I’ve briefly talked about my haircare routine in the past HERE and HERE but I get questions weekly on my hair color, who does it and what I tell them I want. I want to always start hair posts off by saying I am NOT a professional and I have no training or expertise in this area– I definitely leave color up to the professionals and I always have. Box color terrifies me and I am not a supporter of it… I know coloring your hair and keeping it up can be a financial stress, so make sure you hunt around and find the right salon and hairdresser for ALL of your needs.

As for hair color, I A L W A Y S go in with a photo of what I have in mind. I feel like this is the best way for you hairdresser to see what you’re thinking. Sometimes I get ‘google happy’ and think I know all of the terms to ask for my hair color by name, but that can get messy quick if you misunderstood what you were reading and then your hairdresser goes into your color thinking one thing and it comes out not what you were wanting. Anway– leave the fancy terms up to the professionals (even though I will tell you what my hairdresser calls my hair color) and play it safe with a visual of what you have in mind. Pinterest has some great images, I usually search “cool blonde balayage” sometimes I add in the word “melt” if I’m feeling extra. Just in case you wanted to use my inspo photo, it’s below:

*above is NOT me, just taken from pinterest

It is so so soo important to remember, your hair color *most likely* won’t get to where you want it in just one visit. This is something I have learned the hard way in the past– in high school I couldn’t get blonde enough… whatever, 2008 was weird. You know you did it, too. Anyway, I fried my poor locks almost right out of my head because everytime I went I wanted it brighter and blonder and I thought it needed to be that way in one single visit. But know I am *older and wiser* (lol– play along) and know that it is best and MOST SAFE to gradually get your hair to the desired color… this means keeping up with hair appointments for GLOSSES and COLOR. If you’re not willing to stay on the schedule your hairdresser has set, it’s not going to get to that desired ‘hair inspo’ photo. If you go too long in between appointments, it’s like your hairdresser is starting over each and every time… can you say pointless? But if you’re going too frequently and altering your color too fast, you’re probably going to end up damaging your hair and ain’t nobody got time for that. I like my locks long, luscious and bright, not frail, crispy and dull. And yes, sometimes you WILL have to get a trim or a ‘dusting of the ends’ as I like to call it to keep the breakage under control… unless you’ve been blessed with strong, thick hair. And in that case, we’re not friends… kidding– I won’t fall victim to the green eyed monster for *too* long ;).

Let’s talk about glosses and color and the frequency my hairdresser likes me to stick to (along with the benefits of both). It’s best to get balayage (the type of color I get) every 6-8 weeks with a gloss in between every 3-4 weeks. That might sound like a lot of trips to the salon, but once you get to the desired color you can start stretching that out– you know your hair, you do you boo. The appointments where you only get a gloss was the real MVP for me. Its a quick 45 minute visit and she literally just soaks your hair in it while you lay in the bowl, washes, dries and BOOM– f r e s h. The benefits of getting a gloss in between colors for a blonde is game changing: it pulls all of the brass out (making you feel brighter) and adds that shine back into your hair (making it look and feel healthier). I like to skip a trim during this appointment and save it for after I get my hair colored because that’s when I see the most dryness *eyes fill with tears*. After both I like to go home and put on a deep conditioning treatment to make sure theres lots of life in my mop.

I’ve gotten a LOT of questions about how I keep my hair ‘icy’ at home since I’ve gone lighter and the biggest thing I can point to is a purple shampoo AND conditioner that I use twice a week and then a purple deep conditioning treatment that I use once a week. I might be a little aggressive with my purple product regime, but to be honest I like when my hair has the slightest purple tent so I just roll with it. If you start to see hints of purple and you’re not about that life, pull back on your purple products and spread those babies out.

As for WHERE I go and WHO I see– I love my girl Morgan Conway at Salon Cha Cha’s here in Lexington, Kentucky. She has an awesome instagram where you can see a pretty great variety of all the different types of color she can do. She’s literally a genie with color — @morganconwayhair

PSA: There was an overwhelming amount of emails and direct messages with specific hair questions and I wanted to do all of them justice, SO stay tuned for that very long post coming next week. Also, keep them coming! It’s going to be a very thorough Q&A and I don’t want to miss anything for y’all.