I didn’t even know that I had any blonde ambition.
On a whim, as per usual, I was struck with the desire to lighten my hair. I’ve been trying to grow it out, and to combat my boredom and resist the urge to cut it, I’be been trying to achieve a certain level of blondness for some time now. In my pursuit for lighter hair, I have been left with a few disastrous results, and my bank account has hurt a little bit, but I wasn’t ready to give up. I’d been having great experiences with one Toronto salon, but I wasn’t QUITE getting as light as I wanted, so I thought I’d try going somewhere else.
I ended up at L’Attitudes Salon at the Eaton Centre, where I met George, who might be my new favourite hairstylist.
Because I’ve had bad hair dye experiences in the past, when George said that he could match my hair to the reference photo I provided, I was pretty hesitant. However, I just went for it, and it was a risk that certainly paid off.
Not going to lie, I started to feel a lot better after George showed me his Instagram. Some of those transformations were pretty impressive, and I thought that as long as all of my hair doesn’t break off, I’d call this little experiment a success.
I think having my whole head in these hair dryer contraptions give me anxiety after seeing a crappy horror film where a character dies from electrocution inside one of these things. I powered through my fear, though, for the sake of beautiful blonde locks.
The whole process took something like two and a half hours, but my goodness, it was worth all of the uncomfortable sitting, and my head being weighed down by enough foil to alien-proof my whole apartment.
If you’re looking to make some drastic changes to your hair, make sure you get the 411 from your hairstylist about how to maintain your new ‘do. For blonde hair, I was “prescribed” a specific purple shampoo to prevent my hair going brassy, and I was also given a rough schedule for getting my blonde toned, to keep it looking fresh.
It’s very tempting to try and get a drastic colour change in one session, but depending on your natural hair colour, whether or not it’s been colour treated already, etc, you may have to lighten your hair gradually. Keep your expectations realistic, and LISTEN TO YOUR HAIRSTYLIST. They’re the pros, and if they tell you something is a bad idea, it’s probably because they don’t want to have to give you an impromptu pixie cut when your hair eventually breaks off. Just saying.
Also, in case you were curious, here is the sped-up version of my hair transformation:
Kate St.Louis 