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Going to the light side..

This is apparently quite a huge problem for do-it-yourself colorists. The most common problem it seems, referencing the use of box bleaches in particular, is that they only lift halfway, and leave the hair with half the health it had prior. This means that a second bleaching would be necessary but with risk of extreme hair breakage. Usually salons will refuse to bleach hair that has already been bleached with box kits… or force you to sign a form to waive any legal responsibility on their part.

Whether this has already happened to you or if you’re curious as to how to get light blonde hair, regardless of what color hair you currently have, here’s some good advice.

I’ll go through 3 different scenarios, the most common ones, for the sake of time and reading interest.

Scenario 1: you messed up and thought a box kit at the grocery store would be the perfect solution, and now your hair is fried and either orange, red, or bright yellow… and it’s ugly.

Relax. Take a deep breath. Don’t freak out, this can be fixed pretty easily. But know that only the color can be fixed in this scenario– the damage to your hair is done. Hair is basically dead protein, so once it’s damaged, all you can really do is protect it from getting more damaged… until you eventually cut it off at a salon. With that said, the last thing you want to do is bleach your hair again. This is what I would suggest:
1) Put on a hat, go to sally’s beauty supply, and purchase Wella InDepth. Costs around $5. It will bring your pH levels back down and deep condition your hair.
2) Now this part is up to you. Depends how bad the color is. If at all possible, wait a week before doing anything else to it. Give your scalp a rest because it’s been through a lot. However, if you’re looking a bit like a clown then continue on:
3) Get a very gentle semi or demi-permanent PROFESSIONAL haircolor and color your hair. NO BOX KITS! You will want a color at the same level that your hair currently is, meaning that you will need to do a bit of research on the color wheel and hair levels. Picking the right level and undertones is KEY to fixing your hair. You will want to pick a color that “cancels” out the color your currently have. Here’s three examples:
-If you have orange hair: You will want to pick a color that has a blue base
-If you have yellow hair: You will want to pick a color that has a purple base
-If you have red hair: you will want to pick a color that has a green base
And obviously any of the in-betweens will be combinations of the colors. For example, if your hair is yellow-orange, you will want a base that has purple and blue. And so on, and so forth. As far as the level of the hair color, the best way I can suggest to determine the EXACT shade, is to match your hair with a swatch from the same line as the semi/demi-permanent you will be buying. I say this because I’ve noticed that every product line has slightly different levels. Stick with one product line. Personally, I would recommend Wella. Their professional color is absolutely amazing.
4) Apply the color per the directions on the color product. Do NOT use more than 10 volume developer however. 10 volume and below is “deposit only” which is what you will want to do: just deposit color to correct your bozo-ness. Now it is possible to use more than 10 volume, but for the sake of your hair’s health, that should be avoided. 20 volume and above causes “lift” or lightening, the same thing bleach does. Only bleach is much more intense.

Scenario 2: You have black hair and suddenly want to be platinum.

Before you go color cowboy on me, first evaluate how you will look with platinum hair. Usually people with that dark of hair will not wear light blonde hair very well. But if you’ve tried on a wig or tried a virtual makeover and you like what you see, read on. Getting level 1 or level 2 hair to a level 9 or 10 is not impossible, but very difficult. You must first make sure your hair is in GREAT condition, preferably virgin hair. This is because if you colored it black, you must first get all the color out in order to proceed. There are products to help get this out, and shampooing over and over again with cheap shampoo might help as an at-home method, but 9 times out of 10 most people can’t get it out enough to go light blonde. You might have to wait until it grows out. With that said….
1) You will be bleaching the crap out of your hair. You will want to condition it every other day for a month (preferably) before bleaching.
2) Invest in Redken Levitation Bleach. It’s an on-the-scalp oil bleach that is super gentle to your hair and scalp comparitively. A little pricey (and hard to find– it’s meant for licensed cosmotologists only but check ebay!) but you also need to ask what your hair’s health is worth to you.
3)You will most likely need to bleach 3 times. Use Wella Indepth after each bleaching and follow instructions carefully. DO NOT leave the bleach on too long to avoid the hair from being under-pigmented.
4) there wil be shedding during the process. Don’t freak out. Your hair’s going to be all ticked off in going from that extreme so some of it is going to break off. It’s the price you pay. However, you will not get actual large handfuls of hair falling out. If that happens.. .WASH THE BLEACH OFF IMMEDIATELY. You most likely are having other issues or scalp problems.
5)After bleaching, do NOT forget to tone!! You need a toner and not a demi-permanent. Demi permanents will deposit color into the structure of the hair, and toners act like a “nylon” over it. It creates the desired “hue” you are looking for. Look at the color wheel to determine how to reach your tone.

Scenario 3: You bleached your hair, but not evenly, and you look a bit like a dalmation.

This is a tough one. You will carefully need to reapply bleach to all portions of your hair that is darker, trying not to overlap too much with the pieces that are bleached lighter. Go slowly and carefully. This is either an easy job or a very difficult one, just depends on how many spots you have. If you can’t do it, try to get a friend to help. But unfortunately manually filling them in is the only way to fix this one. Don’t forget to tone when you’re done