Can I Dye My Hair After Bleaching it Twice? Yes but you should wait a few days

woman thinks if she can dye her bleached hair

If you let three weeks go by between each time you bleached your hair and you worked on repairing it between the sessions, you can dye it. Although, it would be a good idea to do a strand test before you do. I’ll tell you how to do that soon.
If you bleached your hair twice in the same week or two times within 15 days, then I wouldn’t recommend dyeing it. In this case, I’d suggest doing intensive reparative treatments so the dye doesn’t damage your hair even more.

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How long should you wait to dye your hair after bleaching it?

I want to clarify one thing for you here: I’m just a simple hair colorist and I don’t have the clairvoyant abilities of the ancient druids in Celtic culture.

I also don’t have a crystal ball.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that in order to be able to respond to your question about if you can dye your hair after bleaching it twice with complete certainty, I’d need to know more details about your situation.

Like, how much time went by between the first and second bleach session?

If you bleached your hair twice in the same day or two times during the same week, you can’t dye your hair because it will break, maybe even at the roots.
If you let three weeks go by between each time you bleached your hair and you used some kind of reparative treatments between the sessions, then you can dye your hair.

Bleaching your hair is a very aggressive process for it. And you’ve bleached it twice.

The damage left by bleaching your hair is cumulative. So, you need to give it time to recuperate.

woman with damaged bleached hair

Tell me something: if you ran a marathon tomorrow, which is 26 miles, would you run another marathon two days later?

Definitely not. So why do you want to make your hair run two marathons in a row?

You shouldn’t do it. Your hair will thank you for it.

I hope by now you know that to dye your bleached hair, the how and when you bleached it is important.

And let me tell you something. I might not be a druid. Or fortune teller. But I do try to be a good person and so I won’t leave you alone with this dilemma.

And while you do need to wait to dye your hair after bleaching it twice, I’ll tell you what you can do for your hair while you wait.

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If you bleached your hair two times in the same week or in fewer than fifteen days, you can’t dye it

damaged bleached hair can not be dyed

Because you hair will not be able to handle the color process. Why not?

Because dyeing your hair is another chemical process that you do using 20 volume peroxide and ammonia.

And your hair just went through two rounds of bleaching it.

Let’s break it down into a little math problem.

Each time you bleached your hair, you used a 30 volume developer.

If you bleached your hair twice, you hair will have received the impact of 60 volume developer in a very short amount of time.

When you use a permanent dye, you need to use it with a 20 volume developer, so:

30 + 30 +20= 80 volume developer in just a few days.

Try to imagine the situation beyond the numbers. What we’re talking about here goes beyond the numbers.

We’re talking about a significant wearing out of your hair caused by this strength of developer.

When you use a 20 volume developer on your hair, the consequences might include frizz, split ends and drying out.

Now, when you expose your hair to the total volumes of developer from several different processes in a short period of time, the consequences multiply.

You’d go from frizzy hair to completely dehydrated hair.
From split ends to breakage at your roots.
From hair that you can easily help recuperate to hair that would need many costly reparative treatments.

That’s a pretty scary road ahead, but I said I’d help you out, right?

So, if you can’t use a permanent dye and you want to color your bleached hair, you can use a semi-permanent dye on your hair , because those dyes don’t contain ammonia and you apply them without developer.

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Now, if you don’t want to use a semi-permanent dye, I’d suggest waiting three weeks before dyeing your bleached hair.

And during those three weeks, you need to give your hair a lot of attention. What kind of attention?

If your wallet permits, you can repair your hair in a salon by getting treatments with OLAPLEX 1 and 2.
If you can’t invest that much money, you should do an intensive reparative treatment twice a week. You can use hydrating masks or even just coconut oil.
Don’t flat iron or blow dry your hair.
Avoid washing your hair with hot water and don’t expose it to the sun without protecting it.
Be very careful when detangling your wet hair.

These simple actions will help repair your bleached hair before you dye it.

If you waited three weeks between the first and second time you bleached your hair, you can dye it

bleaching a strand of hair

But don’t get ahead of yourself.

Even though you’ve acted like a true professional, I’d recommend doing a strand test.

Because the result of this test will be the final verdict of if your bleached hair can handle the dye.

Remember the phrase, “Forewarned is forearmed?” Well, if you don’t know it, let me give you another version to think about here: “A forewarned colorist is forearmed against damaging your hair.”

When a client comes into the salon, I always evaluate their hair health.

What does that entail?

I look closely at their hair to see if it’s healthy or not. I also ask them about their hair’s history, like if they have colored or bleached it before.

But besides taking a close look and keeping in mind what the client says (even when I know oftentimes they forget half the history), I do a strand test when I’m going to do some kind of chemical processing to their hair.

What do you need to do to do the test?

Put your hair up and separate out a two inch section from the back of your hair.
Use the dye on this lock and leave it in for 45 minutes.
Once that time has gone by, rinse and take a close look at the section of hair.

What are you looking for?

If the strand is soft and the color is even , you can dye your bleached hair.
If the strand is frizzy, rough or the color is uneven , you can’t dye your hair because it needs more moisture and won’t put up with another round of chemical processing.

moisturizing mask for dry hair after bleaching