bleach did not work :( + good bleach recommendations?

[lifeis2evil]

Bleached my hair today buttt it only lightened about half a shade in 45mins so now what should I do?

My original plan was to bleach to a light color then henna

should I still henna then bleach later or a henna/cassia gloss?

or should I wait 2 weeks and re-bleach?

And lastly anyone have any bleaches to recommend?

My hair was dyed red twice (once in June, once in July, and hennaed in August) so its a dark brown/reddish color because the chemical dyes didn't do much

** natural color is dark brown

[pepperminttea]

Silly question, but why bleach before a henna?

[lifeis2evil]

To get a lighter color when I henna if I henna over what I have now I'll just have dark red hair which is not what I am going for :/

[cdt]

I would recommend a colour remover instead of the bleach. I believe that you probably have previous colour build-up and it is hard to remove it with bleach (unless you literally "fry" it out of your hair) a colour remover is milder that bleach as well

[lifeis2evil]

Is it really milder? I always heard it was more hurtful than bleach

[FrannyG]

Are you bleaching out chemical colour or your natural colour? What is your natural colour?

In any event, even salon bleaching can be extremely damaging, and at-home bleaching can be more so.

Please think out all of your options before subjecting yourself to more bleaching.

I won't give any more advice until I know the answers to the above questions in the first paragraph.

[lifeis2evil]

My hair was dyed red twice (once in June 2010, once in July, and hennaed in August) so its a dark brown/reddish color because the chemical dyes didn't do much

** Natural color is dark brown

[FrannyG]

If your natural colour is dark brown, then don't even bother with colour remover. It won't make your hair any lighter than it is now.

How does your hair feel since you used the bleach? Is it tangly, or dry or does it feel spongey when wet? If not, consider yourself very fortunate, and perhaps leave it at that.

You know, if you want to have a lighter shade of red with henna, you'll have to bleach your naturally dark brown roots all the time, and let me tell you, home bleaching roots only is a very tricky job. You may end up damaging the hair close to your roots to the point of breakage. We see it happen all the time here at LHC, and I've seen it in real life more than I wish I had.

If you are using henna to give your hair a red colour in a healthier way than using chemical dye, I suggest that you don't bleach your hair any more than you have done.

Frankly, I just don't see the point of having to regularly subject yourself to bleaching dark roots before applying henna every few weeks. It just doesn't make sense.

I realize that you are going for a specific shade of red, but I can see disaster on the horizon if you bleach any more.

Sometimes we just have to live with what we have to work with.

I hope that you can figure all of this out to your satisfaction.