- You cannot color hair if it is wet after bleaching. The hair must be dry to color it.
- Because wet hair will prevent the dye pigments from penetrating inside the hair.
- Therefore, if you apply the dye on your wet hair after bleaching, you will get an uneven color, which will also last much less time.
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Putting color over bleached hair. What type of hair dye should you use? Permanent or semi-permanent?
I understand you’re in a hurry to color your hair after bleaching.
But take it slow. Otherwise, there will be nothing left of that beautiful color you dream of.
Once you bleach your hair, you’ll need to dry it so you can apply the dye.
That is regardless of the hair dye you use.
Whether you want to color your bleached hair with a permanent or semi-permanent dye, the hair must be completely dry.
Why?
That’s what I’ll talk about next.
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Why does the hair have to be dry after bleaching to apply the dye?
Let’s revise a little history and go back to when you bleached your hair.
During bleaching, your hair loses color. It can be color from natural pigments or color from artificial ones.
Apart from shedding color during the process, your hair also loses moisture and nutrients.
That is an unavoidable part of the process. The temperature reached by the chemical reaction during bleaching removes much of the water molecules retained in the hair core.
After the exposure time of the bleach, you obviously have to rinse your hair.
What happens then?
Your hair absorbs water almost with desperation like a person lost in the desert.What will that person do?
He’ll try to drink as much water as possible.
Do you want another example?
Let’s say you’ve been doing your CrossFit routine for an hour and a half.
When you finish your workout, the first thing you do is hydrate. I’m sure you’ll drink lots and lots of water or an isotonic drink.
When you finish drinking the liquid, chances are you’ll be so satisfied that even if your crush offered you a glass of champagne, you’d refuse.
Or at least, you’d ask him to wait for a while. In the meantime, you’d insist on keeping the conversation going.
The same goes for your bleached hair.
- If you apply the permanent dye after bleaching on your wet hair, it won’t be able to absorb the dye pigments because it’ll be full of water molecules.
- Alternatively, if you apply the semi-permanent hair color on wet hair after bleaching, the pigments won’t be able to adhere to the hair fiber.
Therefore, your hair should be dry after rinsing out the bleach if you want to dye it.
You can use a blow dryer or let your hair air dry.
Air dry is much better to avoid exposing your hair to the high temperatures of the heat tool, which also dehydrate your hair.
Now you know that your hair must be dry to color it after bleaching.
But it’s also important to know a few tips when applying hair dye to freshly bleached hair.
3 tips for applying hair dye after bleaching
If you bleached your hair and it’s dry, it’s time to work some magic. That is, it’s time to color it.
Let’s start with the first tip.
Even if your hair is dry, wait for 24 hours to color it.
Yes, I know you can’t wait to get a new color in your hair.
But if you hold on and wait for 24 more hours, you’ll give your hair a chance to recover from the effects of bleaching.
Believe it or not, your scalp oil will protect your hair from the chemicals in the dye.
If you color your bleached hair with permanent dye, follow the exposure instructions.
Permanent dyes are applied with a 20 volume developer and contain ammonia to settle the pigmentation in the hair.
The maximum exposure time for permanent box dye is 45 minutes for colored or bleached hair, and 30 minutes for virgin hair.
Don’t forget that your hair has been bleached. If you leave the permanent dye in for longer than indicated, you’ll deprive it of moisture and nutrients.
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If you dye your bleached hair with semi-permanent dye, don’t apply natural oil or masks before.
If you apply any type of oil or hair mask after bleaching, you must rinse your hair before applying semi-permanent hair dye.
Those products leave an oily residue on the hair. That’ll prevent the dye pigments from adhering to your hair.
If you applied a moisturizing product after bleaching, wash your hair again with only shampoo and no conditioner.
Then, when your hair is completely dry, apply the semi-permanent hair dye.
Conclusions
All coloring processes, even when you finish bleaching your hair, should be performed to dry hair.
That way, the hair absorbs the dye pigments properly, which extends the duration of the color.
If you bleached your hair, and want to apply a permanent or semi-permanent hair dye, make sure your hair isn’t wet when you color it.
