Hair bleaching is the most dramatic beauty treatment. It lightens your hair and, at times, prepares it for such vivid colours. Yet getting the suitable bleach for your hair type is essential to its best use and holding it from potential damage. Bleach is, in fact a chemical process which is very powerful in weakening hair if not matched with the proper hair type and condition. This guide has taken you through how to go about the selective process of the suitable bleach to be used and also how to take care of your hair after to maintain strength and a healthy state.
Get Familiar With How Bleach Works?
So before we dive into different types of bleach, it’s crucial to know what this stuff does. Hair bleach opens your natural hair colour by breaking down melanin in your hair strands. Essentially, it opens up your hair cuticle so that the lightening agents-which are usually a mix of hydrogen peroxide and some powder-can penetrate and dissolve your natural pigment. That’s mighty rough on your hair-that is, if it’s fine, damaged, or chemically treated.
Some of the primary factors in your selection of bleach are:
Hair type (fine, medium, coarse)
Hair colour (light, medium, dark)
Hair condition (healthy, damaged, color-treated)
The desired amount of lift (slight lift to platinum blonde)
Hair Type and Texture
Your hair’s texture will play a big role in how it reacts to the bleach. Hair texture refers to the diameter or thickness of individual hair strands and ranges from fine to coarse.
- a) Fine Hair
Fine hair is more prone to breaking because of a greater diameter and breaks relatively easily. It lifts quickly, too, because the strands are thin and porous. But that quick lifting proves to be a hindrance-the hair can easily break during bleaching or break off within a shorter period.
Recommended Bleach: For this hair type, use a cream bleach because it’s less complicated to work with. It contains more moisture than the non-cream varieties and has better control over bleaching processes. It can be applied using a lower volume developer at about 10-20 volume. Fine hair lifts very fast, so keep an eye on the process to prevent over-bleaching.
- b) Medium Hair
Fair-haired individuals can get a greater length of resistance to their hair than fine-textured hair; however, their hair must be cared for when bleached. In general, it tends to take bleach well, and you can typically acquire quite an even lift without too much damage.
Recommended Bleach. For medium-textured hair, a standard powder or cream bleach will do. A 20-30 developer should give you an appropriate progression based on your current colour and lightning level.
Tip: To avoid a patchy outcome, apply the solution evenly. Also, this deep conditioning treatment after bleaching maintains the health of the hair.
- c) Coarse Hair
The diameter in coarse hair is coarser, usually more robust, than that in fine or medium hair. Still, coarse hair might not be as forgiving with bleaching and may take longer or a different developer. It is less likely to break up under the cuticle when working with coarse hair, but it’s a bit harder to penetrate, so you will need a more potent formula.
Recommended Bleach: When hair is coarse, powdered bleach with a 30-40 volume developer is usually required to obtain good, significant lightening. Powder bleach penetrates deeper and lifts that strong pigment more efficiently.
Tip: Divide your hair into sections so the bleach can penetrate fully.
Natural Hair Colour and Desired Lift
Your hair’s initial colour also determines what type of bleach is needed. Darker hair needs a more aggressive use than lighter hair to achieve the same amount of lightness.
- a) Light Hair (Blonde up to Light Brown)
If you already have light hair, you don’t need a powerful bleach as there is more likelihood of attaining a more significant lift. Light hair bleaches quite well, and it will take less processing time.
Recommended Bleach: For fairer hair, a cream bleach with a 10-20 volume developer is likely sufficient. This one is likely to cause less damage and lift the colour softly.
Tone after: You may need to tone after for this colour, depending on the results. This can avoid unwanted brassy or yellowish undertones left behind.
- b) Medium Hair- Light Brown to medium brown
Medium hair needs a little more processing than light hair but does not require the challenge of bleaching dark hair. The goal is to lift the colour without compromising the hair structure.
Recommended Bleach: Use a powder bleach with a 20-30 volume developer. This can be effectively lifted without aggressive chemicals.
Tip: You will do yourself good by considering multiple sessions instead of one long session in which massive damage will be encountered on the hair.
- c) Black Hair
Black hair is quite challenging to bleach because of the amount of melanin; dark hair usually requires a more concentrated formula, a more significant developer strength, and even sometimes multiple sessions in a row not to harm your hair in one attempt.
Recommended Bleach: With powder bleach, your developer should be a 30-40 volume developer in order to achieve the desired lightening for darker hair shades. This type of bleach will allow you to get lighter quite fast; however, with this bleaching process you have to condition your hair between applications lest you break your hair.
Tip: Don’t try to rush it. Lightening dark-coloured hair to blonde or platinum can take weeks, but it is possible to break it up into several weeks.
Hair Condition
How bleach should be applied depends on the condition of your hair. Virgin hair without prior chemical processing or damage is better qualified for bleaching.
- a) Virgin Hair
The Virgin hair simply means it is never coloured or has been chemically processed. Such hair is free from any imperfection because it has neither been bleached nor broken or fractured in any other way. Since virgin hair bleaches wonderfully, it usually presents with the most favourable result.
Recommended Bleach: Virgin hair accepts just about any sort of bleach, but for hair health reasons, stick to a cream or powder bleach with a 20-30 volume developer, depending on your hair colour and the amount of lift you want to achieve.
- b) Coloured Hair
If you hair has already been coloured before, it has already gone through some chemical process that will have imposed damage to its health. Bleaching over coloured hair is unpredictable since it may cause patchiness or uneven colour.
Recommended Bleach: A low-volume developer cream bleach that can go from 10-20 volumes. This minimises further damage while lifting your hair colour.
- c) Damaged Hair
Damaged hair is fragile, breaks easily, and often results from using heat appliances, chemicals, and environmental stressors. Bleach damaged hair often can cause breakage, dryness, and split ends, so be cautious.
Recommended Bleach:
Ammonia-free bleach with 10 volume developer: As this will be slower acting, it will be much safer for fragile hair.
Tip: Prep your hair with deep conditioning treatments for a few weeks before bleaching, followed up by intensive moisturizing and protein treatments post-bleach.
How to Test Your Hair Before Bleaching?
Start with a strand test before going for a full head bleach. First, take the bleach mixture and apply it to the small section of hair that will show you the extent to which your hair will react to the bleach. Such a test will indicate to you how long you are likely to spend on bleaching to get the required lift and whether the bleached hair can endure the bleaching process.
Hair Care After Bleaching
Your hair will need extra moisturising treatments after bleaching so it is healthy and strong. Add these to your hair care treatment:
- Moisturising Shampoo and Conditioner: Use a formula that’s meant for colour-treated or bleached hair.
- Deep Conditioning: Apply deep conditioning masks once a week to help moisten it out
- Protein treatments: Assist in fixing hair strength by applying protein treatments that can fix broken bonds.
- Reduce Heat Styling: Use fewer hot styling appliances like flat irons and blow dryers.
Conclusion
Selecting the right bleach for hair type: you need to understand its texture, your natural color, and its condition. Irrespective of whether you have fine, coarse hair, virgin hair, or color-treated hair, it’s the selection of bleach and the strength of developer that is most important while trying to avoid damage to hair and gain expected results. Therefore, taking some extra time to determine your hair and preparing it for the process can result in healthier, more vibrant hair and a wonderful, long-lasting color transformation.
