How cool do your blonde clients want to be? And once you get them to that level — how can you make sure they stay that way, with results and a new care ritual to keep the color on track and on tone?

A new solution is building blonding buzz throughout the salon industry, and salon owner Katherine Sims is telling every colorist who wants to give their clients a simply beautiful way to maintain a balanced blonde — and every salon owner who wants to grow retail business and lock in color loyalty — to try a new type of therapy: the Blonde Therapy system by REDAVID® Salon Products, a line of naturally derived luxury haircare for the professional beauty industry.

"Colorists and their guests are looking for the healthiest and best way to achieve desired hair color results, for any color, with honest ingredients, manufacturing, passion and performance," says Sims, who is a colorist, top color educator and co-owner of Elysian Beauty Bar in Windsor, Ontario, with her sister.

She says colorists know first-hand that maintaining blondes can be especially challenging, and that, until now, assistance has been limited.

"There is so much stuff out there that gives false promises," Sims says. "Blonde Therapy is different. Trying it just once will literally change the power you have behind the chair. It's not just another purple shampoo or conditioner to use once or twice a week, it's a complete regimen all of my blonde clients can use every day to tone out brassiness or unwanted yellow tones while protecting and repairing the hair at the same time. It leaves hair in beautiful, soft, silky condition."

Blonde Therapy: What it Is, How It Works

The three-step system for clients to use at home is specifically for daily care of blonde and highlighted hair. The shampoo, conditioner and leave-in treatment and toner offer clients a chemical-free, customizable daily toning experience that neutralizes brassiness and leaves hair in better condition.

Sims, who is also an artistic lead educator for REDAVID® has been using and testing Blonde Therapy since its earliest stages of development and says her eight colorist peers in the salon who have helped test the line and all of their guests who have experienced or gotten a glimpse of the results have been pleading for first access to the take-home version.

"REDAVID® really invented something that is revolutionary," Sims says. "I've been working on it for about a year. Marco and Leo Redavid sent me the first prototype. We knew we needed something different, a complete system that clients can use all the time, not only an in-salon treatment. But it had to be simplified, too."

"We've seen a lot of products, but Blonde Therapy blew us away," she recalls. "The shampoo and conditioner set the foundation, and the Dual Therapy treatment adds an amazing amount of shine while eliminating brassiness, going from gold to platinum."

The product is officially launching to salons throughout North America this month, following what REDAVID® leaders describe as a wildly successful VIP salon launch through distributor CosmoProf.

“Blonde care solutions have been largely unchanged for a while now and instead of launching yet another blue or purple tinted shampoo or conditioner we wanted to redefine what a client can do at home,” said REDAVID® President  Marco Redavid. “The biggest challenge for highlighted blondes is brassiness and managing unwanted warmth that returns over time. We created a three-step system they can use every day as well as customize how much of that warmth they want to neutralize on any given day.”

All three products in the Blonde Therapy System are:

• 100% vegan

• 90% natural/natural derived ingredients

• Paraben-free

• Sulfate-free

• Gluten-free

• Fair Trade Certified

• formulated with Violet Pigment Complex

Throughout the line, orchid oil's moisture balancing properties improve hair elasticity and suppleness, while REDAVID’s exclusive Dynagen-RTM Complex builds internal strength, increasing body and fullness.  Formulas utilize the latest advanced in cosmetic science with nature’s best ingredients for blonde and highlighted hair.

The Difference is in the Third Step

The third step, the Blonde Dual Therapy, introduces a new blonde care step for clients' at-home use, and Sims says it delivers surprising results that colorists and clients can see in minutes.

It's a retail treatment that resembles a service in some ways, and professional expertise, instruction and demonstration to the client are critical, she says.

"It's important to always apply Blonde Dual Therapy to towel-dried, but still wet, hair," Sims explains. The product requires heat from a few minutes of blow drying to set in, and simply rinses out with the next regular Blonde Therapy shampooing.

The temporary leave-in toning treatment features a two-part pump dispensing system with a Tone & Repair Complex on the left and a Shine Enhancing Complex on the right.

Clients can start with one pump of each, then go from there, says REDAVID® Founder Leonardo Redavid. Ultimately, the amount depends on how ash the client wants to be. It can go as light or as subtle as desired. It creates the illusion of coloring at home, but the guest is doing anything that permanently alters the colorists lightening work. It becomes almost like a temporary makeup effect, and it works dramatically fast.

“Since this is a rinse out system, the guest can’t harm the highlights and blonde work done in the salon," Leonardo Redavid says. "This really gives someone at home ways to express how cool of a blonde they want to be in between services. The response has been amazing from salons.”

COLORIST TO COLORIST:

BLONDE THERAPY Q&A WITH SALON OWNER KATHERINE SIMS

Q.  How do you explain the new Blonde Therapy system and results to stylists and salon owners?

SIMS: I tell them Blonde Therapy from REDAVID® is an innovative way to tone out brassiness or unwanted yellow tones while repairing the hair at the same time. It is an easy-to-use and to recommend three-step system to shampoo, condition and treatblonde hair, and it can be used daily.

The level of repair and treatment are previously unheard of in our industry. It repairs from the deepest point of cuticle and outward while toning. Other products tend to dry out hair because they swell or expand the cuticle to deposit the purple pigment and don't seal it.

Blonde Dual Therapy, or Step 3, creates an opposite effect. It deposits the exclusive REDAVID® Dynagen-RTM complex, microfine, skin care grade sugar protein that most replicates the DNA of hair, so it can be absorbed and help seal the cuticle and improve the condition of the hair.

"When you have blonde clients who want to keep going blonder or guests who have darker hair and want to start transitioning to a lighter tone, it has been our habit and nature as experienced colorists to recommend the purple shampoo and conditioner," Sims says. "But hair can only retain so much of those strong pigments and there is nothing to help seal it in, no actual deposit of a protein in those old products.

Within our industry, nothing has ever removed unwanted tones, and repaired and sealed-in shine all at the same time, in a take-home system of products for blondes.

Q. What do stylists love most about Blonde Therapy?

SIMS: They love that it actually works. If your client follows the instructions — especially the part about applying the Blonde Dual Therapy on damp hair — the results are shocking. The Blonde Therapy system can take the thickest, coarsest blonde hair and soften it, leaving it so reflective and shiny.

Q. Why does the hair have to be damp for the Blonde Dual Therapy to work?

SIMS: The how-to on the product is simple but critical. Damp hair is important because the water in the hair acts as a train and delivers the pigment and the protein into the hair.

Coach your clients to really emulsify and push the product into the cuticle, then proceed with the blowout. The product oxidizes while blowdrying. Initially when looking at the applied product, you or your guest might see tones of blue or green, but as the hair is blown dry, you see the product oxidize and the magic.

Q. How can you best show clients how the product works or how to use at home?

SIMS: The best way for any stylist to demo this product is around the hairline, in the "money piece" area. The front of the hair is where clients see themselves first and most. It's also the most fragile hair, over-processed with heat damage and touched the most. Mist down the hair with water, apply the Blonde Dual Therapy, blow it out, and see the instant results and reflection.  

Show clients and explain that the heat from the blow dryer helps thin out and evenly distribute and level out the product and the toning effects. Let them know if Blonde Dual Therapy is applied on dry hair, they will notice hair will look uneven and more purple. It won't "process" properly.

Q. How popular do you think Blonde Therapy will be with color clients?

SIMS: Incredibly popular. A game-changer. Before the Blonde Therapy system has even launched, our salon has pre-sold 57 bottles of the Blonde Dual Therapy after just a few days of doing in-salon demos of the test product. Our blonde clients cannot get it soon enough.

Q. How will Blonde Therapy help salons build a stronger, blonder book? How do you expect it to impact guest retention, frequency of visit, average ticket?

SIMS:  Blonde Therapy help salons initiate a blonde service strategy for guests because it helps overcome any concerns those guests might have about going blonde or blonder because of maintenance qualms or fear of walking out looking orange or brassy. With Blonde Therapy, the know they can go home and maintain a certain level of blonde with the least amount of brassiness until the next visit.

As an owner, I like that the Blonde Dual Therapy is such a unique product and that the retail price point of $60 is a healthy investment. But the great news for the guest is that the product doesn't expire or oxidize in the bottle, and a little goes a long way. Guests can expect to have one bottle of the Blonde Dual Therapy last through two or three repurchases of Blonde Therapy Shampoo and Conditioner.

In my opinion, Blonde Therapy will help with guest retention because it builds trust and satisfaction with the results they get from you. They are happy between visits and will come back. Blonde Therapy allows you to set a plan with your guest — to work with them to "give you your best blonde" and to achieve their ideal blonde over a period of time.

Also, while the three-step system helps with color longevity, moisture retention and repair, the results of the Blonde Dual Therapy are temporary, and must be reapplied after every shampoo. It's a partnership that you are working on together, through the in-salon lightening service and the at-home system. Your dual objective is to achieve and maintain blonde in the healthiest manner possible. When you can help a guest do that, she is going to come back again and again.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BLONDE THERAPY