At home hair bleaching advice

[Sellingsunsets]

Basically, I'm having some sort of mid life crisis 😂 I've been box dying my hair red for almost a year now. The red had faded completely and I decided I was going to try and lighten my hair with a goal to having highlights. I bought a blonde bleach highlighter kit with the caps you pull the hair through. Spent three hours pulling the hair through and I've now chucked the bleach on. It looks a horrible orange colour at the moment but the development time isn't over yet. What have I done and how can I fix it? It looks quite uneven and blocky at the moment. Help. Going to a salon to have it fixed isn't an option as I really can't afford it. Don't know why I just can't leave my hair alone 😭

Beem there and I ended up just buying a darker colour to cover the orange

Is the bleach on nice and thick and is not drying out?

How long have you had the bleach on ?

It goes orange before blonde, leave it in for the full recommended time.

If its awful, you can always box dye over it.

Don't wash it off while it still looks obviously orange. If the bleach seems dry and you can see the host easily through it put a bit more on and leave it longer. It should look a v pale yellow when it's 'ready'.

Take a snap of what you’re dealing with so people can advise if you can. Not sure what the length, condition, base colour roots etc are x

Toner! Make sure you have a good toner for after you wash the highlights off. If the root area is bad, you can do your own shadow root by getting a darker root touch up kit and painting them in. I've done this so many times and fucked it up more times that it's actually worked. Worst comes to worst, get a darker box dye to cover it

Thanks everyone. It's a right mess 😂 I tried to highlight as much of my head as possible. I have some red left underneath. And my ends are a copper colour and my roots are a hideous orange/copper. I'm thinking I'll just keep highlighting it with the same bleach kit u tio I can get the desired results. My hair feels okay and not too dry or broken. I'll attach some pics.

It doesn't look as bad as I imagined to be fair! Toner and a silver shampoo, it will look fine.

The pics make it look okay because of the light or the angle but the colours are very coppery, orangey

You can get the blue/purple shampoo to tone the orange colour down.

Ive purple shampooed it a few times and it's not made any difference x

You need blue shampoo if it's orange rather than purple. Try the fanola one

It might be too dark still for the blue/purple stuff to work.

You could bleach again but don't leave on for as long ....

once you get to banana flesh lightness you can tone.

Oh dear. Just don’t do what I did a few weeks ago and keep bleaching it repeatedly until loads of it breaks off. I now have little tufts of rope like hair all round my crown and a horrible orange frizz that I’m stuck with because no dye will stick to it. I’ve had to spend a fortune in products just to keep what’s left of it from breaking off and now I’m stuck with it until it grows out. Don’t do that.

Watch a bit of Brad Mondo on youtube. There’s a lot of bleach fails but he also tells you what you should be doing. Although I think now you’ll have to colour over it. If it’s highlights you’ll never be able to get the exact strands if you bleach again.

Update, I bleached it again.... I managed to get it a nice blonde at the roots and mid lengths but it's still patchy and uneven. My hair is fried. Gave in and booked to go the salon and have them fix it in a few days 🫠 lesson learned. Leave your hair alone ladies

This usually stems from the fact that the bleach and peroxide sold in ‘box dyes’ simply isn’t strong enough to lift dark hair. Remember you are playing with chemicals in any hair dying procedure and the results can be frightening if you don’t understand what you are doing. The blue and purple toners only help slightly but as a pp said, you need to be at the pale banana stage not the pale orange or brassy stage. Good luck at your hairdressers and perhaps try taking biotin for about 3 months + to thicken your hair up.