Help please!! Hip length hair bleach damage

Unfortunately there's no sure fire way to stop hair breaking from chemical damage 🙁 You'll hear a million and one methods, but they're pretty much all bunk.

You say you have olaplex 1 and 2. It's certainly worth trying those once a week. You can mix number 1 with water to make a soak for your hair (I don't remember the ratios), and obviously use number 2 in the normal way. However, after years of trying it myself and listening to some cosmetic scientists I'm not really convinced it really works, it never really did anything for me and I've not missed it for the couple of years I've not been using it... but it's not going to hurt and as you have it anyway, try it.

Other than that, the best thing you can do it the normal boring, avoid too much heat and mechanical damage (brushing, putting it in curlers etc).

Now, there is one thing I can recommend trying, but you have to be very, very careful. Aphogee 2 step protein treatment can be very good. But DO NOT use it more than every few weeks. Take it from me, breakage from too much protein is as bad as bleach damage. You wouldn't ever think it, but it's horrible! Your hair goes incredibly brittle and breaks so much. The annoying thing is, you will have to do it again, finding the balance of not enough and too much for your personal hair is tricky.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your information.

I've just taken my scarf off (it's been on, keeping my hair stationary, smooth and unknotted for around 16 hours or so) and it doesn't seem to be breaking this morning very much. I've had a couple of broken strands appear as I ran a brush through it. I've tugged gently(!) on about 20 individual strands and none have broken. It seems so much better than yesterday! I am cautious to think this means things are OK though because of how unusual things were. I wonder if it will just go bad every time I wash my hair. Do you have an opinion on this?

I understand what you are saying about the strong protein treatments. I have read up on treatments before but have no practical experience. Because it's just an overlaped band it would be difficult to target the hair which needs treatment and I may end up damaging all the rest of my hair even more. Do you think if my hair is not seeming to be breaking when dry the protein treatment is better left out of things?

Perhaps I could compromise with more of my weaker Vitika protein treatment on the roots when I wash my hair. I don't think it has damaged my hair before. I usually use that only directly after bleaching and use my Shea Moisture Manuka moisture masks from root to tip for all the other washes.

I am wondering if the bulk of the breakage which is likely to happen already happened yesterday. Do you think that may be the case? I'm not sure how breakage progresses when hair is chemically damaged as I've never had this happen before.

Either way, I will be ultra gentle with my hair as you say. Thank you for reading. It's really nice not to be on my own in this x

Oh, so many have been there 🙂 the trick is learning from the experience! I still end up with breakage from protein often because so many people think it's the holy grail product, meaning it gets added to shampoos and conditioner. I do have very protein sensitive hair though, so I'm unlucky.

Doing the aphogee treatment once will almost certainly be fine. As I said, I've got very protein sensitive hair and I can use it once and it can really help patch things up for a while if I've pushed the bleach a little too far. I never use it again until I bleach my roots. It should be fine on the ends as well. Just avoid using your other protein product for at least a couple of weeks, just in case. If your hair starts to feel at all dry, stop using it again for a little while. I avoid almost all products with protein, but that might not be necessary for you.

It's impossible to say if the breakage will stop. It probably won't totally, BUT, the worst does tend to be straight away so the worst should be over. It's always weakest when it's wet, just be gentle and it should be ok. I will warn you though, it will always be weak in that spot. I had my hair bleached in a salon about 10 months ago (I normally do it myself) and I'm still getting some breakage there from where she over processed it (I'm British and too polite/stupid to tell someone they're doing something wrong lol). Luckily I keep my hair around shoulder length, so it'll be grown out soon. There might come a time when you have to decide if it's worth keeping the length, though it might also be ok, it's impossible to tell! Just keep it in mind that it might become and issue. A bit of a hair cut and some layering might sort it out? Until it starts to grow out you just won't know.

I have ordered the Aphogee 2 step protein treatment and the balancing moisturiser. Thank you for the information!

I don't know much about Aphogee, but I see that it says to shampoo my hair first. I can tell the water along with movement will leave a lot of my hairs broken before I've added shampoo to the mix. (Hairs have broken easily where it got wet from the shower and I'm losing hope tbh, but I'm still going to do the best I can).

Usually, I use no silicone, sulphates or mineral oil in my hair so don't need shampoo. None of these things are in my hair currently.

Do you think I may use my cleansing conditioner which contains coconut oil and argan oil, or just cheap conditioner which doesn't contain oils, right before the Aphogee treatment instead of shampoo, to keep everything more gentle? I wonder if the oils in the conditioner would get in the way.

I recently formulated a cleansing conditioner from an adapted Humblebee and Me recipe which has coconut oil and argan oil in it. At the best of times, I rely on the time I leave these products in my hair to break down any excess oils and dirt rather than rubbing much. Would this be good enough to cleanse for this purpose?

As for shampoo if I need it, I have Kenra Clarifying shampoo, my son's cheap Sainsbury's coconut shampoo and Bleach London silver shampoo in currently. I don't suppose any of these will be gentle enough if I do need a shampoo. Do you have a recommendation for a shampoo if I do need one?

I also have Olaplex 3 in, which I've not used before. Thinking I would put this on my hair while it's dry for half hour or something before I start the cleansing and the process with Aphogee. What do you think to this plan?

Or perhaps I should just minimise time my hair stays wet. There just seems so much to consider.

Thank you so much for helping here. I know I am asking a lot of specific, and probably awkward, questions. I recognise the exact answers can't necessarily be known often because all hair is different, but I appreciate your ideas wherever you have an experienced opinion. Thank you so much ❤️

You do have to shampoo your hair for aphogee to work. You have to allow the cuticles to be raised or it can't get into the hair and won't do anything. Conditioner closes the cuticle. It's likely the cuticle is permanently raised due to damage, or even completely gone on much of your hair, but it's not guaranteed, so you need to shampoo it to make sure it's raised. The cheap shampoo will be enough, but the clarifying shampoo would be better. You can just smooth it over and squish it in, you don't need a lather so you don't have to rub, but make sure it's gone all over your hair. Hair is slightly acidic and shampoo is slightly alkaline, so that's what raises the cuticle. Conditioner is normally neutral or the same acidity as hair and that's why it shuts the cuticle.

One thing I will warn you now, using the aphogee is tricky on very long hair, you'll probably need help. You have to put it on your hair while it's wet, and this sounds scary, but it's not as bad as it seems. Let it dry on your hair using low heat and let it go hard. Get someone else to use a hairdryer on the back. You can do it yourself, but your arm will get very tired! One trick is to gently comb and break up clumps of hair (the aphogee will act as a slip, so it's not as bad as it sounds) so strands are as free as possible. The more clumps of hair there are, the longer it will take to dry. Sit on a stool so it's not draped over the back of a chair or anything. Wear something easy to remove that doesn't go over your head, because you will have to keep as still as you can to get into the shower. Best thing I can say, as your hair is so long, just wrap a towel around yourself.

Olaplex 3 is a weaker version of 1 and 2. I think I'd avoid using it directly before because I don't know how well they'd interact. It'd probably be ok, but I can't say for sure.

Oh! Lastly, aphogee is sticky as it dries, so you'll want to apply it over a sink. It's also a very thin formula, so definitely put your hair in the sink and apply it there. It will feel icky on your neck too, but it'll all wash off! Put a couple of towels on the floor to catch drips. It'll be ok to clean on a hard floor, towels are easier to clean though, but definitely don't let it drip on carpet. I'm making it sound scary, it's not, I just wish someone had warned me of the stickiness.

Your questions aren't really something I haven't had to tackle a lot before, a lot of people have this problem, so no worries 🙂 At least you're not getting angry with me for not giving you the holy grail answer, which has happened before! Aphogee should help, the process may cause a slight amount of breakage, but it's highly likely you'll have a lot more breakage without it.

Thank you for the additional information. I have thought it through and done some additional research as well. My products arrived this morning. Tomorrow, is 7 days since the bleach.

I have a plan.

I've tried to think of everything to prepare. If you would let me know anything I could improve before I dive in, it would be welcome. I have a question in there about what to do with my lengths and about a deep moisturising treatment following the Aphogee. The plan so far...

Comb hair smoothly down my back.

In shower with hair hanging down back, shampoo it gently and rinse, while barely moving it. Rinse finally with distilled water.

Blot hair with t shirts until fairly dry.

Put on an old dress that I can step out of.

Towels put on floor. Sit on the towel (as I don't have a stool and like sitting on the floor). I see what you said about using a sink. There really isn't much room around my sink though. I have lots of old thick towels and a large tiled floor space so I think it will be easiest. I will be careful of our carpets!

Split and clip hair into 4 sections. I will try to keep hair as detangled as possible, though without conditioner I cant see that I will be able to comb it.

Use a spray bottle to apply Aphogee 2 Step Treatment to saturate roots of one back section and comb with wide tooth comb, separating clumps of hair.

I am wondering what to do with the lengths. Should I add treatment to the lengths? They are bleached and snap a little usually. They arent perfect condition but I think they are really not bad at all considering the bleach, probably because of how well I treat it usually.

Repeat whatever I did on the first section, on each other section of hair in turn.

(Perhaps I could put Shea Moisture Manuka Masque or conditioner on lengths IF I didn't put Aphogee on them. Would this be OK? It's just I wouldn't like to put shampood, unconditioned hair under a dryer if possible).

With help of son/boyfriend, dry hair without moving it while it hangs down my back. I'll use a dryer hood I have hanging around, or a hairdryer on lowest setting, whichever works best. Let it dry solid. I hear it sticks to everything and if it does I mustn't unstick it. I'd try, but I can't imagine managing to do this without it touching my back, so it will probably stick to my dress. If needs be I'd leave the dress on until I've washed hair off.

Rinse out in shower down my back again, without moving my hair until it is mostly clear.

Apply Aphogee Balancing Moisturizer to anywhere that I put the Treatment. Leave for 2 minutes and rinse.

Apply Shea Moisture Manuka Masque from root to tip, bundled into a cap, for an hour. Is this OK/good to use at this point? Rinse off and dry naturally.

You said your hair is sensitive to protein and about how bad it can be. If it turns out my hair doesn't appreciate protein, is there something I can do? Is there a way I can tell before I try this treatment. Perhaps I could do a strand test before doing any of this?

Lastly, as you thought is probably best, I will not use my Olaplex 3 this time. I will save it for before washes over the next few weeks. Do you think that would be OK?

Thank you again. It's such a shame you've had those experiences of people being cross. I'd never feel cross with you while getting help like this. It's appreciated so much. I think it's lovely what you are doing to help people out when they have got in a mess like this!  Thank you x

I think the only things I'd change are:

Put a big bowl behind your back as it will almost certainly go everywhere!

I think you'll be fine to put it on the mid lengths and ends, it will help them too.

I wouldn't put conditioner on any of your hair while doing it. I can understand why you'd want to, but just in case there's any kind of weird reaction. Not like a dramatic explosion or anything! But just in case the aphogee runs down your hair and they interact.

If I can use Aphogee once each time I bleach my roots (I don't every time, I can't get it easily where I'm living now, but I have in the past) I can say with some confidence you'll be fine. I can't guarantee it, but it's very, very likely. The only way I can think to describe how it feels is it's a little brittle, even slightly crisp! It certainly feels overly dry. It's a bit different to how normal damage feels. As long as you try and avoid other protein treatments for a little while you should be fine. But, feel free to do a strand test, I'm certainly not one to tell anyone not to! It's always a good idea and no one does it enough, even me 🙂

Hello. I am so so so happy to tell you that the Aphogee treatment seemed a success today. Thank you so much! A small strand test this morning seemed OK so I did the full head. It has naturally dried. All in all I had very little breakage, it is clean and I have no adverse effects from the treatment. I was *extremely* gentle though, so I am not sure how it would be if I was my usual version of gentle.

There was only a fairly usual amount of hair in the plughole. Also, there was not too much during the natural drying. Most fallen strands had their root so were just usual shedding. A few were breakage though. When tested wet, a good few of the intact shredded strands were breaking at that overlap point, without much pressure. When dry, they broke at that weak point but not so readily at all. I figure I must be extremely careful when it's wet from now on.

I don't want to celebrate yet as I don't know what will happen in the next weeks or months, but today made me feel a lot better than it could have done.

Thank you so much for your help! I honestly don't know what I would have dared do about it without your information and support here.

I need to figure what's best to do with the next step of my hair now it's in this condition. I need to tone/dye the yellow roots (I use direst dyes) but I think I need to make my process more gentle if I can. I have ideas about this. I will probably do this next week. Also, I will need to decide what to do about my roots when they grow through. I don't really know what to do about this as it seems so risky to bleach, but I really don't want to go dark again unless I have to. It took years to grow black dye out! May I ask you here please, or shall I start a new thread going out to everyone?

Thank you again for this weeks help x

I'm glad it went well! Fingers crossed it's done enough of a good job to patch you up. It'll probably be worth doing it every couple of months or so.

Yes, I would start a new thread for a new topic. You never know what question might help someone else and that gets confusing when more than one question is all part of one larger thread 🙂