If you've read my post about
hair extensions (part 1), then you have a basic rundown of my hair. If not, I have thick, coarse extremely dark brown hair that has red and gold tints to it. It's oily, but my scalp is also very sensitive, dry and prone to some pretty bad dandruff. I've only ever dyed my hair once (
black) and bleached 2 small sections, all of which has been grown out and cut off years ago. So starting this journey to blonde hair I started out with
virgin* hair.
To start off:
I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL HAIR DRESSER! I only have basic knowledge that I've learned from my sister and the Internet.
THIS IS NOT A TUTORIAL, just what I did to my own hair.
DO NOT EXPECT IDENTICAL RESULTS IF YOU ATTEMPT THIS! This is just my personal hair journey and I'm only posting it as documentation for myself and if any of you are curious.
Also, if you are using bleach you
will damage your hair. There is no avoiding it. My hair was in good condition, and I still had to cut about 3 or 4 inches off. I knew I would need to, but I also wanted to.
Technically this was a two-day process, but in total it only took a couple hours. I bought everything at Sally Beauty Supply. I went in with general knowledge and also asked the ladies working there for some advice. I got 30 volume developer and blue powdered bleach, and my hair color. I decided to go for an ash and neutral blonde because I have red and gold in my hair and the ashy/neutral tones would counteract it somewhat.
I enlisted the help of my sister and best friend, and together with my instruction we bleached my hair! When bleaching hair, you have to start at the ends. The farther away from your scalp, the longer it takes to process. Your scalp is a "
hot spot" and the bleach will develop
a lot faster! We didn't do the roots until about 5-10 minutes before we had to rinse the bleach, and we were checking it constantly.
We rinsed it out and used some purple conditioner, and it cut down on the brassy tones really nicely. Not like a toner would, but my hair was not light enough to tone. I didn't want to bleach my hair more than once, and I knew it wouldn't go platinum on the first try. I knew going blonde would be a process.
Next we went over my hair with the dye. I completely spaced on getting a lower level developer for the color and so I used my 30 volume (
which lifts as well as colors). I got a level 8A(
ash) and a level 8N(
neutral) dye. I also used a color correcting additive to cut down red tones. We did the color the same as the bleach, ends to roots. I let the color develop and then rinsed with purple conditioner again.
Looking back, I would have used a lower developer and gone roots to ends because my roots turned bright
YELLOW! The length of my hair was a nice color, but man those roots!
I went to bed and let my hair rest a bit, and then the next day we went back to Sally's and bought more dye and a 10 volume developer. I also decided on a level darker in color because my roots were so bright. I got some level 7N dye and a Red/Gold color correcting additive to cut down on the brassy tones. We applied it all over the roots and then went back and brushed it through the length a bit to blend everything together. I let it develop for 30 minutes and then rinsed. I didn't have the purple shampoo with me this time, but I only used the tiniest bit of shampoo and slathered on the conditioner.
It looks
so much better now! It's a smidge on the brassy side, but I bought my own purple shampoo, so those tones will go down in time. The color turned out to be a medium-dark neutral blonde, but there's a small hint of red to it.
My hair is still in really good condition considering I bleached my hair blonde in one day. Only the very top layer is frazzled, but with some good, deep conditioning masks it'll be ok eventually.
Product List and Links:
Levels I bought: 1 Level 8A, 1 Level 8N; 2 Level 7N
I hope you guys found this interesting, and helpful if you are on the same journey as myself. I did a lot of research before I started to consider going blonde. I came from pretty much a level 2 brunette shade and went all the way to a level 7/8 blonde. I'm still not done, but I'm really loving where it is at right now.
Until next time,
Abby
Hair Journey Part 2?
*Virgin Hair means untreated, unprocessed, natural hair.
After about a month and a half, the regrowth was getting to me. (This picture to the right is as of August 20.) But I still let it go until October 1st. It just made the blonde look darker. And my natural hair color grows out so dark before the sun gets to it to make it seem a little lighter.
I stuck with good old, trusty Ion hair dye. That was also part of why I waited until October to dye my hair. My local Sally Beauty Supply was always out of the shade of brown I wanted. Ion has a range of brown hair dyes called their "Mocha" range. I got the darkest one, shade 4WR (Medium Gold Mahogany Brown). This is essentially my natural hair color amped up. It's a little lighter and richer. My natural hair color can seem a little flat, and it's borderline black because it's such a dark shade of brown. I used a 10 Volume developer because I was depositing color, and not trying to lighten it. I left it on for about 30 minutes and then rinsed, and voila!
