Did a strand test with bleach 8 months ago, safe to go ahead?

[_twiggy]

So 8 months ago i did a strand test with bleach. I used 20 volume developer and regular powder bleach and left in in for an hour.
My hair has been hennaed before so from around chin level its hennaed , but very faded.

The results was REALLY blonde in the virgin hair and a light copper on the rest.
So i threw caution to the winds and did one more bleach session, wich i also left in for an hour to se if i could lift the copper some more, to no avail.

And honestly my strand test felt just fine afterwards,and seemingly its doing just fine still. Not really noticed any dryness or extra splitting.
Around christmas time i dyed my hair with Manic Panic infra red, but that has finally started to fade, the bleached stripe is still quite red though.
I read on the forum that bleach damage may take time to show it self , around 1-2 years. Any one else experienced this?

I separated my strand test so it was more visible

https://i.imgur.com/prciQkR.jpg

Comparing my bleached strand next to

https://i.imgur.com/GGbA2Rn.jpg

Sorry for the bad pictures btw, does not show my hair at its best :o


I have wanted to do balayage highlights in my hair for 8 years now, but holding of incase my hair goes snap and poof.
If i where to do a balayage it would not need to be a full hour application, certainly not 2 , as i want a natural, sunkissed look.

What do you guys think, should i belive my strand test and proceed or hold off?

[lapushka]

Your strand still looks a bit orangy :flower: so I wouldn't do it if blonde highlights is what you're going for.

To be perfectly honest, I like your natural hair a lot! :)

[_twiggy]

Thank you so much Lapushka :) that is nice to hear <3

I really want more of a natural , sunkissed look. Like the very sligth ligthening one would get from a good summer with lots of fun in the sun.
Since i have really advanced vitiligo its not the best idea for me to be to much out in the sun, staying in the shade and wearing lots of SPF is best to avoid rashes and such.

[_twiggy]

BTW the reson i have i white stripe in my fringe is not because i dyed it, its that way because of the vitiligo :)

[spidermom]

Balayage is beautiful, and since you like it, too, I say go for it. Life is short and damaged hair grows out and can be cut off.

[*Wednesday*]

Bleach always carries a risk. Bleach is not going to add health to your hair or length retention. One of the main things that happen when people do highlights, is once the highlights start to build up residue over time and dull or it starts to grow out, people either want to re-highlight the hair or dye it one color and re-highlight the entire head again. This causes a cycle which eventually leads the hair breakage.

Highlights are pretty and adds a striking look. Just make sure that the highlights are done properly and uniformly. Avoid re-highlighting previously highlighted hair. You already have a highlight try not to bleach that again. Many people that include bleach in their hair routine do not keep their length at very long lengths without the ends of the hair taking a hit.. People that experiment with color all the time will usually have to keep their hair trimmed or at shorter lengths to play around with hair dye and still have it look somewhat healthy.

If you're not afraid of experimenting then have fun with your hair. ☺

[Shorty89]

Maybe try sun-in to get things a touch lighter? I'm not sure if it's less damaging though.

[lucid]

My bleach damage took a about 1 to 1.5 years to show. After that, the bleach strands started to break and split, from tailbone to about bsl/apl (most near the hemline, and visually, my hair still looks healthy). Lots of white dots in the bleached parts of my hair. So yeah, you don't nessesarily see it straight away.


Balayage is beautiful, and since you like it, too, I say go for it. Life is short and damaged hair grows out and can be cut off.

I also agree with this, just be aware that you might have to let some length go after a while.

[spidermom]

Yes lucid - very true. One often has to make a choice between length and lightening the hair.

[_twiggy]

Thank you guys!
I totally forgot about Sun in! i remember Nightshade had a post with great result a few years ago!

Lucid , that is exactly what im worried about. I have enough of splits and dots already o.o

I have to put my thinking cap on and decide if the damage is worth it. Maby i will get one of those Halo flip in extensions thingys instead. A good way to add oomf and some color?
Anyone had any experience with those by any chance ?:3

[Wendyp]

Not if you want healthy nice looking long hair. Bleach is one of the most damaging things you can put on your hair.

[PixieP]

Find a good professional salon that uses olaplex and you’ll do just fine with a round of bayalage :) or if you find a salon that has Aveda. Bleach, especially salon versions, have come a long way. The techniques and products used are way better than just 5 years ago. But you have to pay for it!

[Glitch]

Just be cautious (which I'm sure you will be). :)

I saw my friend the other day who had a few rounds of bleached hair. She brought it up herself right when we met up, that our hair looked like it was from two different planets :p Hers almost didn't move at all, and looked crunchy. Really took me back to my own bleach and dye days of the past lol. There were many times where my hair still looked great, but also times where it couldn't get any worse. Toning, root touch ups, overall upkeep, hair resilience - lots of factors! However, I'll never forget this girl's hair I saw a while back at a dinner party. Her asian black hair was bleached to a platinum blonde, and was also naturally pretty thin. Nonetheless, it was the best hair I have ever seen in person. Flowy, silky, tailbone length princess hair :crush: She received one too many compliments that night from us all! It may be tricky (and I emphasize tricky!), but I believe bleaching + healthy hair really can be achieved :o Best of luck to you! :heartbeat

[Wendyp]

Find a good professional salon that uses olaplex and you’ll do just fine with a round of bayalage :) or if you find a salon that has Aveda. Bleach, especially salon versions, have come a long way. The techniques and products used are way better than just 5 years ago. But you have to pay for it!

Yeah that’s what aveda told me too. Meanwhile growing out a head full of aveda colored damaged hair :bigeyes:

[lucid]

Thank you guys!
I totally forgot about Sun in! i remember Nightshade had a post with great result a few years ago!

I'm almost certain that your hair is too dark to safely lighten it with sun in or similar sprays, going by your color on page 1. You would have apply it a lot for it to lighten enough, and you will have a good chance of getting orange hair that is super crispy and dry. You should also never bleach hair that has been lightened with sun in, so you can't go to a salon to bleach it further if you end up with orange hair.

I have used sun in before, and it works, with much less damage than bleach (only if used sparsely). But it also only lightens your hair a fraction of what normal bleach does. In addition, it's difficult to control. Finer strands will become much lighter than thicker strands for example. The darker the hair is, the higher the risk of a patchy result.

My hair lightens easily in the sun and with bleach, and it lightens without brassy undertones. That's why sun in worked for me. The result is similar to what you would get if you spent a loooot of time in the sun, so don't expect the same results that you'd get from regular bleach.

[PixieP]

Yeah that’s what aveda told me too. Meanwhile growing out a head full of aveda colored damaged hair :bigeyes:

Then you have had a bad hairdresser :/ I have two friends who has Aveda in their salons, and they both have extreme coloured hair and lighten their hair to achieve it. And as often as they need to lighten it to stay fresh, they have much less bleach damage than you would expect.

I bleached with Olaplex two years ago and the damage I had was minimal, and only on my already damaged parts of the hair.

[Nightshade]

I'm almost certain that your hair is too dark to safely lighten it with sun in or similar sprays, going by your color on page 1. You would have apply it a lot for it to lighten enough, and you will have a good chance of getting orange hair that is super crispy and dry. You should also never bleach hair that has been lightened with sun in, so you can't go to a salon to bleach it further if you end up with orange hair.

I have used sun in before, and it works, with much less damage than bleach (only if used sparsely). But it also only lightens your hair a fraction of what normal bleach does. In addition, it's difficult to control. Finer strands will become much lighter than thicker strands for example. The darker the hair is, the higher the risk of a patchy result.

My hair lightens easily in the sun and with bleach, and it lightens without brassy undertones. That's why sun in worked for me. The result is similar to what you would get if you spent a loooot of time in the sun, so don't expect the same results that you'd get from regular bleach.

I agree with this. You're going to have to lighten several shades to get to where you want and Sun In is going to get you to orange and not past it :)

[lapushka]

I agree with this. You're going to have to lighten several shades to get to where you want and Sun In is going to get you to orange and not past it :)

I have darker hair than the OP; back when I was 17, I used sun-in on my hair; kept using it, one application over the other until I got a very light brown/dark blonde, without the orange, but I used up practically the entire bottle. :o Would *not* recommend this to anybody!

[_twiggy]

So after reading all your comments and advice i decided not to Sun-In my hair, ironicly im scared of using a blow dryer because of the heat damage :rolleyes:

After a panicked 20 minute phonecall with my mum (while i was at the beauty supply store) i decided to try it, YOLO rigth. Since i started my transition (im trans btw) i have not done ANYTHING to my hair, just been growing, oiling and caring for it. So actually doing a chemical process was a big deal for me.

I litterally soaked my hair in coconut oil and let it sit for a while, then i put bleach on some super tiny sections of my midlength, and brougth them all together at the ends, creating a little ombre effect. After 10 minutes i chickend out, envisioning snapping breaking dry awful hair, so i quickly jumped in the shower and rinsed it out.

Hair was a bit rough, elasticisty was OK a bit to stretchy for my liking, but AVC rinse fixed that, then i moistured with Aussie 3 minute miracle (my hair loves silicone)
The hair now feels much the same as it did before, nothing really noticable damagewise so far :)
If it should start splitting and breaking in a year or so , i will have grown enough hair to trim away the parts that are bleached the most and still maintain the length i have now. My hair is happiest at waistlength so i keep it there :)

The end result was almost exactly what i wanted, its a soft sunbleached look with lots of different shades of brass and copper in the ends that softly blends into my brown .

In a way doing this has reinvigorate my interrest to care properly for my hair, been it a bit of slump and not keeping up on my S&D sessions, not detangeling morning and night and so on. Now im looking into ordering hydrolized protein so i can make som lovely fragrance free potions for my hair <3

[Milady_DeWinter]

So after reading all your comments and advice i decided not to Sun-In my hair, ironicly im scared of using a blow dryer because of the heat damage :rolleyes:

After a panicked 20 minute phonecall with my mum (while i was at the beauty supply store) i decided to try it, YOLO rigth. Since i started my transition (im trans btw) i have not done ANYTHING to my hair, just been growing, oiling and caring for it. So actually doing a chemical process was a big deal for me.

I litterally soaked my hair in coconut oil and let it sit for a while, then i put bleach on some super tiny sections of my midlength, and brougth them all together at the ends, creating a little ombre effect. After 10 minutes i chickend out, envisioning snapping breaking dry awful hair, so i quickly jumped in the shower and rinsed it out.

Hair was a bit rough, elasticisty was OK a bit to stretchy for my liking, but AVC rinse fixed that, then i moistured with Aussie 3 minute miracle (my hair loves silicone)
The hair now feels much the same as it did before, nothing really noticable damagewise so far :)
If it should start splitting and breaking in a year or so , i will have grown enough hair to trim away the parts that are bleached the most and still maintain the length i have now. My hair is happiest at waistlength so i keep it there :)

The end result was almost exactly what i wanted, its a soft sunbleached look with lots of different shades of brass and copper in the ends that softly blends into my brown .

In a way doing this has reinvigorate my interrest to care properly for my hair, been it a bit of slump and not keeping up on my S&D sessions, not detangeling morning and night and so on. Now im looking into ordering hydrolized protein so i can make som lovely fragrance free potions for my hair <3

Sounds so nice! I'm so happy that it worked for you so well :) Just, remember that those things are damaging even doing it with care, I've got some friends that were so happy with sun-in and similar "soft" lighteners that they started applying it every week... At first the hair looked super nice, at the end I can say that it looked like very dry straws!

If you moisturize so well and take good care of your hair, this will continue looking great :D It's nice to experiment, if you know what you're doing!

[PixieP]

Oh hey I didn't notice before now that you are in Norway! Heiiiii :D

[Sarez]

I'm glad that you're happy with your results :)
I think you can get Olaplex #3 on it's own as a after treatment, which I strongly advise. I think PixieP mentioned Olaplex if you were getting it done at a salon, but you can buy the travel size kits which contains all 3, to help prevent any damage during the bleaching process.
Be careful with wheat protein, I still have bleached ends from a few years ago, and it's made the end strands very porus. I find anything containing hydrolzed proteins/keratin/coconut oil/etc really dries out my hair. And yeh, I have purchased HWP to diy my own things, and don't find much difference.
However, this is all up to you and I hope you find a happy medium :)

[Sarez]

I forgot to mention toner lol
It'll take out the brassyness and/or orange tones.
Not quite sure what products are available where you are, but it's generalized as a purple or blue shampoo.