I honestly don't even care about damage anymore, anything would be better than black. In this sense, the ratio becomes 1:2:1 bleach powder, to developer, to shampoo. Thanks again. I have been colouring my hair with a light golden brown colour. A week is a good minimum time frame between bleach applications. The color does NOT return your hair to the natural virgin color it was before you colored it. Thank you for the artical. The great thing about a bleach bath is that this won't take very long. Thanks in advance Debbie. Chlorine bleach, historically the older and stronger variety, is based on sodium or calcium hypochlorite, NaOCl or CaOCl. If I were to do a bleach wash over all my hair and lighten to an orange and color with a 6 ash blonde would it be a golden/neutral light brown and maybe even the existing highlights still peep thru as tonal highlights? Ideally, go a shade lighter than you normally would too because your hair will be a little more receptive to the dye after the bleach wash and you don't want it to darken too much again. But i feel like this has been going on for far to long now, I just want the perfect shade of silver/white hair. It covered my few grays and my hair is super healthy, BUT, over the years it's gotten WAY darker than I want (probably level 3 or 4 on the ends). Now it is orange red color. Color remover is,in essence,bleach. And my hairdresser is an hour away from me and I'm working 24/7 atm so don't have time to go there anyway - hence looking for home solutions because my hair looks awful atm! Then you can tone at home if you prefer using 9A. Best route to the colour is to lighten one level using bleach, and then tone with a dark ash blonde. The only problem is that it would remove the highlights. Each Product has an individual effect on the Hair, this can greatly adjust your Colour process that follows. What I would like to know is, once my roots are done, I wait about 10 days, and then do a bleach bath over my entire head, to lighten my hair further to get rid of the yellow/golden colour and reach more of a 9 or 10. And rinse way more than you expect as it may reoxidize if you have a lot of previous dark dye in your hair. Otherwise, another thing you can do is take a white shampoo--any brand, as long as you like how it washes your hair--and add a small amount of semi-permanent blue dye to this. Another option with Wella Koleston is to use the 033 concentrate and mix a tiny amount into your ash blonde shade to add a small amount of green tone. This is still a very mild formula. You have to wait a week before bleaching after using colourB4, in some cases it works but in others the chemicals in bleach can reverse the effect and your hair will go to the colour that you had before you used the colour remover. As such, a bleach bath will lighten your hair less than a regular bleach can when the same volume of peroxide is used. The closer it is to all being the same depth, the easier and more effective toning is going to be. If you have a dye that is just absolutely way too stubborn for any other method, then you can use this method at the risk of damaging your hair further while resolving your color issue. If irritation is apparent, DO NOT PROCEED WITH COLOR OOPS APPLICATION! I used the Prism Lites Blue. I also have curly hair so it somehiw looks spottier. You may have to be brown for a while before you can get to dark blonde then ash blonde. Anyway, without trying to confuse you, it will change the shade you need to use if your hair definitely is a level 8. I have been reading your posts and you are so knowledgeable. There are two kinds of bleach, based on needed strength and fabric sensitivity. If i want to achieve neutral after bleaching to orange/gold. A week later I put in the l'oreal glam lights brush in. **Reply to any spammy forum post or comment with "@spam" to notify me of spam. I am a blue eyed, fair skinned with redness and freckles and have a slight yellow tone to my skin with a bluey green vein. My first step was to remove the dark color from my hair slowly as to have the least amount of damage because i have thin fine hair. Shall I strip my hair? I hate it. I wanted to say thank you so much for your advice. Do you have any suggestions that is the most gentle on my hair? I wanted a more silvery color so I used Wella T18 with a 10 volume peroxide. Hi Matthew, please please help me. Bleach baths are handy for a few reasons due to their milder lightening action and ease of application: If you dye your hair with bright colors and you change these colors all the time, a bleach bath can be used to remove stubborn traces of color that haven't washed out yet. In fact, if you've dyed your hair with a permanent dye, it's practically the only way you can lighten it at all. I hope you can answer before I do this in about two weeks, how long do you leave it? Just concentrate on refreshing my highlights or graduating to a balayage. I was hoping to pick your brain. Bleach baths differ from a regular bleach process in a couple of ways and every hairdresser has their own method for performing one. It'd be so much easier than trying to explain the blah color I managed to get for myself. If you were working with something like Nice'n'Easy Natural Black, that almost never comes out with bleach with any success. I am considering a bleach bath to lighten the dye out, do you think this will work? So if you're happy with how light the base colour is right now, I wouldn't recommend bleaching it any further because it won't really help with the orange. I have colored my hair many times but never full on bleach. I'm hoping to bleach virgin roots (level 5) and do a bleach bath on already bleached hair (level 9) to bring everything to a level 10. I am going to lighten one level and tone it with ash blond. After you've achieved the level of lift you require, you can rinse the product out and condition your hair thoroughly with a good deep conditioner to replenish the hair's moisture. It only removed artificial colour pigments only. Then I would like to do lighter neutral honey highlights. My current hair color is not a 6, but an 8. And if I bath bleach the virgin hair, how much will it lighten it? I still have some black in my hair that I want to get rid of. Also after lifting my hair 1 level should I tone it? -toning with an ash toner (reccomendations welcome), -possible adding a light ash brown color on top if needed/wanted. Do you think my hair would take bleaching, or can i use a bleach bath. OMG my hair was a light orangey colour. I also toned it with blonde brilliance's platinum toner. After taking a class they warned me against using a color remover as it will … I am 55 years young and I had grown out all my creamy blonde highlights ( which i used to tone with purple shampoo) over the last 24 months to achieve my own beautiful real silver hair with my natural brown ( number 5) in a classy salt and pepper look that was completely natural. The quality of the shampoo barely matters since it's only in the mix to dilute down the lightening/irritation and help wash artificial colour out of the hair. Additional rinsing is needed for longer, thicker hair. These treatments will help strengthen your hair as well as reduce porosity. My salt is almost white. So it goes light blonde @ roots, then orange, to dark brown with red tints at strands. Applied in foil, you shouldn't have any trouble with the runnier consistency. So I've come to the conclusion that I just need to give my hair a break from bleaching. As for the ends, there are two possible reasons why they've grabbed the ash. So my first session was with 40 volume and it lightened pretty well. Put the usual amount of shampoo you use into the bowl about 10ml. I also don't want my roots and mid length growth to be extremely lighter than my ends. How does chlorine bleach remove color? I then used a schwarzkofp dark as blonde, and that was great. I was left with some yellow but mostly orange brass! De Lorenzo's Cool Naturals shampoo may help, as that is actually designed for maintaining ashy brown hair, rather than for use on blonde. This is caused by bleach interacting with minerals. I always dye my own hair. I'm doing vinegar washes and letting it air dry to coax the cuticle down. Thank you thank you thank you in advance for any advice!!! Hi there! As I have gray anyways would like to not have to bleach and tone my roots all the time. Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article. I bleached again with 30 volume and got pale yellows, white and still some orange. yeah I'm trying to convince my mom to let me use a color remover ( can't do it outside it rains 24/7 here ) but if I eventually decide on going straight to bleach do you think it's gonna lift any color at all? You are awesome! This step is very important for desired results. Please rinse hair immediately if this occurs. Not much has changed except on the top of my head of course. If not, you can bleach all over until the darkest areas are at least gold, fill with a light gold shade to even the lighter areas up to the same colour, then dye with medium natural blonde or medium ash blonde. I used Rainbow henna powder (only two ingredients=henna + indigo) every 2 months for about 3 yrs. The girl with the red petty coat. Bleaching after a color remover ( a different question ), Wrath to Alpine - bleaching and color removing advice. It's not cute! From dark brown to light brown is fairly easy, even when dealing with dyed hair and buildup as it's only two levels lighter, but this does depend a lot on what brand of bleach you're using, and what concentration of developer you mix it with. Hi there, thank you so much for explaining that! A little of my hair coloring history: I have natural brown hair which I have darkened and lightened myself since 20 years ago. I'm tired of putting quite so much effort into my hair. I've also had highlights done at the salon that involved some bleaching in the past. Take a cotton swab, dip it in the bleach, and rub it on the inside of your elbow. Bleach bath it? Thank you so much Maffew! Ultimately though, if your lengths feel strong and healthy, it's very very unlikely that this will happen. Thanks again! You need the dye to be semi-permanent rather than demi-permanent or permanent as these kinds of dye can effect your natural brown hair even though they are lighter than it (The peroxide in developer will cause the dark hair to lighten slightly even though it doesn't add noticeable colour to it). Well it is more like a light brown/ dark blonde! Once you get it more even, apply the toner you have. I'm from Australia so not all products you've spoken about earlier are available here (such as that Wella toner people rave about). The dye you'd be using will still tone it effectively if it is, but the colour result is going to also be slightly darker. Should I just go 1 or two shades darker than the bleach, then continue this process until the desired color is reached? You may have to be brown for a while before you can get to dark blonde then ash blonde. color remover when you use it properly and wait long enough before using bleach ( washing everyday for a weak to make sure all the old dye is out) is going to get your hair alot lighter then just bleaching black will. As long as you're not working on a strict budget, the dye remover is always a good first step because it breaks down permanent hair dye without causing damage. I already recommended your website as well as this bleach bath as perfect helpful source. But is a week too soon? You seem to really know your stuff so I’d be real grateful for any suggestions you may have. Do I have to worry about hot roots? My natural color is a medium brown, like a 5, perhaps a little lighter even. Just like a regular bleach, you shouldn't perform a bleach bath any more than once a week to avoid stressing the hair. How do get my own natural coulour back. If this doesn't cool it down enough, go darker with the toner. A 6A is strong enough to affect level 5 hair, so the lack of any noticeable colour is a good sign that it's darker than you were lead to believe. What do i do now with all this awful ginger and white mess ?? Cream Bleach = for every 1.5 oz of cream bleach you use add ¼oz (7.5ml) of No.1 Bond Multiplier. If you have a particular shade in mind, I can give you a better idea of what you need to do to reach it. My natural color is dirty blonde. Do I need to use a toner after the bleach bath? Pls aswer immmedently should i do a bleach bath to night or what ro get rid of the yellow ?? (I'm half Caucasian and half Hispanic. I'm not trying to get the brown part to the white stage, I just want it lighter. Also, as I originally wanted natural color hair with highlights and with the pesky copper coming back through, is it possible to get the caramel highlights I have been wanting?? Thank you for such great explanation and all the effort placed into this. It looks slightly closer to a light brown because it's an ash tone, and ash will generally always look a little darker. My salt came out great but my pepper lightened up to a light reddish brown. With the current damage it would be better to wait a while first. Thanks! It blends in better with my white/silver part. My roots dyed very dark shade of grey and then a slight purple shade and then a grey shade to ends. Dryness compounds this damage and you do reduce it slightly by keeping your hair more hydrated because it prevents it from becoming brittle. I currently have permanent red dye coloured hair from a medium blonde natural colour. Give it a test on orange areas and if it doesn't tone, add a little more until it does. Thanks. After bleach lifts the colour, a toner will fix unwanted brassy or red undertones and give you the perfect ashy or platinum colour you were after. Best idea if this is the case is to apply medium gold copper blonde (7GC, or 7CG depending on what you can find) as the filler, process, rinse, and then use the ash tone as the final dye as intended, or mix the ash with a natural tone. Yes I do like the lightness of my hair, it's just that yellow/gold colour I really don't like, and that is why I thought I would have to lighten more to get rid of it since my toner wasn't removing the yellow. The color-safe bleach in Clorox2® is hydrogen peroxide, and will cancel the bleaching effects of the sodium hypochlorite. I apologize for my confusion and thank you in advance for clearing things up once again. You may need to use a darker ash (6A), but I'd recommend starting no darker than a 7A and only using a darker shade if absolutely necessary due to the combination of highlights and lowlights. My hair feels so healthy! I've been doing internet research for a few weeks now, but after reading through all of the comments I'd love to hear what you think. Use an ash dye one level lighter than what you lightened to for a fairly neutral result. Learn everything you need to know to achieve your color goals, and get started with your new look today. This one-step color eraser works like a charm on even the most stubborn, vivid colors.This easy remover gets left on strands for up to 30 minutes to remove dye from hair. In any case, using a light ash blonde dye may tone it fairly nicely, but having lighter and darker sections causes issues with toning because the lighter hair can over-tone with anything strong enough to affect the darker hair, and the darker hair isn't affected by anything light enough to avoid over-toning the lighter hair. “Depending on what color line you use, I would use a clear (like what you’d use to dilute color) with 30- to 40-volume developer and leave it on the hair for up to 45 minutes. Can I continue to use the cool shades, or should I go with a violet or neutral/natural shade? Because they can see and touch your hair, they'll be able to tell you whether there is any severe weakening. You are great! I use this method as well, and it has been such an amazing difference than straight bleaching! Any thoughts would be terrific, I just don't want to turn my entire head orange! To add to this, I have an undercut (for surgery last year) which accidentally got some bleach on it so has a few orange spots among the virgin hair (which is growing back much darker than the rest, apparently from anaesthetic shock). Does this impact my lightening process? Thank you sooo much for answering!! There are other options if this is going to be a problem, but you should have a think about what you would prefer to do prior to applying anymore bleach. It will soften the salt and pepper look but won't completely get rid of it because there will still be darker hair dispersed throughout, so it is a bit of a trade-off in that regard. My bleached and dyed hair needs a breath of fresh air... Just a quick question (removing black dye). If your hair is indeed a level 6, this is about the level in the picture. You could also always have them do the whole process for you by applying to your regrowth, then pulling the bleach through to the lengths as it processes so that once the roots reach the same level as your lengths, all your hair is then taken a level further to finish. One thing I'd say to note with your hair is that the different sections—the regrowth, lengths, and grey strands—will likely react differently. If you have varying levels present, mix the dark ash blonde half and half with dark natural blonde and this will darken up those areas. Maffew James (author) on August 05, 2015: What likely happened is either your hair is a bit lighter than the last time you used the toner, so that same shade turns out stronger than expected, or it was porous after bleaching and really grabbed onto the violet tone. I still have super bleach blonde hair, but I'm thinking of going back to my natural color. I now want to remove this colour and go back to the blonde I had after bleaching, please could you advise me on what to do? Also would a purple protein filler added to the bleach mixture be beneficial? I want it a lifhter lighter and to try and get the brassy colour out. If your hair was closer to a level 8, the ash as the final colour will turn out a little cooler and this is where you may want to mix it half and half with natural tone. Will this give me the color I had before the dye? It's subtle but it seems the more it fades the more copper I see. I decided on a bleach bath, and the first time i did it, the color went from black/brown to a light brown with a hint of red in it. Did another strand test--no lift at all. I took a lot of the color out with a vitamin c treatment, dyed over an ash brown, then let my natural hair color (darkest ash blonde) grow in for months. Like you can't tell. Bleach it? It's been about a month since my last root touch up and so this was my plan of action to go back to my natural hair color so I can have a less harsh transition into my original natural color. I'm a nurse, and I want to look professional. Your roots should be fine as they're already fairly light and there's not much lightening required to match to your current colour. I was wondering what I could do to get it back to a natural looking color. Green is only really useful when there is a pure red tone showing up. Experiment with dilute solutions—you need it just strong enough to strip the pink color but not so strong that it strips the original item color, as well. This illustrated guide will tell you what to do and what to be careful about. I did two sessions and before washing the product out my hair looked gingery red which was what I was hoping for as I planned to color it with an ashy color after that to decline the redness. So, I decided to highlight my hair, as I'm currently unwell and can't sit to go to my hairdresser. You're looking at 3 - 4 levels of lift before it all looks the way you want, after which you'd need to tone it to get it to look silver because the hair that was darker will be yellow at this point due to the base tone being revealed. Now my own roots are coming back in and so i have my own beautiful silver roots plus some dark number 5 roots that is my normal natural colour before i went silver plus its all a bit salt and peppery looking. I don't want inches of roots lol. For dark blonde, tone with medium ash blonde for neutral, or dark ash blonde for ash. It works on cotton, linen, silk, wool, ramie and rayon. In this case, because the bleach is diluted and isn't in contact with the hair for very long, very little damage occurs compared to a regular bleach process. If you use the bleach by itself, this will lift more colour than a bleach bath with the same volume of developer. I was wondering would I be able to do a bleach bath on my hair and lift one level at a time with very little damage? So my question is could I do a bleach bath on just that portion of my hair? I have been dying my hair blonde intense red and I could no longer find my hair dye and used one that left my hair dark red, not good. I been doing deep conditioning with coconut oil and olive oil. I can't use a color remover any more as my mum absolutely despises the smell and she won't let me use it again. Compounding matters, the city water went from a very silky soft to hard as nails after a recent municipal overhaul. They do have a medium ash blonde that is green-based though, and you can mix this into another shade as needed. However, it is important to note that the more times you've dyed your hair, and the longer you've left it a darker colour, the less effective dye remover is. She also put a base colour ( also semi perm ) on all the roots. Hi I need help or clarification. This method will lift up the darkness a bit without hurting my hair. I am thinking of doing a bleach bath. I’m about to BB my own hair to get some “semi”-permanent (it’s been months and this Arctic Fox virgin pink WILL NOT FADE) and I’ll be back at a level 10. Wow, this is a great and thorough article, bravo! Bleach is drying, and dry hair is more susceptible to damage from heat and styling. and How much? A bleach bath is fine to use for gentle lightening, but it is going to be hard to isolate it to specific areas like your highlights as it's a much runnier consistency. You should be applying the bleach bath to wet hair and will need to dampen your hair with water before you begin. I was thinking about doing a bleach bath to eliminate the white/gray color, but I'm a little worried. I have dyed my hair tips for the first time in a salon and then the dye started to leave and it was like an orange so i started to dye it on my own. Anyway, I thought that toners didn't lighten dark hair but it lightened mine. I used a 25% bleach to 25% developer (20) to 50% shampoo mixture, left on for 10 minutes to brighten up my brassy dyed blonde hair and it made a huge difference! As for getting it to stay toned, shampoos and conditioners don't generally work for hair that is dark like yours because most are designed for blonde hair.