Bleaching & Why I’ve Decided to Stop

First, let me make it absolutely clear: If you decide to bleach your hair, your hair needs will change. This however, does not mean you can not have healthy, strong hair. I’ve been bleaching since 2011 into 2012 and ever since. I bleached while transitioning and was still able to get long healthy hair. I bleached after I did a BC with the same results. So long as you lighten your hair gradually and avoid trying to get the color shown in my picture in one setting your hair will be fine. In fact I’ve often told girls with permed hair (when asked about my hair color) that I feel it’s too risky to bleach permed hair. Even if you buy a box of hair color, know that if it’s lighter than you hair it has some kind of bleaching element in it. Bleach literally strips your hair of color, in the case of box hair color they give you a color to then deposit into and onto your strands. Box hair color (when going lighter) is dangerous because they give you a shampoo, conditioner and leave in that coats your strands with product that doesn’t allow you to see and feel what your hair texture is post bleach (i don’t mean texture as in curl pattern or coarseness, but simply the way it feels). If you bleach your hair will feel different because it has been stripped. Silicons and the like alter how your hair really feels which can lead you to think your hair is soft and moisturized when it’s not (you’ll end up not giving your hair what it needs to cope with being stripped). I use Clairol Kaleidocolors blue powder pack (toner included so I can skip that step) and Clairol Professional Soy 4Plex pure white, deep conditioning developer in 30 (extra lift). I just use a PH blancing shampoo to wash it out following with a homemade deep conditioner that I leave on over night. I haven’t experienced any more breakage or split ends (both minimal) than normal. However, the moisture my hair needs has gone up DRAMATICALLY. It’s like a part time job making sure my hair is moisturized properly! Whether I “style” my hair or not everyday I have to use water, oils, and creams to keep my hair moisturized and to prevent drying which will lead to breakage. In my Find A Knot Cut A Knot blog you can see the difference in my bleached hair and my roots so a great deal of stripping goes into achieving the color in this picture. All in all my hair is happy and healthy so why have I decided to stop? BECAUSE IM TIRED YALL!! It takes so much effort to keep it healthy it’s not funny! I know that if I stop bleaching I’ll still have the rest of my hair to worry about but through the months and years to come trimming will alleviate me of that. For the time being even if I quit bleaching I’ll just have to keep up the effort for the rest of my bleached hair. I wont say the initial bleaching was a waste of time because I love the color I’ve achieved through bleaching. I almost feel like somewhere down the line I’ll get bored and want change and end up bleaching my hair again. As long as my hair is healthy I’LL BLEACH IF I WANNA! As of right now I’m kinda over it…As always I say it the way I think it! BL signing off