The Blonde Hair Thread

[lafindesiecle]

here's the before and after from the bleach bath... see, not too bad, a little brassy but i think i can definitely get that under control with some toner pretty quickly. yay!

 

[FleurDeLys]

The nasty greenish/greyish tint in my hair is gone just by washing it with purple shampoo. I only used this shampoo when I wanted to make my blonde hair less yellow but when Diesanni suggested it I gave it a try. Thanks! I didn't know it would help with the green :-D.
After two washes with regular shampoo the dye was almost completely gone and after a few purple shampoo washes it's completely back to normal again. It seems that my hair was indeed too brittle to hold any colour. I'm afraid I'll have to let it grow out entirely...
Thank you all for your suggestions !

lafindesiecle: My hair was like that too when I switched from a light brown to blonde earlier this year and purple shampoo helped a lot with the yellowness! It might take some washes though.

 

[lafindesiecle]

@fleur glad to hear you got the green out! good luck with the rest of your colour adventures...

i think i'm going to go home and sit with purple shampoo/conditioner on my head for 15 minutes tonight and see how it turns out... fingers crossed that it helps! i suspect it should as it's not TERRIBLE, just a little too... apricot. does anyone have any other recc's for toning it down at home? i was thinking of getting one of the wella light ash blondes.

 

[lafindesiecle]

since apparently i can't stop updating y'all on this:

here's after toning a little bit with just the shimmerlights conditioner -- applied with a brush on dry hair and left for 15 minutes, then washed out and deep-conditioned, towel dried, put a ton of coconut oil on the ends and then blow-dryed -- and it definitely helped! it's still a little tawny but it cut a LOT of the worst brassy orange and got it down to kind of a bright gold and evened out a lot of the weird yellowy streaks.

also, FYI if anyone else wants to try this -- my hair seriously feels AWESOME right now, not damaged at all and super soft and bouncy. i'd def recc the mixing bleach and developer with conditioner thing -- i'm used to some damage from salons but tons of damage from any sort of home processing, and am really amazed at honestly how soft my hair still is after all this. the conditioner also makes it a lot easier to comb the bleach through so there's less splotchiness. (the weird white streaks here are from old highlights i had that lifted more than the rest of my hair.)

i think i'm going to tone with the shimmerlights one more time, wait a week or two, then do another fast bleach bath and tone with a wella ash blonde. hurray! so glad i can do it myself instead of spending a billion dollars at the salon!

 

[kissablekae]

^ looks good lafindesiecle!

Asia Pulco

promodnewsblog.blogspot

 

[dauphine]

Maybe next time you lighten your hair try Unred? They have it in single use capsules at Wigs And Plus on 14th street. It gets added in to the dye mixture to help tone down brassiness. Rickys never seems to stock it.

 

[lafindesiecle]

you guys! i know it's been such a goofy ongoing saga here of me posting all the time as I've been going blonde from the near-black hair I had in October, but I FINALLY have the colour I want!

I did the same kind of conditioner/bleach bath thing I described before again, twice in a row one time only on the darker brassy ends, and then again pulling it through to my roots in the last 10 minutes (they're blonde and lightened to platinum REALLY FAST, seriously took less than 10 minutes with a 30 vol dev) -- the conditioner thing really makes the bleach easier to work with and it doesn't get all pasty and you can comb it through so it's even? Definitely recc' that again to anyone putting any sort of bleach in their hair at home, ever. So after that it was mostly all really light yellow but a little orangey on the ends.

Then I used Wella colour charm in 10A "palest ash blonde" with their 20 vol developer for half an hour.... and voila! i'm so happy! it's a little uneven in places but I sort of like the depth from that, and I'm planning on doing the ends light purple after the holidays anyhow. you can see it's a little dry, but for the most part my hair still feels pretty healthy (no breakage at all, just my split ends all look a bit worse.) Finally!

 

[FleurDeLys]

Your hair looks very healthy! Lucky you, mine would be so ruined...

 

[royal blue]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading this thread for a while and i've gotten really tempted to go blond. The thing is that I have never dyed my hair before and that my hair is naturally pitch black. I would love to achieve an ashley olesen-esque blond, but would that be possible with my black hair? Or will it just turned into an orangy blond?

Hope you girls can give me some insight

 

[lafindesiecle]

^^ everyone's hair can be bleached, just for some it might more time, more processes, more money, or a little more damage to get it that light

lightening your hair from black to blonde will definitely involve some orange stages -- half this thread alone is us all talking about how to keep our hair from 'pulling red' or going yellow/orange! it's just how it works, for everyone, but that's why there's toner and ash dyes and so on. if you've never lightened your hair before i'd definitely recc' going to a pro first since they'll be able to tell what's going on more easily than you.... in NYC you can expect to pay around $200 for double-process (what it takes to go pale blonde: they bleach it first to lighten, then tone or dye it to get rid of the orange tint) but this varies between salons and also on where you live!

perhaps you could try getting a few foils (highlights) put in first, just to test out how you like yourself with a lighter shade as well as for your stylist to see how easily your hair lifts (aka lightens)?

 

[royal blue]

^^ thanks for the reply

So is it really impossible to do it in one go? or do they recommend that you dont?

 

[dauphine]

I can't really advise on this, my hair is naturally light and I only use bleach on it a few times a year to 'brighten' things. I can't say what is or is not possible with someone else's hair unless their hair is the exact same color as mine.
But if your hair is really as dark as you say, then I would proceed with extreme caution, and be prepared to go short if it really screws up.

 

[lafindesiecle]

@royal_blue it totally depends on your hair and texture -- i know girls with naturally near-black hair who have no trouble bleaching their hair to platinum, and i know girls with medium brown hair who can't get their hair to lift without bleaching it four times! i'd either talk to your stylist or do a strand test to see how your hair reacts, it really does vary.

if your hair is thick and strong it'll be easier as well, whereas if it's fragile/dry/very curly/etc you might have more difficulty.... shorter hair also is easier, and if it's long you may end up needing to cut a few inches off if your ends are especially dry. like dauphine said doing it all in one go is a little bit risky and may not work for everyone, but it's not impossible by any means! i think we're just all erring on the side of caution because i'm willing to bet most folks here have made more than one tragic mistake

 

[royal blue]

thank you for your replies, it really put things in perspective

 

[rachelbojangles]

I'm a dyed red copper shade(been getting it dyed for 3 years now) and I'm looking to go blonde gradually. My natural shade is a dark golden blonde. I'm aiming for ombre blonde by summer hopefully. Like this

ashlee-star

 

[rachelbojangles]

I'm also looking at these shades. My natural blonde shade with lighter ends and pieces around my face. Very California blonde and low maintenance.

ashlee-star

 

[ediewho]

today a new step into "back to blond" operation

 

[kissablekae]

Ashley Benson

Amanda Seyfried

tlfan, miss-seyfried

 

[lafindesiecle]

@edie i can't karma you but it looks great!!

 

[dauphine]

Happy New Year! Got any Blonde Hair Resolutions? Mine is to keep my hair healthy and grow it out to it's natural blonde color without coloring it.