Thinking of trying bleach baths; thoughts?

[Robot Ninja]

So, for a while I've been thinking that my hair isn't purple enough, and after seeing Sterlyn's pictures just now I've decided it's definitely not purple enough. I know a few people here use bleach baths to lighten their hair, so I'm thinking of trying it. But on the other hand;

Is it more damaging than box dye? I'm planning on using vol 20 developer, which is what I used with box dye, and I don't plan on doing it more than every three months or so, at most.

How well would it work on chemically dyed hair? I really want to lighten up my chemical dye, and Color Oops didn't do anything except make my apartment smell like farts.

The tentative plan is to let my hair get dirty until my scalp gets itchy, slather it in coconut oil for a few hours, do the bleach bath (using Neutrogena clarifying shampoo because that's what I have; if another shampoo works better I'd be open to trying it instead), then dye my hair the next day with gelatin and conditioner in the mix, then deep-condition some more with some more gelatin (I can't find a cone-free protein conditioner so I have to make my own.) Sound like a plan? Anything I'm missing?

Should I do it? Not do it? Eat more cheese?

[Finallymajor]

As a cosmetologist, I'm just curious of your end result level? What is your exact recipe? This will lighten your color but only slightly (depending on so many factors) so are you reaching for a brighter purple after or a pastel?

[pastina]

Less damaging than box dye. You don't know for sure what volume you get with a box, but it's usually 30 or 40 volume. You are starting with a lower volume and cutting it with shampoo, which will dilute its strength. Your plan sounds good to me, especially if you've tried color oops already.

Also, the shampoo you're talking about using sounds perfect. Good luck!! If you have other questions let me know. :)

Eta-- if it were me, I'd throw the purple on right after the bleach bath is washed out and my hair is dry. The veggie dye sticks better when the cuticle is freshly roughed up.

[Robot Ninja]

As a cosmetologist, I'm just curious of your end result level? What is your exact recipe? This will lighten your color but only slightly (depending on so many factors) so are you reaching for a brighter purple after or a pastel?


A brighter purple. The color in my avatar isn't representative of the majority of my hair, it's just the part that is undyed and greying. Most of my hair is much darker.


Less damaging than box dye. You don't know for sure what volume you get with a box, but it's usually 30 or 40 volume. You are starting with a lower volume and cutting it with shampoo, which will dilute its strength. Your plan sounds good to me, especially if you've tried color oops already.

The dye I was using for a long time came with 20 volume developer. It was labelled. Then I used stuff from Sally's that you had to buy the developer separately, so I know that's 20 volume. I was pretty much relying on the dilution to make it less damaging.


Eta-- if it were me, I'd throw the purple on right after the bleach bath is washed out and my hair is dry. The veggie dye sticks better when the cuticle is freshly roughed up.

My hair takes forever to dry when it's been clarified, and I can't sleep with dye on my head. I wash the night before so I can let it sit all day. Unless the added roughening up is worth the trade-off of a shorter dyeing time?

[Bindi]

I love doing bleach baths! Never ever EVER again will I use full strength bleach. I use a ratio of 1 part bleach/developer and 2 parts shampoo. After 20 minutes, my hair is usually lightened by about one level.

[spidermom]

Pure curiosity here, as hair grows in, won't it need to be bleach-bathed to match the rest? But won't repeated bleach baths progressively lighten the hair that has already been bleach bathed? I'm picturing that you're going to end up with multiple shades of hair, with the length becoming progressively fragile.

[Finallymajor]

Just a thought- I'm not sure what color you will be using but if you are lightening a bit with the bleach bath and then doing a color darker in level than what you have lifted to, you can use a 10 vol for just depositing color! Less damage! (again all factors aren't known but I thought throw it out there!!) Good luck!

[Finallymajor]

regrowth could be done with a higher developer to lift and deposit the color more vibrantly. Which would blend beautifully even if lengths were a tad lighter. Deeper roots look great with vibrant colors anyway!

[Robot Ninja]

Pure curiosity here, as hair grows in, won't it need to be bleach-bathed to match the rest? But won't repeated bleach baths progressively lighten the hair that has already been bleach bathed? I'm picturing that you're going to end up with multiple shades of hair, with the length becoming progressively fragile.

I figure the regrowth won't be that obvious since the lightening isn't as dramatic as full bleaching, plus I'll be dyeing over it, plus all my grey will help it blend. Then if I want to lighten the regrowth I can just bleach bath the roots.

[pastina]

Aren't you using veggie dyes for the purple?

[Robot Ninja]

Aren't you using veggie dyes for the purple?

Um, yes? Why would you think I wasn't?

[MsPharaohMoan]

:popcorn: before and after pics please? :cheese:

[Robot Ninja]

Strand test results were...inconclusive. I think I got some lightening, but my strand was dyed purple, and even soaking it in dish soap overnight didn't remove that significantly. The bleach bath did remove the purple, and I think the underlying color got lighter, but I honestly don't remember what color it was to begin with. It seems to be a more metallic red than the auburn I started with though; so it might have lifted more than it looks like, but left some of the deposit color behind.

I'm probably going to go through with it anyway, but should I try to strip some of the purple beforehand? Or does it not matter?

[spidermom]

Why not let the purple fade and then do the bleach bath?

[Robot Ninja]

Why not let the purple fade and then do the bleach bath?

It really doesn't look all that attractive as it fades. Plus I'd have to keep doing the roots because those are REALLY unattractive.

[DreamSheep]

Is there any way you could do a massive fade? I found that being in a swimming pool all day virtually sucked out all my colour in one go (the red tips - it was quite faded, but still pretty strong and definitely red!). Something that would fade a certain amount before doing the bleach bath. :3

Vit C crushed up and mixed with strong shampoo such as H&S works too apparently, but yielded no results for me when I tried it.

[Seeshami]

If you're dead set and serious just do a color remover. I was dead set on my hair being blond for my wedding and I still have long thud worth hair even with having to damage control regularly. It's better to get it done and over with than to experiment with all the different ways to oull color out.

[pastina]

Um, yes? Why would you think I wasn't?

Sorry, I just saw this! I think I knew you were a veggie dye user and was just confused by all the talk of developers. My bad!! <3

[MINAKO]

Uhmm, maybe thats just me, but i totally adore muted and lived in shade of unnatural color to something that POPs souch it overpowers basically the entire face of a person. Needless to say i'm not pro bleaching because of potential damage anyways, but it might be minimal if the color result is what you really want.

[lapushka]

Pure curiosity here, as hair grows in, won't it need to be bleach-bathed to match the rest? But won't repeated bleach baths progressively lighten the hair that has already been bleach bathed? I'm picturing that you're going to end up with multiple shades of hair, with the length becoming progressively fragile.

Yes, unless you'll be washing your entire head of hair... :hmm:

[Robot Ninja]

Is there any way you could do a massive fade? I found that being in a swimming pool all day virtually sucked out all my colour in one go (the red tips - it was quite faded, but still pretty strong and definitely red!). Something that would fade a certain amount before doing the bleach bath. :3


If it helps to fade the color before you bleach bath then that is what I'm going to do. But if it doesn't affect the end result (ie; the color I'll get after bleach bathing and redyeing my hair purple) then I'm not going to bother.


If you're dead set and serious just do a color remover. I was dead set on my hair being blond for my wedding and I still have long thud worth hair even with having to damage control regularly. It's better to get it done and over with than to experiment with all the different ways to oull color out.

I tried a color remover, but it didn't work. Like, at all. Even though they're supposed to work really well on reds.

[Robot Ninja]

Uhmm, maybe thats just me, but i totally adore muted and lived in shade of unnatural color to something that POPs souch it overpowers basically the entire face of a person. Needless to say i'm not pro bleaching because of potential damage anyways, but it might be minimal if the color result is what you really want.

I'm never going to have crayola bright hair; at least not until I'm more grey. I don't want to lighten that much. Maybe I'll work my way down to a blonette shade eventually, but not lighter than that.

[Seeshami]

I tried a color remover, but it didn't work. Like, at all. Even though they're supposed to work really well on reds.

The removers like color before or the stripper remover that pulls everything?

You dont want one of the "gentle non damaging" ones.you want the straight up your hair will be super golden blond or orange heavy duty remover

[Upside Down]

Is there any way you could do a massive fade? I found that being in a swimming pool all day virtually sucked out all my colour in one go (the red tips - it was quite faded, but still pretty strong and definitely red!). Something that would fade a certain amount before doing the bleach bath. :3

Vit C crushed up and mixed with strong shampoo such as H&S works too apparently, but yielded no results for me when I tried it.


Hey you know that 2 weeks at the sea washed ALL of my red too? Repeated wetting seems to be effective with temporary dyes.

PS good luck, Leela :)

[LauraAlaina]

So, for a while I've been thinking that my hair isn't purple enough, and after seeing Sterlyn's pictures just now I've decided it's definitely not purple enough. I know a few people here use bleach baths to lighten their hair, so I'm thinking of trying it. But on the other hand;

Is it more damaging than box dye? I'm planning on using vol 20 developer, which is what I used with box dye, and I don't plan on doing it more than every three months or so, at most.

How well would it work on chemically dyed hair? I really want to lighten up my chemical dye, and Color Oops didn't do anything except make my apartment smell like farts.

The tentative plan is to let my hair get dirty until my scalp gets itchy, slather it in coconut oil for a few hours, do the bleach bath (using Neutrogena clarifying shampoo because that's what I have; if another shampoo works better I'd be open to trying it instead), then dye my hair the next day with gelatin and conditioner in the mix, then deep-condition some more with some more gelatin (I can't find a cone-free protein conditioner so I have to make my own.) Sound like a plan? Anything I'm missing?

Should I do it? Not do it? Eat more cheese?


I've never heard it called bleach bath, It's called soap cap where I'm from. and yes it is more damaging than box dye. you're essentially bleaching out all of your hair... it's very tricky. don't leave it on too long!! this is very tricky because depending on what is underneath the hair you could lift up all sorts of crazy colors...

[Robot Ninja]

Soooo, I did it...not sure if it did anything to the old box dye but it definitely did something to my virgin hair. I swear I saw some blonde at the roots, and the SFX faded to a kind of pinkish red which I think was significantly lighter than my natural color, but my memory of said natural color is a bit hazy. The top of my head may very well turn out very very purple.

I had forgotten how stinky chemical dyes were.

[pastina]

....I wanna see!

[Robot Ninja]

There isn't much to see. The Deep Purple went on dark as always, and my lenght is still pretty much black. My hair doesn't feel any worse for it, so I'm going to do it again, just on the dyed parts, in a few weeks.