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Stop Torturing Your Bleach Damaged Hair And Give It Some Love Instead

by — 2015-09-28 in Beauty Care
If your hair is currently rocking a gorgeous shade of platinum, bright blond, gray or pastel, chances are, it's a little bit — or a lot — dry, wispy, split ends, impossible to style, impossible to manage. But there is a way back. Take my hand!

I don't shout at you often, but today, I'm going to. Here's something I NEED TO TELL YOU. Please, please, for the love of all that is good and pretty, if your hair is dry, and/or not the desired color, do not, do not throw bleach at it. It will become drier. It will split. It might even split at a much higher point than at the tips, leaving you with not at lot of hair. 

So, if you take away nothing else from this article: do not use more bleach. Okay? Okay.

How Does It Feel?

If your hair is stretchy, crunchy, or only ever feels somewhat silky or straight when you straighten out all the frizz and put a ton of oil onto the tips, there's a real problem here. We need to fix it! The reason your hair hates you right now is because bleaching it quite literally strips the hair of it's natural color. This leaves each and every hair follicle completely porous, because all of the color has been sucked right out. In a way, that's good, because it means new color will stick real well, at least to begin with, as you'll get a really bright hue if you want one. In a way, it's not so great, as it'll also fade really quickly whilst it's still porous. So. What we need to do is patch up those holes, to restore protein and softness to your hair. Are you with me?

Steer Clear Of Shampoo

Immediately after bleaching, if your hair is horrifically dry — and I mean, horribly dry — steer clear of shampoo for at least a week in the shower. Remember how I mentioned only washing your hair every three or four days to maintain your color? Well, if your hair is extrememly damaged, the same goes, except you're going to be washing your hair with conditioner. It still has enough clarifying ingredients in it to get rid of the worst of any grease, but not so many that your hair is going to be a horribly dry mess. Once you've given up washing for a week and moved onto washing every three or four days, remember - keep it clean with a dry shampoo. That's what they were invented for! 
 
After two or three weeks, I PROMISE YOU. your hair should be acclimatising to the change and will be getting less and less greasy in between washes.

Add Moisture

Moisture is what your hair is absolutely crying out for at the moment in every singly form, at virtually every single time of the day, but if you can't afford fancy hair masks and don't really want to spend a fortune on products, there are plenty of homemade masks that you can use. The general consensus is that you should use just one mask a week, but if your hair is suffering, I reckong you can use one daily or stick one on overnight. A few of my faves:
  • Avocado, coconut oil and honey, mashed together
  • Olive oil and honey
  • Yoghurt, banana and honey
  • Plain old coconut oil

Giving Your Hair Some Lurve

It's really important not to just slap the product on your hair and roughly wash it out and roughly brush your hair and roughly blow dry it. Use nice products, use them as often as you think your hair needs them, and always, always, be gentle. Here's an example of a haircare regimen that you might like to try to improve dryness, stretchiness and damage.
 
  • Wash hair with shampoo, when you've moved back to shampoo — choose a repair and protect formula
  • Use a nourishing conditioner — repair and protect again and/or argan or Morroccon oil
  • Use a hair mask. As above. Leave on for as long as you like. I like to leave hair masks on for up to an hour or even longer, if I'm honest — you can wrap your head in a towel and if you're able to, sleep with your hair mask on. 
  • I also use leave in hair conditioner. Spray it into your hair whilst wet. Look for a color protecting variety.
  • Whilst your hair is still a little bit wet, work a few drops of the best quality argan oil Or serum that you can afford through the mid lengths and tips of your hair. Don't put it anywhere near your roots. Yes, we want moisture, but we don't want that much moisture anywhere near your scalp as you'll never be able to wash it out. Once your hair is dry, work a few drops of the oil into the tips of your hair for extra nourishment.
  • Anytime you style your hair, use oil for hold. Only a little.
  • Anytime you use heat, (top tip, don't use heat), use all of the heat protect products, be it a wash-in mousse, a conditioner, a serum, a heat defence spray - whatever it is, use it. Protect your hair. If you must have straight or curly hair then you must protect it, or you'll be right back where you started.

Protein Perfect

Your hair needs moisture, but it also needs protein - that's what keeps it strong. So after a week or so of washing with conditioner, when you reintroduce shampoo, make it a shampoo that includes keratin, to help re-build the protein bonds in your hair. Use this every other wash until your hair starts to feel strong again, then discard it in favour of your moisture shampoos and conditioners - using too much keratin can make your hair become brittle, which gives you yet another problem to fix.

Hairbands And Hot Showers

It might sound dumb, but using the wrong kind of hairband can increase the number of breakages you get — just an elastic band around your hair shaft all the way around your hair could split all of the hairs around the ponytail right through the middle of the hair shaft. Use soft hair ties, preferably that double as hair bands, as they will be softer and easier on your hair. There are also ties that are designed specifically not to leave lines on your hair, so you can use them and then take your hair down without ruining your style. As for the temperature of your shower: too cold, too hot: not great; lukewarm is perfect.
Follow these tips and your hair will soon become soft, silky and manageable again. Don't follow them? Well. You might just have to get a pixie cut. Which might not be the worst thing to happen... hmm...

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