- I recommend you wait two months to bleach your hair after a perm. In other words, if you permed your hair yesterday, you should wait 60 days to bleach your hair.
- And once 60 days have passed since your perm, go to a salon to bleach your hair. A professional will check if your hair will withstand the bleach.
- Also, after a perm, you must follow a hair care routine during the two months before bleaching. I’ll tell you more about that later.
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No shortcuts. No tricks. You can’t cheat time.
If you’ve permed your hair and are concerned about its health, wait two months to bleach it.
To clarify, between getting the perm and bleaching your hair, you should wait AT LEAST two months, or eight weeks.
Also, if you’re worried about sleeping on your freshly permed hair, it seems strange that you’d even think about bleaching it right now.
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Why? Because both perming and bleaching are extremely harsh processes for the hair. They change the hair at the molecular level. And that’s serious business.
Want to know how serious? Read on.
Why wait two months after perming your hair to bleach it
Before I explain why, I ask you to look in the mirror. Take two minutes to look at your hair.
Do you like your curls? Did you get that change in appearance you’ve been wanting?
Now I ask you, how do you think your hairdresser achieved that radical change in your hair?
I can assure you your hairdresser didn’t use any magic tricks.
To make your straight hair curly, your hairdresser applied a chemical process called a perm. You already know that.
But perhaps you don’t know that perming is a chemical process that modifies your hair’s structure. The perm fluid breaks the molecular bonds inside the hair, shaping your hair into a curly form.
This can give you an idea of how harsh a treatment your hair goes through. The very molecule bonds inside the hair are broken. It’s therefore crucial a professional does the perm. They evaluate whether your hair will withstand the process before they perm it.
That professional knows well that weak hair wouldn’t withstand a perm.
But your hair withstood the perm. That’s why you have those lovely curls. Just because your hair withstood the perm, doesn’t mean it didn’t suffer. Of course, it suffered. Because during the perm, it lost moisture and nutrients.
So what would happen if you bleach your permed hair before two months go by?
Well, bleaching also breaks the molecular bonds in hair to strip it of natural and artificial color. But bleaching also breaks the keratin chains that give hair its elasticity.
Go back to the mirror. Look at your curls again. Imagine you bleach it without waiting two months after the perm.
This is what will happen:
- You’ll lose your curls and your hair will go dry and frizzy.
- You could experience breakage in different areas of your hair.
- You may start to lose chunks of hair due to breakage and dryness.
Are you holding onto your curls tightly as you imagine this? I’m fine with that. Because then you’ll make a smart decision and wait two months to bleach your hair after a perm.
And in the meantime, you can do many things for your hair to prepare it for bleaching so the wait isn’t so hard. And here are all the details.
How to prepare your hair for two months to bleach it after a perm
Before I give you the details, my first recommendation is that you should go to a salon to bleach your hair two months after your perm . And if possible, find a salon that uses products like Olaplex or Wellaplex.
These products are used during bleaching, minimizing the damage of the process as much as possible because they work at the molecular level.
What can you do before you get to the salon?
- Don’t wash your hair every day. Ideally, you should wash your hair thrice a week. That way, your hair can absorb all the moisture your scalp makes.
- Apply a moisturizing mask for curly hair once a week.
- Don’t comb your hair when it’s dry . You’ll break it. Simply comb your curls when you wash your hair after applying conditioner.
- Detangle your curls using a wide-toothed comb.
- Use curl styling products , such as mousse or leave-in conditioner.
Conclusion
After a perm, wait at least two months to bleach your hair. And I recommend going to a salon for this harsh chemical process.
