Caring for your blonde

Our resident hair expert Dylan Bradshaw offers advice for blondes, natural and otherwise.

There has never been a better time to care for your blonde. The one thing most blondes focus on is maintaining the cool, ashy result they get during a salon visit. Caring for your blonde is much more than just avoiding those unwanted yellow, brassy tones. First and foremost, keeping your hair hydrated, strong and healthy is just as important. If your hair isn’t in the best possible condition, it will be so much harder to maintain the blonde look you love, and your hair will also appear dull and over-processed.

Choosing the right products to help maintain the tone of your blonde, as well as keeping it hydrated and healthy, means you need to carefully choose the products you use. Purple and blue pigmented shampoos, conditioners, masks and styling products will help to eliminate and neutralize yellow and orange tones. Moisture-loaded products will help to hydrate and strengthen the hair. Getting products that will eliminate unwanted warm tones while hydrating the hair simultaneously, is an added bonus. 

If you are not naturally blonde, one main reason why yellow tones can appear in your hair is because when the hair is lightened from its natural colour, the underlying warmer tones are left behind. These yellow/orange tones need to be neutralized generally by use of another professional colour, also known as a toner. Unfortunately, these toners are not a permanent fix and can sometimes wash from the hair quite quickly, so you need to use them as often as you need to maintain your colour. Pigmented products will do this for you. But you need to be careful not to overuse them as this can result in your blonde appearing dull.

Always avoid washing your hair too often. The more you wash your hair the more you are scrubbing away that clean cool tone that your stylist worked so hard to get. Also try to stay away from too much heat styling as this won’t help preserve the ashy tone and may also lead to your hair being stripped of moisture. A hydrating styling product that contains a heat protector will be your best friend when styling your hair using heat.

Here are some of the products I would recommend for looking after blonde hair:

Shu Uemura Yubi Blonde Glow Revealing Shampoo (€35) to keep your blonde luminous and hydrated without adding additional purple or blue pigments to the hair. 

Shu Uemura Yubi Blonde Anti-Brass Purple Shampoo (€35) to eliminate brassy tones from the hair by using Japanese cool pigment technology.

Shu Uemura Yubi Blonde Full Replensing Conditioner (€47) to replenish the look of your blonde without adding any cool purple pigments.

Shu Uemura Yubi Blonde Anti-Brass Purple Balm/Masque (€59) to neutralize unwanted yellow tones while deeply conditioning the hair with Japanese White Peony extract.

Shu Uemura Essence Absolue Nourishing Protective Oil (€60) to rebalance the hairs moisture level with Camilia oil that intensely nourishes the hair.

Kerastase Blond Absolu Bain Ultra-Violet (€28) to eliminate yellow tones from the hair while hydrating the hair with hyaluronic acid.

Kerastase Blond Absolu Masque Ultra-Violet (€45) to neutralize yellow tones while deeply nourishing and hydrating the hair.

Kerastase Blond Absolu Cicaplasme (€33) to protect the hair against heat styling while infusing the hair with hyaluronic acid and edelweiss flower extract for extra hydration.

Kerastase Elixir Ultime L’Huile Originale (€40) to provide long lasting frizz control while nourishing and protecting the hair fiber and adding unbeatable shine.

L’Oreal SmartBond Step 3 (€30) to protect and strengthen the bonds within the hair. This is the take home equivalent to the in-salon SmartBond treatment. 

Rahua Hydration Shampoo (€35) to cleanse yet rehydrate dry hair with rare Amazonian oils.

Rahua Hydration Conditioner (€40) to replenish and strengthen the driest hair with protein-bonding sugars that drive hydration deep into the hair fiber.

For products and advice email reception@dylanbradshaw.com or call 01 671 9353.

You can also keep an eye on the blog section for tips and tricks on looking after your hair and for product recommendations, visit dylanbradshaw.com