advice

If you’re a blonde like me, no doubt you’ve experienced the strange phenomenon that plagues the unnatural blonde. A week or so after having your hair coloured…the shade you left the salon with is no more, and now your hair has taken on an undesirable yellow, orange or even reddish tone. That’s right, you’ve got brassy hair.

Brassiness, or unwanted warm tones, typically happens in dark hair that is coloured platinum or blonde, but it can also strike hair that has been highlighted or hair that has been lightened to brown.

Not to get too technical here, but to understand why this keeps happening, you’ll need to understand a bit about the hair lightening process. Brassy tones become a problem when bleaching or lifting doesn’t get rid of all the underlying pigment in your hair, giving the warm tones an opportunity to reveal themselves. For lightened blonde hair, the underlying pigment is yellow, and for lightened brown to black hair, the underlying pigments are orange to red. When the brassiness starts to rear its head, just think of it as your natural hair saying, “Hi, remember me?”.

Don’t stress though. There are many options when it comes to dealing with brassy tones, both preventing it and fixing it after it happens.

The first step towards avoiding brassy tones is to ensure your hair is in tip top condition. Since healthy hair is less likely to turn brassy, add in a bond-protecting service, like L’Oreal Professional’s Smartbond, during the bleaching or colouring process, to protect your hair from damage while colouring and strengthen your strands. Follow this up with nourishing treatments at home, such as Redken All Soft Megamask 200ml. Use this once a week, leaving it on for at least 10 minutes to give your hair a treat and restore hair health.

Need an at-home quick fix? If you’re a blonde, you’ll need to go for a purple shampoo like such as L’Oreal Professional Silver Shampoo 300ml. Replace your usual shampoo once or twice a week with this baby. Once you’ve lathered up and distributed through your hair, leave for two minutes and then rinse thoroughly. If you’ve had your hair lightened to brown, try a blue-tinted shampoo or conditioner such as L’Oreal Professional Serie Expert Color Corrector 150ml.

You need to avoid overuse with these products though, so make sure you only use these products once or twice a week. The rest of the time use a colour protecting shampoo, such as Redken Colour Extend Magnetics to help reduce colour fade.

With Summer holiday season fast approaching, you’ll need to be wary of the sun and chilling by the pool. Chlorine from swimming pools can strip your hair dry, leaving your hair dull and damage-prone. And when hair becomes damaged, your colour will have a harder time staying in place, meaning more opportunities for brassy tones to appear. Make sure you protect your hair before you hit the pool by wetting it down first. Your hair is like a sponge, once it’s saturated with water it will be unable to absorb too much of the chlorinated water once you dive in. Sun exposure can also affect your colour by causing it to fade faster and making brassiness more visible. Keep your hair protected by spraying in L’Oreal Professional Solar Sublime Conditioning Spray 125ml. This light, leave-in mist provides instant conditioning protection for hair during sun exposure, shielding it from drying effects, while leaving it super shiny.

There’s a reason why blonde is deemed the most ‘high maintenance’ of all hair colours…

How do you control your hair’s brassy tones?

xoxo

I love sleep. It’s true…I’ve never been one of those people that can survive on 6 hours a night. I need at least 8 hours or my brain and body will hate me for the rest of the day. For the most part, I’ve always seen the benefit of a good night’s sleep. These days though, thanks to technology, we’re increasingly interconnected and constantly ‘switched on’, so we try to survive on as little as possible. Big mistake, huge.

The hours that we spend asleep are actually among our most constructive. While we sleep our brain recharges and cellular repair increases, which hugely benefits our skin. Your mind and body enter a biological regeneration mode while we sleep, performing reparative functions that don’t occur while you’re awake.

Your skin follows a similar regenerative process. Sleep inducing melatonin is known for its antioxidant properties. Levels of stress hormone cortisol also fall while you sleep, allowing skin to repair and protect itself from outside damage. Sleep also gives time for your body to produce more collagen, which minimises fine lines. If that wasn’t enough, your body releases growth hormones while you sleep which can strengthen skin.

That’s why sleep deprivation can be such a killer for your skin. Just a couple of nights of missed sleep can result in sallow skin, puffy eyes. If you keep that up, you’re in for dark circles and early ageing.

Your body is really working its magic while you sleep to keep your skin in top condition, but there are things you can do to help and maximise the benefits for your skin. Like we said, your skin is in repair mode while you sleep. The increased blood flow means your skin is best able to absorb active ingredients more effectively while you sleep. For example, if your skin’s dehydrated I would always recommend a gel-cream formula for your night cream, as this will help to replenish hydration levels. Try Thalgo Source Marine Hydra Marine Gel-Balm. This hydrating balm has a delicious gel texture, offering a triple anti-fatigue performance for a radiance boost.

If we’re getting serious about active ingredients though, essential oils are the best solution for a night time routine. Plus, they have the added bonus of relaxing the mind and body to help improve sleep quality. Lavender is a well known scent to aid sleep, but it’s skin benefits as an essential oil are proven too. Decleor have long known about the link between sleep and skin health. Their range of night balms are specially formulated to work at night when the skin is most receptive. Their sensual and aromatic balms, such as Decléor Aromessence Iris Rejuvenating Night Balm relaxes the senses before sleep and has a heavenly melt-in texture allowing it to be rapidly absorbed. It intensely moisturises and comforts mature skin to leave it energised, toned, with facial contours redefined.

So take the time to switch off, and let your skincare work for you while you get a good night’s sleep.

xoxo

I know that having options when it comes to haircare is the dream, but with so many products out there, it can be overwhelming to select the best ones for your hair type. Cue leave-in conditioner, aka the product that can transform your hair routine. Leave-in conditioners, like L’Oreal 10 in 1 Spray and Redken’s One United, make it possible to give your hair the best care possible.

WHAT IS LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER?

When you’ve been conditioning your hair every time you wash it, adding a leave-in conditioner may seem a teeny bit pointless. I hear you, but hear me out.  A leave-in conditioner spray works side-by-side with your normal conditioner, rather than in place of it. Leave-in conditioners help give your hair an extra dose of moisture throughout the day. Plus, if you’ve noticed your hair breaking off more than usual while brushing, a leave-in conditioner could be exactly what you need. In the case of both L'Oreal 10 in 1 and Redken One United they provide heat protection and prevent breakage.

How to use:

If you like to space out the days you wash your hair, these two sprays can hold you over in-between, making your hair feel manageable. Spray on damp or dry hair whenever you feel like your hair needs a refreshing boost, focusing on the ends of your hair. Since the ends are the oldest part of your hair, this is where extra moisture is needed the most.

For fans of heat styling (so that’s all of you then), you can apply these conditioners before using your heated tools to help prevent heat damage. These products are so lightweight that you can layer it under your other products to soften the touch and texture of your styling products.

Trust me, leave in conditioner sprays are the most versatile haircare products out there and can be a real game-changer for your haircare routine.