How To Properly Care For Bleached Hair? - Now That Everyone Is Blonde

Thanks to Gigi Hadid's latest hair color (platinum blonde), bleached hair is currently the biggest trend - but there are a few things to consider when it comes to proper care.

Bleached hair is all the rage right now, but caring for it is not that easy. Here are the top tips.

Forget Kendall Jenner's red hair. This season's Best Hair Transformation award goes to Gigi Hadid for her platinum makeover. She swapped her typical dirty blonde for a cool white blonde and presented the new look on the Burberry catwalk just before the end of fashion month.

Of course, she's not the first celebrity to opt for bleaching. For example, Anya Taylor-Joy, with her Rapunzel-like curls portrays the perfect ice queen. Even Oscar nominee Kristen Stewart seems to be wearing her hair a little lighter these days. Maybe blondes actually have more fun? But of course, that doesn't mean you don't have to worry anymore. Because when it comes to caring for bleached hair, there are a few things to consider.

"When you bleach your hair, you open the outer protective layer of each strand to allow the bleach to penetrate and pull out the natural color pigments," says Alexandra Brownsell, master colorist and co-founder of Bleach London. "After bleaching, your hair is more delicate and needs extra care. To keep your bleached hair healthy and looking its best, you need to follow a few special care instructions."

Here, Brownsell reveals her top tips for caring for bleached hair.

Wash your hair with care

Treat bleached hair like your favorite piece of clothing. Wash at lower temperatures and be careful when untangling. If possible, comb or brush your hair before getting it wet. Use a gentle shampoo and conditioner, and wash your hair less often than unbleached hair. The more you wash it, the more you strip away its natural oils and moisture (not to mention the toner!). I recommend once or twice a week depending on the texture of the hair.

No bleaching without hair masks

Using an effective conditioner like Reincarnation Mask once a week is one of the easiest ways to take care of bleached hair. The proteins it contains penetrate into individual hair strands and help restore weak and broken connections at the cellular level, making hair smoother, stronger, and shinier. If your hair is dry and frizzy right now, consider swapping out the conditioner for a hair mask for a few washes to see if that helps. If you have fine hair that gets greasy easily, use your regular conditioner in addition to using a mask weekly.

It's all about the bindings...

Peroxide (the stuff you mix bleach with) releases oxygen into the hair fibers, changing the color but also weakening the bonds that hold the hair together. Bond-building agents, like our Alex Plex treatment, penetrate strands and reattach bonds.

Atomic Blonde Is The Brightest Hairstyle Trend This Summer

The temperature makes the difference

Bleached hair doesn't retain moisture as well as unbleached hair, so it helps to reduce the frequency of heat styling. When trying a new style, minimize heat stress on your hair by:

Turn down the heat (when blow-drying or with ceramic fiber devices),
Do not restyle the same section of hair more than once,
Use a moisturizing mask when washing your hair before styling and the next time you wash your hair,
Avoid using too much hairspray or other styling products that contain alcohol (which can dry out your hair).

Recolor

A toner washes out fairly quickly and often leaves bleached hair looking dull between colorations. Using a pigmenting shampoo a few times a week will neutralize unwanted yellow tones and keep your color vibrant longer. I recommend our Silver Shampoo and Conditioner (for an ashy finish) or the Pearlescent Shampoo and Conditioner (for a pearlescent tone). Our at-home tinting kits are also a great way to save on hair salon visits.

Snap, snap

A regular haircut every six to eight weeks is very important to keep bleached hair looking good. Split ends can spread further up the hair if you don't trim them in time with sharp scissors. (Dull scissors will only create more split ends than they remove, so put those kitchen scissors away!)

You can also try sleeping on a vegan silk pillowcase - it reduces friction and can help prevent hair breakage. Also – and this is often forgotten – hair ties can really cut into the hair. When tying your hair up, be careful not to wrap the tie too tightly and try to tie it in different places so you don't put too much pressure on the same spot over and over again. A useful — and inexpensive — hack for bleached hair is to swap out the hair ties for soft scrunchies or plastic clips.