How to Achieve Platinum blonde Hair Color

Platinum blonde: there’s no easy way of putting this, but if you’re thinking of going platinum blonde – no matter what your natural hair color is – then be prepared for it to be high maintenance. Whether you’re looking to maintain icy locks, or you just want to remove the pigment in your hair to dye it another color, the journey to the perfect platinum can sometimes be a long and expensive one.

Here’s some if the info you need to know on how to get platinum blonde hair and how to maintain it:

How to get platinum blonde hair

To get your hair platinum blonde, regardless of your own hair color, you’re going to have to hit the bleach. Bleach reacts with the pigment in your hair to remove hair color through a chemical reaction whereby the bleach oxidizes the melanin molecule in your hair. The melanin is still there, but the oxidized molecule is colorless.

Bleach can be really damaging to your hair, especially if you’re not sure what you’re doing. We’d always recommend going platinum in a salon at the hands of a professional. They can give you guidance on the process, ensure you’re using the right products, and do it in stages if that’s going to be best for your hair. Sometimes – depending on the hair color you start out with – it’s going to take a couple of sessions in the stylist’s chair to get you from brunette to platinum blonde. Obviously, this comes with additional costs, so you need to be committed to your color. If your hair is really dark then we recommend a salon, rather than DIYing, even more than ever.

Expectations management

We also believe that it is also important to be realistic about your platinum wishes. It’s going to be trickier (and possibly damaging) to go from jet black hair to platinum blonde, and you’ll likely have to endure some in-between color stages. While it’s not impossible but it is likely that you’ll need to spend a lot of time, effort, and money on maintenance to keep your locks in tip-top condition. Using a product like Olaplex during the bleaching process can massively reduce the damage done to your hair with bleach.

Take photos to your stylist so that they can work out what you’re looking for and what kind of shade of platinum you’re interested in. Do you want your hair to be icy platinum, pin-up blonde or something with a blue/purple hint to it?

Maintenance of your icy blonde hair

So, you’ve got your hair to the perfect platinum hue. Now it’s time to think about maintaining your hair’s condition and color. If your hair was brown, or a warmer color, pre-bleach then the chances are your newly blonde hair is going to lean into fading towards being yellow or warm.

Toners, purple shampoos and purple toned hair masks are all essential to battle brassiness in your hair. They neutralise the orange tones that sometimes come back through when you’ve lifted your hair to platinum blonde by leaving a purple deposit on your hair.

Conditioning masks (FYI this is an absolute essential when you’re dealing with bleached hair, treatments, and protein hair products are all probably going to be helpful to manage your platinum blonde hair too. Stripping the color from your hair with bleach is damaging, there are no two ways about it, so you need to do what you can to replenish the moisture, keep your hair hydrated and protected. Platinum blonde requires a lot of TLC.

Re-think styling

Reducing heat styling is also essential to healthier blonde hair. The heat coupled with bleach damage is a recipe for disaster and can lead to breakage and split ends. We love the Tik Tok heatless curls trend from earlier in the year to curl your hair easily without heat, and there are so many great heatless hairstyles out there, as well products to help you style your hair without adding extra heat. Regular trims will also help to offset the damage that comes with bleaching.

Platinum blonde hair is notoriously porous too – things like smoking, swimming, and other chemical factors can all change the shade of your hair slightly. Be mindful of what you put on your hair and how your lifestyle is likely to have an impact.

What about the roots?

Depending on the look you’re going for, you’ll also need to get your roots done on a fairly regular basis. An all-over platinum style shows roots fast so expect to be scheduling appointments around every 4-6 weeks (less if you don’t mind your roots being on show for longer). You can get products to disguise dark roots in between appointments, but these are really only a quick fix to get you there in the short term.

Platinum blonde highlights, balayage or a rooted platinum (also known as a ‘root melt’) can all help disguise roots for a longer period of time, helping you to save money and time in the colorist’s chair. They might not have quite as much impact as a full head of 100% platinum blonde hair, but they still look great and can come with a lot less upkeep.

Adding color to platinum blonde hair

Lots of people bleach their hair platinum to give themselves as light a base as possible to add creative colours. Many bright colours don’t show on darker hair and need the natural pigment stripped from the hair in order to do this. Because platinum hair is light colored and porous, it can be prone to a mixture of colour fading really fast or leaving a little staining behind it. Neither is bad, but it is something to be aware of as this will add to your maintenance. This can also make it tricky when you decide that you’ve had enough of platinum blonde and want to go back to your original color. It’s likely that any dye you add over the top will fade quickly and potentially do a weird (or at least darker than expected) color. You should always do a little strand test where possible, before you color.

Overall, platinum blonde hair looks amazing in all of its various forms. As long as you’re prepared for the cost, the maintenance, and the upkeep it needs then there’s no reason why you can’t hit the bottle and rock some platinum locks.