[Sticky] Share your Bleaching Horror Stories

Doesn't even sound intelligent to leave it on for 6 hours, then reapply a week after!  (sorry) I mean, we are talking about chemical products :/ I can't imagine what others have done to their heads considering there must be gazillion people bleaching their hair and not writing in this forum. ARGH!

I know, completely dumb! I just went along with it because she'd used hair dyes plenty of times before and I knew nothing about it. The worst part about it is that we left it on so long because we were waiting for our brother to bring us another box! 😮 (thankfully they sold out) It'd be ignorant of me not to consider that I did indeed permantly damage my scalp and folicles but its been 1 and a half years and I haven't had any sign of a burn. Until a couple of months ago I didn't notice the bad hair and when I did I assumed it was from not paying enough attention when doing my roots. But when my roots were 3 inches long I noticed that some virgin hair was like it. I'm hoping it was just bad diet, lack of exercise and maybe even the sun (fat chance in England) but I suppose I'll only really know in time now that everything has drastically improved. I'll keep checking and let you know. Lesson learned either way! (And as far as I know my sister's scalp and hair is fine).

Wow :\....
Its a shame since your hair will never grow as it used to most likely, but you are so lucky not to have tons of bald spots 😐

Eeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk! That's all I can say! I'm happy you don't have too much damage tho...

My friend is going to dye her hair blonde today. She dyed it a medium brown recently, but she has some light brown roots.
Her plan of action? "I'll just buy some bleach, I guess 4-6 boxes should be enough! (Her hair is shoulder-length and thin...) After bleaching, I'll just put some kind of blonde dye over it!"
I tried to tell her that she should take it slow and just bleach once, using coconut oil...she didn't listen 🙁

Oh no... How is it looking?

She texted me about going out and buying bleach with her like an hour ago, so she hasn't done it yet...but I will report back the next time I see her :S
I'm pretty glad I'm feeling like a zombie though (was up all night and slept all day today), so I had a valuable excuse not to go with her - at least I don't have to witness the drama now!

Edit:
Ugh, she's done it now. Told me on Facebook that her hair is 'mostly blonde' - when I asked what she meant, she said the top was almost white and the rest was yellow and orange. Then I asked how much bleach she used: 2 bleaches and one box dye, but "I'm gonna bleach again in, like, 2 weeks, it's not light enough!"
I told her she was lucky she still had hair, and she responded with "Shall I make you get jealous? My hair is super soft, I love this new deep conditioner I bought!"
I'm not jealous just because she has patchy hair that is smothered in silicones, my hair has been pretty healthy for a few months now and it's a pretty colour! Ugh, whyyy do I have to attract this kind of people?D:

eeeeekkk bad bad times! Give it a few weeks and it'll be snapping off... xxxx

There's a girl on my course whose bleached her hair twice in two days. I haven't seen latest results but it was looking rather fluffy and dry after the first one. I tried warning her, her response 'I want to say I told you so'

People are silly. 

I am so glad I found this forum back in 2010!

Back then I had no clue, I let a hairdresser use 40vol on my hair(I remember thinking it was 60, but it was 40), after I had already bleached, and then I think I bleached again like a few days later! And that's what bought me here. Awful. My hair was wrecked, whether I thought it was or not.

So we don't all start out knowing how to do things but luckily we have this great forum 😀
It's weird that a lot of hairdressers don't know enough about bleach. I had a different hairdresser tell me recently that "it's ok to leave bleach on for well over the recommended time, because it stops working after an hour so can't cause damage." Ur, no, you are wrong. It stops processing yes, but will continue to damage!

Hairdressers without a clue... 😐 major health risk

Hey everyone, I'm full of regret this afternoon. Despite reading all the excellent advice on this forum I still didn't trust myself /  feel comfortable enough to bleach my own roots & my usual hairdresser was beginning to bore me as almost every time i asked for a new colour she said she couldnt do it.

So i booked an appointment with another one at a pretty decent & pricey salon today. I went in there with 1 inch dark brown roots (natural hair colour) and just past shoulder length capri blue with a very patchy fade - grey on some mid lengths to ends & but very bright still towards the top & on some patches underneath. When i said that i would like to get back to the pink i had previously i wsa quite surprised / nervous / excited when she seemed quite confident that it would happen today rather than a slow process over a number of weeks. This is what happened:

She applied straight bleach (not sure what volume) to my roots, this took her about 20-25 mins & was stinging like crazy so i was thinking i wouldn't have to sit there for very long seeing as she took so long to apply it.

I was wrong. she left me for another 30 mins on top of this.

When she eventually came back i was dying to get the bleach off but she had what she called a bleach bath with her & started vigourously rubbing it into my lengths. I know it must have been a lot stronger than what you guys refer to as a bleach bath on here because the blue was just vanishing within a couple of minutes. I was really starting to worry now, 10 - 15 mins of her applying this & i had now had bleach on my hair & scalp for over an hour.

Her assistant then took me over to wash it off, i was sop relieved but she was also being super harsh & using really hot water so even the wash off was agony. In case you're wondering why i haven't said anything, i am super shy & hate confrontation, if they made me totally bald i would probably just smile, pay & fight back the tears till i got home  :'(

So bleach washed off i got back to the chair & had a quick feel - hair felt extremely gummy / stringy, i wanted to cry. She came over with a mix of colour & toner & the instant this touched my scalp i felt i was on fire. at this point i said its really burning me. she said she would have to continue now shes started  😮

so she very quickly slapped this concoction all over, rubbed it in a bit & washed it off for me with cold water, what a relief!!

In the end my hair has come out a beautiful colour even though i think i've taken a lot of hair damage to get it, my scalp is sore & has scabs forming already  & to top it off i had to pay £103 for the experience.

so from now on i can safely say i will be very carefully following all of your advice & taking my chances doing it myself. sorry this is such a long post & thanks for reading!

You poor thing! 🙁 I hope your scalp recovers soon 🙁

That made me feel ill, so sorry to hear that, hope you're okay!!! Gods sake some hairdressers! Argh!

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I hope your scalp didnt take extreme damage to it and nothing bad will happen (at this point there is nothing I can say about the hair, r.i.p. 😐 )