Going blonde

Senaste, många frågade mig om mitt hår. Hur får man komma bli blond? Jag hade vara blond nästan två månader idag och redan hade mycket erfarenhet med håret. Så här förklara jag hur får man göra det.

Going blonde is not rocket science. It is actually less complicated than it actually seems. I discovered the "secrets" of going blonde at home by accident.

Long story short, I had to deal with my hair looking like a disaster for a week. At first, I hesitated taking the bleaching route to fix the color problem. But desperate times called for desperate measures. I had to do what is necessary. Bleaching was the only solution.

For those of you who have super dark hair like me, you will know that getting your hair to lift its color by several tones up is next to impossible. That is what bleach is for. You need to bleach your hair to get it lighter. Even if you do not want to go platinum blonde, it is necessary to bleach your hair to lighten it.

Here, I will share with you how you can (sucessfully) go blonde at home without spending way too much money.

First off, you will need to bleach your hair. I used Garnier products because they do not smell as bad as other brands do. To bleach your hair, use Garnier Nutrisse Truly Blonde in L+. In Swedish L+ is called Extrem Blondering which translates to "extreme bleach" or something like that. I am not sure what name they use in the US/Canada. Check at the back of the box; it should say that that the bleach will lift 4-6 tones up. This is what you want.

To apply, follow the directions. Use gloves. The only direction I did not follow was how long to leave the bleach in your hair. I also happened to bleach my hair twice because my natural hair color is very dark. If you want to go super light ash blonde or platinum blonde, you will need to do this three times. But I do not recommend doing this because it will dry your hair.

During the first round of bleaching, I left the bleach on my hair for 50 minutes. The second bleaching process, 80 minutes. If you are doing a third bleach the same day, do not, I repeat, DO NOT leave the bleach in your hair for more 50 minutes. Depending on allergic reactions, your scalp may burn and also itch after you wash them off.

Note: You do not necessarily have to condition your hair after the first and second bleach. Just rinse with water. Dry with towel. And apply bleach on damp hair.

Under natural light, you should get a very light pale yellow color like this.

Do not worry if the yellow happens to be yellower than what I've got. If you have bleached your hair for only two times, you may go for a third bleaching until the yellow gets paler. But I do not recommend this. You will want to go for a third bleach if and only if your hair is still orange, reddish orange, or pumpkin orange. These colors mean that your hair has not achieved the proper light yellow undertones in order to turn it blonde.

So, once you have achieved the light yellow color, your hair is ready to be neutralized to any natural blonde shade. (I'll talk about going platinum blonde later).

In order to neutralize the yellow, you will need to use a any green- or blue-based hair colors such as those with ash tones. Or you can even use a toner but I live in Sweden and I cannot find those here off any shelves. I need to go to a professional hair salon to acquire those and they can be really expensive.

What I did to neutralize the yellow was by applying an ash tone hair color over the yellow. If this is your first time bleaching your hair, I recommend using any level 8 hair colors that are cool. By "cool" I mean, those that go by such names like "ash" or "pearl" or "pastel" or something of like. Avoid warm colors. If you are not sure warm colors go by such names like "golden" or "warm" or "honey". Avoide those.

Another thing to watch out for when selecting a color is to never, I repeat: NEVER ever get a color made for natural blonde hair. It will give you an unnatural (read: gross) shade of blonde. If you are not sure, you can check at the back of the box or on the side where it says about coverage for gray hair and that it is recommended for dark hair.

If you are a Garnier girl like me, I recommend getting Garnier Nutrisse Cream Permanent Hair Color in 8.1 and it is called Light Ash Blonde. Follow directions, and leave it on for 45 minutes instead of the recommended 35 minutes. Doing this makes sure that the ash color really sinks in your hair and neutralizes the yellowness. Do not worry about the cream turning darker during application. This is normal. Rinse and condition for 20 minutes. The longer the better. Depending of your hair type, sometimes you may find very little light grayish/greenish tones reflected under natural light for the first couple of hours. This is normal too. If you do this at night, you can sleep over it and it will be gone when you wake up. I personally love the greenish/graying tones. It makes me look like a natural blonde ;)

If you aim to go for platinum blonde or next to platinum/whitish blonde, you must first make sure that you have achieved a very, very light pale yellow. The yellow should be very, very light and almost white. This normally comes after the third bleaching. Do not worry if some parts of your hair (normally at your roots) became completely white. Completely white, as in snow white. This is normal and it is not something you should be on the alert for if you do not plan to neutralize your hair with a toner. Using a toner will leave it white. However, if you do not have access to a toner, you can color over it with a permament hair color (again, not for natural blonde hair).

I personally recommend Garnier Nutrisse Cream Permanent Hair Color in 9.1 and it is called Litchi here in Sweden, which is a very light ash blonde color.

Note that applying this color over your hair will not give you the same result as displayed on the box. Your hair will actually turn out to be lighter and platinum-like. Even if you decide to use 8.1, you hair will actually become lighter than the picture on the box. Depending on the achieved yellow undertones from the bleaching process, it can actually turn out to be super light and lighter than any natural blonde hair, which is great! I got my hair to go pretty light at 8.1.

So, summary:

Step 1: Bleach and leave on for 50 minutes. Rinse. Dry with towel. It is ok if hair is damp and orangey/red.
Step 2: Bleach again on damp hair and leave on for 80 minutes. Rinse. Dry with towel.
Step 2a: If hair is still orange, bleach again on damp hair no more than 50 minutes. Rinse. Dry with towel.
Step 3: Apply hair color. Use level 8 ash blonde. Leave on for 45 minutes. Rinse. Dry.

After this, caring for your blonde hair is very important, which I will discuss later in the future about the products that I use. You must always condition your hair at least 15 minutes after you wash your hair. And it is recommended to avoid using hair dryer or styling devices that use heat for the first 4-5 days.