My Ombre Blonde Hair Journey

Hey guys,

Soooooo I’ve been experimenting with my hair in the last year and a half and I thought it would make for an interesting blog post. I recently decided to grow my natural hair colour out for the first time in about 10 years for a variety of reasons. The most important one was to try cut back on beauty expenses I could get away with and the general upkeep of blonde hair was just too damn high. I think we tell ourselves that our natural colour does not allow us to look our best and combined with a fear of dark roots with highlighted blonde hair I would spend more than I cared to on getting blonde locks. So last year I stopped getting my hair done professionally and this has been my journey…

The quest for blonde hair was real. I only ever dyed the top half of my hair, the bottom was my natural colour.

A brief history of my hair

– naturally dirty blonde.

– as my hair darken I boxed dyed with Garnier for about 3 years from age 15.

– After stopping with box dye I got half a head of highlights for about 5 years, leaving my natural colour to grow out underneath.

– For about 15 months I have been growing out my natural colour. 8 of those I didn’t touch hair dye.

– For the past 7 months I myself have been ombre dying the ends myself with the Kair highlighting kit.

As with most blondes, the general tone of your hair is what you work to maintain. I wanted ash blonde and was scared of the deep dark yellow that plagues platinum blondes. I thought my natural colour was super dark and to be avoided at all costs and I think when it comes to your hair we just generally stick to what we believe keeps us looking to what we think looks best. As my natural colour started to take over I noticed my complexion did not seem as red, the cooler shades around my face did not contrast my redness as much as my super blonde hair did. So I grew to like my roots which then turned to me liking the natural colour of my hair and wanting to see more of it. I then realised that I was still fair under those highlights and not at all as dark as I imagined.

Kair Hightling Kit. Jess lightened it in 3 stages. Wrapping the ends in foil helps conduct heat when blow drying them, making the peroxide develop faster.

At the beginning of the year, our queen of all things hair here on the blog (Jess Gamble), introduced me to the Kair highlighting kit from Clicks. I was pretty apprehensive, thoughts of my hair burning off scared the bejebus out of me, but I soon came to understand that hydrogen peroxide can be your friend. The reason hair turns into that yellow/brassy shade is because it has not had enough time to develop and that’s why the end of my hair is whiter because the peroxide has been left on longer. It also has been lighten with perxiode more than once so the layering of the chemical has helped kill off any remaining colour.

Today I really do like my natural shade, it suits my complexion way more than any artificial colour ever has and as I’ve gotten older I want to look a bit more serious, shit that sounds boring but I can’t think of a better word right now! I want more of an effortless look. I want to soften things a bit. I’ve recently been swopping out black mascaras and kohl pencils for brown and really digging the softer look. Sometimes the contrast from super harsh hair colour, I’m talking extreme blacks/blondes, can really age a person in a way. Letting my hair grow out is extremely low maintenance and I think my hair is “working” so well for me is because even though my dirty blonde locks frame my face, the ombred and coloured part doesn’t leave my hair looking flat.

My hair from the last 8 months. Haven’t gone to a hairdresser for 15 months now.

Visiting the hairdresser was a laborious event, I would spend 4.5 hours there and it was hella expensive. I’m glad I’ve learned how to embrace my natural colour (something I thought I never could) and how to not cause any unnecessary anxiety for myself (which I did!) if I ever have to pick up a backpack and go traveling for a few months without worry that I may not look my best. And that’s all I really want, unfretting and total acceptance of my hair routine :)

xo

Tags: blonde ombre, clicks, gentian violet, Kair highlighting kit, natural blonde