Raise your hand if you’re a suicide blonde or redhead or brunette or any other notfoundnaturallyonyourhead colour. For years my hair colour has changed at least 3 times a year – usually from blonde to red to auburn and eventually back to blonde.
Anyone who has ever attempted to go from dyed dark hair to bombshell blonde has experienced the dreaded orange *with yellow accents* clown hair. I have had RonaldMcDonaldHead more times than I care to admit but a few years ago I came up with a plan that takes my dark hair to honey blonde without suffering with elastic ends or straw dryness!
And so I present my hair journey for the past 2 days: Suicide Blonde: DIY Blonding at Home:
With a few products & a bit of patience you too can be a gorgeous suicide blonde in a mere 48 hours!
Suicide Blonde: DIY Blonding at Home
First: ensure that your hair is in good condition – the next step is a lovely lock murderer if your hair is already dry, damaged & break-y (my hair bio: I have crazy thick, shoulder length hair that is treated to fancy hair conditioning masks at least twice a week to keep the dries away – it had been coloured Glowing Copper & highlighted for 8 months then covered with Mahogony Brown for the past 3 months – actually much darker than shown in the pic. )
Grab a box or 2 of awesomely gentle Schwarzkopf hair bleach (1 box is never enough to cover all of my hair) *cost: €5.90
apply to your hair from ends to roots (you will instantly see & smell it working). Pile your reeking hair on top of your head.
Cover with a stylish shower cap & wait for 30 minutes – you may go cross-eyed from the stench.
Jump in the shower, rinse and condition the crap out of your hair.
Apply your fave leave-in treatment(s) & get a good nights sleep.
Wake up with a rat’s nest of orange & yellow hair (the reality was so much worse that the pic!).
Time to de-clown. The safest solution for my hair has always been to ash it up with a double dose of Viking! *The science bit: Ash colour contains violet and thus cancels out the orange* I love loreal colours – they’re lovely to apply & come with a huge tube of treatment conditioner & gloves that actually fit lady hands! *cost: €12.50
Buxom blonde bombshell? Why absolutely my dear!
quick tip: invest another €2.25 and get yourself some violet shampoo – marketed for grey & blonde hair – use it once a week to keep brassiness away.
The total cost: 48 hours + 2 boxes of bleach + 2 boxes of colour + 1 bottle of shampoo = a mere €20.65
Definitely worth it!
*You may still have some bits of light orange throughout your locks but fear not it will fade soon enough. Any remaining orange will vanish when you dye your roots in another 2 – 4 weeks.
*Remember: blonde hair is a tad high maintenance – ya gotta do those roots & depending on how fast your hair grows you may be having a little bathroom beauty party twice a month!
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Summer 2013 look in the works.
Who knew I’d need 2 boxes for half as much hair this year?! My hair barely reaches my shoulders and I’m spotted like a cheetah after 1 box. 😛
I’ll have to drag this out over three days like I did last year. Will send you photos when I’m done. Thanks for all the tips again! It’s so cool to know that changing my hair up isn’t nearly as unattainable as I always thought it was.
Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!!!! 😀
Your very welcome…I look forward to seeing your new(est) look! =O)
I’m thinking about taking the plunge! Your tips have inspired me. I’ve never been blonde before, or even close… We’ll see if I get the nerve to purchase the goods.
Dive right in! Everyone should try a walk on the blonde side at least once! The best part? If you don’t like it just dye it another colour – blonde is the easiest to cover…I’ve done it countless times! =O)
Woot! WOOT! Okay, now I’m totally going for it. I think it’ll be a fun surprise for my hubs. He’s going away for the weekend and I asked him what he thought about me dyeing my hair and he told me he wouldn’t be able to tell a difference – I’m gonna show him! Hehe! I’ll make sure to grab a back-up box of brown or red?! hair dye, just in case.
I’d recommend going for an ’emergency box’ of auburn or mahogany…
*your hubby absolutely WILL see a difference & when he goes to pinch your sultry blonde bombshell bottom remind him of his arsey comment with a gentle (or not so gentle) smack on the wrist – or whatever area is closest to your hand =O)
Hehe! Sounds perfect. You said not to forget the brows. What’s the recommended process for those bad boys??
By the way, I’ve been a brunette my entire life. Had a couple streaks here and there but never all over color. I’m really looking forward to this!!!! Eeep!
Brows are simple, once you’ve applied the blonde colour to your hair unscrew the top of the applicator bottle, put a bit of colour onto the end of a Q-tip & gently dab it onto your brows. Easy! *Wipe off your brows with a tissue before jumping the shower to rinse your hair as an extra safety to prevent any excess dye from leaking into your eyes.
As your basically colouring your natural hair I don’t think you should have too much drama – if you experience the dreaded orange just take a deep breath, look at my (successful) hair pics again & remember that the Viking Ash will conquer the evil orange! =O)
Good Luck! I’d love to see some before and after pix!
Yes, of course! One other question (or rather a few 😛 ) Do you apply it to wet or dry hair? What about dirty hair? Does it really matter? I’m happy we live in the same part of the world because I’m thinking it’ll be easier to find Viking Ash in the EU vs. US. Thanks for all the tips!
Apply the products to dry hair…I find that leaving my hair unwashed for a couple of days before bleaching really helps to keep the damage to a minimum, especially on the ends – don’t forget to over condition your hair after you wash the bleach out (treatment in the shower & leave-in conditioner overnight) and give it 24 hours before applying the colour (once again to dry hair).
**Once your (finally) blonde, be sure to give your poor hair a rest for a few days – no more washing or blowdrying but conditioning treatments & repair serums are fab’ to get your hair back into tiptop shape!
Can’t wait to see your transformation! Do you have a blog? =O)
Great! I already keep the hair washing to a minimum and I already leave wash-out conditioner in my hair because washing it out doesn’t seem to condition it. I can’t wait to see my transformation either! It’s gonna be a shock!
And I don’t have a personal blog, only one I (poorly) run in collaboration with my local library. As you can see, if you check it out, my last update was in March. Boy does time fly!
I bought the only ash blonde (light golden ash blonde – 9.13 Baikal) they had and it’s not the exact same one as yours. I hope it’ll achieve the same results, or super close to. My “Blonde” is also not the same. Should it be the extreme version like yours? Instead, I bought the Platinum lightener w/ anti-yellow hair mask.
Pretty much any lightener (a.k.a bleach) will strip the colour (natural or dyed) from your hair, as your working with natural locks an extreme/extra lightening formula isn’t necessary (I had to strip multiple layers of brown & red out of my hair so had to use the big guns!)
Any ash blonde in the 9 – 10 number scale should achieve similar results to mine. I’ve never tried a golden ash before, maybe you’ll have a summery strawberry blonde result! I’m super curious! =O)
Well, get ready! I’m about to blend the bleach!!!!