Over the past few months, I have learned a lot about how to bleach and tone hair and wanted to share what I’ve learned here. Hope these tips help you while you await the chance to sit in your hairstylist’s chair. I am not a hair professional and recommend consulting your salon prior to trying anything on your own. And if you do proceed, test a few strands of hair before applying bleach and/or toner broadly.
What We’ll Discuss Below:
- What you’ll need: Bleach, developer, toner, and some tools
- Don’t apply bleach to your roots or already bleached hair
- The levels of bleach: 10 volume won’t lift, 20 volume is good, 30 volume is OK, 40 volume is a no
- Foil helps speed up the process
- Toner is key
- Purple shampoo will help
- Less is more
What You’ll Need
The first thing to do is to purchase the products you’ll need. For bleaching: When bleaching hair, you will need a high quality bleach and developer. I used Schwarzkopf BlondeMe bleach and developer in both 20 volume and 30 volume.
For toning: Toning hair also requires developer and toner.
Tools: You will also need a good applicator brush (I like Framar), a mixing bowl, and potentially some foil. You can use your own foil, or buy it already pre-cut from Amazon.
The bleach you use should be very high quality, gentle, and applied with a light hand. This is very important. Light strokes are key: Do not over-apply the bleach and make sure to lightly place it on each section. This will help give it a more natural look, allow the hair color to have dimension, and ensure it doesn’t look like a patch of color! Also be sure not to apply it to every stand. Two reasons for this: 1) it will lack dimension and 2) if it looks bad, you’re in big trouble.
Avoid the roots at all cost. The reason for this is that not only is it bad to apply directly to your scalp, but the heat from your head will affect that area the most, making the color change a lot faster. One thing that’s advised is to apply the bleach to oily and dirtier hair. The oil will actually protect your scalp and help to avoid skin damage.
20 Volume: What Does It Mean?
10 volume will deposit color. It won’t lift it. 10 volume is what you’d used to apply a dark color, not to lighten hair.
20 volume will lighten hair, but will take more time to develop than 30 volume. 30 volume is stronger and harsher, but will develop faster and lift darker hair more effectively. Avoid anything over 30 volume, as those are much harsher and will cause damage! Depending on how dark your hair is and how processed it it, you can decide if 20 or 30 is right for you. The darker your hair, the harder it will (likely) be to lift it, so it’s more likely that 30 volume will be needed. A caveat to this would be if you have hair that was bleached before, then dyed darker, and now you’re trying to lift it again. Given that it has been processed before, it may take well with 20 volume. If you’re unsure, you can also create 25 volume by mixing equal parts of 20 and 30.
Why Do Hair Stylists Hate Box Dye?
The reason that box dyes are always frowned upon by professionals is because the volume used in the box dye developer amount is not going to be tailored to your hair. It’s comparable to buying a pair of jeans that are a random size, and may or may not work for you. When the developer volume is off, the color will be off, and the result will be damaged and overly-processed hair. At a salon, they will take into account everything that your hair currently is to get the desired outcome (your natural color, grays, previous colors and damage, length, your skintone) to create a customized color shade. A box simply won’t suffice.
What Does Foil Do For Hair?
Coving the bleach in foil will help accelerate the chemical process. This is because the foil will trap the heat that is given off during the chemical reaction of bleaching, and the heat will cause the hair shaft to open up faster, strip away the current pigment and uptake the bleach. The striping away of pigment is what makes it lift to lighter shades. Anything that creates heat will do this. That’s why you often sit under heat at a salon. Also note that the hairs nearest the head are more affected by your body heat. Keep this in mind when applying bleach closer to the roots vs. the ends. If an area has already been bleached before, do not apply more bleach to it. This can cause it to break off: Major damage and it’s not worth it!
Toner: What To Do After Bleaching Your Hair
If the bleach has left your brown hair orange, don’t be alarmed. The next step is toner. Bleach and toner are the components of the two step process: bleach to lift, toner to tone to the desired shade. Both bleach and toner require developer to work. Make sure your hair is wet when applying toner.
Why toning is important: When the hair is bleached, it will lighten to a yellow/orange shade, and have warmth in it. To achieve a “blonde” color, you will need to tone it and neutralize the current shade and achieve the desired color. Using a color wheel, you can see how the complimentary color to orange is indigo. That’s why purple shampoo is used to remove the yellowness from blonde hair.
You can mix two shades of toners (like sand blonde and ice blonde) to achieve the right color, but I’d recommend doing some research and only combining two from the same brand. As with all of the above, I would recommend testing this on a small strand prior to applying it to all of your hair at once.
Purple Shampoo
After you’ve finished the double process of bleach and toner, you can use purple shampoo to help maintain your color. While purple shampoo won’t drastically change it, it will help to deposit the purple shade to keep it more neutralized and less yellow. Here are a few that come highly recommended.
The Key To Avoiding Damage
Start with a “less is more” approach. Take your time and don’t overdo anything. After all, you are applying chemicals to your hair. If you start slow and find that the results are not lifting to what you’d expect, you can always add more.
I would recommend waiting a few days to avoid overdamaging and overprocessing your hair. Just take it slow to mitigate the risk of damage — and the need to cut off a lot of hair! To avoid split ends and hair breakage, you may want to purchase some bond building products. Many recommend the Olaplex line. They sell 7 products that can be used in that order. If you only buy one of them, I’d recommend Olaplex Hair Perfector No 3 Repairing Treatment. All of their products are great. I love their conditioner and their bond repair as well. I hope you found this informative. As stated, I am not a professional and recommend you check with your stylist prior to starting this, but once you’re ready, tag me on Instagram so I can see your results.