Anyone who was present (and partial to a beauty look) in the 2000s will remember Ashley Tisdale’s bright blonde, enviably long locks extremely well.
You don’t get to sing a song titled ‘Fabulous’ if you’re not just that. And yet the hair damage that committing to said colour and length caused was far from fabulous. Luckily, she’s since come up with a few solutions.
Here’s a breakdown of Ashley’s hair journey and how she’s repaired it along the way…
Ashley Tisdale blonde hair
So it turns out while we were all desperately trying to recreate Ashley’s signature look, she herself was still coming to terms with the ‘new her’, an adjustment considering her natural brunette, curly mane.
“I went through a “who am I?” moment when they decided to cut off seven inches and dye my hair blonde for The Suite Life”, Ashley confessed in a convo with Cosmopolitan. “I was like, “Who is that?” My hair was straight, not curly anymore. It made me feel like, “Was my hair not good enough before?” I was really proud of my hair growing up. I never cut my hair. It was a bit shocking, so I started to spiral.”
As we’re sure we don’t even have to remind you, things only got blonder once she evolved from playing Maddie in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody to Sharpay in the ever-iconic High School Musical. “For the first High School Musical, I had been rehearsing for, like, two weeks, and you become the character during those rehearsals. I was light blonde, and they put in these lowlights. And I thought, Woah, this is not Sharpay”, she shared.
“I ran to [director of High School Musical] Kenny Ortega and was like, “This isn’t right.” He agreed, but we were supposed to film the next day. So we just bleached my hair, and it absolutely fried it.”
On top of the colour change, Ashley also wore extensions, which are never particularly kind to hair health. “I have thick hair, so we had to put extensions up to the root to match the thickness, and people thought I was wearing wigs in the film”, she explained.
The tricky part about establishing an iconic head of long, blonde, perfectly-waved hair? The maintenance: a lot of adding extensions, bleaching, and heat-styling. “I have always been pretty brutal to my hair, and it started with bleaching it blonde for a role, and then it was just a continual spiral of bleaching and extensions. I even went pink one year. And I just wasn’t thinking about the integrity of my hair”.
Image via: Disney
Ashley Tisdale brunette hair
So what was the wake-up call that caused her to make a triumphant return to her natural brunette shade (which is stunning by the way)? “I’ve had such a hair journey myself”, she shared. “I was diagnosed with alopecia in my 20s. I know people find that so crazy, because I have pretty thick, coarse hair, but obviously alopecia is different for everyone. When I got diagnosed, I was like, “Okay, I need to really start taking care of my hair and scalp.” I’ve never been bright blonde since.”
She also makes sure to lean into a lower-maintenance approach to styling: “I just wanted to start embracing my natural texture when I’m not working”, Ashley said. “I let my hair air-dry, and I’ve learned that doing less is more. Less bleach, fewer products.” Great motto when it comes to restoring your hair’s strength, we must say!
In fact, whilst we’ll all always have a soft spot in our nostalgia-loving hearts for her bright blonde characters, Ashley actually looks back in shock at the shade. “I’ll do blonder in the summertime. But I don’t think I’d ever do bright blonde again”, she shared. “It’s not my personality. I look at my wedding pictures, and my daughter’s like, “Who is this? Look at that princess!” It is just so wild. But I look at that, and it’s all extensions. I love not having to wear extensions anymore. I want to do whatever is going to keep my hair healthy.”
That’s where her newly launched hair products (under her beauty line, Being Frenshe) tend to help. Unfortunately for us Aussies, they’re not currently available to us yet, but stay tuned. After you see how strong, glossy and healthy Ashley’s hair looks, you’ll be wanting to snap up a few bottles pronto.
Main image credit: @ashleytisdale
If you’re looking to polish up your brunette colour, here are the best brunette at-home hair dyes…
Have you been on a bleach-ditching journey of your own? Or made a return to embracing your natural texture?
I think her har is lovely, looks soft and shiny.