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View Full Version : bleaching my hair for the first time, virgin roots, previously dyed ends, suggestions



Elfkin
June 12th, 2014, 05:53 PM
Hello

I have previously dyed hair a couple of shades lighter reddish, from my very dark ash blonde natural colour, but now i want to change to bleach and then henna, it is too dark when i go over my natural colour, so i intend to lighten my hair some and i was wondering what the best way to handle the difference between the virgin roots and the lighter lengths to avoid hot roots, and get an even colour throughout. Would a bleach bath work? I am going to use a very gentle 20vol ammonia free bleach kit from organic hair solutions with the minimum bleach powder i can get away with, all over coconut oil.
Any help or suggestions would be great.
Thankyou

Freija
June 12th, 2014, 07:39 PM
I think 'hot roots' means roots that are noticeably lighter than the rest of your hair - but from what you say, yours are currently darker?


If I've understood your question (and if I haven't, I'm really sorry!), then I'd say there are two options, depending on whether you want your lengths to go lighter as well, or whether you just want your roots to match the rest of your hair so that you can henna evenly.

If your lengths are already light enough, then you can leave them be and only apply bleach to the darker roots. Coconut oil your hair first, you're absolutely right about that, and then use a tinting brush to apply the bleach rather than the squeezy bottle with the nozzle that you usually get with home bleaching kits (the brush gives you much more control). You'll need to work quickly, parting your hair and dabbing on the bleach, then parting it again and dabbing, etc.; if you're unfamiliar with using a tinting brush and working quickly through your hair, you might want to practice the movements beforehand. It's just that if you take too long, half of your hair may be bleached before the other half has started to lighten.

You may well find you need another person to help with this, especially at the back, in order to avoid overlapping your already-lighter hair.

Then, once the bleach is on, just watch your hair closely as it processes so that you can rinse it off as soon as your roots have lightened enough to blend with the rest of your hair.


If you do want to get your lengths lighter, though, as well as lightening up your roots, then you should process the roots last, the very first time you bleach your hair. Doing it in stages gives you more control over everything, so you can see exactly what is going on with the two different levels, and stop at any time.

I'd coconut oil all of your hair thoroughly, and then apply the bleach down your lighter lengths, starting right at the line of your regrowth. You can use a tinting brush and keep parting your hair across your head in order to get the bleach right up to your dark roots without getting any of it on them - and again, you'll probably need help with this, especially at the back. Towards the ends of your hair, though, far away from your roots, you can be less delicate and just fingercomb the bleach in, making sure that all of your lengths are saturated.

I'd let it process for c. 5 - 10 minutes; just enough that you can see your hair lighten to the shade you want. Then wash it out. When your hair is dry, I'd coconut oil it and then do another application of bleach - but this time, like the first option, only applying the bleach to your roots. Let that process until your roots have reached exactly the same colour as your lengths, and the two are completely blended. This will probably also only take c. 5 - 10 minutes, even though the hair is darker, because you have the heat from your scalp to speed everything up. Finally - wash it out and you're ready to henna. : )


Either way, every time you want to touch up your roots after this first time, make sure you avoid getting any bleach overlapping onto your lightened lengths, in order to minimise damage. And please, please do just strand test before trying anything, because no-one can predict exactly how your particular bleach mixture will respond to your particular hair. If nothing else, you'll need to run strand tests in order to work out the timings for processing the lengths vs. the roots.


ETA: Just a thought, but if your natural colour is already a blonde - even if it's a dark blonde - are you sure that you actually need a full strength bleach to lighten up your hair? I'm not sure how light you want to go, but you can definitely lift hair by a couple of levels using just peroxide (developer) on its own - I used to, to get my mid-auburn hair hennaed a true ginger. It's much gentler to do that than to use developer with bleach powder. If you bought a bottle of cream peroxide, maybe 10 or 20 vol, you could apply it in exactly the ways I've described above (including using coconut oil) and just leave it on for longer than you would do for bleach. Is it worth strand testing, maybe?

Elfkin
June 14th, 2014, 05:04 AM
Hello Freija

thanks for your information, it should help i think. I have now taken some pics so it is clearer, this is after 2 vit C treatments to remove colour.
http://s25.postimg.org/n3c9ei6i7/2014_06_14_20_07_15_One_Shot.jpg
http://s25.postimg.org/urvbl02un/WP_20140614_014.jpg
I think my roots are maybe 1-2 shades darker than the length, about 1-2 cm at the moment, not really visible in the pic.
I have previously hennaed my hair from this colour, looked good when first done (pic below), but oxidised to much darker and i was unhappy with the end result, not bright enough, and brownish indoors, so i have pretty much decided on lightening.
http://s25.postimg.org/jc7a5xi7j/2014_02_09_072515_436_jpg.jpg
I have done a couple of developer only and developer and baking soda tests on hair from my brush but have not had much luck with results, some hairs seem to lighten and others didnt, and developer only didnt seem to do anything at all. im mostly just a bit nervous about putting that on my hair with no results but still damaging it. Maybe i didnt leave it long enough at 1/2 hr. I was thinking maybe a bleach soap cap might be the gentlest option? not sure.
Sorry about the huge pics.
Thanks again