.jpg "Bleaching hair from dark brown to blonde part 1")
Bleaching hair from dark brown to blonde part 1
Are you ready to go on a DIY hair journey with me? Buckle up, this is going to be quite a ride! Join me as I take you through the process of bleaching my dark brown hair to blonde, at home, by myself.
Transformation at a Glance
Starting Base: Dark Brown (with active grey/white regrowth).
The Goal: Light Ash Blonde.
Formula: 20 Volume Developer + Powder Bleach.
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The past few weeks have been rough health wise. I've been in a flare with my chronic conditions and so inflamed, in pain, and generally feeling very tired and depressed. Luckily my hospital visit ended in new meds that now seem to be working a bit better at getting it all back under control (fingers crossed).
Anyway as I've had a lot of time laying on the sofa, mainly watching Netflix (the series Ghosts is great by the way), I've had plenty of time to think. This lead to me to deciding I want to be blonde again.
My hair grows super fast and unfortunately the amount of white/grey hair coming through is increasing at a rapid rate. With the dark brown colour I've been doing in recent months the regrowth really stands out and means I'm dyeing my hair every couple of weeks.
I've also had the dark brown for a few months now and honestly I feel the need for a change. Playing with my hair is something I enjoy doing. It's fun giving myself different looks. I could also do with a distraction to help pick myself back up a bit too.
And so... I'm going blonde!
Read on the find out why I said "I'm going blonde" and not "I went blonde".
What I used
Although going from dark brown to light blonde often calls for a stronger developer I was worried about damaging my hair and so opted for a 20 volume instead. Sometimes I'm sensible 😉
I got the largest bottle I could find and three packets of bleaching powder as I have a lot of hair and wanted to make sure I didn't run out. Seriously, always get an extra packet. As it turned out, this was just the right amount to get a good coverage of my hair.
Bleaching the hair
I covered the hair and left it on for about an hour.
Although I did the mids and ends first and waited to do the roots (how you're meant to do it as the scalp gives off heat which makes the roots process faster. Add to that the fact that the hair closest to the scalp doesn't have previous dye on it and is therefore easier to lift), I did do the roots too soon. C'est la vie! These things happen. I thought it was lightening more than it had and so jumped the gun. Nothing that can't be fixed later on.
I checked on it often as I previously bleached my hair last year and so was a little concerned about how well it would hold up.
Hair loss during bleaching
Some hair loss is to be expected when bleaching your hair especially if you do it yourself at home. As you can see, I only had a very small amount and so consider this a huge success.
Different shades before you get blonde
Going from a very dark brown (almost black) to blonde isn't going to happen in a day. A change this drastic takes time. I therefore wasn't surprised at how orange my hair was after the first round of bleaching. I was actually really happy as I got it a lot lighter than I was expecting. Last time I went from black to blonde the first round of bleaching left me with a kind of burgundy red so getting it to the orange phase was another success as far as I'm concerned.
As you can see the roots lifted quite a lot more than the lengths did and got to the yellow phase resulting in what is known as hot roots.
With day one over I convinced myself that I wouldn't touch my hair for at least a week to give it time to recover... day two had other plans...
Second round of bleach
I'm not a patient person by nature and on waking up and seeing just how orange my hair was, against my better judgement, I decided to go for another round. I'm pretty sure that every hairdresser out there will scream that you should never do this, and they're right... but I did it anyway.
⚠️ The Rebel Disclaimer: While I know my own hair's limits from years of DIY experimenting, professional colourists will tell you that bleaching twice in 24 hours is highly risky. If you are trying this at home, always do a strand test first and listen to your hair!
I should point out that I know my hair. I've been dying my own hair for years and have done a wide variety of colours. This is also not the first time I've bleached my hair from such a dark brown to blonde and so I know how my hair responds.
For the second round I did add a large amount of conditioner into the mix so technically it was more like a bleach bath than a full on harsh bleaching session. See, I at least try to be sensible!
This time I checked it about every 10 minutes to be on the safe side. As it was looking good and passed the pull test, I ended up leaving it on for about an hour again.
The Colour Lifting Process (Where I Am Now)
When lifting dark artificial dye out of hair, the pigment must transition through a predictable spectrum of warm undertones:
Dark Brown → Red → Orange → Yellow → Pale Blonde
As you can see, it lightened considerably especially the top. The mids and ends got lighter (although still orange tone, much less fire orange now, and the roots blended better to give a more intentional looking (even though it wasn't) reverse ombre look.
As is often the case with lighter coloured hair, the colour looks different in different light.
My hair actually feels really soft which is excellent. The ends were already a bit dry and I plan on cutting my hair soon anyway so not a problem.
I really will be leaving it alone for the next week or so... at least I'll try to be patient. In the meantime I'll be using a lot of moisturising and bond building products.
What products do you recommend I try? I'm on a budget and so can't stretch for Olaplex (which I know everyone raves about). I'm sure with the right research and experiments I can find a budget product that does the job though.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I wasn't expecting to get my perfect blonde in one go. I know it takes time and multiple rounds of bleach to do such a drastic change in hair colour. So far, I'm more than happy with how the process is going. Sure, I do jump every time I walk past a mirror because I don't recognise myself but I also love playing with my hair. Whilst the orange phase isn't my favourite, I'm embracing it. For all anyone else knows the goal was to have a reverse ombre yellow to orange colour 😉
High-Utility "At-Home" Pros & Cons
A balanced view of the practical realities of bleaching your own hair vs. sitting in a salon chair.
| The Wins (Pros) | The Realities (Cons) |
| Budget-Friendly: Cost a fraction of a salon correction process. | The "Hot Roots" Effect: Scalp heat caused the root area to process much faster than the ends. |
| Gentle Approach: Using 20 volume developer instead of a harsh 30 or 40 volume protected the hair bonds. | The Awkward Intermediate Phase: Walking past mirrors can be a shock when you're rocking bright copper tones! |
| Distraction Factor: An excellent, creative mental focus during a chronic illness flare. |
Check back soon for part two of this journey and see if I make it to a light ash blonde.
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