Is it possible to keep bleached hair moisturized and shiny?

[Priska]

I'd like to bleach my hair for a change, as naturally as possible. My hair is naturally pretty dark brown, but I think I'm already half grey-headed. (And those grey hairs are actually totally white.) Anyway I have hairdyes of my own color covering my grey hairs now. Does a natural bleach for dark hair exist? And if not, is it possible to make bleached hair look good or is it automatically very very dry looking? My hair is naturally very dry anyway and I need lots of moisturizing all the time anyway. Once I have had bleached hair in my youth and that was not a disaster then, though my hair was short then.

[Priska]

Sorry if this is here already... For some reason I cannot use the Search button from my phone...

[florenonite]

There is no natural bleach that really works. Sun-In and honey can lighten a bit, but they're both lightening with peroxide (and personally, even though my hair is dark blonde and bleaches easily in the sun, I didn't notice a change with either of them), which is exactly what you'll find in regular bleach. If you're wanting to go from dark brown to blonde I would highly recommend seeing a professional, who can help you achieve this with as little damage as possible.

Bleach WILL damage hair, but damaged hair doesn't necessarily mean it looks like fried straw.

Bleached hair can look good, even quite long. It depends partly on your hair itself. If you find you can wear your hair loose at hip length, rarely trim, and still have few tangles or splits, you might be okay, but if you have to treat your hair like delicate lace and wear it up all the time, carefully finger combing when you take it down, or it turns into a mess of splits, then bleach will likely make it even harder to look after. Bleached hair will require more care than virgin hair, but virgin hair requires different levels of care on different heads.

[Ylva]

This was my fully bleached hair:

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=35670&d=1551048065

It was shiny. Ignore the ends, though - they'd been bleached four times and thus disintegrated. But they were still shiny, too! :lol: My hair did (and still does, because I have a lot of bleach left) require extensive care, though. I double-condition, and use a leave-in cream and an oil or a serum.

If your hair is shiny in its healthy state, it might well be that in a more damaged state, too.

[Dark40]

I'd like to bleach my hair for a change, as naturally as possible. My hair is naturally pretty dark brown, but I think I'm already half grey-headed. (And those grey hairs are actually totally white.) Anyway I have hairdyes of my own color covering my grey hairs now. Does a natural bleach for dark hair exist? And if not, is it possible to make bleached hair look good or is it automatically very very dry looking? My hair is naturally very dry anyway and I need lots of moisturizing all the time anyway. Once I have had bleached hair in my youth and that was not a disaster then, though my hair was short then.

I agree with all of the above posts. You can have bleached moisturized shiny healthy hair. But there is not such thing as natural bleach like what florenonite mentions about the sun-in spray. The only other natural bleach you can use is lemons and hydrodrine peroxide, and go outside in the sun for a few hours, and that will lighten or bleach your hair but in the meantime you will need to condition, deep condition, or double-condition. You can also try John Frieda's Lightening Spray as well. You can spray that on your hair and use your blow dryer or flat-iron. When I use that kind of lightener I always use my blow dryer, and when I had brown hair it lightened up to a red. So, yes I think bleached hair can be moisturized and have a nice shine.

[lapushka]

I totally agree with florenonite when she says if you are wanting to go very light from a brown (even a lighter brown), go see a professional. It is hard to get past that "orange" stage on your own, and if you are wanting to go a mid-shade of blonde, you are going to have to bleach quite a bit, in 2 sessions even, IMO. Don't try this at home.

Have you thought about letting your silvers come in? Or is that a big no-no? :) Just asking because we have an entire thread full of ladies and gents growing their silvers out! It's a nice bunch of people. Gray can be very pretty, and think about all that "no fuss" you'll have with your hair. No more dying, no nothing. Eliminate the cost for one, and for two the upkeep which can be pretty daunting. I mean you'd have to repeat this process every month to 6 weeks. Gets tiring fast, trust me!

[BerrySara]

You mentioned your natural hair is very dry to start with. The bleach is likely to dry it out further (lightning of any kind does damage the hair strands to various degrees), especially if you will be bleaching several shades lighter going from dark brown. I have naturally dry hair and I have had my hair bleached by a professional as well as done it on my own. In both cases, months later the dry and brittle ends did end up breaking off due to how dry and brittle it became. For me I have learned due to how dry my hair naturally is, I am much better off leaving it be.

Also it sounds like you already have dye on your hair to cover greys. Unless its deposit type dye, your hair may already be in a more fragile state if the dye you used contained peroxide and can also make the lightning process more difficult vs if your hair was virgin hair.

[Priska]

Oh I wish my hair was already totally greyed/whitened, so I could only take some golden or honey shade into it... 😁

[Priska]

I totally agree with florenonite when she says if you are wanting to go very light from a brown (even a lighter brown), go see a professional. It is hard to get past that "orange" stage on your own, and if you are wanting to go a mid-shade of blonde, you are going to have to bleach quite a bit, in 2 sessions even, IMO. Don't try this at home.

Have you thought about letting your silvers come in? Or is that a big no-no? :) Just asking because we have an entire thread full of ladies and gents growing their silvers out! It's a nice bunch of people. Gray can be very pretty, and think about all that "no fuss" you'll have with your hair. No more dying, no nothing. Eliminate the cost for one, and for two the upkeep which can be pretty daunting. I mean you'd have to repeat this process every month to 6 weeks. Gets tiring fast, trust me!

Must read this topic, thanks! 🙂 Even though I feel I'm not ready go gray yet... but my hair sure is lighter with many white hairs in it! Maybe from now on I just give some yellowish shade for my groing half-white roots and it looks like my hair is actually blonde and I've just been dying it brown all these years. 😂

[lakhesis]

Maybe consider balayage? :) This way the roots will stay darker so it doesn't require so much upkeep, you can get away with not bleaching it so often.
You can get it done with Olaplex, which will prevent some damage, but as others have mentioned, bleach is never going to be healthy for the hair. Bleached hair is forever compromised and will need a lot more care to look good.

[SleepyTangles]

You can pamper bleached hair, my hair has kept fairly shiny and soft despite me bleaching it very light blonde.
I just need to dust my ends frequently and avoid layers.

But if you have old dyes over your hair you may try with a color remover before bleaching! Chance is they are actually lighter than they look.

[Sammich]

My bleached ends are very delicate and tangle extremely easily. They need to have a lot of moisturising but I find it doable. I can imagine a full head of bleach is much harder to look after but then again, doable if you’re determined! I say just do whatever you’d like with your hair! The suggested balayge(can’t spell it) sounds like a good idea if you want to bleach less.

[Priska]

Thanks everybody!