How I Lightened My Hair From Black/Red to Blonde at Home

After months of getting my hair into the best condition possible, obsessing about the length and swearing I'd never mess around with home bleaches and hair dye ever again I completely went against my own advice and decided to lighten my hair at home. I'd been a brunette for two years after five years of being platinum blonde so have been through this process before, only last time I completely destroyed my hair. This time around I was determined to be more careful and spaced out hair dyes and bleaches with deep conditioning treatments over a period of time. I'm in no way encouraging people to follow these steps (in fact I'd highly discourage it as I know from past experiences how badly bleach can ruin hair if it's not done properly). But if you've stumbled across this blog because you're determined to go lighter at home or are looking for ways to fix your brassy hair maybe this will be useful. Be aware that the entire process from stages 1-8 (below) took me around 6 weeks, as I purposely spread out each step to avoid damage. You can obviously get there a lot quicker by repeated bleaching, but trust me on this one- the time you'll spend repairing your hair afterwards will be a LOT longer than if you're just patient. So if you're planning on going lighter at home without damaging your hair, just know that it will take a good few weeks and you'll have some rather dodgy hair colours while you do it.

Step 1. 
This was my starting colour, my hair was a dark black/brown with bleached sections that had been dyed red. I'd been dying my hair dark for around two years so there was lots of layers of dark hair dye in it.

Step 2. 
I started by using a 'Colour B4' kit, these remove the pigments of hair dye from the hair without damaging or bleaching it. It lifted my dark, reddish brown colour to lighter brown with a slight brassy undertone. I then put some foil highlights through my hair using this kit, as I wanted to brighten up the colour further as well as see how my hair would react to being bleached

Steps 3 &4.
About two weeks later, after lots of deep conditioning masks I dyed my hair twice using Superdrug's 'lightest ash blonde' box dye (pictures three and four). In theory the 'ash' in the dye should have neutralised some of the brassiness, however because this was a lightening dye which also contained peroxide it lightened my hair further taking it to a scary looking gingery red colour. I was kind of panicking by this stage, but added a few more highlights to brighten it a bit further.

Step 5.
This was when my hair reached the most unflattering colour, and it was a result of me being impatient. After about a week I got fed up with looking at the strange colour and so bleached the top section. This sent some of my hair a yellow blonde and the rest a shocking neon orange with the underneath still the medium reddish brown. Massive oops, but at least it was a lot brighter and my hair survived without breaking off.

Step 6. 
Knowing I'd need an ash blonde  dye to neutralise the orange tones I ran out and bought this medium ash blonde box dye- unlike the one from Superdrug this one deposited colour in the hair rather than lift it, and it turned the shocking neon mess as well as the underneath section to a very dark blonde so my hair was now all one colour. If you're having a disaster with orange hair this is definitely the dye I advise, it's semi permanent so although it looks quite dark once it's first been dyed (and it feels as though you've undone all of your hard lightening work) it fades out after a couple of weeks leaving behind a medium blonde and much less brassy shade. Also even though it looks dark when it's applied, unlike dark black or brown hair it contains no red tones so when you bleach or highlight over it later down the line it wont send your hair orange.

Step 7. 
Now my hair was at a reasonable medium blonde shade it was much easier to lighten, I gradually  added more and more highlights to it every few weeks. I highlight my hair (using Jerome Russel B-Blonde bleach and a 30 developer) using foil- search foil highlights on Youtube if you want to use this method. You'll probably need a friend to do this for you or at least help you with the back, but it's not too difficult and the friend that did mine certainly wasn't trained in any way! Because in step 5 I only bleached the top section of my hair, the underneath part was still darker (see the 'during' picture above) so I had to concentrate a lot of the highlights on the underneath my hair. I finished the process slowly, with a LOT of deep conditioning, hair oils and occasional protein treatment in between.

Aftercare: Condition
For the first few weeks after initially lightening my hair, it did feel dry and horrible. However it wasn't destroyed which bleach can do, just dry meaning it could be fixed with the right products. Any hair that is breaking off or is completely frazzled will have to be trimmed off, there's just no way around it. I began repairing my hair by completely avoiding heat tools and washing it with just conditioner- surprisingly this does leave your hair clean and is the best thing for dry hair as any shampoo will dry it out further. Once my hair started feeling manageable again I started using a moisturising shampoo. I used deep conditioning masks throughout this entire process, and would advise anyone lightening their hair to do the same. These Herbal Essences masks for example are just a few pounds each so even if you're on a budget there's no excuse- stock up and use them a few times a week. In the early days after bleaching your hair it's a good idea to use a protein treatment. You can buy expensive protein products from salons, but again if you're on a budget a mixture of eggs and olive oil can be applied to the hair and washed out after an hour. Protein treatments should always be followed with a deep conditioner, and should only be applied every 4-6 weeks as too much protein is actually bad for the hair. Use hair oils on the ends of your hair every time you wash it, argan/moroccan oils are the best things for hair but there are lots of budget hair oils out there, including plain coconut oil which can be bought for just a couple of pounds.

Aftercare: Colour
To maintain my hair I wash it using a purple shampoo/conditioner to get rid of any brassiness probably around once a week (the rest of the time I use a moisturising shampoo and conditioner, usually Tresemme or Dove.) Yellow toned hair can be corrected to blonde with a toner, but be aware that this will only work on yellow and not orange hair. My advice to anyone who's had a hair mishap sending them orange is to use a semi permanent ash blonde hair dye, then gradually lighten from there with highlights. I keep on top of my roots by dying them with a standard blonde box dye, on my regrowth this lifts right up to a nice blonde colour without being as harsh as bleach powder and blends in perfectly with the rest of my hair. I can then easily add more highlights every few months if I want to brighten the colour further.

Have you ever attempted a dramatic hair colour change at home?