First, I want to thank everyone for the lovely birthday wishes in my last post. Every message made my day just that much better, truly.
Over the past week or so, I’ve gotten a deluge of messages about my process of going from bright red to platinum blonde hair, and so I thought I’d type up a tutorial to help out those of you interested. Let me preface this by saying that I am not a hair professional, nor will my process necessarily work for you. I have naturally blonde hair, so if your hair is darker, you may need to adjust this process.
Furthermore, going blonde involves bleaching your hair, which is a highly damaging and risky procedure – but it is the only way to go from significantly darker to lighter hair. Please research hair bleaching online before deciding to try this at home. The only reason I am posting this tutorial is because it has been requested so many times; however, I only do so with hesitance because you can seriously mess up your hair! Please keep in mind that bleaching your own hair may end up costing you more money than a professional dye job if you have to fix it several times. For the best results, do NOT rush this process over night, and do plenty of research online first – and ONLY do this if your hair is in a very healthy condition.
Also, please see the standard hair level chart to determine what your current level is, and what level of blonde you are trying to achieve. I went from about a level 5 to a level 10 over the course of a couple of weeks.
Step 1: Remove any dye in your hair first.
Required tools: One ‘n Only Colorfix, Jhirmack’s Silver Shampoo
For this process, I used a bleach-free product called “One ‘n Only Colorfix” from Sally’s. This particular product removes hair dye by shrinking the dye molecules, so it leaves your hair in the same condition. I hadn’t redyed my hair in a few months, so I only had to do two cycles of this to wash out the red almost completely. One box was enough for both cycles, and I have really long and thick hair; however, if your hair has been recently colored, or is a very dark color, you may need to do more than two cycles.
Washing out the dye in your hair will minimize undesirable orange/yellow/or green tones when you bleach it, so I highly recommend taking this step if you have any artificial coloring in your hair. When you rinse it out, it may also help to use a silver (also known as a purple) shampoo, such as Jhrimack’s, which can be purchased at Walgreen’s for $5. This shampoo is violet-tinted, so it will help minimize yellow and orange tones also.
Step 2: Bleach your hair.
Required tools: L’Oreal “Quick Blue” powder bleach, 30 volume CREME developer (or 20, depending), duckbill hair clips, and processing caps
This is the most frightening step, and understandably so. Bleaching can not only discolor your hair, but it also damages hair severely. Even a veteran self-hair-dyer like myself was nervous for weeks before I took the plunge and bleached it. Damage done to your hair via bleaching is irreparable, so please do plenty of research prior to attempting this on your own.
I highly recommend taking the utmost care of your hair prior to bleaching in order to avoid serious breakage and dryness. Some helpful tips that were passed along to me are:
- Shampoo your hair as infrequently as possible. This is not as gross as it sounds – you can still shower, just avoid using shampoo except every 3 or so days, and condition the ends rather than the roots. This will allow your hair to retain its natural oils, which will prevent dryness when you bleach it. TRUST ME on this one.
- When you do condition your hair, put it in a shower cap and let it sit for 10-15 minutes before rinsing it. The shower cap will lock in the moisture.
- Trim your ends regularly. Split ends cannot be reversed, but trimming your hair will prevent the splits from traveling up the shaft of your hair. I usually just trim my own ends, but some of you may be more comfortable having a pro do it!
Before bleaching your hair, watch MonetMakeup’s hair bleaching tutorial on Youtube. She offers some invaluable advice when bleaching, and her process worked great for me. I won’t list out the process here because she seriously covers EVERYTHING.
You don’t have to buy L’Oreal’s Quick Blue bleach specifically, but any blue bleach will give you a better tone than a white one if you are coming from red or orange-tinted hair. Also, when purchasing your developer, it might be helpful to ask a sales assistant for advice. I used a volume 30 developer, but I only needed to bleach my hair once. Depending on the level of your natural hair, you may need to do a few bleach cycles, in which case you should probably use a level 20 developer to minimize damage. And as painful as it sounds, if you DO need to do more than one bleach cycle to achieve your desired color, wait at least a few days between each cycle to bleach your hair.
Step 3: Tone your hair
Required tools: Wella Color Charm toner, 20 volume developer
Almost always, you will need to tone your hair after bleaching it in order to rid your hair of unwanted orange and yellow tones (an almost unavoidable product of bleaching). Toner uses a base color, such as violet or blue, to neutralize your hair color. Toning your hair will not lighten it, but it will improve your hair’s luster and color.
The base color that you will need will depend on what your hair color is after bleaching it. In order to determine which base color you need, determine what your hair color is after bleaching, and select the opposite color (for those who aren’t art majors, here is a color chart). I used Wella’s “White Lady” (T18), which is a violet toner, and it gave me more of a platinum-white shade of blonde. In my photos my hair looks quite golden, but it is much more neutral and lighter in person.
Mix this toner with a 20 volume developer, and apply to your head. Let it sit under another processing cap in order to maximize its potency for the amount time listed in the directions.
Depending on your resulting color after toning, you may need to buy a blonde dye to tweak your color even more. I used one tube of “Lightest Ash Blonde” by Ion that I purchased from Sally’s, which I used with a level 30 developer. This made my hair slightly lighter and slightly more neutral in tone.
The finished product:
As you can see, the bottom layers are much more orange than the top – that’s because I ran out of toner halfway through and had only toned the top half. I plan on finishing the job later, once I give my lungs a break from inhaling too many chemicals. As you can see, the toner really helps to neutralize the color.
P.S. I want to thank Angelina and Sydney for the invaluable advice they gave me. Please do not bombard them with hair questions (as that is not the purpose of their tumblrs), but DO check out their blogs.
P.P.S. If you are ballsy enough to risk this tutorial, please let me know what your results were. I am curious to see how successful this method is for others!
June 28, 2011 at 2:09 pm
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Hello, how are you? I should dye my hair with henna? I always like to follow their advice regarding the care of hair. I want to go from brown to red. I have much fear of making a bleached my hair.
June 28, 2011 at 6:21 pm
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Thanks for posting this!
As recent as today I took the plunge and bleached my hair (after quite a bit of think, of course) to lighten the brown I have and take it to a lighter medium brown.
Your tip about a toner here is great and one I didn’t know about, so thank you :)
June 28, 2011 at 6:57 pm
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Thank you so much for posting this! My hair was naturally blond growing up. Then it turned brown on it’s own and I’ve been coloring it red for years. When I colored my hair a couple months ago, I went back to a brown a shade or two lighter than my natural color, but my husband has been saying he’d like to see the blond again. This is perfect timing!
I have a friend that does my hair for me (she works at a salon), and she said she will only do blond highlights because it’s such a drastic and dangerous change. However, if after the highlights I still want to go all blond, I’m totally going to try your tips so thanks for this post!
June 29, 2011 at 12:24 am
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Will definitely try this next time I feel like going blonde. Last time I went blonde I listened to some ill-advice and I turned out hating it!
You look absolutely stunning though. :)
July 1, 2011 at 6:17 pm
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Thank you, first and foremost, for putting that disclaimer up. Too many Internet users get excited about wanting to transform their hair colour after seeing a couple before and after pictures, or a four-minute YouTube tutorial, and impulsively make the decision to do it without a lot of thought. They don’t realize the amount of care and time that goes into a proper dye job.
Anyway, it looks beautiful :)
July 5, 2011 at 1:49 pm
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This is a really good tutorial! I agree completely with the point about not shampooing your hair often, and recommend keeping this habit after bleaching too. It’s not dirty, and over-washing sometimes leads to extra grease production anyway, so why not!
July 17, 2011 at 2:09 pm
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Why did you dye that beautiful red hair? You look pretty as a blonde too, but I think you looked better the other way
August 5, 2011 at 6:10 pm
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this helps me out a lot! thanks
August 7, 2011 at 1:17 pm
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Hi! I have been wanting to go from my dark red/brown hair to a dirty blonde/light brown for a long time now… But recently got it dyed again in June. Is it too early for me to strip my hair and try to go blonde after only 2 months since my last dye? Thanks so much!
August 23, 2011 at 9:55 pm
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You have beautiful hair! Mine is naturally red and pretty fine. I wish I could go back and forth without it drying out and preventing future growth!
September 20, 2011 at 10:48 pm
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So I stumbled upon your website and was captured by the beautiful picture of your red hair. As I delved a little further I found this tutorial. I am a hair stylist with over 4 years of experience, and I have to say you did a nice job on your hair. It’s seriously challenging to go from red to platinum, so im quite impressed. I also wanted to let you know that anytime you use a “toner” aka demi-permanent color you should be using 10 or even 5 volume developer. When you use 20 volume you blast open the cuticle again, and it provides less deposit. You may need to watch the color though, because it will deposit more color and probably develop faster. However, you will definitely notice that the toner will last longer, as your cuticle will close up much more. It’s also a good idea not to wash your hair for about 48 hours after toning so the cuticle has even more time to close up. Hope this helps, I look forward to your next hair tutorial.
November 4, 2011 at 11:15 pm
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Thank you so much for this! I usually keep my hair a dark red brown, but recently my roots have been growing out very light and I could no longer go six months without coloring my hair. I really liked the one n only colorfix and my hair is now the sameish as your before picture, which is more red than my natural color, but I’m going to let my stylist finish the job. But this definitely saved me quite a bit of money. So again Thank YOu
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November 18, 2011 at 10:51 am
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This is great!
I am going to attempt the same thing- however, I used a demi-permanent red/brown in a 6, so do you think the Color Fix will take that out?
If it does, I don’t think I will even need bleach as I was blonde before this from highlights- plus I am only going from a level 6 to a level 8 for now.
November 30, 2011 at 4:35 pm
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i really wish i had seen this earlier this year.
i went to a salon to go from red to blonde and they messed it all up. bleached it wrong died it wrong. tons of my hair fell out and broke off. my hair was to my waist and after it was just under my shoulders . =( this could have saved me so much hassle.
January 21, 2012 at 10:49 am
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Lord you were so much pretter before. Now you look like every other barbie doll. Congratulations. Im so sick
Of redheads dying their hair
February 23, 2012 at 1:06 am
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We do not “dye” hair, we COLOR it. Get it right or don’t post a tutorial about something obviously not in your field.
February 23, 2012 at 2:03 am
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Maybe YOU color hair, but as we can both agree, I’m not a hairstylist so I’m perfectly fine with foregoing the euphemisms and dyeing mine. If semantics isn’t your field perhaps you shouldn’t venture into it.
Unless you have something more useful to say, I will dismiss this comment either as a) an angry person on the internet just trying to get their word in or b) a hairstylist who is irrationally scared that (self-proclaimed!) amateur internet tutorials will make their job irrelevant
March 9, 2012 at 5:25 pm
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If you have red hair and you dye/color it will it grow back red??
March 18, 2012 at 4:48 pm
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Thank you so much! I’ve has this page up for over two weeks consistently as I thought about and finally dived into this project. I had some friends help me with the bleaching process but it worked perfectly! I naturally have light brown hair which I’ve been dying red for the past 6 years. I was trying to get to blonde and it came out perfectly :)
April 13, 2012 at 10:43 am
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This looks amazing! Your red hair is the same color as mine is now & I can’t wait to try this method to go back to blond! Your hair is beyond gorgeous & the perfect shade of blond.
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