Least Damaging Way to Lighten My Hair Several Shades

[gogirlanime]

So I am looking to lighten my hair several shades. I know regardless it will be damaging. I have dark brown hair and I want to get it to a medium light shade so I can dye it with non damaging henna so I can have a natural redhead look. I have tried honey lightening and lemon in the sun and it just isn't enough. I've heard apply coconut oil before you bleach and I've heard peroxide in low dosages over time will do the job. What is your take please? :D

[theodora]

If I were you, I'd definitely use coconut oil applied on first and then do bleach baths. And for the bleach baths don't use anything stronger than 30vol. I think just peroxide on its own really won't do much while still being damaging, hence why I thought a bleach bath might be better. Depending on how light you'd like to go and how easily your hair lightens, 3 bleach baths might do it.

Obvious recommendation: strand test to see how your hair will cope. (remember to apply the coconut oil on your strand test too)

[Iolanthe13]

I've been using Sun-In on my roots to accomplish this. My hair is lighter than yours, so I only have to do it once, but it doesn't seem nearly as damaging as the permanent dye I used to use.

[Chestnuthenna]

There are some interesting posts on using cinnamon to lighten hair on LHC (sorry I haven't worked out how to do links yet). I wonder if you could achieve the effect gradually by using a henna-honey-cinnamon mix? You would get red highlights to begin with and hopefully a gradual lightening effect? Cinnamon tea can be used as a rinse too (some problems with skin reactions). I can't promise you it would work but it might be worth considering.
I used Sun-In years ago for similar reasons and really regretted it afterwards. I ended up with weird crispy ginger ends a couple of years down the line.

[jillosity]

The real issue would be maintenance of the shade, it would be difficult to impossible to do a roots-only soap cap/bleach bath thingy. It might end up being less damaging (and a whole lot simpler) to just find a box dye that gives you the desired shade, then do root touch-ups as needed. I used Natural Instincts for years with little damage.

However you might find that your hair gets "reddish" from lightening it. I'm pretty sure people use cinnamon as an add-in when doing honey lightening, perhaps you could give that combination a try too.

Henna might not be able to give you what you want.

[pink.sara]

The real issue would be maintenance of the shade, it would be difficult to impossible to do a roots-only soap cap/bleach bath thingy. It might end up being less damaging (and a whole lot simpler) to just find a box dye that gives you the desired shade, then do root touch-ups as needed. I used Natural Instincts for years with little damage.

However you might find that your hair gets "reddish" from lightening it. I'm pretty sure people use cinnamon as an add-in when doing honey lightening, perhaps you could give that combination a try too.

Henna might not be able to give you what you want.

Actually it's not difficult, no more than dying roots only and it's how I maintain mine.

You just mix bleach powder, peroxide and shampoo in a 1:1:1 ratio then put it in an old dye bottle with a nozzle. You can then section off your hair into quarters and draw parallel lines of the mix about 1cm apart through the sections to reach all the roots. It's time consuming compared to spraying peroxide and unless you have 2 mirrors to see the back of your head you may need a helper, but kinder on your scalp and doesn't run the risk of overlap so much.

ETA: Ooooh, and use coconut oil! Like theodora said :)

[theodora]

Yea the reason why I suggested a bleach bath is that you would use coconut oil underneath to chelate the copper/iron produced by bleach/peroxide which greatly reduces the damage. You can't use coconut oil under a honey/cinammon treatment.
You can also use coconut oil under a box dye if you wanna go that route, I've done it before and it definitely limited the damage.

[jillosity]

Actually it's not difficult, no more than dying roots only and it's how I maintain mine.

You just mix bleach powder, peroxide and shampoo in a 1:1:1 ratio then put it in an old dye bottle with a nozzle. You can then section off your hair into quarters and draw parallel lines of the mix about 1cm apart through the sections to reach all the roots. It's time consuming compared to spraying peroxide and unless you have 2 mirrors to see the back of your head you may need a helper, but kinder on your scalp and doesn't run the risk of overlap so much.

ETA: Ooooh, and use coconut oil! Like theodora said :)

I agree, the actual application technique would be the same, however the end results could be very different. When doing a hair color touchup, you're putting the same color (in most cases) on your new growth, so there probably won't be any big surprises. When applying bleach however, there is definitely some room for surprises of the not necessarily pleasant type.

I think it would really depend on the OP's hair coloring skill level and confidence level, and a helper might be extremely desirable at least the first time to avoid splotches of bleach brightened hair, especially because the subsequent henna app. would take very differently to those areas.

Sounds like an exciting hair adventure for certain, I'll keep reading to see what happens next! =)

[gogirlanime]

Thank you for all the replies everyone!! I have decided on something. I am growing out my hair "virgin" as of now, my "virgin" hair has red henna in it and I have bout 7 more inches of really bad damage from years of dye overlapping, blow drying, straightening, sulfates and hot showers (eeeeew these phrases/words make me cringe now). I have fine but thick hair and I've never gotten but an inch or two past BLS and the ends were fairy tale (I want thick ends). So I am thinking about taking really really good care of my hair until my LHC 3rd year anniversary of April 11th 2014, get rid of the damage and hopefully if I get an inch a month with my supplements and regiments I will have 24-25" in length. So to give my hair a fighting chance against hair dye I will grow it out a lot first and lighten it all at once. Then touch up the roots carefully from there.

My problem is I am so paranoid because my tips are SO dry and damaged from years of neglect that I'm afraid even a mild bleaching will destroy it. I don't think that is the case but to be sure I will do most of the damage in one easy swoop. I need to keep telling myself "your hair got that bad because you used conventional dye, you overlapped the dye every month for years and your flat ironed, blow dried, used strong sulphate shampoo and washed your hair in hot water that is what it ended up that way" given, my hair is going to see some damage but I am sure with some coconut oil, protein treatments and a lot of post care it should be 90% the same as virgin.

By the way I am quite good at dying my own hair, I just use two huge mirrors, no problems :) The key is to take your time

[theodora]

Sounds like a good plan, I'm definitely excited to see how you'll get on with it, I think the colour you're aiming for will look gorgeous. And it's good that you're patient.

[Alex Lou]

I think that you've made the right decision. You might consider doing more henna without bleaching since it will give you a bit of the red that you crave even over your dark hair without damaging. I have a friend who has absolutely beautiful dyed red hair. She has dark brown hair naturally and doesn't bleach, but when she steps out in the sun her hair is on fire; so reflective and red!

[jillosity]

Sounds like a good plan, and you'll be all set to do the whole shebang!

[pink.sara]

Sounds like a good plan.

:)

[Isilme]

If you later decide on using bleach anyway (because I know how wonderful that light red henna is!) you could do highlights instead of bleaching your whole head of hair. That way you will get some variation without damaging every single strand.