So I’ve been meaning to write this post for the past few days or so, but Overwatch’s open beta has consumed 80% of my waking hours (so it’s a good thing that the beta closes May 10th). But anyway, hey. Hello. Yeah, I’m blonde. Again. And all thanks to some help from the wonderful Stefanie Carlson of Behind the Blush who devoted ten hours throughout one week to flip my mane from pitch black to yellow blonde.
For the past two months, I have been seriously toying with the idea of reverting my really, really black hair into this golden yellow colour that I had seen briefly on Tumblr. In a world where platinum blonde asians rule the Insta-world, I wanted to find a way to go blonde without really going blonde. So, I reached out to Stef and asked if she’d be interested in being my Gandalf on a rather arduous journey to Mount Blonde (sorry for the awful LOTR reference, but the situations seemed to call for it). If you’ve been following my blog for a while, then you might remember that I was once blonde two years ago for about half a year (ish). So given my previous experience with multiple hours of bleach, I was expecting something like 8 hours in a chair with bleach burning through my scalp (note: this didn’t actually happen the first time). But instead, Stef took my hair through three stages of processing to: a) give my scalp a break between bleach sessions, and b) prevent all my hair from breaking off (as you can imagine, 8 hours of bleach can be pretty harsh on your hair).
But anyway, for those of you who asked me about the bleaching process, here’s a quick breakdown of how Stef treated my hair.
DAY 1 (4 hours total): apply bleach, let sit for ~45 minutes, wash off, blow dry, apply more bleach, let sit for ~45 minutes wash off, apply toner, let sit for 30 minutes ish, wash off and dry
DAY 2 (4 hours total): exact same routine as day 1
DAY 3 (2 hours total): apply bleach, let sit for ~30 minutes, wash off, apply toner and let sit for another 30 minutes ish, wash off and dry
Which brings us to a grand total of 10 hours of work done (phew). Anyway, for those of you who are interested in joining the Blonde Azns Club (free membership!!!), here are a couple pieces of advice before you get started:
- Don’t wash your hair for a few days before your bleach treatment. The oils on your head will save you a lot of pain.
- See a professional for your bleach treatments. Drug store bleach will only fry off your hair. Plus, salons have olaplex. And olaplex does wonders. Check out Stef from Behind The Blush if you’re in Edmonton!
- Bleaching natural hair is much easier than bleaching dyed hair.
- Make argan oil your best friend post-bleach (thanks Stef for the recommendation!).
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