So...... I totally bleached part of my hair. (pic heavy)

[theemeraldskull]

So. I love my hair, absolutely every aspect of it, length, color, thickness, etc. But... I had been getting kinda bored with it. No motivation to put it up, or anything, just sticking with either a ponytail or just leaving it down (and I love it down), but I was just feeling blah. I really did NOT want to cut/layer/style it, since I adore the length, but I thought... perhaps if it just had an element of interest/contrast, I might find it more interesting to put up/mess with, and also more enjoyable as a whole.

I got the idea from a girl I worked with a few months ago. Her hair was naturally the most gorgeous shade of platinum blonde I had ever seen, and she'd dyed the underside solid black. It was such a gorgeous contrasty combo, that it inspired me to do something similar. And so... my hair currently:

Up in a "katniss" braid, except french braid rather than dutch (should try it with a dutch braid...)
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i86/theemeraldskull/bleach1.jpg

Long and flowy!
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i86/theemeraldskull/bleach2.jpg


Love the braids. :D
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i86/theemeraldskull/bleach3.jpg


And one in black & white just for kicks.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i86/theemeraldskull/bleach4.jpg


I love the inherent artistical value of my hair currently. Contrasty things make me happy. :D

Random notes involving the bleaching: I was kinda worried that it would super dry out my hair, so I looked up ways to moisturize, and of course browsed LHC. It was virgin hair up until I bleached it a few days ago, so it was pretty healthy and solid to begin with. Anyways, I bleached it, let it sit for 2 days, then bleached it again (was hoping for a super platinum blonde - original goal was white, though I will have to use other products if I hope to achieve that). After the second bleaching, I rinsed out the bleach, then did my first coconut oil conditioning treatment (slathered some on my hair, left it in for about 30 minutes), then washed my hair in the shower, then used some conditioner that someone gave us... which just happens to be a deep conditioning treatment conditioner! So far my hair has been deliciously soft and silky, and I plan to use the deep conditioner as often as my hair needs it (probably once a month or bi-monthly), as well as regular usage of coconut oil.

[Sillage]

FUN! Your hair reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream-- minus the strawberry of course :laugh: I really think it's fab, especially in the Katniss braid-- WOW!

[Scarlett brooke]

Love it particularly the plaits! Iv just coloured all my hair blonde with an ash toner and I lve it! I want to keep it long but got so bored with it so I mess with the colour. I'm always going dark then blonde then lowlights highlights regular toners etc my hair is nearly waist length and i don't think it's in too bad condition considering all I do to it. Thank you for sharing your pictures with us.

[sisi33]

You know I never got the blonde on top with brown/black underneath- but I absolutely love yours! Especially the double braids!

[millyaulait]

I LOVE your hair in the Katniss braid! :crush:

[Maelyssa]

My favorites are the two braided styles. The contrast really is visually stunning.

[bunnylake]

Wow, it looks awesome!!!

[Addy]

I like the blonde on bottom better this way. I think it looks super cool! :D

[spidermom]

Good luck with that; I hope the condition holds up.

[Falcore]

I love this!

[faellen]

That looks fantastic! Reminds me of years ago when I had black hair with pink underneath. Really makes me want to start dyeing my hair again!

[akilina]

If you havent yet...toner can be your best friend.
I would suggest manic panic virgin snow. Only because its deposit only and might help fill in your hair and make it feel extra healthy.
It will help tone out the yellowness/ brassiness and get you more towards platinum.

Sorry if you already mentioned it...its kinda hard to use this website on my phone..

[blondie9912]

The contrast looks neat!

[theemeraldskull]

If you havent yet...toner can be your best friend.
I would suggest manic panic virgin snow. Only because its deposit only and might help fill in your hair and make it feel extra healthy.
It will help tone out the yellowness/ brassiness and get you more towards platinum.

Sorry if you already mentioned it...its kinda hard to use this website on my phone..

Thanks! I actually do have a toner, "Shimmer Lights" is what I am using currently. :-) I actually am thinking about getting something similar to manic panic virgin snow, though i have read the bottles are pretty small for pretty expensive, so I might not be able to foot that bill often... (like $10 for 4oz bottle) But anyways... I am going to use the toner shampoo I have a few times, and then maybe add something off and on in a month or so. :-)

[melusine963]

Goodness, those braids are striking! You've certainly made things interesting. :)

[theemeraldskull]

Also, thanks everyone :D I looooooove the braids, too! I am hoping it will be the kickstart I need to start putting my hair up more and trying new styles. My old styles get pretty boring. :D And I will also keep regular updates on the texture of the hair. So far it's been the same as my unbleached hair, and I have not seen any great amount of breakage, so that's good!

[akilina]

Thanks! I actually do have a toner, "Shimmer Lights" is what I am using currently. :-) I actually am thinking about getting something similar to manic panic virgin snow, though i have read the bottles are pretty small for pretty expensive, so I might not be able to foot that bill often... (like $10 for 4oz bottle) But anyways... I am going to use the toner shampoo I have a few times, and then maybe add something off and on in a month or so. :-)

Cool :) .something else you could do is use genician violet (hopefully its the right name) its usually in the strange little imported/spanish section.. you can literally add just a few tiny drops to several cups of water and do a mermaid rinse on the under section. Never tried but I have heard it works great. Its soooo cheap too.. its worth a try. You could also get yourself just one tub of purple manic panic or some other dye and use just the tiniest little blob with a ton of conditioner. It works..i did that when i had no toner..however it was pravana I used which is incredibly pigmented and concentrated. I dont mean to sound rude but generally a purple shampoo and conditioner is not going to make a big impact and its not really proper for toning.

[theemeraldskull]

Cool :) .something else you could do is use genician violet (hopefully its the right name) its usually in the strange little imported/spanish section.. you can literally add just a few tiny drops to several cups of water and do a mermaid rinse on the under section. Never tried but I have heard it works great. Its soooo cheap too.. its worth a try. You could also get yourself just one tub of purple manic panic or some other dye and use just the tiniest little blob with a ton of conditioner. It works..i did that when i had no toner..however it was pravana I used which is incredibly pigmented and concentrated. I dont mean to sound rude but generally a purple shampoo and conditioner is not going to make a big impact and its not really proper for toning.

Thanks :) As of right now, I don't really have any money at all, so I wouldn't be able to buy any other sort of toner anyhow. But I have been researching different ones and I think I am going to try and get a separate toner (I have also read good things about wella white lady), when I am able to. :-) The eventual goal is hopefully white, or at least as light platinum blonde as I can get. So, it's a process. :-)

[Lostsoule77]

Looks really good, I love the double braids! I sure hope you can keep it up without too much damage. If you havent', look up Justgreen on here. She is a wealth of info in this area.

[jacqueline101]

I think it looks neat. I think it will be alright as long as you baby it with extra moisturizers.

[akilina]

Either way its always good to do anything with bleach super gradually :) if you do get antsy though..a good size bottle of the genitian violey is probably 2 dollars.
I am having some serious bleach envy lol! :D

[theemeraldskull]

I think it looks neat. I think it will be alright as long as you baby it with extra moisturizers.

I am definitely going to keep an eye on it! :-) I do have a deep conditioner with extra moisturization, and I am planning to make good use of my coconut oil especially when the ends are feeling dry.


Either way its always good to do anything with bleach super gradually :) if you do get antsy though..a good size bottle of the genitian violey is probably 2 dollars.
I am having some serious bleach envy lol! :D

Yeah definitely :-) I'm definitely going to give it a few weeks rest before I blast it with anything else super harsh. :-) But I am going to look up that genitian violet for sure! :-)

[PixxieStix]

Very fun, thanks for sharing! I'm not allowed "un-natural" looking hair at work, so something like this is currently not doable for me, but I LOVE seeing this on others! We had two older ladies walk in the other day with grey/white hair with neon red, purple, and blue chunks dyed, and I wanted to just hug them! Your hair has brought a smile to my face, I hope you continue to love it!

[OrganicJewel]

You should really think about toning it, it would go a long way to making it look extra nice, it looks like fun now, it's always nice to have a change, isn't it? Maybe a protein treatment too, from what I understand bleach destroys protein. Also, shimmer lights is really ineffective when you're dealing with hair that yellow, it's more for keeping up the colour once it's been toned.

[theemeraldskull]

So, here is the *absolute ideal* for the bleached hair, though that may or may not be possible. I am not really going to stress about it... I'll try some toners, maybe some more lightening, etc, see what works. Not going to blast my hair all at once (plus gotta have money for these things XD), so it's a process... but it looks to be quite an interesting one! I'm definitely loving my hair right now. :D

PHOTOSHOPPED
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i86/theemeraldskull/idealsmall.jpg

(although, I guess my ideal is slightly whiter than this, not so "silvery" looking. Ah, well, my GIMP editing skillz only go so far :P)

[OUKess]

I like it!!! Looks great!!!

[gracenotes]

That's so cool! I love the contrast, especially in the braids.

[ghost]

It looks beautiful! I love two-toned hair, and it should be easy to maintain as long as you just keep bleaching the new growth, and toning the rest of your hair. Not too bad, especially if your hair was virgin to start out with :)
The braided styles look especially pretty.

[MaryO]

Looks soooo cool! Hope the condition stays good!

[owlathena]

Oh how cool!

[Dragon]

It looks awesome. I really like how it looks in the plaits and the other hair style.

[Golden]

Your hair is awesome!!

[HintOfMint]

Wow, boredom usually never ends up as nice as this! The two braids is a fantastic look, I love it!

[Rosetta]

It looks great, and I can totally relate to why you did it, having done something similar myself a few times :) (For example, I bleached some chunky streaks when I used to henna, as I was just bored with the monotone henna look; not to mention later bleaching henna out of my hair, but that's another story...)

[jojo]

When you do this again try bleaching over coconut oil to help its condition, hope you dont live to regret it as bleach has a nasty habit of catching up with you when you least expect it. On the fun aspect it looks great, just make sure to baby it but im sure you know that!

[LadyCelestina]

It looks great in the braid and loose !

[proo]

Love it
You rock

[shutterpillar]

It looks really neat! I wish I had the guts to do something like that. My hair probably wouldnt appreciate it though, because unlike yours, it would not be completely virgin hair to start out with. lol.

[woolyleprechaun]

It looks groovy! I don't want to spoil the fun, but beware of the bleach damage my friend! BEWAAAAARE!!! My hair held up beautiful after a lot of work to make it platinum, and then suddenly, ages after.....Ugggggggh.
Take care of that beautiful hair, and enjoy :) Its looking epicaly cool.

[Ayjay]

I love 2 tones like that. Mine is blonde and red under :)

[Angela_Rose]

Wow, what an interesting look!

[AnnaB]

you are brave! Love it!!

[Alexblue]

Very cool, especially with the different braids.