Adventures In Blonding

I am particularly excited about this post because the model for this transformation is me! The hard work you are about to see was performed by my girl Stephanie Pion, who works with me at West End Salon. 

Well my friends, my hair has been every color under the sun! Brown, black, dirty blonde, light blonde, red, purple, platinum. But one thing stays the same, I love a good change, and a drastic one at that! 

Today, I'm going to take you through the adventure that Stephanie and I took to achieve this amazing color. I hope you learn a thing or two about how labor intensive it is to take a brunette, blonde. Maybe even find a new appreciation for your hairstylist, and their vast knowledge of every corner of the hair world. 

Our journey began with the history of my hair. In the last 18 months my hair has been: mostly virgin (never been colored or lightened), colored, highlighted, dyed back to brown, a little balayage, and not colored for 9 months. Needless to say, I presented quite a challenge for Miss Stephanie. 

Photos: Coco and me before (I love Coco's face! Yawn! Bored already!); lightener on everything but the virgin hair.

We started with putting lightener (AKA bleach, lightener just sounds nicer) with Olaplex (a bond multiplier that prevents breakage and damage cause by light enters) on everything that isn't virgin. Virgin hair is hair that has never been colored or lightened before. We left the virgin hair out because it lightens faster and doesn't have any barriers for the lightener to break through, like color.

Photos: Stephanie, Coco, and me waiting patiently; my gorgeous hair after rinsing out the lightener; neutralizing the color with toner

After the ends were light enough, we went back and applied lightener on the virgin hair. Then, we waited... And waited....And you guessed it! We waited some more. Once the hair was light enough, we rinsed. This next part was crucial: toning! (Toner neutralizes unwanted tones in the hair by using complementary colors on the color wheel.) Toning was what took my hair from highlighter yellow and Nickelodeon orange, to a beautiful sandy blonde. This vital part of the blonding process really separates the professionals from the DIYers and box dyers. Getting the right tone is something you really can't duplicate at home and without the right training.

Photos: Before and After!

Once the toner was done processing, we rinsed, shampooed, conditioned, and blowdried. All in all, this whole process took us about 3.5 hours. Oh and did I mention, we did this all with the baby hanging out on my lap. So thank you Stephanie, for being patient and making my hair gorgeous!

Photos: My whole blonding journey from start to finish!

Tips from Stephanie:

Do an in-salon or at-home repairing treatment once a week.

Use a violet shampoo or conditioner to keep your hair from looking brassy.

Get regular trims every 6-8 weeks.

If you have iron in your water, rinse your hair with bottled water to prevent a brass attack!

Use some sort of oil or serum on you ends to keep them hydrated. Trust me, they're thirsty!

Don't use products with dye in them.

Be gentle and enjoy! 

Check out Adventures In Blonding Part Deux. The adventure continues!

What are some of your transformations you've loved?