Nicole Richie is back to blonde! It was only less than a year ago that she darkened her famous honey hue to a rich brunette shade. This week, she texted Joico Celebrity Colorist George Papanikolas and requested a shade reversal, back to her signature blonde pronto!

"Normally I recommend transitioning from dark hair to light hair over the course of several months," says Papanikolas, "but Nicole was ready to go back to being blonde sooner than later, so we did it over the course of a week."

Papanikolas' first step was to strengthen the hair as much as possible to prepare it for removing the dark color. His go-to strategy was a series of treatments with Joico K-PAK Deep Penetrating Reconstructor. This Quadramine complex-enriched formula reconstructs strands from the inside out, leaving them strong, shiny and manageable. To remove Nicole's dark color, George turned to the conditioning Joico Vero K-PAK Crème Lightener

"You can't create beautiful color if the hair isn't healthy," explains George, "So when I'm stripping out color, I always use a lightener that contains conditioner." Once Nicole's brown locks were lightened to a dark golden blonde, George applied Joico Vero K-PAK Color 7N/dark natural blonde to even out the color. Then she returned to the salon several additional times for a series of highlighting sessions, until the pair was satisfied with the light, sunny, blonde result.

Nicole's transformation---back to blonde.

Knowing that color-treated hair like Nicole's requires massive amounts of TLC, George recommended Joico's K-PAK Color Therapy regime for optimum, at-home care. The Shampoo, Conditioner and Restorative Styling Oil actually doubles the life of color vibrancy, reduces breakage, increases shine and work around the clock to repair and strengthen damaged strands. Joico.com.