How I Look After My Blonde

I have been colouring my hair I think since I was about 14, always blonde. Everything from highlights, to different tones of blonde with pink and purple and also the Lady Gaga bright white peroxide, which I completely regret now. Looking after coloured hair is always a challenge, especially when it was peroxide infused. I feel like now I have a really good routine for my hair and some great products that help maintain it.

COLOUR

At the beginning of the year I had let my hair go pretty dark blonde, back to my real colour, which is a mousey brown. I was tempted to try going brunette but in the end I just didn’t feel myself so back to blonde it was. For the last three colours, I have been going to George Northwood salon in Central London, the salon is super lovely, it feels more like a loft apartment than a hair salon. The staff are super friendly and a tea and bar of Green & Black’s chocolate is always on hand to enjoy.

Currently David looks after my colour and we started off with highlights to get back the blondeness I was missing and then in my last visit just last week, we just used balayage, which involves painting the colour straight on the hair, no foils. I decided to up the blonde and also we decided to add in some pink too, it’s really subtle and the pink will wash out in a couple of weeks, but it just added a little something different for summer. I am super happy with my colour at the moment and so I want to maintain it as best as I can.

MAINTAIN

At George Northwood they use Redken colour. I have never been one for matching my products to the hair colour used at a salon, mainly as I never thought it would make much difference, but after using I don’t think I can use any other. My blonde just looks so much more vibrant after shampooing and conditioning. Redken’s colour extend magnetics range is ideal for my blonde as it also has a conditioning mask in the range, this is ideal to stop my hair drying out.

I’ll leave this on for about 15 minutes and my hair feels lovely and soft but also still has the colour protection and shine.

PROTECT

One key thing I’ve learnt is to protect my hair colour from the sun’s UV rays, as this can make it fade quicker. In the Redken colour extend range is the radiant 10 spray. This is a great spray to protect from UV, it also helps to de-frizz and detangle, I’ve noticed my hair gets really knotted when it’s a bit more brittle from the blonde, so this really helps.

I also make sure to protect my hair from heated items, so I’ve been using the, this helps to cut down on blow-dry time, so less heat when drying but also protects against the heat from hairdryers and straighteners. I’ll definitely be packing these for my visit to NYC this weekend as I hear it’s hot and humid, so I won’t be wanting any frizz or fading going on for my new colour.

If you fancy visiting David for colour at George Northwood, he is very kindly offering a 30% discount for my readers on your visit, just book with David Inman and quote ‘The LDN Diaries’. Offer is valid until October 2016. You can check out the salon by visiting georgenorthwood.com.

Do you have any tips for looking after your coloured hair?