First Ever Salon Experience

[GlacierLacie]

Woah, I haven't been on here in forever

I just had my first salon experience.. (not with a long hair salon) I was a little confused, nervous... excited... and SO eager to see my hair come back to life. I've posted before that I've had a chemical reaction to bleach on one side of my head, well my hair stylist said it's most likely the toner that had stuck behind somehow. Went in for a hair consultation as I've never been to a salon before, and I received a Redken chemistry treatment that really helped my poor ends come back to life. I was sent home with the treatment you can do before you wash your hair. I may be going back a few more times(I think?) since my ends have been neglected, due the fact that I had no idea which products to use on my ends to keep them healthy. (other than ACV and lavender) The plan is to do a bleach wash and potentially put something over that after 'healing' my ends...

Now, the only reason I will be adding lightner is because I'm so unhappy with how my hair is :( I've reached elbow/mbl and I just want my hair to... i don't know, make sense? :undecided
I know many people are against coloring hair.. I was delaying this for a very long time but gave in. I will be keeping my natural root color.

Also, I don't know when to tip? I only went in for a consultation and ended up receiving a quick treatment, should I have tipped? I did, however, let her know that I am slightly on a budget as the cafe I'm working at only opened up yesterday so I've been out of work for awhile.

I'm curious about others experiences, have yours been good? Do you only go to long hair salons?

[Decoy24601]

If your ends are that damaged, why are you wanting to do a bleach wash? I don't get it. All it will do is further damage your hair, and you seem uphappy about the damage and motivated to grow your hair long, which is much harder to do if you're continuously damaging your hair (and damage is cumulative). All permanent colouring and bleaching will do is further damage your hair.

I don't go to salons because I cannot afford it, but if you enjoy it then you might as well keep going back, but you might want to reevaluate your priorities (long hair vs. minimizing damage vs. bleaching/colouring).

Also, hair never "heals". The best you can do is coat it with proteins or other chemicals that bind to the damaged parts of hair, which will temporarily protect those areas, but this isn't permanent and the damage will always be there. Eventually, if it continues getting damaged, it will become harder and harder for that to work.

[Ylva]

Honestly, I can't recommend the lightening. You say your ends are already damaged and struggling. Treatments can make your damaged hair feel more tolerable in its current state but no one can tell you what further lightening will do. Why do you feel that your hair doesn't "make sense" the way it is now?

I can't say anything about tipping as no such culture exists in my area.

[Dark40]

I wouldn't recommend going for a bleach wash. Because, of the damage. If you go for a bleach wash or if you put a lighter over it it will damage it even further, and you said that you were unhappy about the damage. So, if I were you I would do something about the damage like a good deep moisturizing conditioning treatment. That's what your ends sound like they really need, and then decide if you really want to color your hair afterwards.

[YvetteVarie]

I agree with Dark40. Focusing on doing deep conditioning treatments will help with your hair health more, and keep your hair looking healthy for a while. As said earlier, no product exists that can heal or reverse damage. All the best with whatever you decide to do.

Also, no idea about tipping, my culture isn't really into tipping. We just pay for the service provided

[CopperButterfly]

In the US, it's normal to tip around 15% of whatever service you paid for. Any thing is appreciated of course. I usually tip when I pay for everything after the service.

[AutobotsAttack]

Ah yes, the bleach bath lol.

To be quite honest, it’s one of the more gentler ways to even out color versus the typically bleaching process. So long as you’re using like 10-20 vol. I think you’ll be okay, since the goal is to not be so harsh with the bleach. I’d also suggest mixing a moisturizing shampoo with the bath. I don’t know what the norm is when mixing shampoo, but I feel like salons will use something rather stripping anyways.

If it doesn’t screw with the formulation too much maybe even add an oil to the shampoo before you mix it with the bleach? Idk might work might not.

As for the aftermath, I’d focus on doing some sort of temporary protein treatment. Whatever you decide for that to be. I’d start off doing them semi regularly like once a week, and then slow down to however frequent you need them.

[lapushka]

Did you get an Olaplex treatment for the bleach. Anything else is "just" a deep conditioner and you might as well just get one from the drugstore, there is *no need* to go to a salon for that at all.

Maybe you want to do some research into Olaplex if you are bleaching a lot because it might come in useful.

Ylva can probably tell you more about it!

Even though I do agree, if your ends are already in bad shape, why the need for more bleach? At some point you have to make that choice between really long hair and healthy hair and shorter colored hair. It is hard to have both, not impossible, but really hard!

[milosmomma]

Do you have any virgin hair right now? My idea/thinking process is you already have damage and are unhappy about it, it will need to be trimmed away anyways so why not try to even it out with the bleach bath just to be more happy with it and slowly trim it away? I would find a good deep conditioner and use it everywash in place of a normal conditioner(I use eden bodyworks almond marshmallow split end "repair" mask) it works great for keep hair more moisturized. As does using a ROO(rinse out oil) before the deep conditioner. Just give you hair as much moisture as it will take and with bleach you may need some protein from time to time as well.

[GlacierLacie]

Hey, This is exactly what I've been thinking! I agree with everyone else who replied, I shouldn't be lightening my ends if they are already damaged, this is simply what my hair stylist recommended. I don't even want to use bleach on my hair, I just cannot get this weird funky color out of my strands. I have about 3 1/2 inches of regrowth that I will leave untouched if I do lighten it. I think I forgot to mention that I actually am on a protein treatment... and it's helping me out a lot! I actually already trimmed my hair a few months ago, I had about an inch taken off but i plan to slowly take off my damaged ends as I already know there is no 'miracle product' out there to save me. I think I'm just too attached my hair that I just don't want to trim it again...

[Decoy24601]

You live and you learn, and hair regrows :flower:. Protein treatments will help prevent further damage to already fragile ends and make them feel/look healthier until your hair is long enough to trim away the damage.

As for the colour, I guess it just depends on what you really want. The least damaging way you could fix the colour would be to darken it with a semi-permanent dye, but I'm not 100% sure if that will cover the green bits, others here are more knowledgeable about that.

[GlacierLacie]

You live and you learn, and hair regrows :flower:. Protein treatments will help prevent further damage to already fragile ends and make them feel/look healthier until your hair is long enough to trim away the damage.

As for the colour, I guess it just depends on what you really want. The least damaging way you could fix the colour would be to darken it with a semi-permanent dye, but I'm not 100% sure if that will cover the green bits, others here are more knowledgeable about that.

I don't think I could go back to having dark hair haha ;) I'm curious, if you were me, would you just go with a trim? I'm so lost as to what I should do.

[spidermom]

See someone who is well educated in color.and take that person’s advice. As stated, damaged ends cannot be healed. That’s why I’d choose the trim. However, I’m not sentimental about length. I know hair grows and life goes on.