Bleaching Hair - Take Two

It was time to do my roots again.

I never trimmed my hair after my last bleach job, so now my hair is really overdue for a trim.


I did my own bleach job again.  It's pretty fun... and I'm pretty confident about it now.


Picking toner is kind of tricky.  There are so many options!  It's hard because you don't really know what color the toner will make your hair.  It could be golden, or gray.  I attempt to lean on the silver/gray side, however, since I'm afraid of being too gray, I mix a beige toner with a platinum toner.

Here's what you do.

First, pick your bleaching poison.

I've heard good things about the Wella line, so last time I bleached my hair I went with all Wella products.  I used the same brand this time, because I've heard horror stories of changing the bleach type and frying your hair off.

Not good.

So, in the above picture we have:

• Wella Color Charm 20 Volume Developer.  I went with a 20 volume because I didn't want to use a 30 or 40 volume for faster lightening, but a higher risk of hair frying.

• Wella Color Charm Powder Lightener packet. To buy a whole bucket of this stuff is $20.  I'm still debating on whether or not it's worth it to buy that much.  The packet is only $3.40.  So... if I continue to bleach my own hair, I might purchase a whole bucket.

• Wella Color Charm toner in T18 Lightest Ash Blonde.  I ended up mixing the T18 with T28, because T28 was a little darker and less ashy.  I'm still worried about looking too gray.  I haven't exactly gotten the toning down yet.  I'm still just guessing...

Then I have a bowl and a brush.

I also purchased a deep conditioner to use after I bleach, so my hair doesn't feel so coarse.

Then I brushed my hair and parted it out into sections.

 Cute, right?

Then I mixed up the lightening powder and the 20 volume developer.  Starting at my middle part, I applied the bleach to my roots only, doing tiny sections at a time.  This was more difficult last time than it was this time.  When I got to the back of my hair, I had to use three mirrors in my bathroom in order to see what I was doing.

It was too late when I realized I forgot to wear a crappy shirt, and now my bright green shirt is ruined.  I'm very sad.

Anyway, I let the bleach sit on my hair for 30 minutes, after I was done applying.

I'm not really sure how this works.  It says to leave on for up to 45 minutes, but is that from when you start?  So, if I wash my hair 45 minutes after I start, the back of my hair will just barely have gotten bleach on it.

After letting it sit for 30 minutes, the back of my hair was still really dark, so I bleached the back again the following day.

Last time I did this whole process, I bleached my hair in two days.  I did the top half one day, and the bottom half the next day.  That was better, and made more even lighting, and no worries of leaving bleach on too long.

When I was ready to rinse, I made sure to wash my hair thoroughly.  If you don't get all the bleach out, and you apply toner, your hair will turn purple.  So wash, wash, wash thoroughly. Do not condition yet.

Then I towel dried my hair, mixed up the toner and applied that all over.  I let it sit for 20 minutes.

Then I washed and conditioned my hair.

The result was a really pretty ash blonde!  I dyed my hair a week ago, but I took the picture below today:

I like it.

I don't really like what my hair is doing today.  It's too dry to wash it again, but it's not really clean enough to style it properly.  So I get to have weird wavy hair.

Now I should REALLY get a hair cut.