Bleaching?

[cupcakeblonde]

I currently bleach (yes I know, its bad) and have cut back on blowing and straightening, i use weekly treatments and good shampoo and condition, my question is, how else can I lighten? I tried the honey and after one go I couldnt see any difference. Will bleaching stunt growth? TIA

[prosperina]

I bleached my hair for ten years, and I felt like it never got longer than just below shoulders--arm pit length or so. Do you bleach at home or do you go to the salon? I think the salon bleach is gentler and better on hair. I had split ends like crazy when I was lightening my own hair.

[Keiera]

Bleaching won't stunt growth, but depending on how hearty your hair is it could cause major breakage or fry it.

Personally, I've never had a problem with bleach, but I didn't have any previous damage from heat styling when I did it. I do know that a few people here on the board haven't had quite as good as experience as I did.

Lemon juice is another way to lighten hair, but it can make your hair feel like straw and takes awhile...

[Feisty Redhead]

I don't have any experience with bleaching so I really can't say anything where that is concerned. I don't think it will stunt your growth, per say. But you'll likely have a lot more breakage since you bleach, so it might seem like you can't grow very long.

Honey needs to be used consistently for a long period of time to lighten most people's hair, from what I know. So just using it once isn't going to show anything as far as changes in your color. Lemon juice is supposed to be lightening as well, but I don't know how you'd go about using it or how often you'd need to use it to see results. Not sure if it would do any damage or anything either but I'm sure someone else must know.

[justgreen]

Are you bleaching your whole head of hair? I get regular highlights every 4-5 weeks, but ONLY on the new growth , the roots. Sometimes I will get some lowlights and she brushes that darker color all the way down the hair shaft.

I could never get my hair past BSL either, until I quit using cones and started using the CWC method of washing. I also dilute my shampoo every time I wash. SMT saved me from a major cut about 2.5 years ago. My hair is about 3" longer than my pic, that was taken last Thanksgiving.

Oh, I forgot to ask....are you bleaching your hair or is someone doing it for you? I'd heartily suggest a good hairdresser.

[cupcakeblonde]

I go to the salon and she only does my roots. I noticed my conditioner has cones, justgreen, what S&C do you use?

[justgreen]

Right now I'm using Nature's Gate Original Herbal Shampoo (health food store, or GNC at the mall), diluted, about 1 tablespoon with 3-4 ounces of water, shaken well in an applicator bottle. This allows me to get the shampoo on my scalp better.

I use a variety of conditioners, but my favorite is Sebastian Volume. I also use the conditioner that goes along with the above shampoo.

I had to strip all the cones off my hair, got a small haircut, and then came home and mixed up SMT using the above conditioner, honey and aloe vera gel. I slept with it on my hair. This was my very first siggy pic, taken the day after I did the first SMT treatment.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/justgreen_/lighteneduplonghairpic-1.jpg

[cupcakeblonde]

im on oz, so I dont know where I can get those products, I will go to the shop now and have a look maybe in the health food shops for a natural conditioner? Tomorrow i will do the honey/aloe/cond treatment, is normal supermarket honey ok?

[cupcakeblonde]

sorry, should read, Im IN oz lol

[dagonlilly]

ive heard of people using lemon juice and peroxide

[jojo]

bleaching alone wont stunt growth, but you really need to make sure your hair gets lots of moisture else your hair will split, this causing the hair to break off, therefore stunted or non growth might occur. So although your hair will still be growing, you wont see any difference in length due to breakage.

But If you really do need to bleach as justgreen said just do the roots, as this is less damaging.

[squiggyflop]

i used to bleach my hair regularly so that manic panic dyes would come out vibrant and true on my hair.... when i stopped bleaching and dyeing my nickle sized pony got nice and fat... apparently getting bleach on the scalp caused alot of my hair to fall out and also caused massive breakage...
my friend moms hair got so thin from bleaching all the time that you could see right through her hair to her scalp... she stopped bleaching and dyeing and her hair came back.... of course it took months for the new growth to appear and her hair was 2 toned for a little bit but now she doesnt have to wear a hat every day... moral of the story is, dont get bleach on your scalp.. have you tryed sun in? i used to use it to make my red highlights more noticable... ive never had any ill affects from it though i know others have... and you need to do a couple of treatments before it gets it noticably lighter

[justgreen]

Using lemon juice and peroxide, at your own risk I say. Also the same goes for sun-in, of which one of the main ingredients is lemon juice. I've had experience with both of them and I much rather prefer the salon treatments.

ETA: I'm 51 years old and my pony circumference is almost 5".

[Katze]

Justgreen's right, lemon juice and peroxide sounds like a bad idea.

I bleached (salon and at home) for 15 + years, on and off, and my hair just would not grow. In the salons, they always pulled the bleach through to the ends, even if I told them I was trying to grow my hair out! http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif

And bleaching at home got me orange hair, period - I was always afraid to leave it in for very long.

For my fine, thin hair, it seems best if I go mostly natural. Part of me wants to get blonde streaks this summer - I really look good blonde, as my eyebrows are blonde and it suits my complexion - but I am worried about getting back on the bleach bandwagon.

As for honey, it did not lighten my hair, period. I did SMT treatments, heavy on the honey, with every wash for several months (2x a week) and never really saw a difference. Furthermore, soaking samples of my hair (bleached) and BF's hair (virgin) in honey for several days, there was no noticeable lightness in comparison to the hair not soaked in honey. I know some people are convinced than honey lightens your hair, but personally I think that if it really did, it would also visibly bleach towels, clothing, etc. Since I've been using honey masks on my face for years, and wear mostly black, and never had spots on towels or clothing from it, I have to conclude that this theory is unfounded.

Lemon is supposed to lighten hair but it also sensitizes you to sun, so if you are pale and burn easily, like me, it's not a good idea. It is also supposedly drying to the hair.

The long and the short of it is that, apart from going out in the sun, there really is no natural way to bleach hair. You can go to a professional and trust that they listen and only bleach the roots, or you can accept your haircolor as it is - I'm trying to do this, after years of telling myself I was as blonde as I was as a kid.

hope this helps!

Katze

[Shell]

You could take a look at Nightshade's Herbal Coloring page in the articles section. That might help you find a way to naturally change your color. It really depends what your natural color is--if you have black hair and want blonde--you'll have to bleach.

If you decided to bleach I highly recommend a salon. If you look at the folks here who bleach and still have beautiful hair (like justgreen who's already checked in, and there are others too), the majority of them go to a professional.

Of course like Katze said, you could learn to accept what Nature gave you. Even if your hair color was blonde as a child, many people darken with age. Maybe your natural color suits you (as it does Katze--I love your new signature picture!) and you could grow it out, dying the bleached bits back to your natural black/brown/dark blonde.

Good luck!

[Curlsgirl]

What about highlights and only do the roots? That seems like a much better way to go. I have had highlights a few times in my length and then I just let it go and now I only do the roots myself in a color that matches closely to my natural color (just to cover the grays). I may get a few more highlights this summer but not sure. As more gray comes in the color I use makes the gray look like highlights and the other hair look darker so that is working very well for me.

I used bleach a few times years ago and it absolutely ruined my hair. One of those they did it at a salon. I would not want to bleach my hair and try to grow it out very long anyway. I wouldn't be happy with the damage it causes. Perhaps a good salon colorist would be able to make it happen though.