I have been super unwell (as per usual?) and really really busy so far this year sorting out the cosmic mess that is my life haha
What does a girl have to do to get a new and improved immune system? New and improved pain receptors would be pretty awesome too!
ANYWAYS.
Let me just say first that I am NOT a professional when it comes to.. well pretty much anything at this point in time lol except being me!
What works for my skin or hair may not work for you.
If you pay attention to your body, then you know your skin and hair better than anyone else and you know what you're sensitive too and how much bad stuff it can handle.
For this, if you have weak hair, you will need to draw out the process so that you actually have hair to look amazing when you're done.
RIGHT. SO.
Unless you've already got white hair, you're going to need to bleach. The level your hair already is will determine what strength bleach and developer you will need and how many times you are going to need to bleach it.
Do not bleach box dyed dark hair. Ever. Ever ever.
You may get away with bleaching over semi permanent dye, but really, chances are that's already been bleached once, and you don't reeeallllly want to bleach over that -especially if you fried it pretty well recently.
I'm not sure about bleaching over hair with blonde dye in it, I would look around on the net to see if anyone else has and what the results were.
Strip colour where you can. I personally haven't had this problem because I let my hair grow out, greys and all, so that when I got it cut I would have virgin hair to bleach -I hear that colour oops is a good product, however I suggest you do your research before using a colour stripper.
You need to get your hair to a pale yellow stage. Many people refer to this as the same colour as the inside of a banana.
I have very dark hair so I had to bleach twice -and unlike most people, I had the most problem with my roots lightening up. They were ridiculously stubborn.
I used ultra lift bleach and 30vol developer (usually I would use 40vol with your average blue bleach powder, however I was advised to not use stronger than 30vol with the ultra lift).
I did two bleaches, one at night, one the next morning.
Please note your hair may not be strong enough for this, mine is an iron horse!
If you don't have strong hair and you can bear to go around wearing a cute hat for a while, you may need to bleach 1 week to 3 weeks apart.
Processing time also depends on the strength of your hair.
Don't push your luck if you know something bad is going to happen!
I then used Wella T18 Lightest Ash Blonde toner.
You can choose to use this with a 10vol developer (it deposits colour but it is not as permanent -nor as damaging- or so I hear) but generally it is used with a 20vol developer.
Open a window. Just. Trust me on this one. Do it somewhere well ventilated cause ...wow... it's.. pretty bad.
I think I left this on for twice the time listed on the box, and I knew that that was going to be my limit.
Again, you know your hair, stay within your limits.
Whenever it was later, I then mixed up my own semi permanent toner - or purple conditioner.
I did a lot of reading online and most places it said to get violet or plum directions and mix with conditioner to get your desired toner colour.
I don't know what plum looks like in person but violet looks more maroon in person (or maybe I just got a weird one?)
So I dumped a ton of colour protect/colour stay conditioner (just about any brand will do the job, I prefer garnier personally for this job) and then added violet dye little by little (LITTLE) and I added a tiiiiny amount of my atlantic blue to get the colour I wanted.
It was still really light, but as I hadn't mixed toner before I didn't want to push my luck. It ended up a bit darker than the directions white toner. And it worked better. Way better!
My hair was now really really light with a slight purple and silver tinge to it.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST!
While I had bought the violet directions to make my own purple conditioner, I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket because I know that the colours they show on the swatches for semi permanents (and just about all hair dyes really) are often not the same as what they really are in the pottle and on your hair.
Good thing I didn't completely trust everything to be good with the violet because that is definitely not the purple I was lead to believe I was getting!
I picked up some Steiner Silver Brights purple conditioner from the pharmacy.
It's not cheap. Let's just get that out there. It's not. Buuuuuut it is cheaper than most other purple conditioners and shampoos in this country.
(Side note, why do they all cost so much on ebay? Shipping aside, if people can get them for like $10 from Sally's or where ever, why are they starting them at $60?! SHARE THE LOVE WITH THE LITTLE COUNTRIES!)
Anyways. This conditioner ...it doesn't smell particularly nice.. It was a bit overpowering to have that all up in my face O-O
BUT it is worth it!
This conditioner says to leave it in for one minute.
Laugh that rule right out the door right now.
I put this stuff on and left it for I think about an hour and a half.
My hair came out silver!!
There were a couple of patches I reapplied, and it helped, but really there are two or three little patches that I should've gone over with bleach and 20vol. Whoops!
The colour looks great! I also did atlantic blue directions mixed with a lot of conditioner underneath (because it's my thing, I dunno).
HOWEVER. IMPORTANT.
That's not the end! Sure, you have an awesome colour, but you still have work to do!
Chances are you fried the daylights out of your hair. It's probably not looking or feeling too great any more.
Time to treat it well!
HOMEMADE HAIR MASK
This is allllll stuff you can get from your supermarket!
Again, I am not a professional, this has just worked for me.
You can put as much as this stuff as you want in your mix, my hair is around shoulder length and very thick, so change it to suit you.
What you will need:
Half a banana (the riper, the better)
Light coloured honey
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Macadamia nut oil
Avocado or avocado oil
I do about a tablespoon each of the honey and oils, if you are using an actual avocado, you may need to add a bit more of that.
Break half a banana up into small pieces and put them in your blender. You'll need to get the banana as smooth as possible because otherwise you will have weird chunks coming out of your hair that look like snot for a few days. I found out the hard way.........
You can then put the banana in a bowl and add the rest, but I like to just stick it all in the blender and give it a good thrashing.
Once it has all been mixed together well, in a bowl, put the mixture into the microwave for about 30 seconds (depending on your microwave). You want it to be very warm, but not too hot to handle.
Apply this mask to the ends of your hair first and then work your way up. I wrap mine in gladwrap and pop a shower cap over top to keep it all in there and warm and all that business.
I then leave it for as long as possible 2-6 hours is what I prefer, but if you are not a thrashy sleeper like me, you could even go to bed with it in.
Now, this sounds like it would be reeeeallllllly oily. It's not! I typically have oily roots and since I started using this mask (before I bleached) I have had no issues!
Another tip for saving your semi permanent colour is to stop using shampoo. I'm sure I've been over sulfate free blah blah blah before, though for some things you may still need to use a gentle shampoo on your scalp -keep it on your scalp, do not put it through the rest of your hair.
For your hair, you can leave out the shampoo and still get a good clean with apple cider vinegar!
Sounds smelly, I know, and yeah it kinda is but once you condition or have a mask in you don't even notice, plus once it's dry it stops smelling anyway!
I think I put 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar to 2 cups of water. I take it a step further by using the water to first make peppermint tea. That helps with the smell too and feels soooo nice on my scalp!
I put the mixture into a cheap condiment bottle from any cheap store ($2 shop etc) so that I can have directed application.
Have fun with your hair colour!
~^_^~
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