Bleaching hair, help!

[coscass]

I've gone through a lot of changes over the last year. I recently cut my hair shoulder length, and decided I want to start coloring again. I have brown hair with a bit of natural red in it.I have plans to bleach my hair out in about a week, throw a toner on, and go an ashy blonde. I'd like to do it now, while my hair is still relatively short, that way I'll only have to do touch ups. Is anyone familiar with bleaching? I'm afraid my hair is going to turn green or something terrible lol. Plus, I have well water with lots of iron- will that turn my hair orange/red? I guess if it happens it won't be THAT big of a deal, I can just go red again- but I'd hate to bleach my whole head for no reason.

I was thinking of buying a special shampoo/conditioner to take the stains out and keep my hair from going orange. Anyone familiar with this? (Malibu 2000, Clairol Shimmer, etc)



I'm also on the verge of just saying screw it and going red again, until I move away and don't have hard water anymore, THEN I'll try blonde. Sighhh.

[spidermom]

Hard water really stains blonde hair. Perhaps a shower filter and/or rinsing your hair with distilled water?

[jaine]

Aside from the water issue, I'm worried that ashy colors might look green in comparison to the rest of your coloring since your hair is naturally reddish... did you try a wig or something to make sure that color will be OK for you? I had some ashy highlights once and they looked distinctly greenish in comparison to my skin, especially under fluorescent light...

[louisemg82]

Yes I've bleached at home several times. If you want to put any kind of bright colour on black hair then you have to unfortunately! Here's what I have learnt:
1. Sounds really obvious (but I didn't do this first time - I was 14) but paint the bleach on your hair leaving the top inch of roots unbleached. The heat of your hair really makes the bleach work fast. Say if after your strand test, your ends need 20 minutes, then your roots are only going to need 5. Paint the roots towards the end of the bleaching time.
2. Speaking of strand tests - make sure you do one! You need to know how long to leave it on for. If you leave it on longer than you need to lift the colour then you'll only damage your hair even more than necessary.
3. Best results are obtained from bleaching on clean dry hair with no conditioner - just be prepared for that straw feeling!
4. Finally, you need to harvest some hair before you even strand test and throw it into some mixed up bleach paste. Leave it 20 minutes, then take the hair out and stretch it. If it snaps or melts then for the love of God, don't even think about bleaching the rest of your hair.

Also, blue or violet based shampoos are excellent for removing brassiness. Any one you pick up at supermarkets/drugstores will do the job. Just make sure that the ingredients list doesn't contain anything you're unhappy with using on your hair, like SLS.

[Roscata]

I suggest you use coconut oil as an overnight treatment, then bleach on the still oiled hair to protect your hair from peroxide damage. More info here: http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.com/2009/11/part-1-of-3-part-series-on-innovative.html LHC Thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10495). After you reach the color you want I'd say do root touch up only and coconut oil is your best friend.

Concerning water with lots of iron I suggest using chelating shampoo periodically, it removes minerals (such as iron) from your hair. This (http://www.amazon.com/Itely-Chelating-Treatment-Shampoo-Sulfate/dp/B003BKQY8I) is the one I use because it's sulfate free.

I don't know why your hair would turn green. Unless you have indigo in your hair, you should be ok. ETA: Just to be safe I would clarify and use a chelating shampoo before bleaching. The one I linked above does both.

Good luck! :D

[Kathie]

It looks like you’re getting some sound advice. Another piece I can add is to leave the blue or violet shampoo on for a min or so if you need an extra boost to get rid of some brassiness.

[jojo]

I know nothing about colouring apart from henna, just wanted to wish you luck!