How to Minimize Damage to Your Hair from Bleaching

Last Updated on December 16, 2022 by Gaga

What is Bleaching?

Bleaching is an oxidation process that lifts the original hair color from your hair. Bleaching chemicals penetrate the cuticle and degrade existing hair pigments, thus removing the original color from the strands. This process turns your hair white or colorless. Bleaching kits contain bleach in powder form and a cream developer with hydrogen peroxide that must be mixed with bleach to activate it.

The outer hair cuticle needs to be lifted to allow penetration of the bleaching solution into the hair shaft. During the bleaching process, the hair color changes gradually. Depending on your natural color, your hair may go through many stages of brown, red, orange, and yellow before reaching a white-blonde shade.

Gorgeous woman with bleach damaged hair lying at the shore

Possible Damage to Hair from Using Bleach

Unfortunately, bleaching agents don’t only affect color molecules in your hair. The bleaching process also weakens protein bonds, making the hair brittle and more fragile than before. The hair’s natural keratin is also weakened, resulting in structural damage to the hair.

Bleaching strips your hair of its natural oils that keep your strands healthy and moisturized. Bleaching chemicals can weaken the cuticle scales, leaving the inner core of hair exposed and prone to moisture loss. This leaves your hair feeling dry and overly porous.

In conclusion, bleaching is a harsh process that can leave your hair overly dry, brittle, frizzy, susceptible to tangling, and more prone to breakage, static, and split ends than previously.

Related post: How to Keep Your Bleached Hair in Good Condition

How to Minimize Risks of Damaging Your Hair

If you have been thinking about bleaching your hair, it is always better to consult a professional, especially if your hair is on the darker side. After the initial transformation, you can try to save money by touching up your roots at home.

However, if you bleach your hair at home, be aware that bleaching is a risky and time-consuming process that requires the use of proper techniques and the right tools to avoid long-term damage.  Here are a few helpful tips before you start.

1. Avoid drugstore brands of hair as they can cause severe damage and opt for professional-quality products available in salons or reputable beauty shops. Quality bleaching products also contain nourishing ingredients and conditioning agents in their formulation.

2. It is advisable to use the lowest volume which should be effective in removing your original color but is still gentle on your scalp and hair. Use no more than a 20-volume developer for light brown and dark blonde hair, while medium-dark and deep red hair need a 30-volume developer to be effective. If you want to go from dark hair to white blonde, you will need a more intensive bleaching treatment and professional help.

3. After selecting the right volume of the developer, you need to properly adjust the time to get the desired blonde shade. Leaving the bleach in your hair too long will fry the hair. If your hair is not completely lightened during the recommended time, rinse the chemicals out and reapply the bleach a few days later.

Beautiful woman with lightened hair taking a selfie

4. When bleaching dark hair, you should gradually lighten it before reaching a blonde shade. A resting period of at least a week between bleaching sessions will give your hair some time to recover from damage. Deep conditioning treatments work well between bleach applications.

5. If your hair has recently been permed or chemically straightened, bleaching can lead to excessive hair damage. It is advisable to wait at least two weeks for your hair to heal before putting it through the bleaching process.

6. Don’t wash your hair a day or two before the bleaching session. Let the protective coating of your natural oils prevent scalp irritation and protect your hair from over-drying. Paint your roots close, but don’t apply the mixture directly onto the scalp to avoid chemical burns.

7. Make sure to do a deep conditioning treatment one or two weeks before your bleaching session. Building up moisture in the hair before bleaching will minimize damage and help preserve the integrity of your hair.

8. Coconut oil pre-highlight treatment will protect your scalp and hair from burns and damage caused by bleach. Cover your hair with coconut oil and leave it overnight or at least an hour before bleaching. Apply the bleach with the oil still in your hair.

9. Make sure to rinse off the bleach solution completely from your hair. Any remaining chemicals in your hair can cause scalp burns and further damage to the hair.

10. Use a protein filler to balance out porosity, reduce the damage, and spread color more evenly.

11. For managing newly grown hair, apply the bleach only to the new growth and avoid putting the formulation on hair that’s already blonde to avoid damaging it.

Importance of Using Olaplex

The best way to protect your hair from the damaging effects of chemicals in the bleach is to use OLAPLEX Bond Multiplier. Olaplex works to minimize damage and repair the hair during the bleaching/coloring service. Olaplex No1 Bond Multiplier added to your lightener/bleach allows the hair to be lifted higher without serious damage. Olaplex reconstructs the previously broken bonds and protects your strands from further damage, enabling you to grow longer healthier hair.

A range of different bond multipliers has been introduced recently for a similar purpose – to protect hair from chemical damage and prevent breakage after coloring, bleaching, and texturizing treatments.

Smiling blonde girl sitting on the floor

About the author

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Gaga is a blogger and founder of the Softer Hair website. She often says that insomnia is to blame for her first blogging attempts. Being the night owl, she hated the morning alarm. She left her office job and returned to what she loved most - writing.

 

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