How To: Maintain Your Blonde Hair
I chatted with Blonde Specialist and Lacombe Stylist Jenna Bell all about what you need to do to maintain your blonde! Read on for tips and don’t forget to follow her on Instagram.
Links are at the bottom of this post.
Global Blonde
Maximum Impact for people whose motto is Blonder Is Better and have no problem with being a little High Maintenance.
Required Maintenance: 4-6 weeks
Global Blonde Celeb Inspo: Julia Garner, Pamela Anderson
This colour requires the most frequent visits as far as blonde hair goes. In order to maintain a consistent blonde & keep your hair healthy it is super important to come in for regular regrowth maintenance.
Every 4-6 weeks?! Well, if you wait past 4-6 weeks to touch up your colour you will be left with banding which will give you an inconsistent colour, and will involve the colour service to be a correction colour instead of a routine regrowth touch up. In turn this takes more time and will cost more money.
Cool tones/toners fade the fastest, therefore it is beneficial to come in the 4-6 weeks time frame, not only for the regrowth and avoid a colour correction, but to have the tone maintained. Using a toning shampoo at home is also a great way to maintain the tone in between salon visits.
It is important to use salon quality products to maintain your hair’s health. Going that blonde puts your hair through a lot so it is important not to put extra stress on your hair with our daily hair routines at home.
Heat protectant will help avoid damage and extra stress caused by hot styling tools. Jenna’s favourite: Amika THE SHIELD Anti-Humidity Spray or Kevin.Murphy Heated.Defence Leave-In Treatment
Deep conditioning treatments will help add nutrients back into the hair, repair, and add moisture. Jenna’s favourite: K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask
Toning Shampoo used once a week will help maintain the cool tones in between salon visits. Jenna’s favourite: Amika Bust Your Brass Cool Blonde Shampoo or Olaplex No. 4P Blonde Enhancing Toner Shampoo
If you are investing in your hair colour it is important to invest in the products that will keep the integrity of your hair so that the colour is attainable long term. There is no point in being blonde if the integrity of your hair suffers from it, in turn making it unattainable for long term. Come in to Copper Lane to explore our great selection of at-home hair care products.
Dimensional Blonde
Natural looking blonde colour for those of us who want to be blonde, but also don’t want to be back in the salon every month. AKA Highlights, Babylights, and Airtouch.
Required Maintenance: 8-12 weeks
Blonde Celeb Inspo: Florence Pugh, Jennifer Lawrence
Dimensional blonde colours requires less maintenance than Global Blondes with a less severe grow out that allows you to go longer between appointments.
Waiting 2-3 months between appointments is easily done with a softer grow out line that the dimension provides.
Tip to allow further time between appointments: Have your stylist do a root tap with the toner to provide almost a seamless transition between your natural colour and highlights with no harsh lines.
Every appointment does not need to be a full head of highlights. Often times all you need in-between a full head of highlights is to just have some fresh highlights placed over the part line and around the face. This will keep your hair healthier with less chance of overlapping blonde, freshen up any regrowth, and keep it bright around the face. It also allows you to have shorter appointments every other time if you don’t always have time to commit 3-4 hours on a full head of highlights.
Another option is to come for just a toner in between full highlight appointments. Sometimes having the tone refreshed is all you need to feel like you have a brand new colour. This too will keep your hair healthier and keep in between appointment times shorter.
Balayage
You’re low maintenance, but also super chic and want amazing hair. We get it. We love this look too.
Required Maintenance: 3-6+ months
Blonde Celeb Inspo: Hailey Bieber, Margot Robbie
Due to the nature of a Balayage, this colour is definitely the lowest maintenance. Most Balayage looks try to maintain your natural base colour therefore there is essentially no regrowth to maintain.
Since there is no real regrowth to maintain, maintenance for a balayage can be quite low - coming back whenever you feel like you want the blonde brought back up higher. Most guests find they’re coming back every 6-8 months, but some can wait a year or so too!
To freshen up the colour you can come in for toners in between needing the full balayage re-done. Don’t forget a trim: regular haircuts are important for the health of your hair.
If you do happen to have a base colour with your balayage, you can just get the base colour regrowth touched up without having to do the full balayage every time. This will allow shorter appointments in between balayage appointments.
Any questions? Leave us a comment!
Written in collaboration with Blonde Expert and Copper Lane Lacombe stylist, Jenna Bell. For more information and to see some major hair inspo, follow @jennabellhair on Instagram. All salon images are from Jenna Bell. To book an appointment with Jenna, go here.