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Hair

I Just Bleached My Hair—Here's How I Keep It Looking Good

 

A good, at-home maintenance routine is the secret to a brass-free blonde.

When I decided to bleach my brunette hair—for no other reason than wanting it—I knew that the blonde hair maintenance would be extensive. Now, I can say with my full chest that I’ve never been happier with my hair. Sure, my naturally raven-black hair color played a huge role in my signature, oftentimes moody look, but something about being a blonde bombshell à la Barbie captivated me, even though I was aware that this was no small task for me, my strands, or my colorist. Everyone warned me of the potential consequences—dryness! Hair fall-out! Thinning! But the true shocker from this entire process is how my hair survived relatively unscathed (...save for a few brittle ends).

Of course, I have my professional hair colorist Kylie Bussing (a true hair magician!) to thank for this, but I also attribute some of my hair’s success in its blonde era to my maintenance routine. Becoming a bottle blonde is not for minimalists: Sure, it’s an extensive process, but I’ll be damned if I let my nine-hour bleach-and-tone (and much more) session go to waste. If you’re jumping from dark brown hair to a blonde look, give some of my favorite color-friendly products a try to keep your strands looking as shiny and smooth as mine—not bragging, but my selfies speak for themselves.

During my weekly wash, I break out my purple shampoo as the first step of my routine. It’s a big change from my 3-washes-per-week schedule before I went blonde, mainly so I don’t mess with my hair’s tone and texture.

Welcome to Blonde 101: Purple shampoo is essential for minimizing warm tones and, therefore, brassiness. "Purple tones cancel out any unwanted brassy yellow tones and maintain brightness between highlighting appointments," says Felicia Dosso, a colorist at New York City-based Nunzio Saviano Salon. I’ve had my hair tinted with a subtle balayage look before, so this isn’t my first rodeo with ultraviolet shampoos, but finding the right formula for a full head of cool-toned blonde (that cleanses my flake-prone scalp, no less) is totally different than finding one for a few caramel highlights.

Davines

Heart of Glass Shampoo

I found the Davines Heart of Glass Silkening Shampoo, an indigo shampoo that pours out like syrup and provides the vibrancy-boosting cleanse my strands need to look and feel their best. Its deep blue-purple color comes from Jagua blue extract, a botanically-derived alternative to synthetic dyes, while gentle, moisturizing coconut-based surfactants power its deep-cleansing formula. But even if I pour with a heavy hand, its formula never dries out my brittleness-prone strands.

Since I have a lot of hair (thanks to the combination of my hispanic-arabic genetics) and even more dry shampoo buildup, I use quite a bit (about 3 grape-sized dollops’ worth) during my weekly wash and massage it onto my scalp, letting the formula sit for about a minute to give it enough time to tone down the brassiness.

Davines

Heart of Glass Conditioner

You don’t need a purple conditioner, but if you want an extra tone-cooling treatment for your blonde hair, it certainly helps to have one. The Davines Heart of Glass Rich Conditioner has the same blueish tint from Jagua blue extract, just like its matching shampoo, to boost the vibrancy of your color while neutralizing brassy pigments. I squeeze out the excess water in my hair and leave this hyper-moisturizing conditioner on for five minutes, letting my strands soak up its baobab extract-fueled formula. This key ingredient seals in moisture and contains antioxidants to boost color vibrancy, shine, and softness. While the extract softens and plumps each strand, Davines’s Biacidic Bond Complex, a composition of maleic acid and antioxidant liposol maleate, helps seal the cuticle along broken areas of the hair shaft, leaving my hair with a silky-smooth texture the moment I rinse it out.

One of the biggest pain points in my post-bleach hair-care routine is dryness. Even before the bleach, my hair had a dry, fragile texture—and putting it through a time-intensive bleaching process inevitably exacerbated the issue. So, moisturizing hair products are essential, especially if I need to prep my hair for usual heat styling.

Oribe

Supershine Moisturizing Hair Cream

Whether I’m pulling out my heated tools or not, I always apply Oribe’s Supershine Moisturizing Hair Cream after I wash my hair, which is equal parts leave-in conditioner and heat protection at up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Like all Oribe products, it contains the brand’s Signature Complex, an antioxidant-rich concoction of watermelon, lychee, and edelweiss flower extracts that hydrate, soften, and leave a glossy finish behind. It’s also infused with moisturizing moringa seed extract, another antioxidant-rich ingredient that boosts color vibrancy.

Maria Nila

Head & Hair Heal Soothing Serum

Just like my hair, my scalp is dry and, therefore, frequently flaky. It’s been an issue even when my hair was 100% virgin, and the blonde has actually been a saving grace in disguising it (flaky-headed readers, take note). I’m a firm believer in healthy, shiny hair starting at the scalp (the follicles live there, after all), so I make sure to moisturize it with a scalp treatment like the Maria Nila Head & Hair Heal Soothing Serum. Its combination of hyaluronic acid and aloe vera hydrates my skin and calms itchy spots in need of relief. It’s safe to use daily without creating oily roots, but I like to use it only when I feel dry, flaky, or itchy since my hair is grease-prone.

Sutra Beauty

Heat Guard Heat Protector

Sure, the Oribe Supershine Moisturizing Hair Cream is a heat protectant, but I find that my dry hair needs extra support against the heat of my blow-dryer no matter how low I set its temperature setting. For good measure, I mist the Sutra Heat Guard Heat Protector all over my hair before reaching for my dryer. Each spritz covers my hair in a hydrating, weightless veil of hyaluronic acid while plant-derived proteins protect my hair against heat of up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

To give my hair a break from heat, I only rough-dry my hair after washing it (since that’s usually at night, and I certainly don’t want to sleep with wet hair) and save any further heat styling for the morning. Even after my pre-heat products, my lengths and ends can feel quite crispy even though I use the lowest heat and speed settings—yet again, a big difference from my pre-bleach days when I’d dry my hair with reckless abandon at the highest temp.

Amika

Superfruit Star Lightweight Hair Styling Oil

To soften ‘em up after my rough-dry, I slather on a hefty dose of Amika’s Superfruit Star Lightweight Hair Styling Oil—don’t worry, a light hand isn’t needed with this fast-drying formula. I’m in love with this hair oil because it’s one of the few that softens my hair rather than sitting on top of it like a greasy film. That’s all due to the oil’s key ingredient, sea buckthorn oil, a weightless conditioner Amika uses in all of its formulas that makes hair smooth to the touch and as reflective as glass. Its weightless formula smooths out all of my frizz, flyaways, and brittleness so I can give less Garth from Wayne’s World and more 90s-runway-model with my hair.

Clementine Sleepwear

Organic Silver Ion Silk Hair Bonnet

Here’s a tip for your beauty sleep routine: your cotton-based pillowcases most likely causes hair breakage, so do your strands a favor and upgrade to some silk pillowcases. Rex Jimieson, a colorist at Maxine Salon in Chicago, says that using a silk pillowcase or scarf reduces friction on the hair. "Friction is one of the leading causes of manual damage," he says, which leads to split ends and breakage, especially on already breakage-prone, color-treated hair like mine.

All of my pillowcases are either silk- or satin-based, but I like to take my breakage protection one level higher since my hair is frizz-prone. I wrap my hair in a silk wrap or bonnet before I go to bed. My current favorite is Clementine Sleepwear’s Organic Silver Ion Silk Hair Bonnet, a 22-momme (as in, a weightier, more durable thread) Mulberry silk bonnet that’s double-lined and large enough to comfortably collect my long hair and wrap around my head.

Oribe

Gold Lust Dry Heat Protection Spray

Once I’m ready to style, I apply just one more heat protectant: Oribe’s Gold Lust Dry Heat Protection Spray. Its ultra-fine mist coats my strands without leaving any trace of its formula behind and acts as my final line of defense against heat damage at up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, I’ll wrap up my heat styling and break out my thermal brush (my favorite is the Amika Blowout Babe, in case you’re wondering) to create an easy-peasy blowout.

Nexxus

XXL Volume Medium Hold Hairspray

Once I’m done styling, I like to spritz my hair with the Allure Best of Beauty Award-winning Nexxus Medium Hold Hairspray XXL Volume to prolong my blowout and add a touch of volume to my roots. It holds the shape of my style in place without leaving a crunchy, tacky feeling behind, which is actually pretty important for a blonde like myself that’s trying to keep hair wash days to an absolute minimum. I spray it with a light hand on my ends and roots, et voila: polished, vibrant blonde hair that’s ready to take on New York City’s worst (well, until my next wash day in five days).

Frequently Asked Questions

How can you go from brunette to blonde?

There is only one answer to this question: Go to an experienced colorist and have a thorough consultation regarding your expectations and what’s realistic for you before you even get anywhere near bleach, as I and Bussing did before she processed my hair. This is extremely important so you can not only have a proper grasp on the overall most likely outcome—in terms of time, finances, and final results, which are dependent on your hair color and type—but also maintain the integrity of your hair. After all, you’re putting bleach on your hair, so one bad move and it’s f*cked (trust me, just take a scroll through TikTok to find many a melting, carrot-orange horror show from at-home box bleach).

That’s also why you should never take it upon yourself to bleach your hair. “I use the analogy that brunette-to-black hair and blonde hair live on opposite sides of the world,” says Bussing. “It’s essentially a very long and cumbersome journey, rather than a quick road trip.” If you rush this process, she says you run the risk of severely damaging your hair, “pushing it past the limits of what's possible, and never arriving at your destination.”

What should you expect when going from brunette to blonde?

First, expect to sit for hours in the salon chair (or come back for multiple sessions) and a pricey bill. It’s really important to keep this in mind, especially the latter, as going from brunette to blonde is not cheap.

Depending on the length, texture, and current color of your hair, you could be looking at 10 hours' worth of processing either in one sitting (like I did) or over multiple sessions and a bill that’s upwards of $500. “A transformation like this is essentially like climbing Mount Everest: It takes lots of time, it is a financial investment, and requires lots of at-home maintenance,” says Bussing.

Meet the experts

• Kylie Bussing, a colorist based in Hudson, NH
• Felicia Dosso, a colorist at New York City-based Nunzio Saviano Salon
• Rex Jimieson, a colorist at Maxine Salon in Chicago

How should you maintain blonde hair at home?

If you want a salon-fresh vibrancy and tone to your blonde hair even weeks after your last bleach session, at-home maintenance is essential for keeping brassiness and brittleness at bay. First, you’ll want to extend the time between your hair wash days for as long as you can to keep from over-stripping your hair of its natural, moisturizing oils. Extending the time between wash days also minimizes your hair’s exposure to hard water, which contains minerals like copper and chlorine that can impact your hair color. "Some people install water softeners in their homes, but even most of these softeners have charcoal, which can also make hair color dingy and muddy," says Beverly Hills-based hair colorist Kari Hill.

Another non-negotiable for a brass-free blonde is purple shampoo, which cancels out yellow tones for a brighter, cooler-toned finish. "The more lavender the formula, the gentler it is,” says Hill, who adds that you can mix your purple shampoo with a regular one if you’re a warm-toned blonde in need of a more diluted pigment. Bussing recommends using a purple-toned shampoo (or conditioner!) every third wash to keep unwanted warmth down without taking your hair to silver-toned levels or staining it with purple pigment (which will wash out if it happens, by the way, but can take a few days to fully dissipate).

According to Bussing, you’ll also want to keep heat-styling to a minimum to avoid drying out your hair, which can lead to a brittle texture and breakage if over-done. If you are using your hair tools, always remember to use heat protection in order to minimize the negative effects of their heat. “Scheduling a hair gloss every six to eight weeks is a great way to maintain the tone of your blonde and add shine and reflection back into the hair,” adds Bussing.

How we test and review products

We always enlist a range of testers for our makeup vertical, but hair-care products and tools are another story. While there are certainly products that can be used across different hair textures, lengths, curl patterns, thicknesses, colors (natural and unnatural), and needs, hair products are often created with specific consumers in mind. Many are created in order to address a concern (dandruff, breakage, brittleness) or to work most effectively for a specific hair type (4C curls, wavy hair, gray hair). You wouldn't want to pick up a purple shampoo that's only been reviewed by someone with, say, auburn hair, or a diffuser that's never been tested by anyone with curls—right?

For how I determined my blonde hair maintenance, I enlisted the help of multiple editors, writers, contributors, and hair colorists—who helped me make ashy, non-brassy blonde hair happen. I also considered performance across four primary categories: efficacy, texture and experience, fragrance, and packaging. For more on what's involved in our reporting, check out our complete reviews process and methodology page.

Our staff and testers

A beauty product is a personal purchase. You might be searching for a face cream to address persistent dryness or a new nail product to add to your Sunday self-care routine; you may simply be browsing around for the latest launches to hit the hair market. No matter what you seek or your individual needs and concerns, Allure wants to ensure that you love anything we recommend in our stories. We believe that having a diverse team of writers and editors—in addition to the wide range of outside testers and industry experts we regularly call upon—is essential to reaching that goal.

After all, can we really say a skin-care product is the "best" for people over 50 if the only testers we've solicited opinions from folks who have yet to hit 30? Can we honestly deem a high-end diffuser worthy of your hard-earned cash if it's never been tested on curls? We're proud that our staff spans a wide range of ages, skin tones, hair textures, genders, and backgrounds, which means that we are able to fairly assess any beauty product that comes into the beauty closet.