There are many colors that get their inspiration from nature, such as plum, chocolate brown, mushroom brown, and so many more. Sandy blonde is another color that gains its inspiration from nature.
Sandy blonde usually has a mixture of tones and lightness in the hair. Like natural sand, it tries to mimic that neutral tan tone that happens with a mixture of minerals in the sand. There are many different tones of sand that you can choose from. Below are a few different ideas for sandy blonde hair.
Best Sandy Blonde Colors
To get the neutral tan tone that comes with sandy blonde hair, you usually need a mixture of golden and ashy tones. Melted together, this combination gives you dimension while also creating a gorgeous sandy tone. You can also create a sandy tone with one color if you are trying to save time and money.
Dimensional Sandy Blonde
As mentioned above, dimension mimics sand the best. It is also the most natural-looking of the sandy blonde colors. To achieve the dimension that sand has, you need at least two different colors. The colors should be a level or two lighter or darker than the other and can also be two different tones, such as gold and ash.
These colors are then highlighted and lowlighted either using a highlighting cap or foils. When doing dimensional sandy blonde, you will most likely have to use bleach to create the lighter color and then tone those highlights to the desired tone, such as gold, beige, or ash. If your hair is already blonde, you may be able to simply use color to add different shades of blonde to it.
Dimensional sandy blonde does not require as much maintenance as an all-over color. Since your natural color will most likely be left in to create more dimension, there will not be a harsh line during grow out. Meaning you can have it touched up in about eight weeks instead of every 4 to 6 weeks. This route is most likely the cheapest way to achieve sandy blonde.
Light Sandy Blonde
If you’re looking at Caribbean sand as your hair color inspiration, think of a creamy beige blonde; this color doesn’t really have a lot of golden or ash tones. It is more of a neutral color that reflects a little bit of warmth in the sun.
To get to a light sandy blonde, your hair will have to go through what we like to call a double process. What this entails is lightening all of your hair with bleach and then rinsing it, doing a quick blow dry, and then going over it with your neutral, beige color. You could just do bleach and tone to speed up the process, but generally, doing the double process lasts longer and turns out prettier with this color.
Light sandy blonde is the hardest color out of all of these to maintain. You are not only doing an all-over color that creates a line as it grows out. You are also lightening your hair quite a bit lighter than your natural. It is also much harder to touch up if you let it grow out too long. You will need to have this touched up at least every four weeks.
Dark Sandy Blonde
You will most likely see dark sand on any North American beach. This is usually the color that people imagine when they say sandy blonde. It’s that nice shade of tan that has more of a beige undertone. Some people might even mistake this for a light brown but in the hairstylist world, it is definitely blonde.
Unless you have not colored your hair in over three years or you are already blonde, you will most likely have to bleach your hair for this color as well. If you haven’t colored your hair in quite a while or are already blonde, you can simply use permanent hair color. Like light sandy blonde, you will need to do a double process for this color. It just doesn’t need to be lifted as light as light sandy blonde does.
Even though you most likely will be doing the same process on your hair as a light sandy blonde, it does not need to be touched up nearly as soon. You can go about six weeks between touch-ups with a dark sandy blonde. This is due to it not being as much of a contrast in color from your natural color. The line of growing out should not be as noticeable.
Warm Sandy Blonde
Warm sandy blonde has more of a gold base in it. This color mimics sand you would probably find in a desert. It reflects light extremely well and looks best on those with warmer skin tones. For more oomph to this color, you can even add a few highlights to give it more reflection.
There are many different ways to achieve this color, depending on what is going on with your hair. If there is no color in your hair and you haven’t colored it in a while, you can use permanent color to achieve this color. However, if your hair is darker than a light to medium brown or you have color existing on your hair, you will have to do a double process with bleach.
Like dark sandy blonde, this color is just as easy to maintain as any other all-over color. It will need to be touched up around every six weeks. However, most people do not have natural warmth in their hair, so this color will show the grow outline a little more than neutral dark sandy blonde.
Cool Sandy Blonde
If you want something natural that is an all-over color, cool sandy blonde is the color for you. Most people’s hair is naturally cool-toned and people generally like cool tones for blonde hair better. It is very similar to dark sandy blonde but has more undertones of purple and blue.
You most likely will not be able to get this color by slapping on one all-over color, unless you are already blonde. When you are lifting to a blonde, you are always going to lift with warmth. In order to break through that warmth, you have to lift it lighter than your goal and then deepen it again with ashy tones. You will need to do a double process color to achieve a cool sandy blonde.
The maintenance on this color can go about six weeks between touch-ups, but you will need to do a double process every touch-up. It can go longer than light sandy blonde but takes more work than an all-over color. This color takes moderate maintenance and can be difficult to keep its all-over ashy color.
Balayage Sandy Blonde
Since it is one of the most popular hair color techniques today, we will add it to the list. You can use balayage in your sandy blonde; this is actually very simple to do for this color since balayage already creates multiple warm and cool tones and different levels of lightness throughout the hair.
It will probably take a couple of balayage sessions to get the perfect sandy blonde. When balayage is layered on top of each other with each session, it will create different levels of lightness throughout the hair. The lighter pieces can then be toned to the ashy color that creates a perfect blend of warm and cool tan colors.
This color requires the least amount of maintenance out of any of the other colors. It is also the most expensive process. However, you should only need to go in to have your balayage brought up every 4 to 6 months. Going that long between colors will actually save you money in the long run.
What to Ask For in the Salon
When arriving at the salon, make sure you have plenty of pictures of sandy blonde colors that you do and do not like. You can then describe to your stylist what you do and do not like about each color. Most stylists should be able to customize a perfect blend of colors to create the sandy blonde you want from this.
If your stylist wants more information on your goal color, you can tell her how much lightness you want to see in your hair or if you want it to be the darkest blonde it can be before it’s brown. You should also let her know if you want to see any warmth in it or if you mostly want to see ashy, cool tones.
Most stylists will recommend dimensions with this color. That is totally up to you. If you like more of the all one color look, you need to make sure that they know that you do not want any highlights. You should also make sure that they are going to do a double process if you already have a dark color on your hair.
How to Do It Yourself
If you do not want to spend the money to have a hairstylist do this color for you, you can also do it yourself. The all-over sandy blonde colors are the easiest, so I recommend doing one of those if you plan to color your own hair.
If you feel confident in your skills, you may want to try dimensional sandy blonde with a highlighting cap. Do not attempt to do balayage on yourself. It takes even the most experienced stylists years to master and they don’t even attempt to do this on themselves.
Determine Starting Color
First things first, you need to figure out what you are starting with. You will want to do different processes and use different colors depending on the hair color you have already. Your hair type and texture can also affect your hair color choice. If you have thicker, coarse hair, you will want to use a stronger color than if you have finer, thin hair.
Also, hair color can not lift hair color. If you already have a dark color on your hair, you will either need to bleach all of the colored hair first or highlight your hair. If your hair is already colored blonde, you can simply color over it with your desired sandy blonde color.
Determine Goal Color
If you want dimension in your sandy blonde color, you are not going to put one color all over your head. You will either need to highlight it or use two different shades if your hair is already blonde. On the other hand, if you like more of a one-tone color, you can put one color all over your head.
Choose the Right Color
This is greatly going to differ for each person depending on your starting color, your hair type, and if you are adding dimension. Most likely, you are going to be lightening your natural hair a little to achieve sandy blonde. When lifting your natural color, it will pull warm, so you want to account for that. Choose a color ashier than your desired result for lightening your natural hair.
If your hair is already blonde, or you have to bleach it before you start, you can simply put the desired color over it. Since you have already lightened your hair, you have pulled out some of the golden tones. This does not mean everyone’s hair will not be brassy after lightening. If this does happen, make sure to choose an ashier color to counteract the brassiness.
- L’Oreal Paris Superior Preference 7.5A Medium Ash Blonde
- Naturtint Permanent Hair Color 8G Sandy Golden Blonde
- Garnier Hair Color Olia Oil Powered Permanent, 7.0 Dark Blonde
- Clairol Nice’n Easy 8 Medium Blonde
- L’Oreal Paris Feria 91Champagne Cocktail (Light Beige Blonde)
For those of you that do need to lighten your hair before coloring or would like dimension in your color, you will need to use bleach. If your hair is starting really dark and is not damaged in any way, you should use a higher developer. However, if your hair is fine or is already compromised, do not use over 20 volume developers.
- Schwarzkopf BlondMe with 20-30 volume developer
- Wella Blondor with 20-30 volume developer
- L’Oreal Quick Blue with 20-30 volume developer
- Clairol Professional BW2 with 20-30 volume developer
For dimensional sandy blonde, you will need to tone your highlights. Simply lightening your hair will not make it a sandy blonde color. It will most likely be either very light or too brassy. The toner overlays your highlights to make it your desired color. If your highlights are very brassy, you are going to want to use a darker, ashy toner. If they are too light, you will want to use a warmer, light toner.
- Agebeautiful Liqui-Creme Topcoat Toner Silver Ash Blonde
- Pravana Chroma Silk Express Tones Ash
- Bright White Creme Toner Modern Beige
- L’Oreal Paris Le Color Gloss in Honey Blonde
Apply
The easiest application is putting your desired color on all over. Unfortunately, this does not work for everyone with a sandy blonde. Your hair must already be as light or lighter than your desired color and cannot have darker previous color on it. If this is you, simply follow the instructions given with the color on your whole head.
Most people will need to lighten their hair before applying their desired color. To do this, generously apply the bleach to your hair in small sections, starting with the ends and applying to your roots last. You can process your hair for up to 45 minutes without much damage. Once your hair is lightened, shampoo, blowdry and apply your desired color according to the instructions.
For dimensional sandy blonde, you will want to use a highlighting cap. This is a cap that you pull over your hair and your pull out the pieces you want to highlight with a crochet-like hook. If you are starting with dark hair, you are going to want to pull more hair through to create more lightness. Once processed for up to 45 minutes, you will shampoo, towel dry, and apply your desired toner all over the head.
FAQ’s
Answer: It depends on what type of sandy blonde you are going for. Dimensional and balayage sandy blonde are the easiest to maintain, whereas all-over sandy blonde is harder to maintain. All-over color requires a touch-up every 4 to 6 weeks. Highlighted or balayage sandy blonde can be touched up much less. You may also need to use a purple shampoo.
Answer: Most of the time, sandy blonde has dimension. Natural sand has many different tones of tan mixed together. However, you can achieve sandy blonde with one all-over color.
Answer: It can be both. If you get dimensional sandy blonde, you will most likely have warm and cool tones mixed in. Just like natural sand, it can be warm or cool, depending on what sand you’re looking at.
Answer: In most cases, it does. The only time that you will not have to use bleach is if your hair is already blonde or you want one flat color and have no existing color on your hair. Otherwise, you will need to have highlights, or your previous color lightened first.
Answer: It depends on the type of sandy blonde. Balayage sandy blonde can go up to 6 months without a touch-up. Highlighted sandy blonde will need to be touched up every 6 to 8 weeks. All over sandy blonde will need to be touched up every 4 to 6 weeks.
Conclusion
Balayage sandy blonde seems to be the best sandy blonde. It requires fewer touch-ups, meaning it is cheaper in the long run. It also mimics the look of sand the best and is very in style right now. However, this is not a color you can do yourself.
If you are looking for a color you can do at home, dimensional sandy blonde is the best. You may need help from a friend, but it will require less maintenance than all over and you will not have to bleach your whole head to achieve it. It also resembles nature well.
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