I’ve had raven hair my complete life. Till lately, simply the considered going from brunette to blonde made me shiver. How might somebody like me, a tan-yet-pale woman of Arab and Hispanic heritage and a head of thick, almost jet-black hair, pull off a Pamela Anderson-level blonde? And but, about 4 years in the past, photos of myself with flaxen hair began to wheedle their means into my mind and park there. I couldn’t shake the urge to go platinum regardless of this response from nearly each particular person I informed about my plans to go bottle blonde: a horrified look on their face, adopted by a slightly hasty, “Why?!”
Properly, I’ll let you know why: I simply felt prefer it, a (very a lot free) alternative arose, and there’s no higher time than the current to strive one thing new. Towards the peanut gallery that’s my group chat’s recommendation, I plopped right into a salon chair for 10 hours and spent from morning to nighttime going as gentle blonde as my colorist thought attainable.
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My blonde inspiration
The concept of leaping on the blonde bandwagon had been brewing in my thoughts since 2021. Whereas happening a boredom-fueled rabbit gap of Billie Eilish’s magnificence transformation all through the years, considered one of her early appears to be like caught my eye: silver strands that have been almost black on the roots. I instantly turned to my roommate, confirmed her the picture, and stated, “I might completely rock that,” to which she replied with a not-so-gentle, “Pricey God, please don’t.”
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Since then, going lighter with my pure hair color grew to become a pipe dream of kinds. It wasn’t till three years later, throughout a visit to Stockholm, that I started to take the thought of adjusting my hair color extra significantly. In Sweden, blonde was in all places, and the range that match underneath the invoice of “blonde” (Wheat! Platinum! Bronde!) had me craving for a bottle of hair bleach.
The one who actually received me to go for it, although, was a fellow magnificence author I met throughout that journey. I used to be sharing my woes of being tired of my brunette hair at a dinner desk full of worldwide magnificence editors (humble brag) when Humeara Mohamed, a London-based magnificence and vogue author, jumped in.
She quelled my fears along with her firsthand experiences of experimenting with coloration. She whipped out the picture proof of her gorgeous journey with hair dye and bleach, together with the icy-cool blonde of my desires. Like me, she additionally has naturally thick, darkish brown hair and a tan complexion, so this was the primary time I felt like I might see myself with this coloration, and I used to be keen to undergo the in depth means of getting it.
Prepping to go from brunette to blonde
I met with three completely different colorists, solely to be instantly shut down. Their causes ranged from time constraints to the worry of chemically searing my hair within the course of. (I discovered that to be completely honest.) I knew going into this journey that I must spend hours or a number of classes in a salon chair to raise and tone my pure pigment in order that I wouldn’t find yourself with a brassy mess.
