Bottled blonde hair has always been big news. But, its star has been shining even brighter lately with celebrities like Kim Kardashian trading up darker strands for platinum, Pamela Anderson's messy updo headlining hairstyle trends and Marilyn Monroe hitting our screens once again, thanks to the newly dropped biopic, Blonde, starring Ana De Armas landing on Netflix.
Over on TikTok #blonde has a mind-blowing 16.5 billion views while #blondetransformation has 32.3 million views, so it's clear there's a lot of people out there searching for inspo or window-shopping a major shade switch-up. (We'll let someone else go first and they can report back, right?)
One person who knows this better than most is Sara from TikTok's fave sister-act Iconicakes. Along with her sis, Avni, their channel has almost 3 million followers. And the most popular video of all? The one where Sara dyed her hair from jet black to platinum-ish (it ended up ginger), complete with tin foil layers and some panting through the itching. At current count, the video has almost 8 million views and over 883k likes.
We sat down with Sara to chat through what possessed her to bleach her entire head of hair with (almost) zero research, worst dye disasters and advice to any others thinking about embarking on the blonde journey.
Growing up, what was your relationship with your hair like?
I had a very close relationship with my hair growing up. The first time I got a really short haircut, I bawled my eyes out. When I lived in India, I had to keep my hair really short because I was a sporty girl and the pollution was bad. Then as soon as I moved to London and I could have it long, I just started experimenting with it.
How would you describe your hair?
Right now it's dead, but apart from that she’s quite strong. I'm impressed because I've dyed my hair so many times. I started dying it from the age of 14. My natural hair is a very dark shade of brown. It's basically black. But I just wanted the thrill when I was younger, to dye it. Because I'm Indian, my hair is very thick. It's been long, it's been short and it used to be curly. Now she's just fried.
When did you decide to make the switch to blonde and why?
Something about blonde is just so young and fun. I've always wanted to try it. I turned 20 and was just like ‘it’s time for my blonde era’.
I was so in the routine of dyeing my hair black and doing my makeup the same way. It was weighing me down. I noticed the darker my hair was, the darker my makeup got, but not in an open way. And I'm not saying that black hair is not nice to have. I think for me, I just got so bored. As soon as I changed my hair, I had to change my whole makeup look and wardrobe. It was a whole reset.
I knew it was gonna be a journey. I gave myself a year to transition it. I started in March and I’m blonde now, but I’m gonna keep going. It's gonna get lighter and it's gonna get longer. We’re only mid-way through.
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What research did you do beforehand?
Not much. YouTube and TikTok were my holy grail. I researched it for maybe a day. But then I just went into a local hair shop in Manchester where I was staying with friends. I spoke to this nice woman and said, ‘look, I wanna be blonde’. She looked at me like, ‘babe, you're gonna kill your hair’. But basically she gave me everything. I needed so much bleach.
What was the process like?
Because I went from jet black box dye hair, obviously it turned ginger the first time I bleached it, but it wasn't bad. Ginger is really in – and Kendall Jenner had just done it – so I was like, alright, I'm not mad at this.
I stayed with my ginger hair for a little while and just leaned into it. I wanted to enjoy the copper. Then after that I was like ‘OK, let’s resume this journey’ and I kept bleaching it and making it lighter.
When I got my hair extensions taken out, that was the worst point. My hair was broken, she had patches. It was awful. Then, I went to Singapore, and when I was there, I met this really nice lady who recommended a hair salon. I hadn't gone to a professional for like the last two years. But I’m happy I did, because I’m blonde! We were there for like four or five hours. I was really excited to be properly blonde finally and I also cut my hair.
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Have you had any disasters along the way?
The extensions, like I mentioned. I had micro ring hair extensions in when I first dyed it and the bleach got stuck in the micro rings, so when we took them out of my hair there were clumps of bleach still in there. I had to brush it out for the next three days and honestly, like half of my hair fell out. So I was like, right, I guess we’ve officially committed.
And they left like a zebra crossing stripe across my hair. To begin with, it was awful. I was like I’m a social pariah. I can’t go outside. I do like posting the disasters because lots of people think hair transformations will go perfectly. No they don’t. Especially if you’re doing it yourself. You’re gonna have some bumps in the road.
So yeah, there were some disasters along the way, but I accepted it's just a journey. My hair will get there. It will be right. And it taught me how to just accept all the phases of my hair for what it is. There's something nice about just embracing the process of not looking perfect. I was like, ‘ok, I guess this week I have patchy hair’. That's alright.
Do you enjoy it, does it allow you to try different looks that you wouldn’t normally do?
I experienced each blonde stage in such isolated ways. I’ve had a whole new makeup routine and wardrobe each time. Every single stage of blonde has brought me a new sense of style. That's why it’s been really fun, because I’ve gotten to understand and experience what every new shade brings to my looks.
My blonde era right now is like, natural queen. It’s transitional season. Autumn's coming, but it's not completely here yet. So I'm experiencing the last of the summer. I'm not putting on too much makeup. I'm keeping my hair nice and short. And I noticed with copper, I could wear a lot more bold colours. I could pair a blue and it would look so nice. It gave me a really bold look which I enjoyed. When I became honey blonde, I started buying a lot of dresses because I just felt super cute and feminine. But as autumn properly comes in, she's gonna be an icy blonde lady. It's gonna be long, the makeup's gonna get darker, the clothes are gonna get darker.
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Do you have any plans to return to your natural colour any time soon?
It will be a long time until I get back to dark. Blonde is such a blank canvas for you to paint on, that’s why it’s awesome. I can just dye it purple.With black hair, I couldn't do that. Before, I noticed I would accessorise a lot more with nice pins and clips and stuff like that. But with blonde I can just paint on it.
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How has your hair care routine changed since you’ve gone blonde?
I've learned how to take care of dead hair. I mean she had to be revived several times. But I've learned the power of at home masks now. I had many calls with my grandma in India about that because she's the expert.
I have my purple shampoos and treatment you can just buy from like any drug store. But for me, I also need some at-home stuff. Having a hair mask that I do every week makes me just appreciate my hair. And it really helps it. My grandma told me to do an egg mask, which is absolutely gross to do. You blitz up raw onion and raw egg and it's the grossest thing you can make. It becomes like a paste. Then I put in as much conditioner as I can to stop the smell, but it fully saves your hair. It gives it that protein that it needs.
But oh my God, my family does not come near me during that day. You have to keep it on for like four hours. I do it every Friday. That’s the main thing I did for myself that really helped and gave me a good indication of how damaged my hair is. And if I could dye it again. If it was still too damaged, I’d wait it out a couple more weeks.
I also learned lots of different ways to plait when my hair was really dead.
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What would be your advice to anyone else looking to go blonde?
First of all, if you wanna do it, please do it. The main advice I would give is take your time with it. A lot of the time we want to rush through glow-ups – especially on social media, that quick transformation is such a thing. But, it's not gonna be quick. It's gonna have its ugly days and that's fine.
Read the instructions, because I didn’t. And really enjoy the process of changing your hair colour and spending time with yourself. Every time I dyed it, I would film it, and I was spending time with the people that follow me – it was just a fun hangout. It's like talking to a friend. So have that experience with yourself, hang out with yourself.
You know, just in case Jessica Chastain's Met Gala transformation has tempted you…
