Maintaining the ashy and avoiding the brassy.

After spending a week in Florida with hard water, I came home feeling pretty brassy. Because I try not to highlight my hair too often, I like to take steps to maintain my color in between appointments. One of the many perks to having a cosmetology license is the access to toners at a reasonable price and the knowledge of what to do with them, but I have a few tricks anyone can do to maintain a "pretty" blonde. (all underlined products are clickable links- most go to amazon:)


1. Wash your hair with cold water. Because most of the minerals and hardness come from the hot water you use, washing your hair with cold water can help prevent some of those gold tones. Ever notice that the orange-y shade is most prevalent in the back of you head? Welp- that's because that is where the hot water from the shower head hits.


2. Invest in a purple shampoo. This stuff is key. You won't want to use this every day because it will end up actually turning your hair purple with prolonged use, but I do like to use this 2-3 times a week depending on how my hair looks. The longer you leave this on in the shower, the stronger the effect. These are great at leaving my hair shiny, smelling good and counter-acting the yellow tones. I have tried a few different brands, but here are two of my favs:

Pulpriot Purple Shampoo (pic below)

Tressa Watercolors Color Maintenance

3. Get a Malibu. This one you have to be careful with. You don't want to get a Malibu too far from the time when you go to get your color done. Ideally it is best to do a Malibu immediately (within a couple days) prior to getting your hair colored. It is less important to wait if you are an all over highlight person, but if you get low lights, you won't want to do a Malibu too far in advance because it strips a lot of the existing color out. Keep in mind though, it doesn't take away from your natural color, just the parts of your hair that have color on it. Malibus are awesome though for taking care of the nasty, gritty feeling that comes with having hard water, and can show immediate results for those who are super blonde and have gotten really brassy. It also helps brunettes who can feel excess build up. The Malibu brand is the best, and I am a fan of the "crystal gel" and the "hard water" packets.

Hard water demineralizer treatment packets (pic below)

Malibu crystal gel packets

4. Skip the everyday washes. This is probably my biggest go to. Mostly out of pure laziness, but it does help my hair texture and color. Instead, I use dry shampoo and try to wash my hair every other day. I absolutely love Moroccan oil's dry shampoo, but if you want to splurge, my other favorite is the batiste brand and you can get that just about anywhere.

Moroccan Oil dry shampoo (pic below)

Batiste dry shampoo (amazon link)

You can find all different scents and tones at target too! This tropical one is the best :

Batiste dry shampoo (target link)

5. Tone. For those who have their cosmetology license, my favorite toners for in between appointments are from the Redken Shades line. A friend who does my hair introduced me to the combo of 9P and 9T (equal parts) and this has always worked great for me, but 9V is great too! I apply them either wet, or dry (I usually apply mine dry) and let it sit until I see the hair turn the desired shade. I then rise, wash and condition.

A big thanks to my beautiful assistant in modeling some of these products. She was soooo excited to be featured on my blog!

Please let me know if you have questions, and if these tricks have helped you! Always love feedback :)