Bleached damage hair

[Gmcfashionista]

Hello LHC I am new and in need of help I am a curly girl with BSL wishing for hip length hair but i keep bleaching. Ive decided I want to go back to my natural color but I love blonde!!! My curls have lost its definition due to heat damage and its starting to break Please help!! Any stories or suggestions will help

[akurah]

How dark is your hair naturally? That can give us an idea of what to suggest that could still help you have some blonde (for example, if you’re light brunette, highlights could be a way to allow for some blonde)

At the end of the day though you might find you have to choose. You might find you can baby your bleached hair to super long lengths if you’re willing to put in the effort, but it’s really unlikely, and even if you could you will likely end up getting fed up with the immense amount of care at that length bleached hair would require. And that’s additionally assuming your hair can make it that far without breaking off.

ETA: your hair being curly also complicates things, if you want your dry hair to be a specific length, your hair while wet needs to be longer than that length, making bleach+long length even more difficult.

[Gmcfashionista]

Yeah i was starting to think the same about giving up my hair is a level 2 or 3

[akurah]

What color is your natural hair? That can help us give suggestions.

[Gmcfashionista]

I have natural black hair

[Joules]

I have natural black hair

That's making things even worse. The darker your hair is naturally, the more bleach you need, the more damage you get.

I agree with akurah, in theory it might be possible, but it's gonna take more time and more care (and more expensive care). At some point you're gonna face the choice, so you might as well make it now and save yourself some trouble. That's how I see it, anyway.

You can grow your hair out for a few months, and then do something like balayage to blend in blonde hair with your natural roots and make the whole process prettier and more enjoyable.

[GrowlingCupcake]

I have naturally black hair, and I really dislike my hair colour. I do not bleach, but have been using a hi-lift box dye. I don't know how well that will help you since you've bleached your hair, but maybe you could use a hi-lift dye only on your roots as you transition to a darker colour?

A few options that I can see:
1) Give up bleach cold turkey. Go the balayage route.
2) Give up bleach cold turkey. Slowly start dyeing my hair closer to a darker shade, perhaps using a hi-lift box dye on your roots at first, and then moving to a darker shade of brown. You could go for the balayage route here as well.
3) Keep bleaching but bleach less. I don't know much about bleaching so I can't help you out here.
4) Dye everything over at once, maybe to a darker blonde. Then keep increasing your hair colour.
5) Dye everything over at once, straight to a colour close to your natural hair colour.
6) Give up the bleach cold turkey, and just endure it growing out.

Personally, I plan on doing one or two more hi-lift colours, and then going into purple and/or purple-red, and slowly letting my hair grow out from there. I might dye it a darker shade of brown - but not my natural colour as I want a demarkation - but I haven't decided on that yet.

These are my roots; I haven't dyed in about a month or so. They're more visible in certain lighting.
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=32641&d=1531039781
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=32640&d=1531039771

But as you can see, it did take my hair down to a lighter shade without bleaching separately.

[lapushka]

Agree with akurah, sometimes you have to choose.

I think it's especially bad if you have black hair, because a lot of bleach goes into making it a light blonde, and if it's breaking off, that should tell you it's time to put it on pause at the very least. :flower: Give it some time to recover!

If your hair is on the mushy side when wet, give it protein. If it's on the brittle side, give it lots of moisture (heavy conditioners and masks).

Welcome to the forum.

[ravenskey]

Welcome to LHC!

I don't have any personal experience with bleach so I can't really help but this thread (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=21256) is about growing long with bleach so it might have some tips.

[kamileona]

for me, avoiding bleach was really hard but the longer my roots got, the easier it was for me to feel how healthy and shiny and soft undamaged hair is. this really gave me motivation to stay away from chemicals. i kinda had to choose between the blonde and the healthy, and i chose the healthy. hope it gets easier for you!!

[iforgotmylogin]

Zdravo !

[Gmcfashionista]

True i think im just going to have to stop bleaching

[Gmcfashionista]

I agree with all of you thank you so much i will do my best to just stop bleaching and maybe go darker to bare the process of it growing out 😭