LHURVE DAVIES

Everyone who knows me knows this; I’ve always had a thing for coloured hair. My old Insta profile was a splash of colours from purple to grey and blue and so on.

Your Favourite Rainbow

So when I decided to go natural permanently in September, 2017, I knew adding colour was a must.

I did my research and learned that the secret behind every good hair dye was first bleaching the hair then applying the dye after. Imagine trying to dye a black top purple. Wouldn't come out great, would it? What you would get was a black top with a purplish tint, if you’re lucky. Now imagine dyeing a white top purple and boom! You get the analogy. Armed with this knowledge, I booked an appointment at a random hair salon within close proximity to my house and explained that I wanted to have my hair bleached to an almost white shade - platinum blonde. I figured that the lighter my hair was, the more the purple dye I was going to apply later would pop.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take into consideration the process that would go into getting that almost white shade. Guys, hair bleach was applied to my hair four times. Four. Times. By the fourth time it still wasn’t exactly platinum blonde but I was done. My hair felt absolutely lifeless and limp. I also lost most of the coil pattern in the bleached area. Every time I ran my fingers through my hair the bleached part would tear apart. Definitely not worth it. I didn’t even bother trying to dye it afterwards because I felt adding even more chemicals would ruin what was left of my hair but it turns out that the damage had already been done. Between then and now, I’ve lost most of all the bleached hair. That's about 6 inches of hair gone with the wind.

This is from last year. Notice how the top of my hair was a very light shade (with practically no coil pattern) and now it’s a dark golden colour.

Well, here’s the thing. In the end, hair is just hair. It’ll grow back. I’m not particularly interested in length because I always have the same hairstyle anyway and if anything, I’m okay with the length of my hair as is. This write up isn’t meant to discourage anyone from bleaching their hair or anything. If that’s what you want to do, go for it. Plus it’s possible if my bleach job has been done right; I wouldn’t have lost so many inches.

Here's some advice though:

#1 Don't bleach your hair four times in one day, this is just common sense.

#2 Get your hair done at a reputable salon and be prepared to spend a lot of coins but it'll be worth it instead of picking the closest salon like I did.

#3 DO NOT use hot styling tools like a blow dryer immediately after bleaching your hair, you might want to give it a week at least.