10 Old Money Blonde Ideas for a Quiet Luxury Look
If you’re looking for a way to get rich quick, discover Old Money Blonde Hair; the latest and lightest in expensive-looking hair colour that radiates a glossy, polished glow. You don't have to spend every summer in the Hamptons to enjoy this quiet luxury colour trend. With the right formulas and inspiration, your Wella Professionals colourist will lock in your most luminous look.
So, keep scrolling for your everything guide to Old Money Blonde, featuring 10 looks ready to take to the salon and your post-colour maintenance tricks...
But, First, What is Old Money Blonde Hair?
Is it warm? Is it cool? Is it neutral? The answer is yes, yes, and yes. Old Money Blonde combines a cool and warm spectrum of shades with the kind of seamless blending that whispers, 'quiet luxury'. But you also need a touch of a root shadow to create this colour trend; just enough to give your blonde shade an effortless edge while still appearing perfectly polished. It's the kind of blonde that looks like it's been lifted and lightened by the St. Barts sun, brimming with timeless appeal and the understated elegance of someone who never skips a salon appointment.
What Skin Tones Suit Old Money Blonde Hair?
Good news: this expensive-looking colour trend can be tailored to suit all skin tones. The mix of cool and warm hues makes Old Money Blonde one of the most versatile looks of the season. You can even ask your colourist to steer your shade blend slightly warmer or cooler, depending on what suits you best. For example, if you have a cooler to neutral complexion, you might find an extra scattering of gold tones creates the most flattering contrast. As a general rule, we recommend considering the undertones in your natural hair colour. They're the tones you were born with – they are going to suit you – so they act as an ideal blueprint for your best-ever blonde.
10 Old Money Blonde Ideas
1. Old Money Vanilla Blonde
Image Credit: @luca_brusini
The Hamptons are calling with this dreamy, creamy, vanilla blonde, which teams an all-natural root shadow with a balayage blend of babylights. What are babylights, you ask? They're micro-fine highlights that mimic the colour of your hair through childhood summers, made all the more beautiful with the use of BlondorPlex. Our bond-strengthening lightener not only gives you up to 9 levels of lift, but it also leaves you with 97% less breakage¹. Plus, it has an anti-yellow complex that keeps brassy tones at bay. Ask your colourist to use it for your blonde base, then follow with a zero-lift, zero-damage SHINEFINITY Color Glaze to veil strands in light-reflective, translucent colour.
2. Bombshell Old Money Blonde
Image Credit: @helena_thornton_hair
From the brightness of the blonde to the bounce of the blow-dry, it's giving generational wealth. This shade is a bombshell platinum, but with a luxe root blend and golden glimmers that lend an injection of lived-in warmth. Want in? Ask your colourist to treat your pre-lightened hair to Illumina Color, our light-reflective, permanent formula that locks in youthful, radiant, 100% natural-looking hair colour. Not only will it tone your blonde to perfection but it also gives you up to 3 levels of lift, so if you already have a light base, you can enjoy one-step lightening and toning.
3. Old Money Bronde Hair Colour
Image Credit: @dereqc
If you're a brunette craving a blondish shade with an expensive-looking glow, try Old Money Bronde, a blonde-brown hybrid hue with timeless appeal. Bronde is the hair colour of the season, and we're obsessed with this warm-meets-cool take, which your colourist can recreate with BlondorPlex to lighten and Color Touch to tone. Why Color Touch? Because the demi-permanent formula's wide range of 90+ shades makes it easy to tailor a bronde to you, so you can enjoy a bespoke colour with uncompromised vibrancy and shine. It's also vegan, ammonia-free and packed with our Metal Purifier, which neutralises metals in your hair for true-to-tone shades, no matter your hair's condition.
4. Sun-Kissed Old Money Blonde
Image Credit: @georgie_quecolour
For a 'just got back from Bora Bora' hue, ask for an Old Money Blonde with a blend of sun-drenched, golden tones. We're obsessed with this summery shade, which your colourist can recreate with BlondorPlex to lighten and SHINEFINITY to tone. When a speedy glow-up is on the agenda, a SHINEFINITY Flash Glaze service will personalise your hue in just 5 minutes for 250% shinier hair. If that doesn't say quiet luxury, we don’t know what will. It also gives you up to 50% softer and smoother hair, all wrapped up in a clean, vegan, zero-lift and zero-damage formula.
5. Old Money Honey Blonde
Image Credit: @giadagalassi_
This lit-from-within honey hue is the embodiment of expensive blonde; a cool, calm and confident colour that conjures visions of chic coastal retreats, sunhat in tow. And the glow is the work of Color Touch’s rich, true-to-tone vibrancy, enhancing pre-lightened strands with warm and cool ribbons that catch the (sun)light in the most enchanting way. No beach getaway would be complete without mindfully tousled lengths, so after wrapping your hair around a curling iron, give it some grip and guts with a retexturising spritz of EIMI Sugar Lift.
6. Butterscotch Old Money Blonde
Image Credit: @dereqc
Deliciously decadent butterscotch tones give this Old Money Blonde a hint of depth, letting brunettes enhance their natural hair colour with luxe luminosity. Want the look? Then, after your colourist has lightened your hair, ask them to tone with SHINEFINITY Color Glaze, our zero-lift, zero-damage, demi-permanent formula for shine you can feel. It veils your hair in a translucent colour that's irresistibly glossy, so every last hint of warmth and shimmer of coolness has a healthy-looking sheen.
7. Lived-In Old Money Blonde
Image Credit: @salt_andwaves
Lived-in blonde and expensive-looking blonde might sound like they're on opposite ends of the spectrum, but this rooty balayage is jaw-dropping proof of how untrue that is. A dream colour blend come true, it combines a natural root stretch with half-head, glow-bestowing highlights and a brighter face frame, so all the lift is focused through the top and front layers of the hair. Meanwhile, extra dimension comes courtesy of the lower layers peeking through, lending a sun-touched effect that appears entirely natural. To give it an even more believable edge, ask your colourist to tone your highlights with Illumina Color. Its Microlight Technology allows light to enter your hair for inside-out luminosity.
8. Old Money Strawberry Blonde
Image Credit: @tarabonehair
Old Money hair gets extra juice in this strawberry blonde-tinted mane, which sees a cool, light red base set ablaze by golden highlights brimming with warmth. A zero-lift, zero-damage SHINEFINITY Color Glaze is going to give you this level of lustrous shine, with a translucent finish that lets your natural dimension pop in the most show-stopping way. One of the hallmarks of Old Money Blonde is hair that exudes health from root to tip – and a colour glaze that delivers 260% shinier hair does exactly that.
9. Old Money Ash Blonde
Image Credit: @studiodurimi
If you like your blonde on the cooler side, ask your colourist to level up the ash-to-gold ratio, and you'll enjoy expensive-looking highlights with a fresh, frosted sheen. Shiny and shimmery from root to tip, this Old Money Blonde is an Illumina Color masterpiece with 100% natural-looking colour that’s luminous in every light. Take the glossiness to the next level with a few drops of ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum; the perfect post-wash styler and speedy touch-up that keeps frizz at bay.
10. Old Money Butter Blonde
Image Credit: @iamsophieshairgram
For an Old Money Blonde this glossy, ask your colourist for a Golden Glass Hair service; a three-step Wella exclusive inspired by the glass skin trend born in South Korea. Just as its skincare counterpart is all about layering dewy essences and serums, the colour service sees your mirror-like glow built up in layers of luminosity. You've got...
- The Base Layer: Your first layer of colour sets up your look, whether you're having Blondor highlights, a Color Touch Melt or Illuminage for a sun-drenched balayage.
- The Top Glaze Layer: A SHINEFINITY Glaze locks in irresistible shine, with a zero-damage, zero-lift formula that makes hair shimmer.
- The Finishing Layer: Drops of ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum seal in that glass hair glow, delivering 96 hours of frizz control².
How to Maintain Old Money Blonde Hair
Care plays a big role in this colour trend too. For an Old Money Blonde that looks the part, reach for rich, nourishing hair care products that veil blonde strands in a mirror-like sheen. From purple shampoo to glossing oils, your luxe shade looks extra luminous with these at-home essentials for added glow...
1. Invest in a Purple Brightening Shampoo
Brassiness is the antithesis of Old Money Blonde, so keep unwanted warmth at bay with a purple shampoo. INVIGO Blonde Recharge Cool Blonde Shampoo comes hairstylist-approved, thanks to its gentle formula and violet pigment that neutralises brassiness in under five minutes. Simply massage the salon formula into wet hair, let it work its magic, and then rinse thoroughly. Blonde tones will appear cooler, cleaner and beautifully bright. You only need to use it on the days when hair appears overly warm. The rest of the time, lather up with ULTIMATE SMOOTH Shampoo for a shine-boosting cleanser that purifies all hair types.
2. Condition, Condition, Condition
Healthy hair is glossy hair, so don't skimp on conditioner. After every wash, treat the mid-lengths and ends of your hair to the ULTIMATE SMOOTH Conditioner. It's rich and creamy yet rinses completely clean to leave lengths soft, smooth and weightlessly nourished – plus it smells unbelievable. A joy for the senses in every way imaginable. To boost its power, make sure you squeeze excess water out of your hair before applying it, so the blend of Squalane and Omega-9 can be deeply absorbed. Then, at least once per week, swap the conditioner for ULTIMATE SMOOTH Intense Mask, an ultra-concentrated treatment that takes your conditioning regimen to the next level.
3. Prioritise Hair Repair
Almost all of us have some level of damage through our hair, whether it's been caused by the sun, excess heat styling or everyday wear and tear. Make sure it doesn't tear down your Old Money Blonde mane by adding ULTIMATE REPAIR Miracle Hair Rescue to your regimen; a supercharged leave-in treatment with the power to repair hair damage in 90 seconds³. Simply mist it from root to tip through clean, damp hair, let it absorb for the full 90 seconds, and then move on to the next step in your styling ritual. Bonus: the targeted mist also leaves you with 99% less breakage⁴.
4. Use a Multi-Tasking Hair Oil
ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum isn't just a hair oil – it's your smoothing serum, UV filter and heat protection in one. When a red carpet glow is your goal, this luxurious elixir unlocks the most lustrous sheen. You can use it:
- as a pre-shampoo treatment to protect lengths while washing;
- mixed with ULTIMATE SMOOTH Intense Mask for powered-up nourishment;
- on damp hair, smoothed over the top of ULTIMATE REPAIR Miracle Hair Rescue;
- just before heat styling for essential protection;
- in between wash days for instant frizz-fighting.
This oil goes the distance, making every phase of your hair care regimen work harder. And the best bit? It nourishes hair in 30 seconds to give you smoothness that lasts up to 3 days². Yes, 3 days.
Now you know how to lock in the Old Money Blonde colour trend and keep it looking flawless, find your nearest Wella salon and start your journey to the dreamiest blonde...
¹ When using Wellaplex N°2 with Blondorplex, versus Blondorplex alone.
² When using ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum, if unwashed for 3 days, vs. untreated.
³ When using ULTIMATE REPAIR Miracle Hair Rescue.
⁴ When using ULTIMATE REPAIR Miracle Hair Rescue instrumental test vs. non-conditioning shampoo.