bleach disaster thats lasting much longer than a year

Here is the transformation. You can see that there is a difference in color. Sorry for the awkward selfies!
so its not allowing me to post more than five photos.
the first one with the friend is my virgin hair in high school (i had not put any color on it) as you can see dirty to light blonde
the second photo is when i died it red in the summer between sophmore and junior year of college
the third photo is when it turned pink after i used dish soap on it. my hair was still in good condition though
the fourth photo is when i first got the bleach done it started to fall out but it was not so bad
now--> you can see i cut off a huge portion of my hair (went from chest length to shoulder) and i still have at least 5 inches of bleach left in it:(
here's to a hair dye gone wrong!

Your hair doesn't look particularly damaged, it just looks like bleached hair. All chemical processes damage hair to some degree.
If you are really unhappy with the texture of the bleached areas then the only solution is to cut them off.
Coconut or argan oil are great for moisturising (they can penetrate the hair shaft) and preventing further protein loss. If you want a gentle protein treatment try a mayonnaise mask

I think as of now my only bet is to let it grow out naturally because I do not want a pixie cut or anything shorter than what I have.
let's just say i will never make this mistake of letting anyone or myself put color on my hair without realizing this can take years to grow out!

The average persons hair grows around 6 inches a year, so half an inch a month, slightly slower in winter, slightly quicker in summer.
It looks fine though, true bleach damage leads to stretchy, gummy hair that looks like cotton wool when dry and snaps off.

Well, note this is after a year and a half of not putting color on...so most the bleach in the last five or six inches. If you look really closely you can see that I have darker roots (not so good in this photograph because of the lighting) and the last five or six inches has that brassy color to it. Mine seemingly grows slightly slower potentially although I am taking biotin and a bunch of other vitamin supplements to make it grow faster. I am thinking of growing it out for the entire year without the trim and then cutting it all off at once. It was just so annoying because I really did not know what bleached hair was and will hopefully never know what it feels like. Is yours bleached? it looks very long, how do you take of care it?

As for when I first got it done like that week (the third photo), it did appear quite healthy, it was over the two month period afterwards and until now that I have experienced the damaged and the breakage (or falling out as I've seen). Also, the summertime it was very bad and really hard to take care of because they told me to stay out of the sun with it...
Hopefully in the next year all will in fact be cut out...which I assume it will be and I will no longer have to buy expensive brands of morrocan oil to keep my hair from feel dry, and falling out

Moderator combined posts

I am thinking of growing it out for the entire year without the trim and then cutting it all off at once.

Bad plan. Damage travels up the hair, split ends being the worst and bleached hair forms them more easily. Get regular cuts as usual.

Yes, mine is very bleached lol it was dark brown naturally. I don't use any sulphates (shampoo) or silicones (usually found in conditioners, serums etc) I CO wash (conditioner only) and air dry. I never use any heat, and use natural oils, mostly coconut and argan, to smooth and style. I deep condition occasionally, brush it carefully and only wash it minimally, maybe three times a month. So it is more about what I don't do really.

Sorry if this post has become a bit confusing, I've merged the two topics! Going from one to the other was getting a bit dizzying 🙂

Any double posts in the thread now are from the merging of the two threads.

sorry about the double posts usually do that in my chats. Well, hopefully in a year I will be able to go back to cheap shampoos and conditioners as well as no more oil treatments that are seemingly needed. and will be able to go back to straightening my every once in a while. congrats on being able to maintain long bleached hair. I have a feeling my hair really didn't take well to it because I am already blonde...brunettes seem to be having a better time with the bleach than I had.

I don't think you understand how bleaching works! It's far, far more damaging for a brunette, especially dark brown, to go blonde. To get to blonde you have to remove the colour molecules. Red goes first generally, then yellow. Blondes have just pale yellow to remove so the bleach can be much milder and stay on for less time. Brunettes definitely don't have an easier time with bleach 🙂

I guess this makes sense to me now. Well whatever the case is, never getting it done again because since the virgin hair has to grow from the roots, if I ever want virgin waist length hair I imagine this may take me another 5  years or so!

well, whatever the situation was it did work well with me at all at has lasted quite some time. Clearly my hair is not fast growing and thus i feel i should no longer EVER put another chemical on it again. If I ever want virgin length waist hair, I feel I will have to wait somewhat close to forever.

Bleach damage will only cause breakage of the length of the hair. Never from the root unless you had a chemical burn but the hair would only fall out for a few days after you bleached, not a year on.

If you spend a lot of time outdoors, the wind can cause mechanical damage to bleached hair, especially in winter.

If you are so unhappy with it, you will just have to cut it off.

eeeek pixie????? i dont know if i can pull that off for like 2 more years!!! Nopee, mostly spend my time in doors but I definitely can see that happening because when I wake up in the morning to go to class and walk outside my hair looks like a mess. Not the cute blowly in the wind thing that some of us are looking for.  I will in fact, wear I hood for the next few weeks until it starts to get warmer. good to know.

All you need to cut off to have "virgin" hair is the part that was bleached. That's it! Unprocessed hair = virgin hair. Also I agree with going to the doctor to see what is causing your hair loss. There is just no possible way you are losing hair at the root from bleaching nearly a year and a half ago. No. Possible. Way. If your scalp was damaged you firstly would have had a horrific and painful burn injury and secondly hair would not have grown from the resultant scar tissue. Sorry to be blunt, but you came here asking for information and now seem to refuse to accept it, and I can't quite fathom why that is.