Bleach blonde with root shadow

[Eminybob]

Ok don’t flame me for this, but I am considering bleaching my hair at home but have been doing lots of research and googling first and wanted to ask for some first hand experience on here.

So, currently I have medium brown hair, which is usually coloured at home with medium brown box dye to cover greys (not loads, just temples mainly)
My hair is in a jaw length, and fine. I have cut it myself several times, both pre and post lockdown. I’m not particularly precious about my hair.

My plan is to use Bleach London Total Bleach to get it as light as possible, and then Bleach London white toner.
As I don’t want a completely solid blonde look, and to help with regrowth I then want to have a root shadow/root smudge.

I was considering using a dark blonde semi permanent for this but not sure which is best?

Also, should I do the root smudge before or after using the white toner?

And how many boxes of bleach do I need?
I have watched tutorials but any advice welcome 🙏

(I know I should go to a salon but I HATE them and what I’m after will cost ££££)

Doesnt having darker roots or whatever a root smudge is defeat the purpose of colouring the rest of the hair? Won't it just look fake and like you have inches or regrowth already?

Yeah but if it was white blonde up to the roots, I’d have black roots within a week anyway.
Plus the shade I want to go is never going to look natural anyway.

Not the best pic but this is the sort of thing I’m aiming for

Seriously go to a salon.

I have baby lights then a root smudge. It take hours and seems to be quite specialised to me.

Scalp bleach is very tricky to do and if you've used box dye there is a whole world of things that can go wrong.

Yup I know.

But anyone who has done this at home care to wade in?

I do mine all the time ! So I use Schwarzkopf live in platinum get it all up as light as possible . Then afterwards your root area might be a little yellow so use dark ash blonde around the root area don't forget to section hair and get the back too it always works out for me 😊

Fab!
Do you have to bleach first before using the Schwarzkopf?

As your hair is already coloured you will really struggle to achieve that colour at home. Realistically you need to go gradually lighter over time and have that done by someone who knows what they are doing. To go from dyed brown to that is going to take multiple applications of bleach and you rush seriously damaging your hair in the process.

Please don't use Bleach London bleach! It's awful!

I now use Schwarzkopf BlondeMe and I can't believe how much better it is, both in term of actually lifting and the condition of my hair. I always thought bleach was bleach but I was wrong!

The above poster is right as well, hair that is already dyed with brown box bleach is way harder to lift, it will definitely take a few go's and you will be orange for a while.

In terms of the root, you can use Loreal dialight I think. I use dialight 9.02 as a toner for my bleached hair, but you can get darker ones to do root smudges etc.

The girl is this video does it quite well using dialight.

If you are going to do it yourself at home (which is what I do, I have never been happy with hair that has been coloured at the hairdressers!) then do get professional salon products. I get the Schwarzkopf BlondMe from Sally's and the dialight from a seller on Ebay.

Would it be worth using a colour remover before bleaching?

Maybe have a watch of some of Brad Mondo's videos on YouTube.

Don't use box dye. Buy the lightening powder and a 30% developer. Section your hair properly. Don't start the application at the roots start at the mid length and go down, do your roots last. Consider stripping the old dye out before you bleach. Lots of bleach solution, saturate the hair properly. Add some heat (wrap the head in a plastic bag then a light heat on a hairdryer) to help it develop.

But do not use box bleach as you've no idea what strength developer is in it. You really would be best going to a salon if any of the above worries you.

I think I have watched every Brad Mondo video going on the subject

I’m not worried, I have done worse things to my hair over the years. Although obviously I would like it to come out nice.

If it turns out terrible can I dye it back to brown?

@Eminybob

I think I have watched every Brad Mondo video going on the subject

I’m not worried, I have done worse things to my hair over the years. Although obviously I would like it to come out nice.

If it turns out terrible can I dye it back to brown?

Depends how much you damage it!!

You should film it and if you do end up with noodle hair you can always get on Brad Mondo!

I do mine at home and use Bleach London bleach. Mine is shorter than yours. Like you, I'm not at all precious about my hair and if it did go wrong it wouldn't be long before it was trimmed off anyway.

After the first couple of times I only ever really cover the root area. Occasionally it can look a little brassy afterwards but I always do a semi permanent hot pink or purple through it so that covers that.

Obviously your situation is different in that you would be bleaching over already dyed hair though.

How many boxes do you use for a full head @HelloChompy

The bleach London one is one developer bottle plus 2 sachets of bleach. I only use 1 sachet of bleach plus half the developer bottle. Mine is a pixie cut with a clippered back and I don't bleach the clippered hair. I imagine that you would use 1 pack. It might be best to get a couple of packs though, it would be a bit of a nightmare to run out in the middle of it 😬