If you were blond as a child, you have probably noticed that your locks have lost that light, bright hue. Even if you were born with dark hair, you may decide to test the theory that blonds have more fun. Or possibly, your facial hair may be too dark for your comfort level. Regardless of why you wish to bleach your hair, you can make it easier.
All-Over Blond
Use a peroxide that is 20 volume or less when you are going to apply it to the entire scalp for all-over bleaching. Anything higher than this volume coming in direct contact with skin can burn the skin. If you are bleaching hair that is very dark, you can still use 20 volume peroxide, but you might have to use two applications to get the correct result.
If your scalp is sensitive to bleach chemicals, add a package of Sweet & Low to the product before applying it. The Sweet and Low dilutes the burning feeling of the bleach on your scalp, according to Style-Hair-Magazine.com.
Clean hair of all chemicals, including hair care products or swimming pool chlorine from your hair before bleaching. This gives bleach the ability to completely saturate the hair strands.
Applying the bleach to the darkest areas of your hair first and then continuing on with the lighter areas allows the bleach to work longest on the area that needs it. This provides a better chance that all hair will come out the same shade when the process is complete. Dry bleach is dead bleach, according to Style-Hair-Magazine.com, so wrap your head in plastic during processing time. Using a blow dryer all over your covered head will also speed and strengthen the bleaching process.
Maintenance will be needed with all-over bleaching, as the roots tend to be noticed more quickly with this hair style than with other bleaching techniques such as foiling.
Facial Bleaching
When bleaching hair on your face, use a commercially developed product; using household products can cause damage to the skin. Bleaching facial hair lightens it against the skin so that it is less visible. You should test a small area of skin with the product to ensure that you do not have an allergic reaction. Whether you are bleaching hair on your top lip, your chin or elsewhere, be sure you do not have an allergic reaction before applying it to the larger area. If you experience burning, blistering or any other physical symptoms after applying the bleach solution, wash it off immediately, according to permanent-hair-removal-tips.com. If that does not stop the symptoms, seek immediate medical attention. Pre-testing a small area of your skin will confine any allergic reaction to a small place.
If you have dark skin, bleaching will make the hair stand out; therefore, it is not advisable to bleach facial hair if you have naturally dark skin or if you plan to tan.
Foiling Tips
Foiling separates sections of hair and allows you to bleach those sections, leaving clearly defined lines of light hair next to sections of dark hair. You can also use foiling to provide several different shades of bleaching by applying the bleach to different sections at different times and allowing it to sit for varying lengths of time. The overall effect will be beautifully streaked shades of copper, light brown and blond.
Foil should be 5 inches wide, according to Style-magazine.com. If you don’t have foil, plastic wrap can be used in its place. You can achieve streaks of color that are horizontal, diagonal or vertical, depending on what you want to do, simply by separating the hair in that direction as you place the foil on the sections.
Photo Credit
- blonde image by Pavel Vlasov from Fotolia.com
