DIY Hair Bleaching

Several people have asked me how I got my near black hair to near platinum without completely ruining it, so I thought I'd give a little tutorial/advice on how it went down!

I'm still in the process of getting it more silvery and eliminating the brass, 

but here is generally how to pace yourself, keep it healthy,

and get rid of that orange color we all hate!

First of all, I take B Complex Vitamins every day. I've been doing this for years.

My hair is thick and strong and healthy and grows really fast, 

so my hair had pretty good protection before I even started. 

Most Important Thing Ever:

DO NOT. DO NOT. DO NOT DO THIS IN ONE DAY.

Seriously, you will fry your hair and it will fall out.

It took me over a month to get it where it is now, 

and even that may have been too soon

This is what I started with 

At first I wanted to color it a bluish and purple color, but being poor I decided to do it myself. I (stupidly) bought two boxes of Splat Color, Lusty Lilac and some Aqua color. It comes with bleach and 20 volume developer I think. It's very cheap bleach and I do not recommend it.

Nope. That's how you end up with this: 

Such an ugly orange color. But I trudged along and covered my head with aqua and purple, which resulted in this (which I actually liked) 

After about a week I lost that pretty color and it went into a muddy orange-purple mess,

so I decided to wait one week and go another step. 

Here's my process: 

Everything required to properly bleach your hair can be found at Sally's Beauty Supply. 

Here was my haul the first time:

L'Oreal Quick Blue Bleach (bucket size!)

40 and 20 Volume Developer (40 is SUPER strong)

Wella Color Charm Toner in Light Ash blonde (eliminates the brass)

  40 Volume Developer is incredibly strong, but my hair was so dark that I needed it. I followed the directions on the back and mixed it with the exact instructed amount of bleach, because it's really easy to fry your hair with 40 volume.

 When bleaching, divide hair into three sections on bottom and three on top. Most importantly, start bleaching from tips to root. Bleach works by heat, so in order to get a nice even tone, wait to do the roots until like, the last 15 minutes. I was under for about an hour+, which brought me to this color (it was a lot brassier in real life)

Usually at this stage people's hair gets fried, stretchy like bubble-gum, or falls out.

Mine was still in really good condition.

How? INVEST IN THIS. Seriously, it's a life saver. 

Also, I didn't wash my hair for about a week, and I didn't blowdry it at all.  

I waited one more week after my first bleach to do it again.

This time I used my 20 volume developer with the bleach and left it on for about an hour. 

At this point my hair started getting a little mushy, so I left deep conditioner in my hair all night.

I waited another week, taking good care to condition it and not blowdry it, 

and then bleached it again (for only about 30 minutes this time)

This color came out: 

Still kind of yellow, but it was definitely getting closer to my desired color.

And finally, waited two weeks and then bleached it one last time: 

This is the last bleach I'm willing to do. I started crying when I first came out of the shower because I thought all of my hair was falling out, and then I realized that hair naturally falls out in the shower when you haven't washed it in a while.

The little hairs on my neck are white and stretchy, so I'm worried about them falling out. I try not to even comb my hair when it's wet because it causes so much more breakage.

All in all, still healthy!

 How to go from brassy to blonde

 Toning hair is so important. I learned that the hard way. It eliminates brassiness. 

So I will be using the toner about once a month, and in-between I'm using Shimmer Lights purple shampoo which is the best thing ever. 

I've only used it once and my hair is already a more silvery color.

I'm taking very good care of my hair in preparation for the terrifying day when I have to touch up my roots (which is soon because my hair grows so fast).

Start and finish:

 Bleaching hair can be inexpensive, but it is so important to do lots of research and take good care of your hair. This took over a month and will require lots of maintenance, but I love it!

Two most important things:

Pace yourself. Do not rush the process or you will fry your hair.

Invest in DEEP CONDITIONERS, TONERS, AND SHIMMER LIGHTS SHAMPOO