How To: Safely Bleach Your Hair

Okay, I know I've been slacking.

I've got about 4 blogs to write & I am going to try to keep them from bleeding together.

So here is my first.

How To: Safely Bleach Your Hair

When I decided to take on the joy of pink hair, I knew I would need to bleach my naturally dark hair.

My natural hair!

As you can imagine, bleaching on my own for the first time was pretty scary!  While I am not new to coloring or bleach, I had always had it done in a salon.  I did LOTS of research, for weeks.  I read about different products, read about what the best way was to do it, and conditioning treatments after.  I also did A LOT of research about the product I was going to use for the pink!  While doing my research I was very frustrated to find tutorials that, to me, seemed lacking.  Either no pictures, or poor descriptions for the sake of keeping it short. So I will do my best to give full detail and pictures of each step and what I did to achieve my new awesome hair!

Product

1. I decided on Quick Blue because the reviews were really good.  A lot of people said they had dark hair and the product worked wonderfully without frying their hair.  I also read that the blue bleaches, like Quick Blue, work as a bleach and a toner so it helps take out that red/orange color a lot of people get when bleaching. (Keep in mind, quality of water WILL make a difference!)
2. Salon Care 30 volume developer:  In reading up on my developers I found that the purpose of the developer is to activate the ingredients in the bleach.  Developers with 40 and 50 volume are way strong and will most definitely fry your beautiful hair.  30 volume is, from my understanding, the strongest you SHOULD go however if you MUST use stronger do so with caution!!
3. Ion Color Brillance Brights, Magenta: This color got RAVE reviews for anyone wanting to color their hair and have something a little longer lasting. 

Bleaching

I typically have healthy hair, using deep conditioners frequently to tame my wild curls.  I definitely recommend using your favorite deep treatment for at least a week or two prior to the harsh chemicals.  I also bleached on dirty hair so as not to strip natural oils away before bleaching.

I bought 3 packages of bleach figuring I'd make a mess.  I only ended up using 2 but I think using 3 would've been best (I missed some spots!).  Follow directions on the package for mixing, and also use the biggest mixing bowl you can find!! Mine was 4 oz and almost wasn't enough!! 

Mix together well!!! You should come out with a smooth consistency with no lumps or dry powder bombs as I like to call them.  The bleach should be between paste and runny, when you pull your mixing utensil from the bowl the product shouldn't be runny should kind of "glop" from the brush back to the bowl. I ended up pouring all of the developer I needed and then slowly mixing in the powder, careful not to sling it all over.  Surprisingly this bleach had almost no oder!! The smell was a little strong while mixing but once it was mixed there was virtually no harsh oder.  I did use a very small fan just in case.

GLOP!

There really is no good way to put this stuff in your hair.  The recommended steps are to start from about mid-shaft, bleaching the roots last.  The heat from your head will cause the roots to process faster, and the rest of the hair needs a good head start.  However, I could not manage to find a good way to follow this process.  I finally gave in and treated the bleach like hair color (shhh don't tell my stylist!!!).  I started with my roots and made sure to coat each, small section, with lots of bleach.  I made sure to make sure it was all REALLY wet, just like I would with hair color.  I left my head uncovered to make watching it easier.  I also made sure to check my hair every 10 minutes so that I wouldn't over process it. Make sure that each time you check it, you make a mental note of what color your hair is.  If you reach a point where you feel like its not turning anymore its probably a good idea to wash it out.  I also did not let it sit on my hair for more then 45 minutes once all my hair was covered!

This is at the first 10 minute mark, after having it totally applied.  As you can see I did a wonderful job making an epic mess! You'll also notice that my roots are still pretty dark.

This is at the 20 minute mark.  My roots still looked pretty dark and I started to get a little nervous that they wouldn't be light enough!!

This is the 45 minute mark! As you can see it did a pretty decent job bleaching my hair!! My roots still looked pretty dark but I had hope!! Through the entire process I did not experience any burning, itching, or discomfort.  This is why it is VERY important to watch the clock and check!! If you are afraid you might experience burning, my stylist told me that mixing some sweet and low in the bleach will take care of that!!

Here is what the final product looked like.  At the time I thought it was perfect, but thanks to my crappy water, its a lot brassier than I think is needed.  In the first picture you can see where some of my roots didnt lighten properly, I have feeling this is my fault.  REALLY saturate your hair with the bleach to avoid this!! In the second picture the middle is that brass color and the bottom where its a bright gold, the bright gold is ideal.  Keep in mind previously highlighted ares will be lighter than everything else, something I forgot! 

PINK!!

I learned a lot during this stage!! I read in reviews where the product I choose was REALLY thick, people wrote that they mixed the product with conditioner or developer and it was fine.

THIS IS A BAD IDEA!!!

The first round of color I mixed it with my conditioner because yes, this product is VERY thick!! However mixing it with a white product made the dye significantly lighter, BAD.IDEA.

I purchased 3 boxes of the dye and this is the turn out after the conditioner.  Still a lot thicker than normal hair dye, a lot thicker than anything I've ever used but a lot easier to work with.  It was easier to apply with it being thinner (it helped that thinning it out gave me more to work with too.).  Like the bleach, I applied this with my fingers from root to end. Once the product was in my hair, this sat for an hour before washing out.  I did wear gloves during the washing out process for fear of dying my hands. When using fun colors, like pink it is recommended to always wash your hair in cool/cold water with a color safe shampoo.  A LOT of the dye washed out, so much so I was actually worried. I also recommend using a towel you don't care about, your hair will bleed.

This is the final outcome!! It photographed better than it actually was, but was still okay for the day.  The color was VERY brassy, very light and about 3 different shades. I was NOT happy with it...even if I'm sort of smiling about it.

 Here you can see the side, as you can see the roots are a sweet, bubble gum pink while the middle is a brownish/reddish/pink...thing.

My bangs were a decent shade and were a single shade but was lighter than I wanted.

Here I was trying to show the brightness of my ends.  I had my hair highlighted pink this same time last year, my ends still had highlighted pieces and bleached out REALLY light.  These pieces were "highlighter pink" and worked well since they were all over the ends. 

Overall

• The brush thing normally used in salons was useless because I had NO idea what I was doing. With time I WILL learn how to use this.
• The Ion color I used was junk.  See follow up blog
• I would recommend the bleach
• Definitely cover your counter and floor with something you don't mind getting bleach and color on
• Wear gloves
• Use a deep conditioner after bleaching and coloring
• Keep a constant eye while bleaching
• Heat can be used to help speed up the process
• Do not use more than 30 volume developer or risk over processing
• Do not mix your hair color with conditioner or developer