So You've Overbleached Your Hair

thanks for doing this kitty. i think there will be alot of this happening now everyone wants to get pretty for summer

Yeah, I've been sitting on it for a while and thought I'd put my bum into gear and just post it with the recent uprise in bleachings for a summer make-over.

Wow thanks! This is really helpful! Basic haircare tips too? Awesome!

TIP:

Be careful how frequently you bleach! Straight bleaching should be done once a month at best. Bleach bathing is gentler but don't do this more than once a week because it is still damaging, just less so than ordinary bleach kits.

I say this because I've lost count of how many times in r/l and on this forum I've seen people say "I bleached my hair 3 times this week now it's fried!"

Bleaching opens the cuticles to your hair and it's very hard to get them back into shape so please be careful!

What I found worked best:

Aussie intense conditioner
NO straightening whatsoever
A hair cut does not always help
Don't keep running your fingers through it - it probably feels worse than it looks!
NO bleaching, not even the roots - if you have very dark roots and very light hair, dye the whole lot a medium colour, Directions reds work quite well 🙂

when doing the regrowth it's essential to use a brush to make sure that the bleach doesn't overlap onto the hair that's already been lightened. (it's best to have help from a friend, cause it's very hard to do yourself)
Bleach bathing and leave in blonding sprays cause more damage if used multiple times than lifting the hair to the right shade in one process (if done correctly without overlapping and overprocessing)

Great Advice everyone! Keep it coming 🙂

oh I forget, using great conditioners and deep conditioners is also very important. There are diffrent shampoos and products out there for diffrent shades of blonde with pigments in them to maintain the color

It's also helpful to towel excess water from your hair not with an actual towel, but an old t-shirt.  This cuts down on the frizzing/breaking, I'm guessing because the t-shirt material will soak up water without sand-papering your hair like a textured towel would. 
I do this frequently and it works well! 

My bleached hair loves unrefined coconut oil.  It just soaks it up, it feels nicer, is less frizzy and shinier afterwords. It's awesome as a treatment and a frizz-ease product. You have to be careful about not using too much though.

I fried my hair once before it is not fun, I had to chop it all off mega short. Now I make sure to condition like crazy and be patient...all good things come in time heh

Ten years ago I deep fried my hair when I had it bleached at a hairdresser's from black to blonde-ish. It felt like wet cotton wool afterwards, and later I went to another hairdresser to have ~8" cut off, because it was completely impossible to comb or brush. It snapped immediately and it was really, really gross. Today I know that this hairdresser should have rejected and maybe should have found a less damaging way, but back then I knew close to nothing about hair care and believed that a hairdresser wouldn't do anything harmful...

However, the leftovers were smothered in silicone bombs like John Frieda's Frizz Ease, tons of different conditioners and oil spray, Swiss-O-Par Structor and Anatomic ampullae... which all were rather mediocre, to be honest. Yet I have to say that Lush's Jungle and American Cream weren't bad, my hair enjoyed them...

During the first weeks my only way to comb it (using a wide toothed comb) without everything snapping off was when it was wet. Dripping wet, not towel dry, just right out of the water. I gently combed it immediately after rinsing off the conditioner. This might sound like a major sin to some people, but it was indeed the only possibility to get it into some kind of shape...  Horrible days back then, trust me, kids!

Gah I wish I knew about all this when I managed to over-bleach a couple of years back 🙂 great advice!

I smothered my hair in mayonnaise last night, wrapped it in clingfilm and washed it out this morning. It feels amazing and is so manageable 🙂

Oh i used to use mayo, forgot all about it! *off to the fridge* lol