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Thread: natural hair lightening (products or otherwise)

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    God/dess Pretty_Penny's Avatar
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    Default natural hair lightening (products or otherwise)

    how can i lighten my hair a bit without using anything super harsh or anything that will leak into my head and give me cancer? i use vegetable based brightly colored dyes... but they don't really work without lightening my hair first. in the past i would either bleach it or dye it a lot color, but i'm trying to stay away from harsh dyes or bleach now. also, i have sensitive skin and i'm allergic to a lot of things. so... any tips for doing this naturally or are there any products you know of that are short on the ingredients list and preferably hypoallergenic?

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    God/dess ViolaStrings's Avatar
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    Default Re: natural hair lightening (products or otherwise)

    Be REALLY careful about mixing natural products. I had a friend who did henna, then natural hair lightening, and it literally melted her hair. Something about how the chemicals interacted.

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    Senior Member Apollopink's Avatar
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    Default Re: natural hair lightening (products or otherwise)

    usually lemon + sunlight is what is recommended, but Ive never tried it plus its supposed to only work on virgin hair I think.

    I would advise a clarifying shampoo to take out what you have slowly, and just take tiny tiny baby steps with bleach, doing hella deep conditioning inbetween.

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    Default Re: natural hair lightening (products or otherwise)

    ^im more worried about the chemicals getting into my body, than i am the damage on my hair.

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    Default Re: natural hair lightening (products or otherwise)

    I can defintely answer your question. You're not going to be able to accomplish this with natural products and get an attractive result, but you *can* prevent the chemical products from coming in contact with your scalp.

    Unless your natural hair color is relatively light (like a level 7 or higher), you're not going to be able to lighten it with ANYTHING BESIDES BLEACH without getting a certain level of brassy/orange tones. If you use lemon juice, you're going to turn orange unless, like I said, your natural hair color is already pretty light. And even then, you'll probably still be a little brassy.

    I would suggest this: get some Ultra Blue bleach powder (I think it's made by Clairol or Revlon), and get some cream developer. Get this stuff at the beauty supply store, NOT the grocery store! For the best results, you'll want to buy the developer in different strengths: 20, 30, and 40 volume.

    Now, go home and try the 20 volume first. Put a spoonful of it in a bowl, and add the bleach powder. Don't pay any attention to the instructions on the bleach powder packet, just add enough powder so that the mixture is REALLY thick. You don't want it to be runny. Then, you're going to do a strand test on your hair. Using a piece of amuminum foil to prevent the bleach from getting on your scalp, put the bleach on your hair and wrap it up in the foil. After 50 minutes or so, wash it out. Your hair should be a very pale blonde. If you see orange tones, then do another strand test with the 30 volume developer. If you still pull orange tones with the 30 volume, then you'll have to use the 40 volume.

    You want to use the lowest volume developer that you can get away with, because the lower the volume, the less damage will be done to your hair.

    Even with the 20 volume developer, the bleach powder is still damaging, so what you want to do BEFORE bleaching your hair at all is to give it a protein treatment. There's some stuff called Neutral Protein Filler. Just ask for it at the beauty supply store. It will prevent damage. It's great stuff.

    Once you've figured out what volume peroxide you're going to use, and AFTER YOUR PROTEIN TREATMENT, do your foil highlights on your whole head. If you use the foils instead of just glopping the bleach all over your head, then you'll be able to prevent it from coming in contact with your scalp. Remember, though, mix it really thick, with a lot of powder. If it's runny, it could seep out of the foil and onto your scalp. Not only will your skin be subjected to chemicals, but your hair will look really bad if you have any leakage.

    So do your foils, wait 50 minutes, then wash your hair out. If you like the platinum blonde highlights, then just do another protein treatment after that, and you're all done and you won't have any breakage.

    If the platinum blonde highlights are too light for you, here's what you want to do: go to the beauty supply store and buy a permanent hair color. A level 6-9 would be best. Anything lower than 6 will be too dark and defeat the purpose of doing highlights, and anything higher than a 9 won't impart any color to your hair at all. MAKE SURE thatthe color you buy has a NEUTRAL or SMOKEY base. Don't buy an ash base, or you'll have greenish hair. Don't buy a golden base, or else you'll have brassy highlights. There's a brand named Satin, and I like to use their 7N color. It's beautiful.

    So go home again, put the hair color in a bowl, and put TWICE the amount of peroxide as hair color. So I'd say you'd need 1 ounce of hair color and 2 ounces of peroxide. You should use LEVEL 10 peroxide for this. If you can't find level 10 at the store, buy level 20 and mix it with 50% water, and that will make it level 10. Don't use level 5, because that's not going to make the bleached-out hair absorb enough of the color! Don't listen to the girl at the store if she tells you anything different than that! So use level 10 peroxide, in a 2:1 mixing ratio with the dye.

    Now this stuff, you are going to have to get it on your scalp. There's no way around that. But it will only be on your head for about 2 minutes. So put it all over your hair. The bleached out hair, because it's very porous, will quickly absorb the color, so watch it very closely. Any strands of your natural hair color that remain will not be lightened by this mixture because you'll only have it on your head for a very short period of time. So don't worry about your natural hair color being affected or turning brassy.

    So put it on your hair, and watch it. move your hair around, and watch the bleached out hair get darker. Once it's the color you want it to be, get in the shower and wash it out immediately.

    After that, one more protein treatment to seal the color into your porous bleached out hair, and you're all done! And all those protein treatments will make your hair healthy and prevent it from breaking.

    Use shampoo and conditioner that's sulfite free if you want your color to last. There's a brand named "Enjoy" that's really great.

    When you're all done, your highlights will be, let's say, a level 8, but they won't be brassy. IF you were to try to bleach your hair out to a level 8 without any bleach powder, in a one step process, then you would get unwanted orange tones. But by first bleaching it very light and then dyeing it, you will not have any orange tones if you use a color with a neutral base.

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    Veteran Member justtobenaked's Avatar
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    Default Re: natural hair lightening (products or otherwise)

    Quote Originally Posted by Pussycatpink View Post
    I can defintely answer your question. You're not going to be able to accomplish this with natural products and get an attractive result, but you *can* prevent the chemical products from coming in contact with your scalp.

    Unless your natural hair color is relatively light (like a level 7 or higher), you're not going to be able to lighten it with ANYTHING BESIDES BLEACH without getting a certain level of brassy/orange tones. If you use lemon juice, you're going to turn orange unless, like I said, your natural hair color is already pretty light. And even then, you'll probably still be a little brassy.

    I would suggest this: get some Ultra Blue bleach powder (I think it's made by Clairol or Revlon), and get some cream developer. Get this stuff at the beauty supply store, NOT the grocery store! For the best results, you'll want to buy the developer in different strengths: 20, 30, and 40 volume.

    Now, go home and try the 20 volume first. Put a spoonful of it in a bowl, and add the bleach powder. Don't pay any attention to the instructions on the bleach powder packet, just add enough powder so that the mixture is REALLY thick. You don't want it to be runny. Then, you're going to do a strand test on your hair. Using a piece of amuminum foil to prevent the bleach from getting on your scalp, put the bleach on your hair and wrap it up in the foil. After 50 minutes or so, wash it out. Your hair should be a very pale blonde. If you see orange tones, then do another strand test with the 30 volume developer. If you still pull orange tones with the 30 volume, then you'll have to use the 40 volume.

    You want to use the lowest volume developer that you can get away with, because the lower the volume, the less damage will be done to your hair.

    Even with the 20 volume developer, the bleach powder is still damaging, so what you want to do BEFORE bleaching your hair at all is to give it a protein treatment. There's some stuff called Neutral Protein Filler. Just ask for it at the beauty supply store. It will prevent damage. It's great stuff.

    Once you've figured out what volume peroxide you're going to use, and AFTER YOUR PROTEIN TREATMENT, do your foil highlights on your whole head. If you use the foils instead of just glopping the bleach all over your head, then you'll be able to prevent it from coming in contact with your scalp. Remember, though, mix it really thick, with a lot of powder. If it's runny, it could seep out of the foil and onto your scalp. Not only will your skin be subjected to chemicals, but your hair will look really bad if you have any leakage.

    So do your foils, wait 50 minutes, then wash your hair out. If you like the platinum blonde highlights, then just do another protein treatment after that, and you're all done and you won't have any breakage.

    If the platinum blonde highlights are too light for you, here's what you want to do: go to the beauty supply store and buy a permanent hair color. A level 6-9 would be best. Anything lower than 6 will be too dark and defeat the purpose of doing highlights, and anything higher than a 9 won't impart any color to your hair at all. MAKE SURE thatthe color you buy has a NEUTRAL or SMOKEY base. Don't buy an ash base, or you'll have greenish hair. Don't buy a golden base, or else you'll have brassy highlights. There's a brand named Satin, and I like to use their 7N color. It's beautiful.

    So go home again, put the hair color in a bowl, and put TWICE the amount of peroxide as hair color. So I'd say you'd need 1 ounce of hair color and 2 ounces of peroxide. You should use LEVEL 10 peroxide for this. If you can't find level 10 at the store, buy level 20 and mix it with 50% water, and that will make it level 10. Don't use level 5, because that's not going to make the bleached-out hair absorb enough of the color! Don't listen to the girl at the store if she tells you anything different than that! So use level 10 peroxide, in a 2:1 mixing ratio with the dye.

    Now this stuff, you are going to have to get it on your scalp. There's no way around that. But it will only be on your head for about 2 minutes. So put it all over your hair. The bleached out hair, because it's very porous, will quickly absorb the color, so watch it very closely. Any strands of your natural hair color that remain will not be lightened by this mixture because you'll only have it on your head for a very short period of time. So don't worry about your natural hair color being affected or turning brassy.

    So put it on your hair, and watch it. move your hair around, and watch the bleached out hair get darker. Once it's the color you want it to be, get in the shower and wash it out immediately.

    After that, one more protein treatment to seal the color into your porous bleached out hair, and you're all done! And all those protein treatments will make your hair healthy and prevent it from breaking.

    Use shampoo and conditioner that's sulfite free if you want your color to last. There's a brand named "Enjoy" that's really great.

    When you're all done, your highlights will be, let's say, a level 8, but they won't be brassy. IF you were to try to bleach your hair out to a level 8 without any bleach powder, in a one step process, then you would get unwanted orange tones. But by first bleaching it very light and then dyeing it, you will not have any orange tones if you use a color with a neutral base.

    Wow...that is a whole lot of info to take in...

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    Default Re: natural hair lightening (products or otherwise)

    just a bit?

    i use first aid quality hydrogen peroxide. it takes, like 2 applications to even notice it. don't reapply it while the hair is still wet. 3.5 inches or so from the scalp, about an inch long, my hair is fried from this one time i practically soaked my hair in the stuff. can't wait til it grows out and starts breaking like a mofo. the weird thing is no matter how much i use it, it doesn't make my hair any lighter than the sunbleached blonde i had as a kid.

    for your purposes, i'm guessing it would do a good job. and if it doesn't, well, it won't do any harm either.

    i use cottonballs to apply it, pressed to the upperside of a comb if i'm going down the length of the hair instead of just touching up the roots (i really like this for roots, makes them look really natural and subtle)

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