Going Blonde at Home: Intro

So Emaya and I went blonde and it really wasn’t that hard *gasp* Yes, I’m saying it, it’s totally do-able to do a home bleach job. 

My friend Emaya and I embarked on this journey completely clueless - looking back we could have definitely refined our process but with time comes wisdom and this bleaching series looks to share the pearls from our blunders. Below I’m going to list what you’ll need to buy, a brief time guide and a little questionnaire to see if you’re ready for a home bleach job :P 

EXPENSES/What You’ll need 

Few pairs of gloves $2 (hair house warehouse)
Plastic dye set (bowl and brush) $3 (cheap store) 
Hi-lift blue blonde Bleach 500grams $18.99 (Priceline) 
Peroxide 40% 1lt $10.99 (Priceline) 
Conditioner/hair restorer - our choice: Evo the great hydrator moisture mask $29.95
Toner 60ml $12.95 (hair house warehouse) 

Total: $77.88 (this was sufficient product to bleach both Emaya and my hair) 
Unfortunately as newbies we did end up spending A LOT more mostly on leave in conditioners and toners that weren’t up to scratch – more on that later! 

Below are things you’ll probably already have lying around but are useful/important! 
Old towels and old clothes + plastic garbage bag (bleaching will wreck clothes!) 
Oil to mask hair and scalp before bleaching (olive oil/coconut) 
Shampoo to rinse out bleach in shower

TIME 
It took me 3 bleachings (+ 1 toning)@ 1-2 hours each session, over the span of a week. It took Emaya 4 bleachings (2 tonings) @ 1-2 hour for each bleach session over the span of three days. Looking back we could have easily got that done to 2-3 bleachings and definitely only one toning session! Spreading the bleaching out over a week (or the longest you can stand in between the funky stages) will totes see your hair in better health. 

So should you go blonde? Five questions to ask yourself! 

1) Are you super attached to your hair? 
Then doing a home blonde bleach job is probably not for you. Although I’m here to say home bleaching is totally do-able, I don’t know your particular hair or its condition or whether or not bleaching will make it fall out, so there’s always consideration in anything you do that has risk factors.

2) Are you okay with your hair suffering some damage? (because it will)
Again the damage will depend on many factors, like above but be aware bleaching is going to destroy your hair (somewhat!) and you’ll have to be prepared for worst case scenario - chopping it all off. 

3) Are you able to go through that dreaded orange stage? 
If you are, then yay! The darker your hair the more rounds of bleaching you’ll have to endure and the more funky stages – so be prepared! Maybe even invest in a cute hat, beanie, or head scarf :P

4) Do you have someone that can help you? 
I’m sure there are some clever peeps out there who do it all themselves but I’d super recommend you having a buddy to help you out (at least to do the back of your head) and even for moral support if things go pear shaped and can run to the shops for dye coverup!

5) Are you okay with investing time and money for something you may not be cut out to maintain? 
This is less of a specific home job question and more of a straight out, blonde question. I had no idea being blonde was so much work. You put in the time to do the bleaching and it feels like the journey is over when its only just begun! I’m not even sure I can answer yes to this question myself. I’m personally okay with regrowth (well up to 3 week regrowth),I’m less okay with the effort of having to re-touch and I’m slightly sad the up-keep may kill me and in the end, I’ll have to resort to dying my hair back to a boring brown. 

In the end though being blonde has been my favourite hair decision. It was a fun experiment to go blonde and totes has had more gain than pain :)

This blog series is going to be divided into five parts - wowzers! Tomorrow will be my story and how I went blonde, followed by Emaya’s journey and then an update and tips and a final post all about roots. 

Spoiler Alert – we both still have (most!) of our hair :P