[Sticky] Bleach Bath tutorial - with pictures!

what colours can you over dye red or tropical green 🙂 and are both colours really hard to bleach bath sorry for all the questions

tropical green, I don't know how well that fades or stains. You can go over red with purple generally, or if it's faded quite a lot, pink or orange. But, pink is generally a really bad one for staining too.

The best thing to do if you want to change colour a lot, is work around the colour wheel. So, start with a colour, say red as you mentioned it. When bored fade and go to purple, fade and go to blue, fade and go to turquoise etc etc etc As I mentioned before, there's a good thread on force fading in the tutorial part of the forum.

I found tropical green easy to get rid of, as well as fading and covering with blue for lovely teals.

Hello !

Can you tell me what is the difference between bleach bath and bleaching ?

Thanks

Bleach bathing is a diluted bleach solution, which means less damage and a more gradual lift.  As it's less damaging and weaker than a full peroxide bleach treatment, it can usually be done once every week or two as long as the hair is in good condition.

Full bleaching is an undiluted bleach peroxide solution, which can be very damaging if done incorrectly, but it has a more dramatic lifting effect.  Because it's such a harsh process, it's recommended to be done at least four weeks apart, if not longer.

Glad I found this tutorial, thanks for posting it . I will most like give it a try a week or two after I have used Decolour remover.

I am wanting to go from red (semi red) to brown. I am currently fading my hair, I have been washing with H&S, shower gel and the other day did a mix of H&S, fairy liquid, lemon juice and left on my hair for 1.5 hours (it took a lot of colour out in the ends, hardly touched the roots which were only bleached and dyed red in January - so now I'm at a salmon type colour). After all this I did a strand test using Adore's Darkest Brown and it turned out purple. I was hoping it would take over the faded red okay and go brown but nope so I think I will end up having to do a bleach bath, will be my first time doing so.

ETA: I am wondering if I should use 20 vol or 30 vol for my first time (not sure 20 vol would lift the colour much?), also the fact that I will be doing it myself and I cannot work very quickly while doing it. I start at the base of the neck and work my way up to the top of my head and by the time I'm doing the top of my head the dye (bleach in this case) will have been on the lower part of my head 10-20 minutes aready.

What sort of brown are you aiming for?  If a medium or dark warm brown, then you can dye right over it once you've got the brightness factor faded down.

What sort of brown are you aiming for?  If a medium or dark warm brown, then you can dye right over it once you've got the brightness factor faded down.

I am wanting to go a medium-dark brown, more so dark brown.

It has faded quite a bit already so not sure how much more I can fade with the shampooing and the H&S/lemon juice/fairy liquid. Right now it's a peachy/pink salmon colour and I can see some of the blonde/orange coming through on some pieces.

It should cover that just fine 🙂  I say put the brown on and strand test if you want to make sure, but it shouldn't have a problem covering.

It should cover that just fine 🙂  I say put the brown on and strand test if you want to make sure, but it shouldn't have a problem covering.

Yeah I did the strand test yesterday but it came out a purple colour and not brown (used Adore Darkest Brown). I'll try see if I can possibly fade it some more and if successful I'll do another strand test

I read somewhere that a purple toner is for yellow hair, blue for orange hair, and green for red hair? Is that right?
My natural colour is a dark auburn/ginger. But ive got a few layers of adore x directions red atm, i wont bother bleach bathing until its faded considerably though. Is it possible to achieve a medium ash blonde through bleach bathing and toning, or will.i have to use a box dye. Also, has anyone found blonde to be hard to maintain with natural red hair?

omg i am panicking a little bit seeing that everyone is using pantene in a bleach bath 🙁 i am a qualified hairdresser and we were made to watch a video at trade school of a woman who used pantene shampoo and conditioner on her hair and then went to a salon to have her hair bleached, and it started smoking from a reaction to the silicone in pantene and the chemicals in bleach, i always ask clients if they use pantene before i will touch the hair with bleach, so i strongly suggest u dont use pantene for a bleach bath but definately try to get a clarifying shampoo and try not to use a shampoo with a toner in it as it could turn your hair purple.. hope i saved a few peoples hair from damage xx

I would think if it's going to react, it will do so in the bowl when mixing. If it's reacting with dried pantene and the remnants left on the hair, then I suspect in the bowl it will react immediately.

I'm also not sure why it wouldn't happen with other shampoos? Lots and lots are loaded down with silicones now and probably the same ones as pantene? Which silicone is reacting? What in the bleach is reacting with the silicone? Are they SURE it's the silicone and that it's not something like fake pantene that might contain contaminates (yes, it really exists!! Most well known beauty products are faked, many contain a pretty high level of heavy metals that are dangerous)? How do we know these people haven't used other products that might react? Are they sure the foils used are the right kind of foils? It's possible a salon or 50 have bought foils cheaply and they're made with a metal that reacts with the bleach? (All cases I saw said foils were used).

Woah! If that's the case then I am so glad I'm avoiding cones. I never use pantene anyway but that's worrying. Although you'd think that these companies would test the reactions to heat and chemicals before putting them on the market...

How can it be reacting with the silicones when they are developing hair bleach containing silicones?

Here's a patent listing for bleach with silicone

Additionally, the vast majority of conditioners and several on the market--not just Pantene--contain silicones, often multiple types.  If it was a reaction to the silicone in the product, then pretty much every single person who used hair bleach would have a caustic reaction on their head.

Hair bleach will react to metallic salts with a caustic reaction; in fact, it reacts to most metals with a caustic reaction, which is why plastic bowls should only ever be used and why it can cause a reaction on hair that has been previously dyed, particularly hair that has been dyed with cheap henna (as some manufacturers will use metallic salts; pure henna is not a problem, though it chemically bonds with the hair so bleaching generally doesn't work).  It is also why foils should be 100% aluminium, as other metals will cause a negative chemical reaction.

I'm looking for information regarding bleach having a negative reaction to silicone, but I can't find any yet.