What it takes to go from brunette to blonde

THINKING of going blonde? I took the plunge. This is what I found out — and what you need to know.

One is the before and one is the after, I will let you decide which is which.

MY fellow dark-haired ladies and gents, heed my warning before going blonde, your follicles will thank you for it.

Last year one of the most googled beauty questions in the world was what is balayage? which is essentially a way of going blonde without the social condemnation for your re-growth.

Brunettes wanting to go blonde is a fact of life, you can be as sure of it as you can be that a Kardashian will post a selfie.

Balayage has been the go-to hair trend for those looking to go lighter with minimal upkeep for years and it continues to grow in popularity. I mean, why not be blonde without having to do regrowth every two weeks? WIN. But just because it’s easy to maintain doesn’t mean your dark locks deserve to be unnecessarily tortured with bleach.

Award winning hair stylist and hair-magician Anthony Nader is an advocate of knowing your hair before taking the blonde-bungee.

“If you’re a brunette going blonde I would definitely say stay in the honeycomb caramel hues,” says Nader.

“Before you take the plunge take into account the costs of the maintenance, a lot of people don’t understand the cost of upkeep to make it look good.”

Having been chosen to take the blond-bungee, I dyed my very dark, frizzy and thick hair blonde at Nader’s salon RAW.

Here is what I learnt:

— It takes a VERY long time to go from dark brown to blonde.

— It’s bleach, no matter how you spin it your hair is going to be crying for moisture so do yourself a favour and get Olaplex. It helps, trust me.

— Maintaining the colour and health of my hair is getting exxy — I am spending money on treatments and toners like a crazy woman.

— Change is awesome and going blonde is fun.

There you go, from frizzy brunette to frizzy blonde* this was my hair transformation.

*I am trademarking this for what I can only assume will be an enthralling midday movie at some point in the near future.

The author received a complimentary treatment from RAW.

— With Body and Soul