Making a change to your hair - even if that change is to go more natural - can be totally transformative.
According to one lifestyle, wellness and age-positivity content creator, removing bleach from your hair routine can work wonders.
Sharing the "genius beauty hacks" that "elevated her look" after age 45, Tracy Campoli, now 49, said: "One of the first things I did was to stop bleaching the s*** out of my hair."
The content creator revealed that her hair used to be "really, really, really blonde" and she'd take a trip to the hair salon every six weeks to get fresh highlights.
Traci 'elevated her look' by embracing her natural hair colour
YouTube / Tracy Campoli
She said: "I would go bananas if I had any roots at all and now, at almost 50 years old, what I wouldn't give for a dark root."
Traci explained that now, she tactically dyes her roots darker "just because [she] thinks it looks better".
She said: "Especially as I have a tonne of grey hairs, when I have grey roots with my light skin and my light eyes, everything just kind of looks like there's no colour at all."
According to the beauty enthusiast, opting for a natural look is the way to go, regardless of your hair colour.
She claimed that finding a hair colour that is more "sustainable" and more "natural" will "make a huge difference in elevating your looks".
"Having very unnatural, coloured hair or hair that really looks like you've been sitting in the salon - especially when it comes to blonde - it's not always the best choice," Tracy explained.
"You do you, you find what works best for you, but I have found that for myself personally, this is what really works for me.
"Right now, my hair is a darker blonde and it looks much, much better. I haven't gotten highlights in my hair in over three years."
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Another positive to ditching the bleach is minimising the damage done to your strands.
Senior Consultant Trichologist at Philip Kingsley Zoe Passam explained: "Bleaching raises your hair's outer cuticle to allow the bleaching agent to fully penetrate.
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Bleaching your hair can cause damage, leading to dryness, brittleness, breakage and split ends
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"Repeated bleaching can permanently raise your cuticle, which allows rapid and continuous loss of moisture from your strands."
Damage from bleaching may include dryness, brittleness, low elasticity, and hair that is prone to breakage and split ends. Bleached hair is also more porous, "and therefore more vulnerable to other chemical and non-chemical hazards".
While bleaching can cause damage, the right protections can reduce the negative impact it has on the hair. For more information, women can consult expert guidance from Philip Kingsley, plus the hair care professional bleaching their hair.
In other hair care news, a model revealed that the secret to her "full, healthy hair" is avoiding a damaging technique that makes it dry.
