Disclaimer: I am not a professional nor am I certified. I just have over seven years of experience dying my own hair. If you don’t feel comfortable dying or bleaching your own hair, please go to a professional. The techniques below work best on virgin hair.
1: Start with highlights. You can get it done by a professional, or do it yourself. I used a highlighting cap and bleach from Sally’s.
2: Use a highlift hair dye. Start on the darkest part of your hair: your midshafts to ends. Avoid your roots since those develop the fastest because of the heat from your scalp.
3: Do a bleach bath/shampoo bleach. Mix the powder bleach and developer, then add a ton of shampoo. Apply it like hair dye, starting at your ends and work up.
4: Spot bleach. If your hair came out patchy, apply bleach to the darker parts of your hair.
5: Apply toner. If your hair appears to be a bright yellow and that’s not the color you want, apply toner. Toner can get rid of yellow or orange tones but your hair must be lifted to a certain level.
My hair, before and after:
Tips:
- Do not use drugstore hair dye.
- They may seem to work for some people, but these dyes are full of metals which can react badly to bleach.
- Do not rush through this.
- Take your time. Dying and bleaching your hair back to back will put your hair at higher risk for breakage.