Dyeing your hair isn’t easy. If you want to avoid chemical burns or dissolving hair, the best solution is to go to a professional. Professionals, however, can cost hundreds of dollars just so that your hair can look slightly different. If you’re brave or don’t mind maybe having to cut your hair, then these instructions are for you.
How Does Bleach Work?
Hair strands are made up of shafts: the outside, the cuticle, holds in the molecules where there are melanin molecules, which give your hair pigment. Based on the amount of melanin in your hair, it can be darker or lighter. Hair also has undertones, which become more pronounced as hair is lightened. The lighter the hair, the more yellow the undertones. The darker the undertone, the more red the undertones.
“Bleach” is made up of two substances: developer (a hydrogen peroxide solution) and lighting powder (which is essentially ammonia, among other things). The developer opens the hair cuticle, also known as lifting, which allows for the bleach solution to enter the shaft, and oxidize the melanin molecules, dissolving them.
The strength of the bleach solution depends on a few things: heat and time spent on hair and concentration of hydrogen peroxide. Heating hair will speed up the reaction, but the longer you leave bleach on hair, the more it can penetrate the core of the hair shaft, lightening your hair more.
It also depends on the amount of hydrogen peroxide in the bleach solution. The amount of hydrogen peroxide in the developer comes in levels of volume. 10 Volume is 5% Hydrogen Peroxide, 20 Volume is 10% Hydrogen Peroxide, etc. The higher volume, the more your hair will lighten. Generally for every 10% increase in volume your hair will lighten about two levels.
All bleaches and developers are largely the same– hydrogen peroxide and ammonia will function on, or damage, your hair similarly regardless of the sourcing or added “protectants.” Follow the instructions on the label of the bleach (most require a 2:1 ratio of bleach to developer), and your hair will survive.
How does Bleach Damage Your Hair? How Can You Fix It?
However, the higher volume the solution, the more your cuticle will open, and the more your hair will be damaged. The PH of your hair might also become less acidic, since the PH of hydrogen peroxide is about 6.2, and the ideal hair PH is about 4-5. Beach powder can also dissolve proteins beyond melanin, causing damage.
Bleach and developer will strip protein from your hair and open the cuticle. Fixing this is fairly simple; you can use a protein treatment to restore lost proteins to your hair or use an acidic solution to close the cuticle.
Olaplex has a variety of treatments, with varying strength to restore protein to hair. However, it is very easy to overuse, and excess protein can cause more hair breakage. And despite a lack of more affordable options, Olaplex might not be worth it, with most products costing around $30. I personally recommend buying the cheapest Olaplex product possible, since they all do similar things.
There’s a smaller variety of acid based treatments that target developer damage. My personal favorite is the Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate. Recommended use is once a week recurrently, but I find hair is repaired immediately after use, and needs little more. It also is easily overused, so be advised that once a week may be more than enough for hair that already has a lower PH.
Bleaching doesn’t have to be balding. Don’t worry about chemical burns. And if in doubt, you can always pay $100 for a service which may or may not do the same thing.
