Business & Finance Club - Beauty : For blondes, maintaining the look is a rollercoaster of highlights, low-lights and tints. We turned to Susan Baldwin, creative colour director at John Frieda and font of blonde knowledge, and asked for her top tips on how to bring the fun back into being blonde.

Choose the right shade

There are three shades of blonde — honey, caramel and platinum. If you are more fair-skinned, you can go much more blonde while olive or darker complexions shouldn't go too light, as softer caramel tones work better on a darker base colour.

Enhance naturally blonde locks

One of the best ways to enhance your blonde hair in the salon is a technique called balayage, which involves painting colour on to hair with a brush. This creates lighter pieces of hair to frame the face in places that would naturally get lighter in the sun. For a more natural solution, squeeze lemon juice on to your hair when you are in the sun. Sun exposure lightens your hair naturally and the acid in the lemon juice helps speed this up.

Go from brunette to blonde

Radically altering your hair colour is a long-term process and one that shouldn't be attempted at home, unless you are experienced at using home dye kits. Book a consultation with your colourist first, so you can assess how light you can go. If you have a natural colour that is dark, platinum blonde is unrealistic.

Protect your locks at home

There are lots of blonde-enhancing shampoos and conditioners on the market that are designed to protect and, in some cases, gradually lighten your locks.

Look after your hair

We all want to look our best but chlorine, salt and sun all conspire to sabotage our crowning glory, leaving it dry and damaged. Shower after you come out of the sea or pool, or, if necessary, rinse your hair with bottled water to remove any salt or chlorine. Only leave your hair exposed to the Sun while it is drying — once it is dry, tie it back. Also avoid going out at midday.

Keep your hair in good condition

Blonde hair is often dehydrated, especially if it has been coloured, because the chemicals used in the processing can remove some of the hair's nourishing oils.

Make sure you have trims every six to eight weeks to keep split ends at bay. As far as salon treatments go, try the Brazilian blow-dry — pure keratin — found in skin, nails and hair — is set into your locks using a heat process for a deep conditioning treatment. Costs from £150 (Dh855).