TIPS ON HOW TO GO FROM DARK BROWN HAIR TO BLONDE

Look at this. A bit of weight loss, a confidence boost later, I'm booking myself into the salon to see if blondes really do have more fun.

I'll actually start by saying this hasn't been an overnight process and it's still not where I want to be ultimately, but I'm really feeling this drastic change of colour. I decided I wanted to lighten my dark brown hair over a year ago, but I knew going from brunette to blonde was going to take time - especially if I wanted to keep my hair in decent enough condition. 

In March of last year I has basically jet black hair. I'd used chocolate brown home hair dye for as long as I can remember, not really bothering that I was putting the dye over all of my hair each time I was using it - when you're actually only supposed to put it on your roots as to not cause a colour build up. Dope.

I then went to a city centre salon and asked to see how light they were able to lift my hair. After a number of sessions, it became apparent it was going to take a long time and a whole heap of money if I was to carry on going to this place. Obviously they wanted to look after my hair, but I knew I was too impatient to wait much longer - especially as it was a costly procedure each time. Girlfriend has bills to pay.

I decided to start really invest in looking after my hair to make sure it was in the best condition it could be, using weekly hair masks and not using to much heat on it daily. Along with regular trims, it started to feel in really good condition after only a couple of months. I didn't even use home dye again, despite my old lady greys coming through

I booked myself into a local salon (PH7 in Pudsey, Leeds, if you're interested) where I go already for reflexology, so that trust was already there. We did a strand test, which is something the other salon didn't do once, and when I was happy with the results I was booked in for a five hour sitting. Good job I had my Million Dollar Blog book to finish reading.

The first process was a colour cleanse, which stripped my hair of any artificial colour. This was left on for 20 minutes, before being washed off and another, less intense, colour cleanse added for another 20 minutes. This left my hair a bright orange shade and I was a little dubious to say the least.

Once this was washed off, the stylist applied Olaplex, which is a treatment designed to bond broken hair back together again, especially after lightening. After the treatment had worked its magic, my hair was dried and a strawberry blonde colour was added to my hair, with the mixture applied to my roots last so they didn't turn a different colour to the bottom of my hair.

After 45 minutes, it was time to wash the colour off, have a shoulder length bob cut in and blow dried. I honestly can't believe how soft my hair feels after having all this done to it in one day, and that's purely down to the Olaplex. It's a miracle worker. I bought a pot to take home with me, so I can continue the treatment each week with a hair mask.

Ideally, I'd like to add more blonde in, but I'm loving this Millie Mackintosh inspired colour right now - although I suspect I'll be buying some purple shampoo and conditioner to take down the brassy bits that still remain. It's always nice to change things up and this new colour has certainly done that.

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