hennatheem
August 2nd, 2017, 03:27 PM
My hair story is a long one - and it's not even finished! And today I am going to share exactly what my hair has been through, and what it is about to go through..
So lets start with the basics. In the beginning I had a very ashy light brown color, which has gotten darker over the years. When I was very young (like 5-9 yrs old) my hair was a lot blonder, and I missed that. So I got my hair professionally done and they bleached it to give me nearly platinum blonde hair (which I loved!)
Soon, this started to grow back and it got to the point where half of my hair was my natural color and half was platinum (my hair type, btw, is VERY thick and sometimes frizzy, and it has some waves... however it is also VERY resilient) I got bored and decided to try a henna/indigo mixture. They are natural plant dyes that PERMANENTLY (until your hair grows out) dye your hair. Starting from platinum I used the color auburn (Light Mountain Henna) and came out with VERY VERY vibrant orange/red hair which in the end I darkened to an actual auburn color with more indigo. All hairdressers I went to said there was absolutely no way to get rid of the color and that bleaching it had too many risks. One person said that my hair was going to fall off if I bleached it! I resorted to natural methods such as oil treatments, where I soaked my hair in coconut/olive oil. Then I tried more chemical methods like Color Oops. Nothing seemed to work. I even tried to dye over the henna with a brown dye by a professional, that didn't work either. I also decided to cut my hair to a bit longer than chin length just to make it easier to bleach it, and also to get rid of the red.
I was so upset with my hair color that I decided to take the plunge and bleach it. MOST of the indigo had washed out of my hair by then and the smartest thing I did was a STRAND TEST!!!! When you are doing something extremely risky to your hair, like I was, it is so important to test it on a strand of hair.
This was risky because indigo, when bleached, WILL turn very ashy or even green. This is because the underlying pigment is a blue/green color. Bleaching exposes the underlying pigment of the hair. For example, when going from brown to blonde, you will have some orange/red tones. This is because brown hair has warmth to it and the underlying pigment is a warm orange/red/golden tone.
The strand turned a bright orange color (what I was expecting) without any green tones.
So l preceded to bleach my whole head using 20 vol. The first time it turned a very light orange color. The second time it was a very neon yellow/orange color. While processing, my mother, who was helping me out, noticed a slight "shadowy" look on some strands caused by the indigo. However, it was not big enough of a deal for me to really care, and I was already invested in getting to blonde.
The third bleaching is when I changed some stuff up. I saturated my hair in coconut oil before bleaching (This really made a difference determining the health of my hair, and it's inexpensive!!) and used 30 vol instead of 20.
The third bleaching is also when stuff started to go wrong... my mom noticed some more strands turning ashy, and sort of green. Once I saw this I washed my hair out right away and dried it. I did not even bother with a toner.
Luckily, when dried, my hair was a very very golden blonde with brassiness. However, there were strands that were discolored with a grey tint, however they aren't very noticeable.
The day after the third bleaching I decided to try and cover up this strange color. I used Naturtint to give my hair a break from chemicals in a light brown shade. This did pretty much nothing to my hair except tone it slightly and make it less brassy (not sure why, but it did). I think this was because my hair was too porous to hold any color.
In terms of damage, my hair was affected. It became a lot more frizzy and brittle than normal, but nothing horrible, especially after all that my hair went through. It is a miracle that there was absolutely NO BREAKAGE!!! Not only that, but when my hair is wet, it is perfectly strong and does not turn "gummy".
What I plan to do now:
I have given my hair a break for a couple weeks and it has recovered a bit. I plan to use a protein filler, so that my hair will be able to hold color. However, I am a bit unsure about how to do this.
I want to get my hair back to my natural hair color; a light brown color that is NOT warm. I do not want any red tones (already been through that, I am now super scared of getting red back in my hair and I do not want to deal with that again!!) and golden either, although that's better.
I think I will use a neutral protein filler just to fill the pores and give my hair a base to dye over.
Then I will use a permanent brown hair dye. I will make sure that it does not say "ashy". I will probably use a brown dye with a golden tint just in case.
Anyhow, that's it!
Any comments, suggestions, or questions are appreciated!!
So lets start with the basics. In the beginning I had a very ashy light brown color, which has gotten darker over the years. When I was very young (like 5-9 yrs old) my hair was a lot blonder, and I missed that. So I got my hair professionally done and they bleached it to give me nearly platinum blonde hair (which I loved!)
Soon, this started to grow back and it got to the point where half of my hair was my natural color and half was platinum (my hair type, btw, is VERY thick and sometimes frizzy, and it has some waves... however it is also VERY resilient) I got bored and decided to try a henna/indigo mixture. They are natural plant dyes that PERMANENTLY (until your hair grows out) dye your hair. Starting from platinum I used the color auburn (Light Mountain Henna) and came out with VERY VERY vibrant orange/red hair which in the end I darkened to an actual auburn color with more indigo. All hairdressers I went to said there was absolutely no way to get rid of the color and that bleaching it had too many risks. One person said that my hair was going to fall off if I bleached it! I resorted to natural methods such as oil treatments, where I soaked my hair in coconut/olive oil. Then I tried more chemical methods like Color Oops. Nothing seemed to work. I even tried to dye over the henna with a brown dye by a professional, that didn't work either. I also decided to cut my hair to a bit longer than chin length just to make it easier to bleach it, and also to get rid of the red.
I was so upset with my hair color that I decided to take the plunge and bleach it. MOST of the indigo had washed out of my hair by then and the smartest thing I did was a STRAND TEST!!!! When you are doing something extremely risky to your hair, like I was, it is so important to test it on a strand of hair.
This was risky because indigo, when bleached, WILL turn very ashy or even green. This is because the underlying pigment is a blue/green color. Bleaching exposes the underlying pigment of the hair. For example, when going from brown to blonde, you will have some orange/red tones. This is because brown hair has warmth to it and the underlying pigment is a warm orange/red/golden tone.
The strand turned a bright orange color (what I was expecting) without any green tones.
So l preceded to bleach my whole head using 20 vol. The first time it turned a very light orange color. The second time it was a very neon yellow/orange color. While processing, my mother, who was helping me out, noticed a slight "shadowy" look on some strands caused by the indigo. However, it was not big enough of a deal for me to really care, and I was already invested in getting to blonde.
The third bleaching is when I changed some stuff up. I saturated my hair in coconut oil before bleaching (This really made a difference determining the health of my hair, and it's inexpensive!!) and used 30 vol instead of 20.
The third bleaching is also when stuff started to go wrong... my mom noticed some more strands turning ashy, and sort of green. Once I saw this I washed my hair out right away and dried it. I did not even bother with a toner.
Luckily, when dried, my hair was a very very golden blonde with brassiness. However, there were strands that were discolored with a grey tint, however they aren't very noticeable.
The day after the third bleaching I decided to try and cover up this strange color. I used Naturtint to give my hair a break from chemicals in a light brown shade. This did pretty much nothing to my hair except tone it slightly and make it less brassy (not sure why, but it did). I think this was because my hair was too porous to hold any color.
In terms of damage, my hair was affected. It became a lot more frizzy and brittle than normal, but nothing horrible, especially after all that my hair went through. It is a miracle that there was absolutely NO BREAKAGE!!! Not only that, but when my hair is wet, it is perfectly strong and does not turn "gummy".
What I plan to do now:
I have given my hair a break for a couple weeks and it has recovered a bit. I plan to use a protein filler, so that my hair will be able to hold color. However, I am a bit unsure about how to do this.
I want to get my hair back to my natural hair color; a light brown color that is NOT warm. I do not want any red tones (already been through that, I am now super scared of getting red back in my hair and I do not want to deal with that again!!) and golden either, although that's better.
I think I will use a neutral protein filler just to fill the pores and give my hair a base to dye over.
Then I will use a permanent brown hair dye. I will make sure that it does not say "ashy". I will probably use a brown dye with a golden tint just in case.
Anyhow, that's it!
Any comments, suggestions, or questions are appreciated!!