You can also test a few strands in an inconspicuous spot on the back of your head.
You can also protect your clothes by wearing a hairdresser’s cape or draping an old towel around your shoulders.
The bathroom is probably the best place to bleach your hair, since you will have easy access to your shower and sink. Leave the door open and open the window or turn on the bathroom fan, if you have one.
You can put foil under a section of hair, paint on the bleach, then wrap up that section in foil if you like. Make sure it is hairdressing foil and not tin foil from the grocery store or you could damage your hair.
Avoid putting the bleach directly onto your scalp. If you do, it will sting or burn a little bit, and it will hurt a bit. If it burns a lot, this is a chemical burn. Rinse it out immediately.
If you want a higher lift, use aluminum foil instead of a plastic bag. If you are using a grocery bag, make sure the side with printing on it is NOT against your head, or you will wind up with the color of the print processed into your hair a bit.
Check the color all the time. Once at a pale yellow, you must wash off the bleach. Don’t leave bleach on for over an hour. Don’t bleach any more once at pale yellow or your hair will break. If you’ve gone as long as you safely can and your hair is still not pale yellow, then rinse it out, tone your hair, and wait a month to re-bleach your hair.
You ‘’must’’ wash out the bleach mixture completely, or else you will damage your hair. After a while, the developer and powder stop reacting and your hair won’t bleach anymore, only become more damaged. If you over-bleach, your hair might end up feeling a little bit straw-like and brittle. If you’re in doubt, rinse it out. Make sure to use a shampoo and conditioner designed for bleached blonde hair to eliminate any yellow and make your hair bright platinum and white. Any purple shampoo is fine. Remember purple counteracts yellow, makes it white, and eliminates brassiness.
For a natural platinum look, dye it with a natural blonde mixture with 20 developer, since the hair is already bleached. Leave it on for 25 minutes. For pale silver platinum, use a platinum dye with 20 developer, and leave on for 25 minutes. For yellowish-white, leave it the way it is after completely stripping all the color with the bleach. Use a lot of purple shampoo to eliminate and dull yellow or dye it a level 12 color. Leave on for 25 minutes. For white blonde or white use a white blonde toner, and leave on 25 minutes. Many of these toners are semi-permanent, so the color will fade and you can redo the toner the following week.
While you’re waiting, you might try using a blue shampoo to balance out the orange tones in your hair. Follow the directions on the bottle to determine how often you should use the shampoo and how long you need to leave it in your hair.
After about 40 minutes (depending on your toner), wash, condition and dry as before.
