Caveat: the safest and most stylish way to bleach your hair is by going to a salon. Period. However, white hair requires a lot of attention, and your work is not over the second the chemicals get rinsed out. This article will teach you some tips and tricks to maintaining that cool, icy white.
Wash (less)
As someone with pretty oily hair, I understand the struggle of wanting to constantly clean your scalp. However, shampooing too often is damaging to your hair— whether bleached or not! When it comes to bleached and color-treated hair, you want to wash as little as you can get away with. For me, that’s really just every other day, but people with thick, dry, or curly hair can definitely only wash a few times a week. Bleached hair tends to get less oily anyhow, as the texture changes and becomes coarser and drier. My naturally thin hair has benefitted from the volume boost! When it comes time, wash product out with cold water to protect the color, vibrancy, and combat frizziness.
Pro tip: to help make spacing out washes more bearable, dry shampoo is your best friend. With white hair, there’s no risk of the product showing up— in fact, dry shampoo not only absorbs oil from your strands, it also helps cover up those pesky roots. Many dry shampoos offer additional benefits such as volumizing or texturizing hair. I like this body building one from the Not Your Mother’s line: it even smells like mangos!
Tone
Toning your hair is key to maintaining an icy white shade, and one of the easiest ways to do this is using purple shampoo and conditioner. These products are color-depositing and help to neutralize brassy tones in your hair. While it may not be the best product out there (definitely contains sulfates), Shimmer Lights has long been my favorite tool for toning hair white. This hair care line is cheap and I’ve been told my head smells amazing. It is also strong. I use the Shimmer Lights shampoo and a different conditioner, but I would recommend alternating the purple shampoo with a non-toning one: otherwise, your hair can start to become dull and grey. It takes a little while to find your perfect balance, but a silver moment never hurt anybody!
If there is still considerable brassiness in your hair or you haven’t achieved your desired level of blonde, toner is a great option. Toners help focus the shade of your blonde after bleaching, and can make your hair cooler or warmer depending on the level. I have always used Wella’s Color Charm toner in T18, which takes your hair to the lightest ash blonde. Most toners require a developer to activate, in a 1:2 toner to developer ratio. Since these box toners require a developer and open up the hair cuticle they are somewhat damaging; however, if you use a level 10 developer and only tone every couple months (the average lifespan of toner efficacy), the damage should be minimal.
Protect
Bleached white hair is very fragile, so it is important to make sure you are supporting the health and consequently longevity of your strands. Opting for natural or heat-free styles is safest, but if you do use hot styling tools make sure to apply a heat protectant first. It’s a 10 is a classic, and boasts a wide array of effects such as detangling, smoothing, and conditioning alongside offering thermal protection.
Conditioning is absolutely necessary because bleach can make hair dry and brittle— i.e., easier to break off. Deep conditioning treatments once a week are a great idea, and you can even use masks that tone your hair at the same time, such as this awesome vegan one from Target.
Although on the pricey end, Olaplex No.3, a home bond-strengthening treatment, can really work wonders for transforming damaged hair. It is also worth asking your hair stylist about the Olaplex system to limit damage when you first go white.
These are the practices that have kept my hair on my head throughout years of bleachings. Snow-white hair can be expensive and requires a lot of maintenance, but it is one of the more unique and striking shades out there!