Almost one year/Dye question. (With pics!!)

[ibleedlipstick]

It has been eleven months! I had planned to post on the official one year anniversary, but I figured that I might as well throw pictures in with this post.

I cut between four and six inches off in November, because the perm had grown out gross and gotten frizzy.

The first picture was taken on May 3rd of last year:

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af283/ibleedlipstick/10hairday1.jpg

These were taken an hour ago:

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af283/ibleedlipstick/2011-04-22_11-04-24_179.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af283/ibleedlipstick/2011-04-22_11-08-37_401.jpg

I dye my hair blue-black once a month, and I have gotten a bit bored.

I have been toying with the idea of adding some MP Shocking Blue to my hair — either the tips of my hair or adding streaks. I basically want some opinions, you know? I have really been contemplating this for about 8 months, and I have one question:

I have bleached/highlighted my hair before, and it turned out pretty well. I have never bleached black hair before, and while I know that it won't go white, I am a bit afraid that it will completely and utterly fry it. (I know it will do some damage, yes, but there is a difference between a bit frizzy/more fragile and being completely and utterly destroyed.)

Will doing this look completely terrible with my hair? I think it would be interesting, and add dimension to my overall color. My hair is super healthy right now, because I baby it, other than the current dyeing.

Also, 20 developer or 40 developer for the bleach? I have read conflicting articles on this.

Thank you!

[bunzfan]

I can't answer your colour question, but just wanted to say you've had a lot of growth :-D

[Siiri]

I can't really help you with your bleach question, when I got my hair bleached from black, I had many layers of it, so the colour I got was bright yellow in the root and dark red in the length. I had it done in a salon so I don't know what strength of bleach they used. If I would have wanted it even, it would have fallen out. But if you only dye the roots, it won't be that difficult.

When I had black hair and wanted a change, I grow out my natural colour for about an inch and just dyed my roots with a purple or dark red dye, that way I didn't need to bleach. I think the cool dark red looked pretty good.

[Qadupae]

Color Zap from Loreal, right? I'd recommend that stuff for removing black color because I;ve used it before and it is awesome! Works quite nicely on old color too ^_^ Just be sure to use protein before and after using it to help protect your hair as much as possible. There was an awesome ColorZap tutorial from....Suicide Eve? I think?

[PamelaViktoria]

very thick! Nice waves!

[sarahbrownie]

It is very difficult to bleach black hair. Once you've selected your streaks you'll need to get a dye remover, when I dyed my hair black I was horrified to know that the temporary black doesn't come out and I had to get a dye remover to get it back to brown. Spend the money on Sally's Colorfix, don't go with the drug store brand. Then once that's done, bleach it. I'd go with 40 since your hair is naturally dark. I use to use L'Oreal's Blue during my high school manic panic dye fest. Works pretty good and shows you the levels you'll go through bleaching. My hair is naturally dark brown and usually my hair never got lighter than orange, but because it's been bleached the dye will still take.

[ladylovecraft]

Considering you only want to dye it blue, you won't need to get it white or even platinum blonde. (Unless you want a very sky blue/baby blue color). But if you're looking for a midtone or darker blue, I'd recommend a color remover first such as Loreal color zapp, seeing where your hair is, and then considering bleach. And I highly doubt you need to go to 40 vol to get a light enough color for blue to go over.

I would recommend Special Effects over manic panic ANY DAY (it's what I use to get my red, along with henna) and you can buy it at amphigory.com if you're interested. But yeah. Try to lighten your hair up to a medium/light orange and you should be able to go over it with blue.

[Firefox7275]

Bleaching black is supposed to be relatively risky, why not start collecting hair from your brush and plughole then do a series of strand tests? Buying two strengths of developer has got to be better than frying your whole head! Apparently you can partially mitigate against damage with pre-oiling with coconut. It's worth reading up on what colour the Manic Panic will go as it fades, can you live with it if your hair gets a green tinge? If you like to change your colour frequently (looks like the before shot is brown) you might consider only using temporary colours. :o

[McFearless]

Your progress is amazing!

[boudica]

The lower the number you can go on the bleach the better, but you may need 40 to lift the black. Ultimately, bleach is damaging to your hair, and the people who grow very long here seem happier when they no longer have any chemical dye in their hair at all.

What's your natural color?

[spidermom]

You could also consider adding the blue as extensions. There are even some that clip in, so you could easily have color variety.

[Fufu]

Beautiful hair, you have lots of hair growth :)

[Dragon]

What great progress :) I don't have any advice on colouring your hair.

[Valdeon]

If you go with the bleach powder (say, Wella) it will take your black color way up to almost white with 20% peroxide, even 15% will do. Just watch your hair carefully and do not let it stay on the hair for too long (20-30 minutes will be more than enough).

Good luck!

[KittyLost]

It's gonna take a lot of work and time. To get a dark blue you should be fine but a light bluw will pick up yellow tones in your hair very easily and turn green. Try a colour remover first then see what you have to bleach. I suggest 20vol as a 40vol can quite easily destroy hair but a couple of 20vols spaced apart will help you not fry your hair.

I also recomend Directions over Manic Panic or SFX. MP and SFX blues would not take to my hair at all, changed to Directions and it took ages to get rid of it! There is a picture of my blue hair in my albums.

ETA: Try a bleach bath instead of full on bleaching, just as effective with again less damage than full on bleach.