How To Successfully Bleach Your Hair at Home with Minimal Damage
Fact Checked By Skin Formulations
| Nov 9, 2021
Introduction
There is nothing more hazardous than attempting to bleach your hair at home with no knowledge of what it can do to your hair, clothes, and skin!
There are so many horror stories worldwide from people who believe bleaching their hair is just an extension of dying their hair (it isn’t!), so they have tried to complete this at home and have had a monumental disaster!
A lot of people choose to bleach their hair at home for many reasons, including:
- They fancy a change
- They need to lighten their hair so another more vibrant color can go on
- They want to have lighter hair
- They want to cover up grey
And there can be so many, many more reasons besides! But why choose to do it at home?
This can be a whole other set of reasons on top of the ones already mentioned and can include saving money by doing it at home, experimenting, or people simply don’t want to go to a salon.
So what can we do to ensure that we are as safe as possible when bleaching our hair at home? Let’s take a quick look at some of the most crucial points to consider!
Pros And Cons of Bleaching Hair at Home
Bleaching your hair at home can be extremely hazardous! And this is something that you might only find out when you are doing it at home for the first time!
Bleaching your hair is similar in the process to dying your hair with a box dye. However, bleaching is so much harsher on your hair than any kind of dye, and it’s essential to know all of the pros and cons of bleaching your hair at home.
Pros
- You can do your hair at your own speed and in your own time.
- It’s substantially cheaper than vising a salon.
- You can experiment with depts of color removal and different techniques.
- You can quickly repair a disaster if one occurs.
Cons
- Bleaching your hair can be hazardous to your health.
- Hair bleach can cause a severe allergic reaction to the skin.
- Hair bleach can permanently remove the color from soft furnishings and fabrics.
- Hair bleach can make the hair extremely brittle and breakable.
All in all, bleaching your hair can be great or not so great.
Who Should and Who Should Not Bleach Their Hair at Home?
There are some fundamental rules to apply when it comes to bleaching your hair at home. These may be the crucial things to remember if you look to bleach your hair at home without a disaster!
Do not bleach your hair if:
- You are pregnant or breastfeeding
- You have previously dyed hair using metallic dyes
- If you have had any previous sensitivity or allergic reaction to henna
- If you have very dark hair or lots of greys
- If you have previously dyed your hair many times
- If your hair is in poor condition
You can think about bleaching your hair successfully if you have hair that is:
- Undyed (Virgin hair)
- In overall good condition
- In an even natural color
- It is dyed, and you are trying to lighten it pre-treatment for a more vibrant tone of hair dye
Of course, there is nothing physically stopping you from bleaching your hair at home! However, taking note of these simple rules will make the experience far more successful!
Different Looks to Choose
When you choose to bleach your hair at home, you usually want a different look for your hair. There are so many different hair looks you can achieve with hair bleach and other techniques to try and achieve the look you are aiming for, such as:
- Whole head bleaching – where you apply the hair bleach on every hair all over your head
- Highlights – You take fine sections of your hair to give different tones and depth to your hair by making some bits lighter, and this is often achieved with a highlighting cap
- Chunky highlights – This is where you take more significant and more obvious sections of your hair and bleach those bits to give a chunkier texture to the lightened pieces of hair
- Ombre – This can be achieved at home by bleaching your hair. This is achieved by graduating the depth of color from the midsections to the ends, so it gets lighter as the bleach goes to the end of the hair
- Streaks – This is as it sounds! It involves taking sections of the hair that will have a streak effect by taking slices of the hair and bleaching those
You can achieve so many different hair looks when bleaching your hair at home, and some will be easier than others to accomplish if you are single-handed! But with a few tutorial videos online and a whole lot of patience, you can achieve most looks at home.
What You’ll Need
Of course, there is more to your home bleaching armory than your hair bleach and your hair! You’ll need to consider all sorts of other equipment to help you along your hair bleaching journey, which will make it go smoother.
Here’s a list of the items you may or may not need when bleaching your hair at home:
- Plastic combs
- Plastic clips
- A protective cape (or old towel)
- Cling wrap
- Cotton wool
- Plastic bowls
- Toner
- A timer
- A friend you trust for assistance!
Of course, the equipment you’ll need will depend on the technique you are using and the look you want to achieve. Be cautious in making sure that you only use plastic equipment in addition to your hair bleaching kit, as the metal equipment will react with the bleach compounds.
Precautions!
We briefly mentioned having a timer close by, and this is to time exactly when your hair will be at the desired stage of lightening. However, this isn’t guesswork, as you should be carrying out a strand test with a small amount of bleach and a piece of cut hair.
Once you apply the bleach, you need to measure the timing of the color change and the condition of the hair throughout the strand test process. Once the hair is your desired shade and is not broken, damaged, or brittle, that will be your optimum time for application.
After-Care Is So Important! Incredibly Important!
Ensure that your hair is deeply conditioned after bleaching your hair at home to keep your hair protected and manageable once you are finished and beyond. Of course, the last thing we need to mention is what to do if bleaching your hair at home goes horribly wrong; what on Earth do you do?
Suppose it’s something medical, such as burns, irritation, or swelling. In that case, it’s best to see a medical professional or seek advice as soon as you can.
Suppose the hair bleach on your hair has given you unexpected results or has damaged your hair beyond repair. In that case, it’s best to seek out a corrective hairdresser to see what they can do for your locks.
If your hair is damaged, you may be looking at a haircut; however, if the color can be corrected, your hairdresser will be the best person you know!
Conclusion
Bleaching your hair at home can be one of the best or one of the worst experiences of your life!
There is, unfortunately, no absolute way to tell how your hair will react to bleaching until you go ahead and do it. Regardless of a strand test, which will be an excellent indication of how your hair will behave, it is not indicative of the result you may achieve all over your hair.
Ensure that you are as safe as possible when bleaching your hair by protecting your skin, surfaces, fabrics, furniture, and breathing, as inhaling the fumes from hair bleach can be bad for your health. Also, ensure that you have assistance where needed, and only use plastic equipment to execute the best hair bleach looks you want to achieve.
Overall, bleaching your hair at home is an equal measure of pros and cons, so make sure you always have the most appropriate information available and a whole lot of patience!
