Learn Portuguese (Portugal): A mulher quer madeixas louras. Além disso, acabou de comprar um secador. - The woman wants blonde highlights. Furthermore, she just bought a hairdryer.

Além disso means "furthermore" or "besides that". It is made by combining the preposition de from além de (beyond/besides) with the pronoun isso (that). We use além disso here because it acts as a bridge between two independent sentences. If you wanted to use além de to combine them into one sentence, you would say Além de querer madeixas louras, ela acabou de comprar um secador (Besides wanting blonde highlights, she just bought a hairdryer).

I know acabar usually means "to finish". Why does it translate to "she just bought" here?

When you use the verb acabar followed by the preposition de and an infinitive verb (like comprar), the meaning changes to "to have just done" that action. Therefore, acabou de comprar means "she just bought" it. This is a very common and useful structure to remember!

What exactly are madeixas?

In the context of hair salons and beauty, madeixas refers to "highlights" or "streaks" of hair. Because it is a feminine plural noun, the adjective for blonde must agree with it, becoming louras.

Is louras the only way to spell "blonde"? I thought it was spelled with an "i".