Rescue hair after bleaching

[longmanedreamer]

Hi there everyone! I naturally have very very dark brown hair. I have gone through 4 bleaching sessions since October 2017. It was a mistake. I am not meant to be a blonde. So I dyed my hair back to my natural color and now am on a repair journey and I am hoping you lovely ladies have any advice you could pass on to a girls hair in need!! I routinely oil my hair with coconut oil overning. I wash twice a week with a co wash. I use innate life rose elixir on my hair. I very rarely use any heat on it. Any tips would be amazing

[Blue Mermaid]

Hi there everyone! I naturally have very very dark brown hair. I have gone through 4 bleaching sessions since October 2017. It was a mistake. I am not meant to be a blonde. So I dyed my hair back to my natural color and now am on a repair journey and I am hoping you lovely ladies have any advice you could pass on to a girls hair in need!! I routinely oil my hair with coconut oil overning. I wash twice a week with a co wash. I use innate life rose elixir on my hair. I very rarely use any heat on it. Any tips would be amazing

I hate to break it to you, but you can't really 'repair' hair, as it's dead and can't heal itself. You can however, protect it until it grows and the damage is trimmed off.

My story when I first came here was similar to yours; henna helped keep my hair strong through the worst of it. Henna will leave a red tint on your hair, though. Being your hair is dark, it probably will not be noticable. There's lots of different things you can try to improve the look/feel of your hair, so you'll have to read through some threads to decide what method is best for you. SMT is popular among many members, you can find info on it here:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128

My advice as a former bleach addict: Find a hair length you can tolerate, and get frequent, small trims until the bleach is gone. Be patient, and try not to get too frustrated that your hair isn't as long/healthy as you'd like.

[DoomKitty]

If you can get Curaplex or Olaplex that will help immensely. I'm in the same boat, growing out bleached and dyed hair. Frequent small trims are gonna be helpful as well, I get half a centimetre taken off every 12-16 weeks. It's enough to remove the super-dry ends without sacrificing a lot of growth. I've been growing out the bleach from SL length since Sept 2016 and I'm now an inch from BSL. Baby your hair, use products for coloured hair and get as much moisture into it as possible. I love HASK Argan Oil Repairing Deep Conditioner (left on for at least 2 hours) as my hair doesn't like coconut.

[LexI bright]

I would say you are on the right track with the oiling, the co-wash, and little to NO heat styling. Also the regular trims suggested by Blue Mermaid and DoomKitty are important. I swore off hi-lift color and highlights last November, started just co-washing and lots of SMTs, oils and no heat. My hair continued to break though. The bleach damage continues many months after you have bleached. Sometimes it is a delayed reaction, the damage shows up much later. The only way to truly get rid of it is to cut it. I couldn't bear to do a big chop so it was more frequent trims and henna for me. A hairdresser once told me the Living Proof products saved her bleached hair, but I never tried it. I would also say just be very gentle with it. Don't wear in the same updo every day, be careful with clips, elastics and such as it is fragile.

[lapushka]

Try a protein treatment every 2 weeks or every month, if it's been extensively bleached, it can use it! Try looking into good treatments like Redken anti-snap or Aphogee.

[Ekkwhine]

Does olaplex make a.massive difference?

[nycelle]

Like others have said, baby it, keep it moisturized and regular trims are a must. Also, definitely look into a professional Olaplex treatment if you can. Good luck, I know how tough it is to grow it out.


Does olaplex make a.massive difference?

Yes, it does. I wish I knew about it when I was coloring every two months followed, by highlights every 4. My hair was dead and I winded up having to cut off 7" in one shot last December. I was doing the trims every couple of months before that but
it just wasn't enough. The longer the healthy hair got, the more obvious how damaged my colored part was.

I recently bought Olaplex 3, it's the only one that they sell for home use but I haven't tried it yet.
I was told you can use it on virgin hair if there's damage you want to repair. Was also told you can do a stand alone Olaplex treatment in the salon (no idea if it's 1 or 2), even if you're not coloring, but I haven't tried it.

[DoomKitty]

I used Curaplex no 3 (same thing as Olaplex 3) at home while I was bleaching and for a while after until it grew out a bit and I could put it up to protect it. It really did make a big difference.

[chomsky]

I used a lot of protein treatments. I realised after using henna it felt less delicate, still horrible but it didn't disintegrate.

Keep it super moisturised too!

Unfortunately, the one real solution is to get rid. I cut mine off In one go but in hindsight I'd micro trim it off.