I'm a natural blonde, however it went very ashy as I got older. I've been dying my hair all kinds of colours since the age of about 15. I decided to go back to blonde a few years back, and having a sister for a hairdresser helped!

My number one tip is SLOWLY does it. Do not attempt to do it yourself. Ever. You'll end up with white roots and orange ends. What you need is for a qualified professional to very slowly lighten your hair over a few processes, depending on how resistant the colour in your hair is. The ends will be the toughest. If you can, have some length trimmed off to make it easier.

I went from a 5 shade to a 10 (the lower the number the darker the colour) over the course of about 8 months. It takes commitment. But looks spectacular and natural if you do it right. By right, I mean SLOWLY. LOL, can I say that again? slowly. Bombarding your hair with harsh 12% peroxide treatments is a bad idea, and will leave you with frizz, breakage and general straw-like texture.

I had a series of treatments, each time going a little lighter. Realistically my hair was orange for a long time, but we used a 'filler' colour to cover that in the meantime. I quite liked the in-between shades. Honey and caramel etc, looked really nice. You might even find a shade you like and stick with it instead. Each treatment was a little easier as the more my hair grew, the less of it had resistant dye to overcome.

Having reds in your hair makes it quite challenging, as the red reflect is one of the hardest to remove. Patience and a good hairdresser are all you need. You will need to have your regrowth done more often than someone who isn't blonde to avoid that 'dirty' look, and you can't apply a peroxide based hairdye yourself... because you'll end up overlapping and having a bright stripe where the colour is overlapping. You can't do 'all over' applications, hence no at-home jobs. Unless you have a hairdresser for a friend. To avoid frequent touch ups, try to have a shade close to your natural colour. If you're an ashy shade for example, stick to ashy blondes.

So to sum up - slowly - fillers - and patience!

Can you tell I studied my first year of hairdressing?? lol