Hi, everyone!
My natural hair color is dark blonde so I've used box dye to lighten it (without bleach) two times. It didn't do much so I decided to lighten it with a hair dye that contains bleach. After that I used a white toner. My goal is to have platinum blonde hair, almost white. After bleaching them they are very light blonde but not platinum.
My question is should I bleach them again because I have very light color anyway or should I use a box dye without bleach? What would be the best option? Would a regular hair dye be less harmful to the hair? Or there is any other ways to make the color white?
My hair color now in the picture is something like this
you should be able to tone it from this point. I just did this a few days ago, I had that exact color maybe even a smidge darker and I used wella t-14 toner with 20 vol developer (it might have been 10 vol, I can't remember) and I left it on for 20 minutes and now I have platinum hair and it is straight up white in some places. But if you can't get the wella toner I know there are threads on here about making your own toner out of conditioner and direct dyes, its less damaging, since it sounds like you have done quite a few processes already to your hair, it might need a break.
you should be able to tone it from this point. I just did this a few days ago, I had that exact color maybe even a smidge darker and I used wella t-14 toner with 20 vol developer (it might have been 10 vol, I can't remember) and I left it on for 20 minutes and now I have platinum hair and it is straight up white in some places. But if you can't get the wella toner I know there are threads on here about making your own toner out of conditioner and direct dyes, its less damaging, since it sounds like you have done quite a few processes already to your hair, it might need a break.
So you can mix any toner and developer together?
I followed the directions on the box for the wella toner, if that's the route you are going just follow the directions on what volume peroxide to use, I think it was 20 but im not 100% sure, but if you are making a toner with direct dyes then you don't use any peroxide, that's why its less damaging
Can we get a bit of a timeline for the processing you've done so far? How long did you leave between each dye/ bleach you used? Using a toner with peroxide could be a bad idea at this point unless you want to risk frying your hair!
To answer your question about mixing toner and developer, some toners are made to be used with peroxide and some are not - you could try a direct toner (conditioner with a few drops of direct colour such as directions, adore etc) without risking further damage but one that uses peroxide will cause damage to your hair regardless of whether or not bleach is involved.
Remember it can take around a month for damage to become apparent so you need to rest your hair in between processes to assess the condition properly.
Can we get a bit of a timeline for the processing you've done so far? How long did you leave between each dye/ bleach you used? Using a toner with peroxide could be a bad idea at this point unless you want to risk frying your hair!
To answer your question about mixing toner and developer, some toners are made to be used with peroxide and some are not - you could try a direct toner (conditioner with a few drops of direct colour such as directions, adore etc) without risking further damage but one that uses peroxide will cause damage to your hair regardless of whether or not bleach is involved.
Remember it can take around a month for damage to become apparent so you need to rest your hair in between processes to assess the condition properly.
Well I dyed it, then waited 2 weeks, then dyed it again, waited about one week, bleached it and the next day put the white toner on because I thought it would lighten it, obviously I was wrong.
My hair hadn't been dyed for a year or straightened etc. much and so now they are ok now, but not in the best condition of course.
Yes, that's why I'm asking, because I'm afraid that bleaching them again would cause them to be very fragile and I don't want that. Do you think just a regular dye would do anything? I mean, lighten it.
I'm just looking for my best options now which would be less damaging because I have very light blonde color, I think maybe bleaching them again would be a bit harsh. But if there is no other way to dye them white platinum blonde, then I will probably do it after some time.
So 3 processes with peroxide in the space of 3 weeks? And the bleach was in the last couple of days? Personally I wouldn't bleach or use a box dye again just yet.
Bleach, box dyes and toners that you mix with peroxide all open up the cuticle of your hair so they all cause damage to the structure.
Without knowing exactly what your hair looks like at the moment it's hard to tell you what to do next but I would say try using purple/ silver shampoo and try making a toner from conditioner and direct dye and see if that gets you where you need to be - if not you can always lighten again later when your hair has rested a bit.
It's probably worth pointing out that Emmer (whilst your advice about how to achieve platinum is valued! ) you have very short hair if I remember correctly? Longer hair suffers more day to day wear and tear and is older so it can become much more fragile (I once had to cut my nearly waist length hair into a layered bob through over-processing with blonde box dyes so I speak from experience!)
Oh wow 3 processes in 3 weeks is a lot! I would follow lauralei's directions about using a direct dye heavily diluted into conditioner. (I think that will be your best bet to let your hair rest and baby it big time!) And you are right I do have short hair and it grows like a weed so damage isn't something I worry about personally but when you want to keep your hair long, you definitely need to take better care of it. My hair also responds very well to whatever I do to it. I went from dark auburn/mahogany to platinum fairly easily, I only had to do a color remover, bleach twice (but it was over a 6 week period***) and a toner and boom I had platinum hair, but not everybody's hair is like mine. Good luck with your platinum/white journey, it is totally worth it!
Actually Emmer that's a really good point to make, not everybody's hair gets to white or platinum easily (some people's not at all!), I've never managed to get mine lighter than a sort of champagne blonde and my natural colour is only dark ash blonde with zero red tones - it just has lots of yellow.
from everything I've read on here it is very rare to get the silver/white/platinum look, I got lucky but there are people on here that have been working at it for months and months, some years and it might never happen, everybody's hair chemistry is a little different. You may have to be okay with a darker color, maybe a steel gray or something like that.
It is about melanin distribution. Hair with a lot of eumelanin is typically much harder to lift than hair that has more pheomelanin, and is likely to have yellow tones even when fully bleached.