Bleach Wash - How To - Safely Lighten Dark Hair at Home

So...you have naturally dark hair and you want to wear fantasy hair colors like blue or purple but you don't want to ruin your hair in the process? I'm here to help. First up, big disclaimer, I am not a hair stylist or cosmetologist or have any type of professional training in regards to hair color and hair care. I am simply a stay at home mom with an art degree who loves to color her hair in bright and bold crazy colors. I've been doing this for years (with a few breaks in between) and I ruined my hair about 10 years ago when I over did it with the chemical processes so I'm here to help you not do that.

This is an older pic of me with my natural hair color back in 2015. As you can see I have very dark brown, almost black hair. I wouldn't call it fully black because it tends to have lighter reddish gold highlights in the areas where the sun hits it and it doesn't look jet black in the sunlight.

When I originally dyed my hair it was supposed to be purple and teal but I didn't lighten my natural color enough for the purple to show up. It faded really fast and just looked like a burnt red, which is why I just kept the teal instead. I did a little research and came to the conclusion I would have to be as pale yellow blonde as I could be in order for purple to show up vibrantly. But how to bleach it again without damaging my hair? At this point, I had already bleached it a few times in order to maintain the teal blue. (Check out my Overtone or Arctic Fox reviews to see what that looked like.)

Bleach wash to the rescue! What's a bleach wash? Well, it's quite simple. It's a method of diluting the bleach mixture with clarifying shampoo so it's less harsh. I use a 2:2:1 ratio. 2 parts developer and shampoo to 1 part bleach powder. Mix it up and apply. Wash off in about 30 minutes.  Previously I used a 40 volume developer, but since I didn't want to ruin my hair this time I went with the milder 20 volume and bleached my hair over the course of a week.

1st pic is what my hair looked liked after a few weeks of using a clarifying shampoo to strip as much dye as I could from my hair. This is why I had switched to using Arctic Fox Hair Color (you can read about that here). 2nd pic is the result after about 30 minutes. I then spent a few days deep conditioning my hair. The purple you see in the pic is a strand test which confirmed that I would need to bleach it further.

About 4 days after the 1st wash, I repeated the process. And ta da! Super pale blonde perfect for any type of fantasy hair color I wanted. If I had wanted to stay blonde, I would have had to follow with a toner or permanent blonde hair color to neutralize the blue and purple from the test as well as the slightly brassy tone still left in my roots. But, as it was, it was the perfect base for my next purple and blue unicorn hair color and my hair was still soft and healthy. Do keep in mind that you have to deep condition your hair in between the bleach washes, otherwise your hair will be dried out and more prone to breakage. Next time, I'll show you how I did the hair color in my profile pic (purple/blue).

Arctic Fox Hair Color - Review

Today I have another fantasy hair color post! I tired out Arctic Fox Hair Color in Aquamarine, Poseidon, and Transylvania, was it worth the hype? Read on to find out! This really will be a short and simple review as the process was pretty straight forward for me, I didn't take that many pictures. I actually did this way back in March but I didn't get the chance to post it until now. My hair is actually a different color now.

So if you have been following me on Instagram you might remember that I've had teal hair for a while, almost a year. My natural hair color is very dark brown, almost black even, so I do have to pre-lighten my hair with bleach prior to applying the fantasy hair color. I will cover that process better in an upcoming post. I had been using Ion Color Brilliance Bright Semi Permanent Hair Color in Sky Blue and Aqua. They did work great and the color lasts a long time without having to touch it up with the Overtone conditioners, however, they permanently stained my hair blue. No matter how much I lightened it, I still had a greenish-blue tint to it. I already knew I wanted to add some purple and reds to my hair eventually and it wasn't going to work with stained blue hair. So I went ahead and decided to try out Arctic Fox hair color mainly because both of their blues have a different blue pigment than the Ion does (Blue 15), which is the stainer.

I purchased Aquamarine and Poseidon in the 8 oz size, and Transylvania in the 4 oz size. I mixed equal parts of Aquamarine and Poseidon in a mixing bowl, and then in a separate bowl a small amount of Transylvania and Poseidon for my roots.

Blurry cell phone shots but you can see that I had pre-lightened my roots prior to applying the hair color. I also used a clarifying shampoo for a few days prior in order to fade and strip as much as the Ion dye as possible.

I applied the Artic Fox Hair Color and left it on for about 2 hours. Rinsed it off and styled.

Check out the 1st pic in the post for the other "after" shot. My final thoughts? The result was definitely much brighter and intense than the Ion colors. I did have to touch it up with the dye about 3 weeks in, and I continued to use the Overtone conditioners to maintain the color in between touch ups. I probably wouldn't buy the 8 oz bottles again, unless you have super thick or long hair. I still have plenty of hair dye left and I've used a lot of it since this post. I still have enough for at least 6 more months of coloring my hair, or maybe even more. Currently I'm not even coloring it as often cause I'm at home all day and rarely go out. The hair dye has a nice smell to it, an Amazon review said it smells like grape Kool-Aid and I would say that's pretty close. It does leave your hair very soft and moisturized as the dye contains conditioners. It's vegan and cruelty free, although it does contain soy protein, which is something to keep in mind if you or anyone in your family is allergic. It does seem to be gluten free though, which is why I'm guessing they went with the soy instead of wheat...I think it's a strengthening and moisturizing ingredient. I don't know much about the chemical composition of hair color, since I'm not a chemist, but I do know that wheat or soy proteins are used in nail polish strengthening base coats.

Anyway, I purchased my bottles at http://www.artictfoxhaircolor.com. I was not compensated in any way for this review. Let me know your thoughts, have you used Arctic Fox Hair Color before? Did you like? Hate it? Did it work for you or fade super fast?