How to: Go from dark brown hair to light blonde at home!

Now before I start explaining how I did it, I want to let you know my hair was not black. It was dyed with a dark brown SEMI-PERMANENT hair color. If your hair is black, or you have used a permanent hair dye on your hair, it might have different end results. If your hair is black, after your first bleaching it will turn red most likely; not a pretty red either. Most likely a blotchy dull deep red. And you will probably need 3-4 bleaches to get it platinum blonde...maybe more! (I went from black to blonde before, I would not recomend it!)

I also want to make it clear that I'm not a professional hair stylist. Just someone who has spent many years dying my hair almost every color you can think of. After my many experiances with dying my hair I picked up some knowledge about the topic, and just want to share it with you :]

I did a lot of research trying to find the products I used, and while researching I realized something: some people think when they buy a bleaching product at Walmart such as, Nice 'n Easy Born Blonde. The package says, "maxium blonding for even for the darkest hair." Which isn't entirly untrue, misleading yes, but certaintly not untrue. It will bleach dark hair, but you will not be as blonde as the pretty girl on the box if you start with dark hair.

Your hair will go through seven stages:

Now that we have a little background information, here is the process I went through.

The night before I put this stuff in my hair, put a cap over my head, and slept with it on. It's amazing, and will leave your hair super soft and stronger. I would only use this if you have naturally dry hair, or if your hair is brittle from striaghtning, curling, or chemically processing it. Otherwise it'll leave your hair oily. I got it at Walmart for only $2.00!!! Wowzers!!

This is the color of my hair when I dyed it with the semi-permanent hair color. It wasn't THIS dark in real life, actually. This picture was taken at night with a not-so-great-webcam. But, it's the only picture of myself I have with this haircolor.

Now, the with the first bleaching I used Clairol's Nice and Easy Born Blonde (Maxi). I used this because I hadn't done a ton of research. I basically went Walmart looking for a new bleach to use. In the past I used a bleach from Herbal Essence (which was AMAZING) Unfortunatley I think it was discontinued. I can't find it anywhere! The only reason I tried this was because the box said it will lighten even dark hair. It wasn't a bad product. But I would suggest using the bleach I used for my second bleaching. I will explain that when I get to my second bleaching experiance.

Anyway, my hair turned a bright orange. I wasn't expecting to get it blonde so I wasn't too freaked out. I didn't take a picture, but it was basically this color:

I was prepared for orange or brassy hair, and had bought a semi-permenant hair dye when I bought the bleach. (Semi is a lot less damaging and will be less difficult to lift than a permenant dye) Look for one that says "cool" or "ash tones." Ash tones will minimize the apperance of brassy hair. If you buy a "warm" color it will only make your hair even more orange. The reason why I didn't go ahead and bleach it again was because I wasn't 100% happy with the bleach product I used, and I didn't want my hair to fall out. Before I bleached it the second time I spent days deep conditioning and using the LeKair product I showed above to put back moisture in my hair. Even after I used the ash toned hair dye, my hair still had an orange cast to it when I was in bright lights or the sun. The ends of my hair were a light brown orangey color. Yes, I went to work and school like that.

Tonight I did the second bleaching with a product called Beyond the Zone Radical Bleach Kit. I went with this bleach kit because: 1. I heard amazing reviews about it. and 2. It was affordable ($8.99) If you have the extra cash, get L'OREAL's Quick Blue bleach instead. It's $25 and you have to buy developer as well, so it's a little pricey. The only bad thing about the Beyond the Zone bleach is, there's not enough to do your whole head if you have long hair. I bought two kits.(The kit is actually ment for highlights or chunking) It comes with everything you need, including a brush to put it on with, so it's worth buying two for $18. **Caution: This bleach has 40 volume developer, so it is very strong. It may cause a lot of damage to your hair. So do a strand test so you know exactly how long you should keep it on your hair.

After I did my strand test, I parted my hair in 4 different sections and put the bleach all over my hair, except my roots (about one inch from my head) Your roots will lift much faster than the rest of your hair. If you apply the bleach all over your head, your roots will be much more blonde then the rest of your hair. By the time I was done with that, a lot of time went by so I immediately started putting it on my roots. I left it on for maybe, five minutes at the most, then washed my hair with a moisturizing shampoo. The total time i had it in my hair was 30 minutes and it lifted all the color out. Some parts were a pale yellow, and parts were a very bright platinum blonde color.

Have to go o bed now, I'll post the rest tomorrow :] Goodnight!