Mushy hair (after bleaching)

[brok3nwings]

squiggyflop i dont agree with you. i dont use henna but you cant be sure of the quality from the grocery...if most people from here say it its because it should be true.

I would buy for now good quality henna from the internet. We are not talking about natural hair, we are talking about hair that has been bleached so this is only my opinion.

[Nightshade]

I second henna from a good quality supplier. Now is NOT the time to take a chance that your grocery store brand henna has wonky crap in it that can react to your bleached hair.

Also, check out the article on damaged hair in my siggy I grew out some pretty epic dye damage (though it wasn't mushy), perhaps there will be a few additional ideas in there for you

[Katze]

Good advice, Nightshade.

I had mushy hair only once, and it fell out in handfuls. Because this was during my wild days I just dyed it more and it was "fine" - but if you want healthy hair, obviously this is no solution.

The only thing that worked for me was cutting it off. As many have said, your hair has been ruined, from the inside out, and despite what hair product companies try to tell you, you can't repair it. You can baby it and try to keep it at its best, but that hair is damaged forever.

I am growing out damage from bleach, and I notice those parts are never the same as the rest of my hair. However, moisture treatments do help, and I am slowly trimming.

Good luck to you!

Katze

[suicides_eve]

i had to cut it off.

i had waist length hair i bleached the crap out of, it ended up melting off in spots turning super old lady white- a breaking off. I tried every thing to salvage it. I gave myself a pixie cut after 4 months of trying and feeling horrible about my looks with straw hair. It is 2 years later and i am nearly back to my mid way point of waist.

if you o cut there is many inspirational picture albums of pixi to long hair... i have a few photos of my bleach damaged hair. it looked like straw *shudders*

[Loviatar]

I think Loviatar had something similar and her hair is looking great now. *activates bat symbol to call Lovi*

You called?

In May 2008 I bleached my hair and dyed it bright red (pillarbox) with LOreal Majicontrast at a salon. I knew I shouldnt have done it at the time but I was so miserable and my hair was my only focus for control. It's a looong story, but it basically involved this process:

Salon: Shampoo hair, bleach hair, shampoo bleach out, apply bright red chemical dye, shampoo out, blow dry
Me: Excuse me! I have pink hair, and a stripe of black running through my hair where the black dye hasn't lifted.
Salon: Uh, we can fix that.
Salon: Shampoo hair, re-bleach hair, shampoo bleach out, look worried.
Salon: Uh, we need to put a dark brown toner on.
Salon: Apply toner, shampoo out, reapply bright red, shampoo out. Condition (FINALLY.) Blow dry.

This was the point at which my hair gave up. I could see the wet parts of my hair looking like (TMI) armpit hair does when you apply Nair or Immac/Veet. Mushy, right? Protein bonds totally destroyed. Epic fail on the hair front. As the stlylist blowdried me, 1-3 inch pieces of hair were dropping off as she brushed. Right into my lap, just dropping off.

PICTURES:
I went from this (before any salon visits):


to this (immediately in salon after treatment):


When I got home it looked like this:

Note my utterly wrecked hemline. No more U shape there.
So I cut 3 inches. But in a week it looked like this:

The dark red ends faded to maroon... and even though I had cut, the ends kept on breaking and being fuzzy.
and in two weeks, it looked like this:

Blurry but realistic. The bleached areas didnt hold the red; it utterly washed out. The ends were almost greenish brown and it was utterly trashed. The sections round my face were much shorter too. I still have broken jaw-length pieces today.

RECOVERY
So, I used Nutrisse semi permanent dark brown dye and in about a month or so it became this:


but the hair was so porous and damaged it went almost true black, and I still have that dye in my hair now. You can see the blackish length/ends in my avatar.

The salon didnt charge me (the tears helped) and gave me a free pot of Label M intensive conditioner with brazil nut oil and shea butter. It had cones but a LHC friend, BBGrrl, told me that cones are totally made for wrecked hair. I used to leave the Label M in my hair overnight in a braid. I used cones continuously for maybe a month and then switched to Chagrin Valley shampoo bars. I had soft water then so they lathered well and I firmly believe these babies did a good job of saving my hair. (If I hadnt moved to London I would still use them now.)

I also used honey in every mix each time I conditioned, as Justgreen suggests. I used Redken anti snap on the length maybe 2x a week and MOP Extreme Protein mask maybe once a week. I couldnt get on with Redken CAT spray so the mask was better for me. I did not SMT; I can never get the hang of it without curdling my mix. But I left plain conditioner and honey on for at least an hour at a time, maybe twice weekly. I cut my daily washes to maybe twice a week. I stopped measuring my hair and taking photos, and wore my hair up almost continuously for all of June, July and August. I oiled with coconut oil (the liquid, refined kind) practically every wash night, diluted my shampoo, and oiled my poor abused scalp too. This was serious hair abuse: I went from maybe 3.75 inches nape circumference to 2.25 in one fell swoop. I am only back to 2.5 now.

Note: When I chose the brown dye I only chose it as I was job hunting. I always return to red dye in some form or other. Once I had secured the job I felt confident to return to henna. No other hair colour has been on or near my hair since. Cassia is permitted but I havent used it yet. Now my hair looks like my avatar. It's got a long way to go but I will never use bleach again. And I hope my experience can help other mushy-haired LHCers.

Wow long post :blush:

[JustKeramie]

Update: I trimmed off some of my nasty frazzled stuff today, and my henna arrived, much to my surprise. Seeing as I have school all week, I probably will wait until friday to do it because I'm going to leave it in over night so that it will be darker... I also have to wait until I have lemon juice. But I'm really excited, and I have high hopes for it fixing my color... hopefully it won't let me down

[suicides_eve]

wow loviatar, thats a tragic story, posted to your come back thread you hair has come a long ways

i wouldn't have been so kind to them peoplz

[suicides_eve]

Update: I trimmed off some of my nasty frazzled stuff today, and my henna arrived, much to my surprise. Seeing as I have school all week, I probably will wait until friday to do it because I'm going to leave it in over night so that it will be darker... I also have to wait until I have lemon juice. But I'm really excited, and I have high hopes for it fixing my color... hopefully it won't let me down

great news good luck keep us updated

[JustKeramie]

I hennaed my hair a couple weeks ago, and I'm going to do it again tomorrow after school. :] The color was fine after the first time, but it seems like it's been washing out, especially in the mushy parts. I just now shampooed and conditioned for the first time in a few days and the mushy parts are looking green again. D: Has this happened to anyone else? Everything I read about the washout said it was just the henna stuck to the surface and that it coloring the water shouldn't effect the color in your hair, but mine gets uglier with everywash. I've also stopped using any heat on my hair, washed less often, and I've been wearing it up nearly everyday...yay for taking better care of it. I'm kind of worried though, lately I've had really bad dandruff and I never did before, only the past week or week and a half. Any good/cheap remedies?

[JustKeramie]

Oh and I really miss my black hair :[ so I've been considering indigo after I use up the rest of my henna. Does it have the same benefits? I promise I won't bleach it again haha. And is the color pay off actually black?