For many years now I have had long straight brown hair, which this year I decided that I had had enough of. I wanted a dip dye or an ombre. So I found a box of Directions bleach kit, the 40 vol one (available here) in my house and did a strand test.
Now 40 vol is the strongest bleach you can get and everywhere says don't leave it on for more than 45 minutes. I left it on the strand test for an hour and it was fine. And by fine, I mean stretchier than an elastic band, but repairable (I will get to that later). But it was very blonde. And yellow. Very yellow.
So I put my put hair in two pigtails and applied the bleach. I put them in two development bags to contain the heat or whatever development bags do. I did check how my hair was getting on every 15 minutes. Mainly to make sure that none of it had dropped off. And after an hour I washed off the bleach and shampooed it.
So I had hair like this. The lighting in my bedroom is ridiculously yellow anyway which didn't help. So I had a yellowy blonde dip dye which was is desperate need of a condition.
After reading this, I skipped the toner stage and went for a mixture of Bleach London Silver Shampoo and Reincarnation Mask which I left on for an hour whilst wrapped up in a towel.
So then I got this. which was quite nice but I wanted the option to go for pastel colours so I would have to bleach it again.
I waited 3 weeks, using as much conditioner and Umberto Gianni Mend My Hair 5-In-1 Oil which did help with the dryness and split ends and just the complete damage I had done, I went to the peroxide again.
This time I chose Bleach London's Total Bleach as I have fallen in love with the brand. I had kept my old strand test because who doesn't want to keep a lock of their own hair (perhaps I will give it to a lover someday) and bleached it using the kit as I wanted to see if my hair could take a second bleaching. It turned out fine. Slightly blonder as expected. I only went for half an hour however I did not go for the pigtail method and instead went for a more balayage technique and used my tinting brush to paint on a few highlights so the dip dye started nearer my ear than my jawline. The main problem with the total bleach kit, is that even for a dip dye touch up that I was doing, they don't really give you a lot in the packet. So I recommend buying two if you have long thick hair.
After the half hour passed, I washed off the dye and toned it with the silver shampoo and reincarnation mask. The kit actual comes with it's own tiny bottle of reincarnation mask which is the most adorable little bottle ever.
So this is what it ended up as.
Following bleaching my hair I learned that I suddenly had to care a lot for my hair. Before I used conditioner about once a week, if that. But bleached hair is not for those who are low maintenance. I have sent a small fortune on conditioner and products to repair my hair. Before my hair was very healthy, and now I have ridiculously bad split ends so my hair could do with a trim but it's getting so long so I don't know what to do. Probably visit a hair dresser.
Here's another fact about me, I have never been to a hairdresser. Ever.
Was ruining my hair worth it?
Yeah, I think so.
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