How I Bleached My Hair for the "Crazy Colours"

This is my natural hair colour I had never dye'd my hair when this picture was taken

This was my hair after two years of slowly adding highlights

My Natural Hair

I have very dark brown, thick super fine hair. 

The Process

When I decided to dye my hair pink, my hair was a honey blonde with lighter highlights. I had slowly gone blonde over the course of a couple years, before I decided to dye my hair pink. I had added more and more highlights each time I went so that my hair is still super strong and healthy. 

My biggest concern with bleaching my hair has always been over processing, for me heaving healthy hair has always taken precedent over the "fashion". Because of this I do use a hairdresser when bleaching large portions of my hair. For me the money is worth the bleaching, toner, conditioner process if you are looking to save some money you can always ask for a trainee hairstylist they are about half the price of a regular stylist. 

Why I Don't Home Bleach 

Trying to bleach your whole head from dark hair to light hair in one go is honestly impossible to do without really damaging your hair. On top of having over-processed hair that is brittle, frizzy and doesn't feel very nice. You are often left with a blonde that is still a few sometimes even many shades darker than the ideal. I have figured out even if it looks "Blonde" enough and evenly toned, you are actually left with a multi toned result. Having this uneven bleaching will lead to really uneven colouring once you put another colour on top. After bleaching your hair you should always use a toner to get rid of that brassy, orange, yellow type colour as well, that colour will often show through your second dye. If not right away then after a few washes. For the sake of keeping my hair healthy I also always deep condition it after bleaching to restore some of the moisture you have removed.

In Short if you are home bleaching you really should do it twice, with at least three days in between I suggest a week

What You Really Need for Complete Home Bleaching/Dying

Its more money that you would have thought

1. Two full sets of bleach
2. A good toner
3. A Deep conditioning kit
4. The hair dye

Perks of a Good Hairdresser

1. You will have even, healthy bleached hair
2. Toner is included
3. Deep condition is included
4. They will put the second colour on for you (you have to check your salon has the colours you want before hand and its a good idea to look up what brand of hair dye they will be using and look at reviews)
5. A professionally done hair style 

UpKeep

When I do my roots for the first times I use the home kits and have my sister or a friend help me. The Second time I touch up my roots i normally do a little cheat and only do the roots right on the top of my head* After that I find the blond starts to get that brassy colour so il let my roots grow out pretty far and then go to my hairdresser again. At this point I seem to want to change my hair colour again anyways so she strips all the colour out of my hair and we start fresh or we could go back to blonde at that point.

* By the roots on the top of my head I mean the ones you see when your hair is down vs doing all of my hair layer by layer, that way it keeps my hairstyle looking fresh when I am going out. With this method however when your hair is up, you still have major roots