When my son was born, his hair was so blonde that it actually looked like he was sporting a halo, straight from above.

It wasn’t surprising as I was a bleach blonde baby as well. Over the years my hair started darkening to a dirty blonde.

When I was 12, all my friends started colouring their hair and I was intrigued. My sister and I convinced my mom to bring us to the drugstore and let us pick whatever we wanted.

Black. I picked black. It had a bluish hue to it, kind of like Veronica in the Archie comics.

Apparently that wasn’t a good choice. Or so my mom said.

So, I went with blonde.

We went home and started the process.

Guess what?

It came out orange.

Why in the world would my hair not turn out as beautiful as the one on the box?

My hair pulls red. That’s why.

Over the years, I’ve been from bleach blonde to orange to red, back to blonde, dabbled with black and I have now settled back in with the bleach blonde.

I’m not one to go to the salon to get my hair done. My hair grows so fast that it would cost me an arm and a leg to keep up with the blonde professionally.

So, I have learned to perfect (or at least manage) the at-home blonde locks.

Here lies the Battle of the Blondes.

I have managed to find two products that bring my blonde to the colour I love.

L’Oreal Paris Superior Performance (Les Blondissimes)
LB01 Light Ash Blonde
$$ – under $15

This one is my absolute favourite and the one that I gravitate toward because it doesn’t tear my hair to shreds while it lightens it. My scalp is super sensitive so I blister every single time I colour my hair, regardless of the colour, brand or product. Out of every product I’ve used, this one leaves me with the least amount of blisters.

Because my hair pulls red, this leaves my hair in a more natural golden blonde state. I can usually tone this with a purple shampoo and it works great.

Garnier Nutrisse Cream
D+ – Extra Bleach
$ – under $10

Ok, this is a product that I can put right on my hair and within 30 minutes my hair is the absolute perfect platinum – no toning needed. The red undertones in my hair don’t stand a chance with this. I love it. The only downfalls of this is that the resulting blisters are so intense that I can’t wash or brush my hair for at least a week.

That’s where dry shampoo and an Elsa braid come in handy.

I recently used the Garnier colour because I wanted to even out my locks. I had one too many comments about the ‘cool’ way my hair went back and forth from platinum to golden.

One of the battles with being blonde is keeping my hair from frying. My hair is long and so it needs some tender loving care.

Although these next products aren’t specific to blondes, they are things that I use to keep my locks in check and my strands strong.

Infusium Conditioner
I may be partial to this because it was the very first conditioner I fell in love with, but there’s just something about it that works. My hair can feel like the Sahara, but after using this, the texture becomes so much smoother. I also love that I can use this every single wash.

Redken No Blow Dry Cream
I was originally using a drying cream from Schwarzkopf, but they discontinued it and it left me in search of something just as good. I decided to try a sample of the No Blow Dry Cream and to my extreme pleasure, I found it to be exactly what I was looking for!
You see, my hair is straight, but if I let it air dry, it poofs out to another galaxy. However, I don’t love using too much heat on my hair. The alternative? An air dry cream. This not only cuts down on drying time, but it also keeps your hair tame while it air dries – without the feeling of a greasy product in my hair.

Olaplex
I first tried this unintentionally. My stylist wanted to give me some purple shampoo and all she had was an almost empty bottle of Olaplex. Mind you, when I tried it, it was mixed with that shampoo, but let me tell you! Baby soft! This treatment transforms your hair into commercial-worthy hair. I may or may not have been walking around tossing my hair off my shoulders into the air in slow-mo. We’ll never know. Nonetheless, I ran out of this and it is on my list to repurchase.

Do you colour your hair a lot? Comment below with your favourite hair colour brands.