Not legally blonde? Then, the shortcut to being blonde is bleaching your hair. There are several reasons one might want to go blonde or essentially lighten their hair. One reason being is that blonde hair can be very trendy or suit your skin tone. The other reason being you want to add colourful dye to your hair but your hair is too dark for the hair dye to take effect. A lot of people are in a hurry to go from pitch black hair to platinum blonde on the same day but bleaching your dark hair can be a very long process and very damaging to the hair if you’re in a hurry to achieve the lightest shade hair colour in a short time.
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Levels of bleached hair
Realistically there are 10 levels of hair bleach colour. It can even go up to 12 levels depending on your preference. Those hair lightening levels are determined by the hair colour. Dark and deep hair colours such as jet black and deep brown have a high amount of melanin which is the pigment that gives your hair its natural colour require several bleaching sessions to get the hair to be lighter. On the other hand, lighter hair colours such as auburn, light brown, yellow, and blonde require fewer bleaching sessions than the darker hair. There are numbered charts available in beauty supply stores or are available online for you to measure what level of hair tone you are at. The darkest hair tone being numbered 1 and the lightest shade which is platinum blonde being numbered 10. Place a hair colour depth chart next to your strands to determine the level of natural hair pigmentation. Compare the chart to the hair near your scalp if your hair is coloured. This is the most straightforward method for determining your natural hair colour level. It also tells you how many steps up to bleach to achieve the desired hair colour.
How many sessions does it take to get the desired hair lightness level?
The length of the sessions is determined by how light you want your hair to be and how dark it is. It’s best if you don’t lighten your hair more than four levels in one session. You can go four more levels up after two or three weeks to acquire the lighter hair tone of your choice. Going from dark to light too quickly can cause your hair to become dry, brittle, and weak. It’s not worth risking your hair by using bleach too often in a short span of time. The notion that there are factors that determine how light you can go in one session is another reason why professionals advocate bleaching your hair in multiple sessions. What are these different factors?
What factors affect hair bleaching levels?
- Natural Hair Color: If your hair is black or really dark, you will require more sessions to lighten it.
- Hair Porosity: Hair with a high porosity tends to bleach quickly. This type of hair, however, is more prone to breakage. If you want a blonde look, it’s best to bleach your hair in multiple sessions.
- Product Intensity: Depending on the strength of the bleaching chemicals, two to four sessions may be required to achieve the necessary lift levels. Use products that aren’t too powerful, though because they can be damaging.
- Application Time: Leaving the product on your hair for a longer time will result in a lighter shade. Allow the hairstylist to decide how long you should keep the product. Hair loss might result from an unduly extended bleaching process that fries the hair cuticle.
How to protect your hair when you bleach it?
- Don’t wash your hair too often: This will prevent your hair from losing its natural moisture. It also lessens the chance of the dye’s colour fading and the necessity to bleach your hair as soon as possible.
- Trim Your Hair: Every three months, get your hair trimmed to get rid of rough ends and split ends. It will also speed up the growth of your hair without making it look unhealthy or messy.
- Minimize the use of heat tools: Heat styling products, such as blow dryers, straightening irons, and curlers, can cause additional harm to your bleached hair. Before using a heat styling tool, always use a heat protectant. Also, towel dry your hair and use the coolest setting on the tool.
- Once a week, apply a thoroughly nourishing hair mask to your hair. Warm coconut or olive oil, mashed avocado, or an egg white can also be used. Wait 30-40 minutes after applying any of these ingredients to your hair. Use a purple shampoo to wash your hair. After that, use a conditioner and serum.
Bleached orange hair and how to fix it
You must understand how to tone bleached hair if you want to bleach your hair properly. Your hair will look brassy if you don’t use it, and you won’t be able to achieve the colour you want. Here’s all you need to know about toning and how to do it correctly. Toning bleached hair is the process of applying a solution to the hair after it has been bleached in order to remove any orange tinges, brassy tones, or yellow pigments. It assists you in achieving true-to-colour results, whether you’re going for a pastel, ash blonde, or platinum blonde look. Toner includes a purple or blue tint that gives your hair a natural blonde appearance and removes any orange tint.
The hair lightening process includes bleaching and toning, both of which include the use of chemicals on your hair. Chemically treated hair can become brittle and weak, resulting in a lot of hair losing. As a result, it’s critical to look after your bleached hair in order to keep it looking lovely and healthy.
Steps to toning your hair:
- Make sure your hair has been lifted to the desired colour. Toning hair before it has reached the desired lightness reduces the effectiveness of the toner. It will just result in product waste. It’d be a shame if you didn’t obtain the right shade, so make sure your hair is light enough for the toner to work.
- For ammonia-based hair toner, use a 20 developer. It isn’t enough to simply apply the hair toner. Before combining the products, read the instructions carefully because the ratios may vary depending on the brand. For example, some brands use one-part toner and two parts 20 developer.
- Use on hair that is slightly damp. You want your hair to be just a little damp when you apply the toning mixture to your hair. If you’re toning hair sometime after it’s been bleached, just wash your hair and towel dry it so it’s not dripping wet, and then go to town.
- Keep an eye on the time. After 30 minutes, rinse the toning mixture out of your hair. Keep in mind that this product contains ammonia, which causes the cuticles of your hair strands to expand in order to absorb the product. Because this procedure damages your hair, you should not leave it in for longer than required.
- Dry your hair, style it, and enjoy your perfectly gorgeous blonde shade. Wait at least two weeks before re-toning your hair. The toner will disappear faster if you shampoo frequently. If you don’t wash your hair often, you can come back after weeks to do some tress maintenance and you’ll be back to your ideal blonde shade.
How bleach works
Swelling is one of the beginning stages in the bleaching process (which is normally done using hydrogen peroxide, which is the most common chemical in bleaching agents). Lightening agents that are alkaline causes the hair to swell. This helps to explain why bleached hair seems to be more voluminous. Opening up the cuticles roughens the hair, making finer hair fuller in some cases. Later on, the swelling aids in the application of hair colour. The more the dye’s alkalinity swells the shaft — within reason — the more successful the colour will be. Hair is made from a tough protein called keratin, the same material that makes up your nails and the outer layer of the skin. The bleach combines with the melanin in the hair, causing an irreversible chemical reaction that removes the colour. Bleach causes the melanin molecule to oxidise. Although the melanin is still present, the oxidised molecule has lost its colour. Bleached hair, on the other hand, has a delicate golden colour. The natural colour of keratin, the structural protein in hair, is yellow. Also, because bleach reacts more rapidly with dark eumelanin pigment than with phaeomelanin pigment, some gold or red residual colour may remain after lightening.
Is your hair going to handle bleach?
A lot of professional hair salons perform a strand test when they are met with a client that wants to bleach their hair. The strand test is usually done on people who have been dying and colouring their hair often or hair that might have heat damage. The strand test is also to test what the result of the hair bleach on the entire hair’s tone of colour. To perform the strand hair test first you need to take a few hair strands from the back of your head, where no one will see them. A total of ten hairs should be enough. Before allowing the product to come into touch with your skin, perform a sensitivity test. For your strand test to be effective you need to keep the hairs in a neat bunch or tie the hair strand you chose. you’re evaluating. So, if your bleach calls for 30 ml of powder to 60 ml of peroxide, mix in the same proportions of 1 part powder to 2 parts peroxide. Using 3 ml powder and 6 ml peroxide may be more convenient. For your strand, only a small amount is required. If you are creating a new colour, utilise the same quantities you’ll be using. Even if no mixing is required, it’s a good idea to prepare a mixing bowl and brush in preparation for the following step. Don’t forget to put on your gloves before applying bleach as bleach can irritate the skin. The next step is to keep track of the time. The correctness of the test, like with any other, is critical. Now is the time to check the time because you’ll need to know how long you’ll be leaving the product on your hair strand. Use the same amount of product on your strand test as you would on the rest of your hair. If you use bleach, keep in mind that the hair closest to the roots will not process as quickly as if it were still attached to your head. This is because your scalp isn’t producing enough heat. It’s also a good idea to cover the test strand in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. heck your strand test after bleaching by rubbing some of the bleach out of the hair after 5-10 minutes to see how much the hair has lightened. Because timing is crucial, keep track of how long the bleach has been processing at each stage. Reapply bleach and re-cover the hair strand after checking. Finally, rinse out any colour or chemical products such as bleach or relaxer with water and shampoo and then condition your hair and finally let it air dry.
Bleach is mainly used if you want to remove your natural dark hair colour. However, if you intend to remove a dyed dark hair colour then a hair colour stripper is advised. It is less damaging to the hair and it is advised to do only 3 applications a day if you’re using a hair colour stripper. Lightening your hair is a slow process and requires a lot of patience and it should not be rushed so you do not end up damaging your hair. The more spread out each application of hair colour stripper or bleach the better and is less damaging. One should not expect to go from level 1 dark hair to platinum blonde overnight.