Bleach to Level 8/9 Blonde

Personally I don't know bleach washes, but it just reminded me.  😉 A strandtest is a good idea, I *should* do that too. I would use coconut oil BEFORE doing the bleach bath to prevent a damaged, burning or itchy scalp and it seems to reduce the damage on your hair. So: don't wash your hair at least two days prior, slam the coconut oil on it (I like to do it the night before and sleep with it, but at least an hour, two hours prior), do the bleach bath and see where you are!

Just to make sure: you don't wash the oil out. Lots of people get confused, including me back in the days. Bleach will go through it anyway. The only thing you need to be sure about that the oil doesn't get hard in your hair. I already have trouble with keeping it liquid, I use my new found friend the hairdryer.  ;D

What kind of dye do you want to use? Because I wouldn't use a box dye over a bleach job straight away!

Personally I don't know bleach washes, but it just reminded me.  😉 A strandtest is a good idea, I *should* do that too. I would use coconut oil BEFORE doing the bleach bath to prevent a damaged, burning or itchy scalp and it seems to reduce the damage on your hair. So: don't wash your hair at least two days prior, slam the coconut oil on it (I like to do it the night before and sleep with it, but at least an hour, two hours prior), do the bleach bath and see where you are!

Just to make sure: you don't wash the oil out. Lots of people get confused, including me back in the days. Bleach will go through it anyway. The only thing you need to be sure about that the oil doesn't get hard in your hair. I already have trouble with keeping it liquid, I use my new found friend the hairdryer.  ;D

What kind of dye do you want to use? Because I wouldn't use a box dye over a bleach job straight away!

I'm definitely going to do the coconut oil treatment beforehand this time! I didn't know about that the first time but I've seen a bunch of people doing that before bleaching - so I'll be sure to try it!

Janine said not to use a permanent dye after the bleach baths, so I was going to find a demi blonde 8.5A to use. But I was thinking about that and it would work fine to bring my bleached hair down to a level 8.5, but when my roots grow out the demi wouldn't be able to lift my natural level 6 hair to 8.5, so I'd need to use a permanent anyway, right? Or maybe she meant that permanent would be too damaging after bleaching, so use a demi on my bleached hair but then use permanent when the roots grow out - that makes sense too.

I'm wanting to stay the same shade of blonde I used to be - no more experimenting for me for a while! I love the L'Oreal 8.5A Champagne blonde, so I'm trying to find a demi color close to that one to use.

Janine is the best here when it comes to advice and yes, the box dye immediately after the bleach would potentially damage your hair beyond repair. I wouldn't use a demi immediately as well as demi's still contain peroxide. You want to keep it away from your hair as long as possible to get your hair in the best condition.

I would try to tone it to your preferred shade, it's a bit of a cool pinkish blond, right? Perhaps a severely, incredibly diluted pink-peachy semi would work?

You could use the box dye for your roots eventually. Perhaps Lóreal has it also in their professional ranges and it's possible to use a lower peroxide again. I'm still learning about the professional permanent dyes as the regular drugstore dyes are way too harsh for my taste, but you can always look it up.

Ok, thanks - yeah I was thinking that would completely fry my hair!

Another thing I was considering was a blue dye to cancel out the orange tones, that way I could just avoid bleaching again altogether. I think another option is using an ash blonde demi with a blue base as a toner, and then toning afterward with purple shampoo if needed. I think that would work? Of course I'd do a test strand first.

I've been thinking about doing that since I believe it would be less damage. I can hold off on the color I'm aiming for for a while and just have whatever shade of blonde that gives me.

Instead of a bleach bath?

Hmm, what I can see on the pictures, the chances are a DIY blue dye toner wouldn't be enough to tackle the brass and/or could go to a yucky brown, depending how strong you would make the toner.

The ash blonde demi: I don't know whether that would work enough. The blonde you want seems to be warmer than the usual ash colours. Ash tones have the habit with me to give greenish tint, so possibly you have to counter it with a warm-toned colour instead of the usual purple. Purple is to counter yellow and might not be necessary here.

I would do a strandtest with both options. A bleach bath, assuming you will be using the 20 vol developer, would probably be as damaging as the demi. But with the strand test you can see what will work out for your hair best. 

For the future, it might be interesting to research different bleach powders as some work way better than others, needing less time and a lower developer and therefore lower damage.

Ok, thanks so much! I'll look into a blue dye and also different bleaches to see which is best, and then try test strands with both and see what happens. I've seen quite a few people use Quick Blue bleach, but I'm not sure if that's because it's the least damaging - I'll do some more research and some test strands though. Thanks again for the help/advice!

Hey,  you're wiser than I am.  😀 *Has never done a strandtest. Ever.*
With the blue dye: try several strengths. It's best to start with a tiny drop in a huge amount of conditioner and adding more if necessary. Also be careful as lighter, non brassy parts could turn blueish/greenish given the amount of yellow. My best friend ended up with lilac hair as she just dunked a huge amount of plum in conditioner.  😛