Bleaching: What to Expect
Having super blond hair is what dreams are made of. You look incredible, can tint your hair any fun color you want and get heads turning everywhere you go. However, it is a high maintenance hair color and requires a certain amount of understanding and care in order to have it.
Here are some tidbits to help get you familiarized with what you will need to prepare for:
Bleaching: Removal of pigment out of the cuticle, using peroxide and lightner. Once applied to the hair, the cuticles are opened and the pigment is stripped from the cortex. First the brown and black molecules leave, then the red, and finally the yellow. Makes the hair more porous, which is great to soak up fun artificial colors.
- The lighter the hair, the less pigment-less strength. *White hair=no pigment=very fragile hair
- Plan to spend all day for your first bleaching and be patient. It sometimes takes a few times or visits to get to that perfect shade.
- Schedule 3 hours for your touchup bleaches.
- Plan to get your new growth touched up every 3-7 weeks to keep it healthy and even toned.
- Your hair will be a different texture. Bleaching the hair opens and expands the cuticle by 30%, which will make your hair more fragile, but also sometimes thicker, straighter or brittle.
- Choose Olaplex treatments whenever offered.
Bleaching is permanent, if you want to go back to a natural color after bleaching your hair – you can dye your hair a color similar to your natural shade as it grows in to make it less noticeable. Once it is dyed back to natural-ish color, it is not advisable to bleach again and you will have to do glosses to refresh re-tinted color.
Hair dye: Can be permanent, semi permanent or temporary. Permanent hair- dye can lighten virgin hair in a similar way to bleach, but it also deposits tone back into the hair and then locks it in. Semi- permanent hair-dye can be used to tone bleached hair, give a subtle hue of color to virgin hair or darken lighter hair.
Temporary dye is any sort of dye that doesn’t need to be mixed with peroxide; they work best on pre-lightened hair.
Fun Colors: a temporary dye, which stains your hair and can be painted onto pre-lightened or naturally blond hair, tones can range from a sublte pastel pink to a bright bold tie- dye. Everyone’s hair has different porosity, so there is no rule to how long it will last; less washing (lots of dry shampoo) with luke warm water and good conditioners will help the colors last. A general rule is: pastel tones – 1-3 washes; strong pigments – 10-12 washes (it will become lighter as it fades out).
*If you want silver on white hair or to keep your blonds cool, you need to wash your hair with silver shampoo (purple or blue tinted) once a week, this will reduce brassy tones and keep your color looking fresh.
The Dos and Don’ts of Bleaching
- Do use high quality sulfate free shampoos and conditioners.
- Don’t rip through the hair or tug.
- Do use wide-tooth combs and or wide based fine bristle brushes like Wet brush or Mason Pearson.
- Do use most all products that moisturize and strengthen.
- Stay away from drying products(hairsprays, etc).
- Air dry as much as possible.
- Lighten up on the heat tools.
- Always use a leave-in conditioner.
- Home Care -Ease up on shampooing.
More Tips:
- The easiest way to retain moisture is to avoid daily shampooing. Natural oil (grease) is produced by the scalp to nourish hair, and washing hair daily prevents it from reaching the ends of the hair, resulting in dry and split ends, Also, the more often the hair is washed the more oil is produced, which results in greasy roots and dry tips. Retrain your hair to produce less grease, less often by washing it once or twice a week.
- Always wash your hair in luke-warm water. Cold water will lock in shampoo and dirt, and hot water will scald and dry out your hair, much like hot tools.
- Use a hair mask weekly to maintain the condition of your hair. If your hair is dry from the hair-coloring process, we recommend a repair mask to replace the keratin (protein) that’s been stripped out. If your hair is dry from everyday styling, you need a moisture mask to replace all the vital oils, which have been lost from heat tools.
- Don’t vigorously towel dry hair. This will roughen the cuticle causing frizz and split ends. Dry your hair as gently as possible by patting and squeezing the hair dry with a towel.
- If you must use a hair-dryer or irons, always use a heat-protector with as many moisturizing ingredients as possible and make sure that they are quality ionic tools.
- You will probably have to use a weekly toning shampoo or conditioner.
- Scrunchies are your new best friends! To keep you blond locks from breaking, you will need to invest in some new hair ties and accessories. Emi Jay hair ties and scrunchies are the perfect fit. Rubber bands or even the no break rubber bands are too small and cause tension to your super fragile hair.
- Get out of the habit of going to bed with your hair in a top knot. This will pull and tug while you sleep.
- Sleep on a silk pillowcase. They are silky and wont snag or pull on you delicate strands. Bonus, they also are incredible for your skin.;)
Welcome to the wonderful world of awesome hair!!
