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FallingDarkness
January 18th, 2017, 12:45 AM
Disclaimer: I'd NEVER use hydrogen peroxide on my hair. I love it too much.

My sister however has really dirty blonde hair, and although I personally think dirty blonde hair is pretty and sometimes wish my hair was a little darker she would like her hair to be lighter. (What even.) She was looking into hydrogen peroxide as a quick cheap fix to lighten her hair some. But isn't it really bad/drying for your hair? Is there any safe ways to use it? Are there certain brands or places that have better hydrogen peroxide?

She's on the fence about it, so I thought I'd consult you guys with your thoughts. Hopefully if it turns out to be really fatal for her hair I can convince her to pursue different options.

FallingDarkness
January 18th, 2017, 12:46 AM
*it meaning my hair. I have no feelings towards hydrogen peroxide. :/

lapushka
January 18th, 2017, 10:49 AM
Tell her to collect her sheds for a few weeks and test strand!!!

Anje
January 18th, 2017, 11:27 AM
I'm still new to this bleaching thing, but I think the hydrogen peroxide part of bleaching is typically the more damaging part. Mixing some bleach powder in something like shampoo but not using a peroxide developer might lighten a little with less damage than using peroxide.

pastina
January 18th, 2017, 11:39 AM
Yeah, I'd try to persuade her to pick up some bleach powder and developer, it's easier to control your results.

I'd say, one (or two) blue bleach powder packets (depending on her length and thickness), and 20 volume creme developer, mixed 1:1, and then add a bunch of clarifying shampoo to dilute. Apply this to several days dirty hair. ...If she's dirty blonde, she won't need much lift. Then cover with a shower cap and wrap with a towel she won't mind possibly destroying, and keep an eye on the color. Tell her not to lift past inside-of-a-banana-yellow.

FallingDarkness
January 19th, 2017, 12:45 AM
So this is good for like shade management? How will she know when to rinse it out?

Anje
January 19th, 2017, 06:22 AM
So this is good for like shade management? How will she know when to rinse it out?

You gotta watch it like a hawk because it'll just keep going. But you can smudge it with your fingers a bit to see what color the hair is now.

It might be that even lower volume (like 10 volume instead of 20) might be better because it's slower. But I've only used 30 so far, which is definitely too much too fast for something like this. It's almost too much too fast for me working with super short hair that I'm trying to bleach out for a wild color base, and I'm tempted to switch to 20 volume.

The point is, use bleach powder and minimize the peroxide. The peroxide is damaging and lifting with that only will be worse than lifting with bleach and peroxide together.

raemarthe
January 19th, 2017, 11:04 AM
Before I knew anything about hair care I attempted to lighten my hair blonder using a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda, and a hair dryer.
I thought it was safer for my hair for some reason, because I was doing it at home.... I was 15 and didn't know what I was doing.
Anyway I bleached pretty much my whole head using this method. It definitely did lighten my hair considerably, but in the months that followed my hair COMPLETELY fell apart. My previously always healthy virgin hair was dropping breakage EVERYWHERE. Whenever I looked at my shirt I would see small pieces of hair everywhere, it was a nightmare. My big 3a curls died and became super thin stringy waves. To recover from this I had to trim off several inches each month, and eventually big chopped from BSL to above APL to get most of the damage out. The bleaching happened in May 2014, and the big chop happened in November 2014.

Nearly 3 years later I am still dealing with bad damage towards the ends of my hair, and my curl pattern is still improving.

However, this was a mixture of baking soda AND hydrogen peroxide, and possibly hydrogen peroxide by its self wouldn't created the same effects.

All I'm saying is she should be super careful, because I completely wrecked my hair in one afternoon and I'm still dealing with the damage it produced!

ExpectoPatronum
January 19th, 2017, 11:34 AM
I would advise against it. I've tried it to lighten some of my hair and, while it did work, my hair was almost irreparably dry after that. I really think her best bet would be to either get a kit at the store and DIY or have someone do it professionally.

There are other methods for lightening hair too. I believe there's a thread on honey lightening somewhere. That might give her some good results and it wouldn't be as harsh as using H2O2.

emptyque
January 19th, 2017, 11:35 AM
YMMV but I've used hydrogen peroxide to slightly lighten my hair and never noticed any damage from it. I put some in a spray bottle and diluted it. It's basically the same as Sun-In, which I know a lot of people get bad results from, but was fine for me in moderation.