[Sticky] Share your Bleaching Horror Stories

Wow, these stories are pretty scary! I regularly use bleach at 40% vol and hav only ever had one problem! Although my horror story did make me be more careful!
Basically one night i had to bleach my hair to get rid of the pink i had, for sixth form the next day, and i just assumed that it would bring it all out in one go- this was when i wasnt very experienced, and i was pretty desperate so i literally whacked 2 lots of 40% vol on for about an hour and a half, and then as soon as it had been washed out and dried, whacked another whole lot on, and as it was about 2am by this point, i covered it in a plastic bag to heat it up quicker-big mistake! Part of the bleach had got onto my scalp just above my forehead and as it started heating up i felt it burning, so i washed it off. After a while i noticed a thumping feeling where it had happened, and i found a huge lump and a pulsing vein! My eyes also started feeling quite dry and i couldnt lay dn without feeling dizzy, by this point is was about 5am and i was literally just panicking. Nothing worse came out of it, it started going down within a few hours and over a couple of days it healed well, but it still worries me and now im much more careful, no more plastic bags or letting the bleach touch my scalp!

Whatttt I can't believe you use 40vol still after that!

Haha, yeah probably not the smartest idea after ithat :') but im definitely a lot more careful, and its been fine ever since, the weaker percentages just never seemed to work on my hair :p

I have hard to bleach, dark brown (with quite a lot of red) hair. 30 vol takes me to a yellow or if it's warm, a pale yellow. If you're using it properly, then 30 vol is enough for pretty much everyone. You shouldn't use 40 vol. It's not worth the risk. You can use it hundreds of times, but there's the danger of that one time where your hair breaks off or your burn your scalp very badly (even without using it twice in a row).

Yiiiikes. I think I'll chalk this one up to language barrier. :<

My hair has faded to a lilacy purple/yellow so I went to get my hair bleached so I could re-color. It's been three and a half months since my last bleaching. My last hairdresser was very cautious and for that I thank her. when she bleached my hair it usually didn't lift much. Heck, I would get excited when I saw a golden yellow- never saw white.

Went to a Finnish hairstylist and struggled to tell her what I wanted despite the fact she didn't know much English. I had a friend detail what I wanted in Finnish for her to read via a text message. She seemed at ease after reading it so she got to work. With foils in, I was placed under a heating device. Thing is, I REALLY should've been timing the process on my own. She was really slow on foils, began brushing the bleach on from top to bottom and she kept checking and going 'only couple more minutes'. In hindsight, I think she thought I wanted my hair to be white, and was worried I'd be mad if it wasn't. She kept saying 'need to take off green then yellow, yes?'

I could tell right after the rinse my hair was fried. It was gummy to the touch, mashed together and strands started coming off when I combed my fingers through it. She said she had to blowdry it and oh...seeing it dry was worse. It sticks out like hay and looks awful. They applied some Moroccan oil over the pieces on the house and gave me a discount, but damn. I'm on the verge of tears. I'll be heading over to the rest of this thread to see if I can apply any emergency treatments now that I'm home.

I'm growing my bleach out after not being careful enough to only do the roots and it breaking off. I then didn't realise that going swimming on holiday in a chlorinated pool would affect my hair. I now have 3 inches of mid-brown healthy roots, but a job interview on the 17th September. I have a short bob, cut by me since the breakage as I don't trust hairdressers not to yank a comb through and break more off.

So I guess I need to find a harmless temporary mid-brown colour to dye the remaining bleached hair for the interview. What do people recommend? A hairdresser once told me that black permanent hair dye adds colour rather than takes it away, but I've looked at the ingredients and it's got hydrogen peroxide in, which I daren't use. What can I find quickly in a high street shop in the UK?

Thank you!

I'd recommend an Adore dye - they do some lovely natural shades 🙂

Thank you, I've ordered a couple online and hopefully they'll arriving time.

I don't think you'll be disappointed with the Adore dyes.  I've used several on myself and my teenaged daughter now.  We love them - natural or bright.  They're wonderful!  😀

This may not be as much of a "horror" as it could have been, but I did have to share my experience at the salon.  One of the reasons I don't trust salons!  Mind you, if it were any stylist on this board, I'd trust 100% because you all know your stuff.  My stylist obviously did not...  -r-

It was not the same stylist who gave me the consultation about a month back, so I had to re-explain the reason for the dip dye: to lighten the lengths and blend in with the colour level on top.  She understood.  I told her I'd applied coconut oil, and she immediately said "I have to wash your hair now", to which I replied "no, the bleach should work over the oil", and she was fine with that.

She went to mix the bleach, which was a blue at 20%, and nothing fancy, just L'Oréal but I suppose a bleach is a bleach is a bleach.  She sectioned my hair off (back v sides) and started applying to the back, in small sections.  I took note of the time she started applying the bleach.

I thought she was working a bit too slowly, and I was getting a little nervous because 30 minutes later, she was still applying, to the back!  You have to be QUICK with bleach, and I'd expect ALL stylists to know that.  I kept asking to check the ends in the back to make sure they were not falling off yet.  I really could not find a nice way of saying "will you kindly hurry the h*ll up, this is BLEACH!"

Application finished about 10 minutes later, and she said she'd cover it and let it develop for 5 - 10 minutes.  I said "okay".  I must have looked like an idiot in front of all the other posh women getting their hair done, constantly getting up from my seat to peek through the plastic wrap and checking the ends.  She came back to check the progress, then started doing touch-ups with more bleach!  She said the bleach wasn't working, and she blamed the poor coconut oil.

She finally sent me to rinse and told the girl doing the rinse that the back is ready but the sides need another 5 minutes.  By that point, I knew I'd have loads to deal with in terms of damage, so what's another 5!?

So to sum up, what I think I know better: work quickly with bleach, begin timing the minute the bleach hits the hair, use a high enough strength (maybe 20% was too low) so the bleach doesn't sit on the hair for an entire hour, and do it right the first time - don't go touching up with more bleach when the original bleach should have long been rinsed out!

I'm left with really dry hair that feels fragile (didn't even feel like it could take a brushing with a boar bristle!), but the colour did lift a bit, so I sort of got one step closer to the blonde I'm after.  And I know exactly what I have to do now: I'm sitting with a reconstructor, will rinse it off then moisturise, then leave it alone.

I know my hair, it's been worse, and I know how to baby it now. :-*

And in future, I will consult this board and do my next procedure at home, not at a salon (unless I can come to one of yours  🙂 ).

And "hands off" peroxide now till next month.  -r-

Alexia, I hate to say this... but honestly.  With all the time you spend here, and with all you seem to say you know about bleaching... after everything you've read and the advice you've been given... all I have to say is: we told you so.  You knew the risks and you took them.  I personally don't think you have much room to complain.