When we think of the word 'Bleach' it automatically incites the thought of making anything of a lighter shade. Whether its used to remove the stains from clothing, lighten blemishes on the skin or transition the hair from black to blonde; Bleaching is a chemical process that can surely damage our hair we are still able to achieve desired styles and combat the damaging effects of bleach with treatment.
MY EXPERIENCE
When I just started wearing virgin hair, I was so amused at the thought that I could change the color! Can you imagine? People would never know I was rocking the same old hair for 6 months when I had only transformed it into 6 different styles. I went through the color craze and sadly damaged a lot of the extensions I invested it. That explains why I keep my extensions black for a while and will only change the color if I get bored with the current look or I know I will be purchasing new hair soon. Let me take you through a color journey with my short lived hair extensions before i explain what bleaching really does.
So here lies the memory of my beautiful body wave bundles that were extremely voluminous with exceptional quality. However, I was easily bored with my hair and decided to color it to an Indigo Blue.
I am sure everyone can acknowledge the fact that its best to lighten the hair for the right color to show. So I bleached my extensions with absolutely no treatment to mitigate the damage it may cause. My hair was still soft and bouncy but once again I felt the need to change the color and this decision really ruined the hair to a state that was unwearable.
Now in order to fully remove the blue, it seemed I bleached the hair to the last layer. The strands were basically white and feeble before i applied the new color and even though it does not look that horrible in the photo, it was trash! It shedded like a mangy dog and was trashier than old bread! I colored it black after to conceal the roughness and tried to cut off most of the damage but I don't even have a picture of that failed solution because I simply had to just discard it!
I am being transparent with my experience with bleaching not to scare you from bleaching your extensions but only to inform you of the right way to lighten your hair. When you bleach your hair, the chemical dissolves the natural pigments and expose the underlying yellowish tone (due to the Keratin protein that hair is made of). The strands become swollen as the cuticle opens; this is why the hair will feel rough and the raised cuticles will interlock and cause the hair to tangle. The hair gets dry because the porosity increases ( the ability to absorb moisture); that is why we need to apply more moisture when the hair is bleached. When the hair is extremely porous, its almost impossible to hold curls and the bleach creates split ends that cause the breakage.
TREATMENT
There are many products that can be used to keep the hair hydrated and protect the hair after bleaching however there are preventive products such as OLAPEX that can appease the damage when chemically processing the hair. OLAPEX is used by professionals, however it is a three step system and the third step is an at home treatment that can be used by anyone suffering from chemical damage.
OLAPEX
BOND MULTIPLIER- STEP ONE
Olapex is a bond multiplying agent used to repair the broken hair bonds caused by bleaching versus the conditioners that are only used to mask the damage. The treatment is mixed along with the bleaching powder and developer. Olapex slows the processing power of the developer but allows you to achieve an extremely lighter shade without ruining your hair. Therefore if you normally use a 20 volume developer, you would have to use a 30 volume developer when Olapex is involved.
BOND PERFECTOR- STEP TWO
The second treatment is used after shampooing just to aid in sealing the hair bonds that were broken in the chemical process.
HAIR PERFECTOR- STEP THREE
This is a treatment that can be used at home once a week after your bleaching session. As stated before step three can be used if you went through the bleaching process without using step one and two.
If you are a professional stylist or just a DIY stylist, Olapex is a treatment system you should consider and if you're just a client who has experienced damage from over-bleaching; step 3 can possibly help you battle the effects of bleaching.
Feel free to drop a comment below and share your "Battle the Bleach" experience! Thanks for reading!