DIY Blonde-Brightening Hair Treatment

When we were young, my siblings and I all had blonde hair that was SO bright, shiny and completely effortless.  As the years went by however, my hair grew gradually darker and from the time I was old enough to begin dying it blonde again (high school), I did and I did an absolutely horrendous job of it might I add.  You see, my hair has red undertones which, when coupled with my inexperience with coloring at home, always resulted in orange, brassy tones that looked anything but natural.

In the many years since, my hair care and coloring has gotten plenty more sophisticated but even now that I typically have my hair professionally dyed, those brassy orange/red undertones still come back to haunt me within a matter of months of having my hair color treated.  Certainly, I could run back to the salon every time they start to come back to get a retouch or toner but that would require more time and money than I’m willing to put into it.  Instead, I’ve found a much easier and cheaper home treatment that I can use to keep my blonde highlights looking salon-fresh and non-brassy longer.

An Intro to Color Theory

One of the best ways to color-correct for brassy notes is to understand color theory.  Remember the color wheel you learned in grade school?  Notice that purple/violet is the exact opposite of golden yellow/orange.  Herein lies the science behind utilizing purple/violet or blue tinted shampoos and conditioners to keep your blonde looking truly blonde.  When you apply purple shampoo to brassy blonde hair, the lighter yellows and oranges are neutralized by the opposing dark colors (purple/violet and blue). The reduction of the yellows and oranges leads to less brassy hair.

While I realize this may sound counter-intuitive, this is a fact very well-known to the industry and there have been a great many purple and violet-hued shampoos, conditioners and other products introduced to the market for exactly this reason.  There really is no shortage of these products in the current marketplace; I encourage you to see this list of related haircare products available on Amazon.  I’ve tried several of these products in addition to the Aveda Blue Malva line which is excellent!  The only issue is that these products tend to be very expensive.  I’ve discovered an easy DIY that works in the same way these products do at a mere fraction of the price.

Here’s What You Need:

• McCormick Neon Food Dye 4-Pack (You’ll only need the purple dye for our purposes)

Note:  You can probably find this at your local grocery store but if you can’t find it in your area, you can always order it on Amazon

Instructions:

Empty the contents of your shampoo or conditioner into a small bowl, add a few drops of purple food dye (I recommend starting with 4-6 drops for a 12-16oz bottle and 1-2 drops for smaller bottles) and mix well.  Keep adding one drop at a time until you’ve achieved a bright violet/purplish hue to similar to (or slightly lighter than) the professional color correction products below:

Then, just use as normal to keep your blonde fresh.  For an extra blonde boost and a bonus deep conditioning treatment, apply purple/violet conditioner from tip to root and leave in hair for roughly 30 minutes before rinsing.  Cheap, easy and super effective!

To wrap up, you can keep your blonde hair salon-fresh and the process doesn’t have to be time-consuming or cost a small fortune. Please feel free like, share and/or join in the discussion with comments below to share your feedback, thoughts or questions.

You can also bookmark my page and follow me on Facebook, Instagram and/or Pinterest to stay in the loop with new posts from Suburban AF coming your way every Tuesday.