Lightening with Peroxide and Baking soda.

[22Hippie22]

Alright, first of all HELLO! Nice to see you all (on this computer screen, that it). :agree: So I was just wanting to open a discussion about the controversial method of lightening- Peroxide mixed with Baking soda. I have done this on my hair many times in order to lighten without paying or bleaching, and in order to not have to dye it. I have had nothing but wonderful results, and wanted to hear all of your personal experiences! Every time I use this method on my hair, people ask me who does it and what color that is so they can copy it. Lol! Despite being dry and harder to brush the day after, as long as I follow with a honey treatment my hair looks great!

Would love to hear personal experiences, better at home methods that are equally as fast/effective, and discussion.
Thanks so much!! Hope you all are having a wonderful December!!!

[22Hippie22]

OOPS! Pardon my typos!! :cheese::cheese::cheese:

[littlestarface]

How light does it make your hair and whats your starting color?

[22Hippie22]

My hair is a dark auburn/blonde, and gets ways lighter in the sun (to a golden medium blonde). The peroxide makes it a lovely golden light blonde and evens out my growing in roots! Thanks for asking and reading my post!!!

[meteor]

Sorry if it's a stupid question (:oops:), but can somebody please explain why baking soda is added to peroxide, instead of just using standard peroxide lightening process? :)
I have seen pictures of how baking soda can gradually lighten hair by drying it out and even damaging it if used at a high enough concentration and frequently enough, but I would imagine, that isn't the goal... :hmm:

Is this done as a simulation of a "bleach bath", just replacing shampoo with baking soda?

One thing I should mention in terms of buffering damage a bit for those who use bleach or peroxide-based dyes, is that it's good practice to apply bleach/dye over a heavy coconut oil soak (or coconut oil + argan oil soak), preferably overnight oiling. ;)
Check out details on this here:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10495
http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php?topic=3806.0
http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.ca/2009/11/part-1-of-3-part-series-on-innovative.html

It's also important not to lighten hair when it's freshly washed, you want to bleach hair when it's as oily as you can stand, because sebum protects the scalp and hair a bit.

[lapushka]

We, of course, would like to see pictures. :)

[22Hippie22]

Thank you meteor so much for opening this discussion even deeper!! So, as far as I know, the baking soda reacts and intensifies the warming and therefore lightening of the peroxide. I believe it also holds the peroxide in place, allowing it to do its job. Yes!! Awesome!!! Coconut oil hair mask woohoo! Honey does wonders, especially mixed with oils!!

[22Hippie22]

Sorry, I am new to this forum!! I am not sure if my picture post worked properly!

[Innerginger]

You have to host the photo somewhere other than your personal computer. Photobucket or something like that.

[22Hippie22]

Ohhh, Okay! Thank you innerginger!

[22Hippie22]

http://nat22nat22.tumblr.com/image/136170650476

If this works, pardon the crinkles....my hair was up all day! It's dirty. But this is the brightness I get with my concoction.

[Obsidian]

Baking soda is alkaline and alkaline substances will make the hair cuticles lift up allowing the peroxide to get deeper into the hair shaft. I could see how this would help the lightening affect, unfortunately its also damaging to your hair. If you follow up with a weak acid rinse, it will help flatten the cuticles back down, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice in a quart of water would work well.

[spidermom]

I think this would destroy my hair. I once tried baking soda with my shampoo as a clarifying wash, and it almost felted my hair. I literally could not get a comb through it unless it was soaked in conditioner for about 2 weeks. So this is a huge NOPE for me.

[lapushka]

I think this would destroy my hair. I once tried baking soda with my shampoo as a clarifying wash, and it almost felted my hair. I literally could not get a comb through it unless it was soaked in conditioner for about 2 weeks. So this is a huge NOPE for me.

I'm with you on that. BS did that to my hair (dry and felted mats) and ghassoul/rhassoul clay did the same thing. Nooo way. I'd rather stick with regular bleach, thankyouverymuch. Not that I'm repeating my bleach experiments any time soon!

[Goatcraft]

I've seen people use just peroxide and got results. A friend of mine was using it for skincare and it turned his black eyebrows and facial hair blonde! He wasn't aware that it was used to chemically lighten hair.

[Lemon*]

I will sometimes spray peroxide/water mixture (50/50) on damp hair and let dry. Adds a little sparkle. Sometimes I coconut oil the ends prior to spraying.

[furnival]

I have done this on my hair many times in order to lighten without paying or bleaching,
I'm a bit confused... Peroxide is bleach.

[22Hippie22]

When I use this method, my hair is usually pretty dry the next two days, but if I sleep in a honey hair mask, it's like it never happened. Also, the damage is rarely too awful, the rough feeling I get is typically just leftover baking soda that wasn't washed out fully.

[22Hippie22]

I'm saying I don't use an ammonia based anything, or go buy bleach. Peroxide bleaches, but it is not bleach, if you get what I mean. I'm not going to a beauty store and actually buying bleach.

[furnival]

I'm saying I don't use an ammonia based anything, or go buy bleach. Peroxide bleaches, but it is not bleach, if you get what I mean. I'm not going to a beauty store and actually buying bleach.

I'm even more confused.. Ammonia isn't bleach- Peroxide is bleach. That's what hair bleach is- peroxide, whether you buy it from a beauty store or not.

[22Hippie22]

Dude...come on gimme a break. If you know that then great why are you confused? No need to badger me :(

[missblueeyes]

I think you're both confusing yourselves. :) But I got to admit I thought the same thing when reading this thread.
Hydrogen Peroxide is the developer or oxidiser and in this mixture, baking soda acts as the thickening agent you'd usually get at the beauty store, most commonly called 'bleach powder'.
I'd say that it doesn't really matter if you thicken your mixture with baking soda or the powder you get at the hairdresser's shops because both open the cuticle. The Hydrogen Peroxide is the substance that does most, if not all of the work, the powder is mostly there so the bleach doesn't slide down your hair because it's so liquid. Which means, saying that you don't bleach your hair when you basically use a developer + thickener mixture is nonsense. You're basically bleaching it, you're just using a non-store bought product. That doesn't mean it's not bleach, though. If anything, I'd actually think it's more agressive but that's just a quick guess.

I'm sorry I can't really translate my knowledge into English 1:1 but I tried. My brain is a bit mushy because I'm sick but I hope you get my point nevertheless.

[furnival]

Dude...come on gimme a break. If you know that then great why are you confused? No need to badger me :(
I'm sorry if it came across as badgering, it wasn't meant to :flower: What was confusing was the fact you didn't seem to realise that peroxide is bleach, and if you put it on your hair, you are bleaching your hair.

[lapushka]

I agree with furnival. I mean "agree", but she just tells it the way it *is*! Bleach is often the thing we think about for cleaning. BUT when talking about hair, bleach = peroxide. No way around it. So I don't think you're doing your hair any favors, and you are still straight-up bleaching!

[Nellon]

Just popped by to say, whatever the process is, the result looks lovely! :)

[elsieivy]

The result is really pretty! How often are you able to do this? I've had negative experiences using baking soda as a shampoo, but I could it being okay if it's only done occasionally.

[cmg]

I think some of the confusion comes from the fact that in english speaking countries, chlorine is often referred to as bleach. For me peroxide is bleach, because that is what is used in hair bleach or bleaching of fabrics etc. I have rarely seen chlorine in hair products, just for cleaning purposes. It took a while until I realized that english speaking people often meant chlorine, when they were saying "bleach".

[22Hippie22]

Sorry!! Yes I agree! Of course I'm literally bleaching!! I suppose what I was intending to say was that I am not going anywhere or paying for anything outside of my own home!!

[22Hippie22]

I am able to do this process once a month followed by a honey treatment (if I have the time) and it heals into a lovely sunlit blonde!!!

[22Hippie22]

Okay lapuska . Interesting point! That is why I opened this thread, because I was curious as to whether or not it is equally as damaging as store bought bleach? I also prefer this method as it is easy and quick, and I don't have to spend more than three dollars. Not that my hair is not worth it, I am simply very unfamiliar with how to bleach with all of the developers, number, etc, and have only had wonderful results with this method. Was wanting o see if any others shared my results!! :beerchug:

[22Hippie22]

Pardon my typos and multiple posts!! I am sick and in that congestion-fog that comes alongside a good-ol' cold! :doh:

[furnival]

I was curious as to whether or not it is equally as damaging as store bought bleach?
Yes, it is exactly the same as store-bought bleach. It's the same substance.

[22Hippie22]

Interesting! From all the reading I have done, I have heard the opposite!! I guess either way it is fine, as I have not seen negative results and have had a wonderful color outcome. :D

[22Hippie22]

Here I go! Striking a vogue-esque pose for this month's hair lightening! Thanks for all of the discussion ladies! I will post results if I do not forget!!

http://nat22nat22.tumblr.com/image/136417332256

[chantecler]

Hydrogen Peroxide is the developer or oxidiser and in this mixture, baking soda acts as the thickening agent you'd usually get at the beauty store, most commonly called 'bleach powder'.
I'd say that it doesn't really matter if you thicken your mixture with baking soda or the powder you get at the hairdresser's shops because both open the cuticle. The Hydrogen Peroxide is the substance that does most, if not all of the work, the powder is mostly there so the bleach doesn't slide down your hair because it's so liquid.


Actually, the thing is, the powder that you add in the peroxyde mixture is there for much more than just thickening. The oxydation of peroxide is quite slow when left alone, and that is why you can't just put the peroxide developer on your hair and expect it to lighten it significantly in one application of the time it would take with the powder. The powder is there to catalyze the reaction, so to make it go MUCH faster. I don't know if baking soda is a catalyzer for the oxydation of peroxide, but that would explain how it could help the bleaching process.

Thanks to my high school chemistry teacher for those infos :P

[lapushka]

You actually need 2 steps for the bleaching part: the peroxide and the bleaching powder (sometimes a blueish powder). In this case you replaced the bleaching powder by the BS. That's in essence what you did. But I am with the others in that the peroxide is quite the killer here, on its very own.

[Anje]

That said, some hair withstands bleaching very well and other hair does not. Also, store-bought hydrogen peroxide is only 3%, same as 10 Volume for commercial hair bleach, so the effects 22Hippie22 gets are from slower bleaching, which is probably less damaging than doing all that lifting at once.
Clearly it's working.

[furnival]

You actually need 2 steps for the bleaching part: the peroxide and the bleaching powder (sometimes a blueish powder). In this case you replaced the bleaching powder by the BS. That's in essence what you did. But I am with the others in that the peroxide is quite the killer here, on its very own.
I wrecked my hair as a teenager after noticing that my contact lens cleaning fluid was just a mild peroxide solution, nothing else added. Out of curiosity I would regularly wet my hair with it and rinse it out after a few minutes, and over a period of weeks my hair became a light bleached blonde and started to break off. It looked awful :p So I can attest that even a mild peroxide solution with no added powders etc is perfectly capable of damaging hair. It's an indisputable fact that repeated bleaching damages hair to some extent, no matter how you do it. The bleaching action eventually changes the structure of the hair in some fundamental way, and most bleaching tips and tricks -such as soaking in coconut oil beforehand- are attempts to limit the damage, not ways to avoid it.

[Alethia97]

Hippie, do you have your method detailed somewhere? Is it a long and complicated process? I am guessing not ...

[22Hippie22]

Love reading everyone's different thoughts on the matter! thanks to you all for the discussion!!
Altethia97, here is my process in detail!! Thanks for asking!!

Process:
-grind up baking soda in a blender (I do not use exact measurements, as you simply want a thick paste that has decent spreadability)
-put Baking soda in a small bowl
-squirt in Peroxide as you mix, and add until it is thick, but pasty!
-add some conditioner of any kind
-Tweak amounts of peroxide and baking soda AND conditioner until you feel you have enough, and have an easily spreadable goo.
-(I prefer to begin on the right side of my head. I know it's odd...don't ask) Begin to spread, from the bottom layers to the top. I only do my roots, so I use my hands to spread it along my roots thoroughly from bottom-top.
-check for any missed patches, such as the back of your head. Dab some extra onto the very top of your head and be sure roots are covered.
-Twist hair in loose bun and wrap foil around head (for maximum lightening)
-Leave on for 20min-1 hour depending on how light you'd like.
-Rinse with cold water, and use conditioner to rinse it out more effectively.
-I have found that my hair often will feel horribly tangled as a result of LEFT IN BAKING SODA. Not the damage. Although a tad dry, my hair never sees too harsh of results from this process.

**Following with a honey/coconut oil treatment has proven most effective to reversing and repairing my damage. I get asked how my hair is such a lovely color on a regular basis. SO thankful for this cheap method!!! Also, coat strands in coconut oil beforehand if you'd like to be sure they are more-protected.

:happydance::disco::happydance: All set!!!!

[22Hippie22]

Results...Roots after a 1 hour treatment. I know it is hard to see properly...I have trouble taking these types of pictures with an actual decent angle! Haha!!

http://nat22nat22.tumblr.com/image/136521225781

I'm adoring the results! As always! Works like a charm, and SO easy.

[meteor]

Those are beautiful results! :) I have trouble wrapping my mind around getting to such cool and light, brass-free blonde, almost in the platinum range, without any toner... Are you already naturally a blonde, 22Hippie22? It would be great to see the before and after to understand the level of lift. And how do you prefer to protect your scalp when you do such lengthy roots-only application?
I think the struggle with not just bleach damage (1 hour is extremely long, especially for roots - partly due to heat from scalp speeding up the chemical process and the risk to skin), but also brassiness would be pretty significant for most people without any toner...
I don't know, I think you are super lucky that your hair is so resilient! :D I'd make sure to oil and deep condition hair regularly after this and do some hydrolyzed protein treatments to help with after-care. :flower:

[22Hippie22]

Meteor! THANK YOU! That means so much!! So glad you like the results!! Unfortunately, I do not have a before picture that would be decent enough :(. My hair is a Sandy reddish Brown color naturally! Very much darker than the color I have achieved here. Yes, I do honey coconut oil treatments at least once a week (I would regardless of lightening because I LOVE them!) and within a single treatment my hair feels and looks baby soft and shiny. NO brassiness! I actually got asked today where I got my hair done and how much I paid for it. I told her I pay two dollars ever two months!! LOL! I believe I have finally mastered this process and I am so glad!!

Thank you so much!!

[Alethia97]

Hi hippie, I recently had my hair processed for the first time ever in my life, at a salon. It was very expensive, and too much at once. Do you use store bought hydrogen peroxide? Do you do your whole head (over time), or "paint" it on like in streaks? Looks like you do entire areas of hair. Is it a gradual process over time, or could the results the first time be overkill? I am interested, but fearful. Hiw did you begin when you first did it, the very first time, so as not to have drastic, and perhaps unfortunate results? Did you only leave on 20 minutes, spot test, etc?

[22Hippie22]

Hello Althea! Thanks for asking! When I first attempted, I did my whole head. I painted it on with my fingers. I do use store bought peroxide. I left it on for 40 minutes, which I wouldn't recommend if you are nervous about the results. How dark is your hair naturally? It is definitely not gradual, and you want one application to give you the desired results. I now only do my roots as the rest of the color is perfect

[Alethia97]

My hair is a dirty blonde, darker blondeat top, lighter golden blonde on ends.

[22Hippie22]

Then this would work wonderfully for you! Being that your natural color is already relatively light, you can easily avoid the orange that people get when they try this with hair that is very dark!