Hair talk: Bleaching and Going Silver
I have been meaning to write this for a long time but I always seem to forget or put it off. Lately, I've been asked again and again by people about my hair. From simple stuff like "what color is that?" to complicated ones like "paano ba mag bleach?". I have been thinking of a way to answer those questions without repeating myself (read: lazy). So I guess it's a good reason to blog about it already. hehe
In this post I will try to cover one of the most asked questions that I get, "How do I bleach my hair?"
Okay, so first things first, bleaching can (and will) damage your hair. (Fact check: box dyes or/and anything with the label "permanent" also damages your hair.) If you're afraid of damaging your precious locks; really think about bleaching your precious locks a bazillion times first. It took me 2 years of researching and contemplating before finally deciding to bleach my whole hair.
As I have mentioned on my previous post, I've had my fair share of mishaps that led to permanent damage. I tried to bleach parts of my hair for 2 consecutive days. Even leaving the mixture overnight! (I cringe now that I think about it.) That is NOT how you bleach your hair. Bleach will not lighten your hair according to how long you leave it on, but on how much volume of developer you use. If you leave the bleach longer than the processing time needed, it will just damage your hair further. The process of bleaching, to simply put, is like you sharpening a pencil with a knife. Pencil = strand of hair. Knife = bleach. Kapag nagtasa ka, you take away layers from the pencil and expose the lead, right? It also makes the pencil more prone to breakage as it thins. Same thing happens to your hair when you bleach it.
Getting back to the question, you need a hair bleaching kit. You can opt to buy fancy ones from online stores or buy a bleaching powder and a developer from HBC, like I do. The volume of the developer you need to apply will depend on how light you want your hair to be. Though I suggest that one should use a lower volume first, so it wouldn't be as damaging as the higher level one. Think of it this way, the higher the volume of the developer, the lighter your hair will be but the higher the damage you get.
Another thing to keep in mind is the blonde levels of hair. Below is a chart of the color from black to lightest blonde when you bleach it. If you have been blessed (or cursed) with Asian jet black hair, it would take a couple of bleach sessions before you can achieve the lightest blonde.
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| taken from Pinterest |
Now I'll dig in deeper to going silver blonde hair. Most people who ask me about bleaching wants to have the silver/grey "granny" hair. It's definitely a trend that has been going on for a long time, and it looks amazing and oh so awesome! But, in all honestly, this is one of the HARDEST colors to achieve and maintain.
But whatever, so how can you achieve this?
First, you have to bleach your hair a lot. Maybe around 3 times? More if you have dark and thick hair. Yes, bleach it until it becomes light blonde, like the inside of a banana peel. Keep in mind that your hair needs to breathe between bleach sessions. Please do your hair a favor and wait for at least a week before bleaching it again or else you might fry your hair off.
But whatever, so how can you achieve this?
First, you have to bleach your hair a lot. Maybe around 3 times? More if you have dark and thick hair. Yes, bleach it until it becomes light blonde, like the inside of a banana peel. Keep in mind that your hair needs to breathe between bleach sessions. Please do your hair a favor and wait for at least a week before bleaching it again or else you might fry your hair off.
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| banana peel for reference |
Why does it have to be light blonde? Because silver/grey hair color will NOT work on dark hair, and if it is not the lightest it wouldn't look silver. For example, this photo is when I colored my level 7 blonde hair to purple using Manic Panic's Lie Locks. It faded after a few weeks into something like that. If you look closely, it isn't pure silver; it's more of silvery brown with random lilac streaks. It was streaky and did not look good as it faded more; I didn't like it at all. Apparently there's also a thing called "color theory" that I did not know of yet before. In a nutshell, it's just about complementary colors canceling out a shade to give you the exact color you want. The lilac cancelled out the yellow shades in my hair making it appear silvery.
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| (1) Incidental silver: faded purple over gold blonde |
So going back at the level system again, the level you want to get is around 9 or 10. Since the only way you can lighten your hair is to bleach it, you really don't have any choice. The best you can do to your hair is to allow your hair to breath by having the bleaching session spaced between a week each other. Once you've achieved this, you can now color your hair silver! YEY! Or you can tone your hair if you're good with blonde.
Using my experience again as my example, it took me almost 8 months to finally achieve the right level for the perfect granny hair (pic below) because I was trying to lessen the damage by allowing my hair to rest. I also conditioned them at least twice a week. I also skipped shampooing everyday and resorted to doing it 2-3 times weekly.
The upkeep for this was really arduous as well. I did two applications of the Pravana Silver here because the first one came out uneven. You have to mix the right hue to balance out the base color of your hair. Too little and it wouldn't change anything; too much and you'll have purple hair. Since it is a very light color, it also tends to fade faster. If you want to maintain it, you have to continuously dye it silver or use a silver shampoo.
If you would ask me, I liked having silver/grey hair back then. But would I do it again? Maybe, but not for now because it's too much work for me and I struggle with the upkeep.
Anyway, I think that covers most of it. :) If you have any further questions, feel free to comment here! I will answer them with gladness or even include them in my next post.
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| (2) took me two applications to achieve this smooth silver hair! |
The upkeep for this was really arduous as well. I did two applications of the Pravana Silver here because the first one came out uneven. You have to mix the right hue to balance out the base color of your hair. Too little and it wouldn't change anything; too much and you'll have purple hair. Since it is a very light color, it also tends to fade faster. If you want to maintain it, you have to continuously dye it silver or use a silver shampoo.
If you would ask me, I liked having silver/grey hair back then. But would I do it again? Maybe, but not for now because it's too much work for me and I struggle with the upkeep.
Anyway, I think that covers most of it. :) If you have any further questions, feel free to comment here! I will answer them with gladness or even include them in my next post.
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*List of online stores I buy from!
xx
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