I'm gonna go blonde by myself- any advice appreciated!

jenniewb

OK, I know the score on this one: get it done at a salon or risk green hair and spikes growing on your spine..etc etc. And yes I know how damaging it all is, but the fact is, I've been cancelled on now every time I have tried to book as a hair model for an entire year- thats 5 appointments cancelled! (I'm so angry about this I'm inches away from naming and shaming).

I have dark coloured hair (colour 5.4) and I want to get my hair lighter (level 8), my natural colour is around a 7 so its not something that wouldn't suit me, its just a matter of getting there.

Getting this done properly in a salon could cost £hundreds, even as a model your looking at around £30 at the least which is money I've put aside for this about a year ago now.

I'm wondering if anyone has done this sucessfully- I know the horror stories, I have tried in the past and it wrecked my hair, I want to do this again but without causing as much damage so any tips would be appreciated.

Thankyou for reading.

miduck

Whilst I would strongly advise against it, if you are going to do it you will need to get a good protein treatment, for use both before and after the colour. Could you not go back to your natural colour first, see how that goes?

j.e.j.

I know this isn't quite the colour you're looking for, but it might give you some idea of how to go about it:
http://www.nucleardoll.com/goingplatinumblonde

Getting hair coloured at the hairdressers costs a fortune, so if it's possible to do it yourself, go for it. I'd strongly recommend doing a test first on a small inconspicuous area!

One problem I can foresee, though, is if your hair is two colours at the moment, ie your natural colour at the roots and the dyed, darker colour on the ends? This might be one of those instances where it IS worth saving up a bit of money and getting a professional to do it.

jenniewb

miduck wrote: »

Whilst I would strongly advise against it, if you are going to do it you will need to get a good protein treatment, for use both before and after the colour. Could you not go back to your natural colour first, see how that goes?

To be honest I think if I get back to my natural colour alone I'll be lucky! My hair looks so dark compared to what it normall is. I've been using a box-colour for a few years now, I used to use 7.34 and then went to 4.5 then hovered around the 5.4 mark so its quite murkey. It'd be great if it was possible to get it lighter in just one application.

Thanks for the tip on a protein mask- I'd almost forgotten about that! I have used Aphogee's 2-step protein treatment in the past which would probably be what I'd use this time too.

jenniewb

There seem to be 3 different box-lighteners available. Has anyone used all three or even just two and is there a preference to either?

System

In my 30's i went blonde ... totally blonde from being a natural brunette and i did it myself. It took several attempts to lift the colour to the shade i wanted and it was a nightmare as i was having to do the roots every 3 weeks. Then i found my hair was just breaking off.

So deciding to go back to being a brunette again i stuck a dark brown hair dye over the top. My hair turned khaki green and i had to go to a hairdresser to have it put right.

I'd never do a DIY again.:rotfl:

Fire_Fox

Do not bleach dark dye out, use a colour stripper like Jo Baz Max or Colour B4 Extra. These leave your hair feeling like the worst straw ever because they lift the cuticle but they are not damaging like peroxide is. You may need to do this more than once and leave a couple of weeks before your bleach or you risk going dark again. I got from burgundy (LIVE XXL red passion with dark build up) to strawberry blonde with colour strippers - my natural is dark mouse BTW.



Since dark permanent colours contain low levels of peroxide you may find your 'new' natural colour is actually slightly lighter than your natural. If the dark won't lift with a colour stripper you may have cuticle staining OR have melted the colour onto your hair permanently with silicones and straighteners. No bleach will get that out. If you can get a colour close to what you want use a blonde box dye not bleach, that should even out the roots/ lengths or get a hairdresser to do that step.

I've been box dying my hair for well over twenty years, only dodgy results were a couple of colours that just did not suit me. Lightening is damaging if you go too light and/ or leave the product on too long - it destroys the structural proteins as well as the pigment. Research suggests the lauric acid in coconut oil can help protect against this protein damage - do a clarifying wash to remove any silicones, drench your hair in coconut oil and leave to soak for a few hours, lighten right over the top of the oil.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:9Cpc2ak-jboJ:journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2003/cc054n02/p00175-p00192.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiB0rX5yIb1MJdnISGrRpyUJfJZAMsUoJ6KJ2o9VL4NMcXlEbhbNfeRm9LWAUFD3U_Guu3x-LUYdv9LdAWzxUM5_gIP8gsNUIo5PQym-NSMJZqZinBhfIUtxGDMcKK0qgXxHkCN&sig=AHIEtbTTHS5EQXf9zMGb2p7XKV0LsMatqQ

Just do loads of strand tests so you know if it is likely to go orange (means you need to lighten further) or green (if you swim or have chlorine-y tap water) or stretchy/ breaking (product too strong).

TinyDancer_2

The only advice I would give is to try and build the colour at gradually. Don't try and dye dark hair blonde straight away as it won't work. I've trid doing my own hair blonde from its natural dark fair colour.

Good luck

barbiedoll

Re: the coconut oil. Does that mean that I can use a box blonde dye on my dark hair directly on top of a coconut oil treatment?

My hair is quite thick, dead straight, a dark mouse colour and in quite good condition. I've recently used a blonde box dye and got quite a good colour (not too light) but the roots are looking very dark so I want to go a shade lighter this time. I've just bought the new Oila "blonde" colourant, should I use coconut oil before using the dye? My hair tends to be greasy at the roots and I hardly ever use conditioner as I just can't rinse it out, it makes my hair really lank. It does tend to go drier after colouring, that's one of the reasons why I do it!

(Sorry to hijack the thread but I hadn't heard about the coconut oil before!)

Fire_Fox

barbiedoll wrote: »

Re: the coconut oil. Does that mean that I can use a box blonde dye on my dark hair directly on top of a coconut oil treatment?

My hair is quite thick, dead straight, a dark mouse colour and in quite good condition. I've recently used a blonde box dye and got quite a good colour (not too light) but the roots are looking very dark so I want to go a shade lighter this time. I've just bought the new Oila "blonde" colourant, should I use coconut oil before using the dye? My hair tends to be greasy at the roots and I hardly ever use conditioner as I just can't rinse it out, it makes my hair really lank. It does tend to go drier after colouring, that's one of the reasons why I do it!

(Sorry to hijack the thread but I hadn't heard about the coconut oil before!)

Yes dye right over a very heavy oiling, don't wash the oil off first! The chemicals in bleach or permanent box dyes eat right through any natural oils or silicone styling products/ conditioners already on your hair, this is not any different. Do a strand test if you intend to do the full head, you might not want to leave it on the lengths the full processing time.

Have you considered using a light silicone free leave in conditioner or a wash out but really diluting it first and only to lower half so you don't overapply? Some people find the sulphate surfactants in commercial shampoo are the cause or a contributory factor to greasy hair because they are known irritants, so the skin pumps out more sebum to protect itself. They are also damaging so you might try a gentler sulphate free shampoo.

jenniewb

Thanks for the replies.

So maybe if I take it a bit more slowly...I've read here and in other places that its best to do a box-colour-stripper more then once, I'm wondering if I wait about 6 weeks apart between doing just that I may reduce some of the harm. But not before doing a protein treatment before either and a moisturising treatment afterwards/once a week.

I've not got much hair, a horrible hair dresser seemed to mis-hear me when I said "I'm trying to grow it out" and my then shoulder length grown out pixi became an ear high bowl cut (and I'm not talking ear lobe length...) Never ever will I go back to that salon again (and if anyone wants to know which London salon it was let me know).

I did contact back the salon who had let me down, they were very good at getting back to me and apologised. Sadly for me though being the 5th appointment each with a different salon who have cancelled on me in the past year I'm fed up with being messed around with and will wait until saturday before attempting this myself at home. I've got half-inch long roots at any rate which need to be covered so either I redye or I colour strip, something will be happening this weekend!