this blog post I cover everything you need to know before you begin going lighter with your hair color from what to expect with the process, how much it’ll cost, as well as the maintenance up-keep to expect.

As a blonde myself on top of being a hairstylist, I have tons of experience in the world of blondes. I know firsthand what it takes to get there as well as how much effort it takes to maintain it at home. Because of this, I’ve found the best secrets to help you get the most out of this gorgeous hair color.

The top 10 things to consider when going blonde

There is a lot to consider when going blonde, especially if you’ve never done it before! Some of the top questions and considerations about lightening your hair are:

Is it damaging?
What does the process entail?
What is the maintenance like?
What style/method is best for you: Highlights/Balayage/Full Blonde
Will blonde hair look good on you? What shade is best for your skin tone?
The cost
Can I lighten my hair on my own?
Can you go blonde naturally or without bleach?
How to avoid having brassy hair?
What are the best products for blonde hair?

***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. Is going blonde damaging to your hair?

In my opinion this is probably the most important question you can ask when it comes to lightening your hair. You need to be aware that if not done correctly, this process can be damaging to the point where all of your hair melts off.. But it doesn’t have to end like that for you. There are many ways to lighten your hair without damage at all.

In fact, I’ve worn platinum blonde hair for the entitreity of my adult life. And my hair is extremely healthy, long, and shiny.

Keep in mind that patience is extremely important during this process, especially if you’re going blonde from a much darker color to begin with. The more patience you have for the process, the healthier your hair will be.

The amount of damage that your hair endures during the lightening process is based on a number of factors:

The level of your current hair color
If your current hair is virgin or color treated
If you have box dye or unclean henna on your hair
The current condition of your hair
How slowly/quickly you do the process
Your hair type
Your budget
How you care for it at home following the service

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2. What does the process entail?

The process of going blonde is usually a pretty long one, but the amount of time it takes varies significantly on a variety of factors.

BOWL-OF-LIGHTENER-FOR-DYEING-THE-HAIR-BLONDE

First, we have to consider your starting canvas:

Your Hair History: Your hair history plays a crucial role in the success of lightening your hair. Ideally, you’ll get best results from hair that is virgin or has fully grown out any previous color. However, it’s still possible to lighten hair that has been colored—it may just take longer to remove the old color and reach your desired shade. And if you have used box dye or an unclean henna, this will put you at a much higher risk of damage and will hinder your results.
Your Hair Condition: The condition of your hair determines whether it can handle the lightening process. Healthy hair can endure more than damaged hair; so if your hair is in poor condition, you may not be able to achieve your desired shade. If your hair is damaged, regular conditioning treatments are necessary.
Your Hair Type: If you have fine, naturally blonde hair and want to go a few shades lighter, the process is pretty quick and easy. But if you have coarse, level 2 (darkest brown) hair; going blonde—let alone platinum blonde—can require multiple sessions. While coarse hair can withstand more lightening than fine hair, the process is slower and more challenging to achieve.

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Next, we have to determine the process to get you there:

The Time It Takes: If you’re aiming for a total transformation from dark hair, expect it to take several sessions to achieve your desired shade. The health of your hair is always the top priority, so reaching your goal in one session may not be possible. These services can take anywhere from 3 to 10 hours, and you may need up to 4 or 5 sessions to get to your desired result.
Correcting Unwanted Shades: If you want a significant change or have existing color, your hair must be lightened with bleach and then toned. This can take multiple sessions, and some warmth may remain in your hair until the next appointment. This happens when the toner fades and the underlying warm tones show through. While we aim to minimize brassiness without darkening your hair, a bit of warmth will be present temporarily to not hinder our future sessions.
Your Patience Level: Having patience and lower expectations is really the best way to look at this process. Understand that slow and steady wins the race. The faster we make this process, the harder it will be on your hair. Understand that this process may take multiple months if you are looking for a big transformation. The more gradually your hair is lightened, the less likely your hair will be damaged in the process. Having platinum hair isn’t worth it if it’s melting off in the sink. The condition is more important than the color.

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3. The maintenance for blonde hair

When they say that blonde hair is high maintenance, they aren’t just referring to the frequency of salon appointments. They’re referring to the at-home care necessary to keep it toned and healthy. What you do to maintain your hair in-between appointments will make the process either easier or much more difficult depending on how well you care for it!

Ultimately, you should do everything you can to be proactive about maintaining the health of your hair. Since the process can be damaging, there are a number of steps to take to avoid breakage.

I’ll talk about what products to use later, but a few best practices are:

Avoid Using Heat Tools: Especially during the lightening process, heat from irons can be extremely damaging to the hair. Not only can they cause breakage, but the heat can pull your toner right out. Blow drying is better than ironing, so if you’re going to choose one or the other go with blow drying.
Avoid Sun, Chlorine, And Salt Water: Exposure to summer activities can fade your color and dry the hair out. Blonde hair can become sunburned just like light skin can, so sitting in the sun with your hair uncovered is a risk. Chlorine and salt water will also remove moisture from the hair and can significantly dry it out.

Now, the frequency that you go into the salon for your blonding sessions will vary from situation to situation. We’ll talk about that in the next section on choosing what style/method is best for you.

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4. What style/method is best for you: Highlights/Balayage/Full Blonde

Your choice in the style and method of blonde will determine the frequency of your appointments. While blonde hair is typically considered high maintenance requiring frequent salon visits, this isn’t always the case.

The lighter and ashier the blonde shade you choose, the more maintenance it will be than a neutral or golden shade. And the more blonde you have in your hair, the more maintenance it will be.

There are ways that you can turn a high maintenance, full blonde, into a lower maintenance color by adding what we call a root smudge. This is a darker toner applied at the root, that blends your natural color into the blonde hair. This will allow your roots to grow out seamlessly, requiring less visits to the salon.

I’ve written several pieces of content on the different blonding techniques, as well as telling you exactly how often you need to go to the salon based on your technique. You can find all of those posts below.

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5. Will blonde hair look good on you? What shade is best for your skin tone?

While some people may think that blonde hair won’t look good on them, I’m here to share that this is absolutely not true! Anyone can pull off blonde hair, they just need to achieve the right level and tone that works for their skin tone.

A good rule of thumb is to create enough contrast so that your hair doesn’t match your skin. Without enough contrast, you’ll become washed out.

I always recommend aiming for a shade that is at least 2 levels lighter or darker than your skin tone.

And when it comes to the shade, most people think that warm colors are best for warm skin tones and cool colors are best for cool skin tones. And while this is true for medium to darker skin tones, this is actually the opposite for light and fair skin tones.

Someone with a pale, cool skin tone will actually look best with warm shades in their hair. Think of natural red heads. They often have very light, cool toned skin underneath of their freckles.

For more help on this, see my post below on skin tones.

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6. The cost

When going blonde, keep in mind that each of these services can be some of the most expensive services offered in salons. These processes are frequently considered corrective color services, and usually have a higher hourly rate than other services because they’re so much more complex.

For a corrective color service, expect your starting rate to be right at least $100 per hour of service, and as I mentioned earlier it can take 3-10 hours per session. And it may take you multiple of these sessions.

This cost can vary depending on all the factors we talked about earlier, as well as your location and your stylists’ experience. You can opt to start slow by gradually adding a few highlights over time to make the cost and process a little easier for you.

It’s also worth mentioning that you typically get what you pay for when it comes to hair services. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen clients that went to a cheap salon or beauty school to then have their hair destroyed.

Now this doesn’t mean that spending an arm and a leg means that your hair won’t be damaged, and it also doesn’t mean that a lower priced stylist will melt your hair off. But you do usually need to decide if a low budget or the quality of your hair is more important. It’s like finding a unicorn to have both inexpensive and high quality.

7. Can I lighten my hair on my own?

Now, I do not ever actually recommend lightening your hair yourself at home. As a stylist I have seen way too many at-home disasters to feel comfortable recommending this.

Now that being said, I know that many of you are going to do it anyway. And because of that, I want to provide you with resources to help you navigate this process to the best of your ability.

If you are going to attempt going blonde on your own, I highly recommend one of my Personalized Hair Color Guides. In this guide I’ll take in all of your information about your current hair, and give you a step by step break down of how to do this yourself. I’ll give you multiple options to consider, as well as tell you exactly what products to buy.

You can learn more about my Personalized Guides here.

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8. Can you go blonde naturally or without bleach?

If you absolutely don’t want to use bleach, you may have a few options to lighten your hair if you have virgin hair. These methods will not work if you have permanent color on your hair. When the hair has been permanently colored, the only thing that will lighten it is bleach.

The first option is to use hi lift hair color. This is what I now use to lighten my hair to a platinum blonde color.

The second option is to try putting some lemon juice on your hair and sit in the sun. Keep a close eye on this, as you don’t want it to turn orange (anyone remember sun-in??). Keep in mind that this certainly won’t get you to a platinum color; it will be a warmer, sun-kissed blonde.

This can also be helpful to remove green color from chlorine build-up. And after doing this, make sure to shampoo, condition, and use a moisture mask.

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9. How to avoid having brassy hair?

I want to start this out by saying that all hair on earth lifts warm. Underneath of all natural hair color is the underlining pigment of the hair. The underlining pigment to the hair is in shades from red to orange to yellow.

When your toner fades, these underlining tones will be exposed.

To counter this, you’ll want to first do everything you can to slow down the fading process of your toner. Next, you’ll need to use specific toning products to neutralize or cancel out the unwanted brassy tones that will appear when the toner fades.

Below I’ve linked a post that exposes the habits that you may have that are fading your color quickly. And we’ll talk about what products to use in the next section.

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10. What are the best products blonde hair?

When it comes to what products to use on blonde hair, you’ll want to opt for products that strengthen and repair, hydrate and moisturize, as well as remove unwanted brassy tones. I recommend using all high quality products on your hair to avoid build-up and harsh additives from cheaply made products.

It’s also good to perform at a minimum of weekly conditioning treatments, if not every time you wash your hair. After the shower you should also follow with a leave-in-conditioner. This is as important as moisturizing your skin and should NEVER be skipped!

When it comes to the brands that I recommend, for blondes OLAPLEX always takes the cake. They started off making additives for hair color to decrease the amount of damage done to hair in the lightening process, so it makes sense as to why they have the best products for at home use as well.

OLAPLEX Products for Blonde Hair

No. 0 (Pre Treatment Spray)
No. 3 (Strengthening Treatment)
No. 4P (Purple Shampoo)
No. 4D (Dry Shampoo)
No. 5P (Purple Conditioner)
No. 6 (Cream Leave-In Conditioner)
No. 7 (Dry Bonding Oil)
No. 8 (Moisture Treatment)
No. 9 (Serum)
Blow Dry Mist (Thermal Protectant)

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Conclusion

Lightening your hair requires careful consideration of your hair history, condition, and hair type. This will determine the process, cost, maintenance, and risk of damage in the process of lightening.

The method you choose will determine the frequency of your salon appointments, as well as the cost and at home maintenance necessary.

Lightening hair takes time, and warmth in your hair is common until your next session. You’ll need to practice good habits while using high quality products to minimize damage and cancel out unwanted warm tones.

Patience and communication with your stylist are key to achieving your desired result while keeping your hair healthy.

The top 10 considerations for going blonde are:

Is it damaging?
What does the process entail?
What is the maintenance like?
What style/method is best for you: Highlights/Balayage/Full Blonde
Will blonde hair look good on you? What shade is best for your skin tone?
The cost
Can I lighten my hair on my own?
Can you go blonde naturally or without bleach?
How to avoid having brassy hair?
What are the best products for blonde hair?

Have A Good Hair Day Hair Color

What You Need to Know Before Going Blonde: Process, Cost, & Maintenance

The top 10 things to consider when going blonde