Brassy, orange hair is not welcomed here.

The biggest obstacle that an Asian girl faces when she gets her hair lightened is that unwanted brassy orange tint.

Even after leaving the salon with toned hair, you’ll notice after a couple of weeks that the undesired warm red undertones are starting to show.

With years and years of amateur, DIY hair jobs, I’ve lived with the embarrassment of walking the halls of elementary and high school with patchy and brassy hair. Never again.

I shiver at the thought of having a mess of a hair and I’ve learned that you need to invest time and money to get Pinterest-worthy locks.

I’ve finally learned (the hard way):
a) to get my hair done professionally (preferably by an Asian hair colourist – they’ll know more about Asian hair)
b) the magic that a toner possesses
c) the amount of maintenance that goes towards bleached Asian hair.

Last June, I dropped about $400 (yes, you are seeing those zeros correctly) to get my hair lightened. It was worth the 5 hours and money. My hair looked great coming out of the salon, but I needed to maintain it.

What Products I Use

My colourist told me to use purple shampoo to maintain the grey-ish blonde colour. I use the John Frieda Sheer Blonde Colour-Renew Tone Correcting Shampoo and Conditioner. Although buying these cost a pretty penny (John Frieda isn’t cheap), it really does help with tone correcting. Like I said previously, I have PTSD from countless years of amateur hair-dyeing.

A much cheaper alternative is just having a purple shampoo and an ordinary conditioner. Once my John Frieda products ran out, I opted to just use the Clairol Shimmer Lights Purple Shampoo in conjunction with an ordinary conditioner. It will still work the same.

My method with purple shampoos or conditioners, I always let it “marinade” in my hair for about a minute or two then lather it off with water. I just let it sit there so that the purple product soaks into my hair.

After a good wash, I lightly apply the Marc Anthony Macadamia Oil Treatment on to my damp hair. Bleach can really dry out your hair, so I put on a hair oil treatment while it’s damp so that when it dries, it’s soft, voluminous and bouncy. It makes it really easy to style after.

So what’s the REAL secret to maintaining healthy-looking coloured hair? The harsh truth is lots of time and lots of money.