Going blonde fearlessly

What to keep in mind before you strip your hair of its colour

Lisa Haydon went blonde recently and managed to make it look absolutely effortless and natural, single handedly dispelling the argument that tan and deep skin tones don’t suit blonde hair. But blonde is not the only hair colour that is suddenly cropping up everywhere. It’s a combination of cool silvers, ashy blondes and an entire rainbow of bright colour.

Earlier, colouring your hair meant you either got lowlights, highlights or balayage. But now, we have rainbow hair, horizontal ombres and even half and half hair. With so much information and easy access to products, the meaning of the coloured hair is changing rapidly.

The Stylist

Hairstylist Guy Tang is well known for his Colourful hair dyeing. Inspired by unicorns, phoenix’s and other mythical creatures, his work is nothing short of breathtaking. But Indian hairstylists are not far behind him. Naina Gunjikar (naina.hairart on Instagram) of Highgloss Salon, Bangalore creates some of the most imaginative and beautifully blended bright colours, as well as showing you how various colours fade, how easy it can be to maintain bleached hair and what products to use.

Happy in the Head, Mumbai, is another great destination for fantastically coloured manes. Offering hues of blues, purples and bright pinks among several others.

The DIY Route

While I would always suggest going to a professional, some people just prefer doing things themselves.

If you happen to prefer the DIY Route, I would recommend getting the hair bleached by a professional to avoid accidents and excessive damage. Since the pigment in Indian hair is so strong, it takes some time, effort and a lot of product to bleach it to the desired shade of blonde/white.

Toning and colouring thereafter can be a DIY. Manic Panic (available on Amazon) has a myriad of hair colours to choose from. Their colours are super easy to use. All you need to do is apply it and leave in your hair for 4-6 hours (overnight worked best for me) and rinse it out after. Voila, bright hair!

The aftercare

The mistake most people make with bleached hair is the lack of aftercare. Like a tattoo, your hair needs a lot of TLC as well. Olaplex No.3 Hair Perfector (₹2550 via zestbeauty.com) is a product designed to help the hair structure by repairing broken bonds. It can be used before shampoo and conditioner and left on anywhere from 10-90 minutes.

Similarly, Silver Shampoo (L’oreal Professionnel Silver Shampoo, ₹955 or Bed Head Dumb Blonde Purple Toning Shampoo, ₹950 from zestbeauty.com), Conditioner or Toner is a definite must have, especially if you have blonde, grey or silver hair. Just like a warm yellow/orange corrector counteracts the blueish purple under the eyes, a Purple Toner can help in correcting the brassy orange tone that bleached hair takes on.

Thanks to websites like Nykaa, it’s easy to access products such as those from the L’oreal Professionnel range that help deeply condition the hair and leave it looking and feeling like hair and not like straw.

If you are going to spend all that time and effort to give your tresses a makeover, you may as well commit to look after it. So make sure to treat your coloured hair with the respect it deserves and find yourself giving Rapunzel a run for her money.