- To bleach your hair again you must wait at least three weeks.
- You can bleach again after three weeks if your hair isn’t dry, frizzy, or has split ends. I’ll tell you some tips on how to protect your hair below.
- Alternatively, if your bleached hair shows visible signs of serious damage, such as hair breakage after three weeks, you can’t bleach your hair again.
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If you want to quickly know how long to wait between each bleaching process, I recommend looking elsewhere.
The answer I’m going to give you isn’t short. Also, it’s probably not the one you want to hear.
Having said that, we can move on.
A few days ago, I received this question by email.
“Alejandra: I bleached my hair today. Would you please let me know how long I should wait to bleach my hair again?
Thank you very much.
Aixa”
When I receive these questions by email, I can’t help but frown.
This is unfortunate for my cosmetologist, who always asks me to avoid this type of facial expression to prevent premature wrinkles.
It’s not that I frown because I get angry. I simply do it out of concern.
I get upset for those people who think bleaching is a simple process of lightening the hair.
They ask as if the hair didn’t suffer or get modified.
Oh, please!
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Once and for all, I need you to understand that bleaching is a chemical process that wreaks havoc on your hair.
Still, if you’re wondering how long you should wait to bleach your hair again, the answer, without any beating around the bush, will be “it depends.”
It does. It depends on many factors.
- The color you want to achieve
- Your hair health
- The care you give your hair regularly
Lastly, and just to be clear: I don’t support at-home bleaching processes.
The videos you see daily on Instagram or YouTube may show you people bleaching hair in almost three magical steps and with amazing results. But don’t be fooled.
Not all that glitters is gold.
I say this from my own experience. Every day women come to my salon looking for a magic solution to the terrible effects of bleaching processes.
As I know that not everyone will listen to my recommendations, let me give you some tips that you should, at least, pay attention to if you want to have the healthiest possible hair between each bleaching process.
First of all, let me explain briefly what bleaching is.
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What is a bleaching process? Why can it ruin your hair if you don’t wait for at least three weeks to do it again?
There is one main ingredient at work during bleaching: hydrogen peroxide, which penetrates the hair follicle to remove and wash away the melanin. Melanin gives your hair its natural color.
Now, if you have dark hair and you want to lighten it, you’ll have to go through several processes before reaching the pale color. First, you’ll go from dark to orange or red. Then, in the second stage, your hair will reach yellow or blonde.
That’s good. Now, let’s move on to the key part.
After a bleaching session, you should wait at least three weeks before bleaching again.
In the meantime, you should nourish your hair.
It doesn’t matter if your hair is healthy or feels a bit dehydrated.
You should always wait three weeks. Even if your hair is healthy after the first bleaching process, it doesn’t mean it’ll still be healthy after the second bleaching.
So, you should wait three weeks and repair the hair even if the damage isn’t visible.
What should you do to repair it?
I’ll tell you more about that below.
How to take care of your hair between bleaching sessions
Before I start, let me clarify something for you.
If your hair is badly damaged, you shouldn’t bleach it again.
Because bleach should only be applied to healthy or moderately damaged hair.
If your hair has serious damage, breakage, frizz, roughness, and stiffness, you should forget about bleaching until you repair it.
After bleaching your hair for the first time, and to prepare it for the second bleaching session, you should take care of your hair almost as if it were a newborn baby.
- Use a deep conditioner weekly, even coconut oil is great for restoring and strengthening hair.
What I recommend is to leave coconut oil in your hair overnight two or three times a week.
- During these three weeks, external heat tools such as high-temperature hair-dryer, flat iron, or curling iron are absolutely forbidden.
I repeat. The high-temperature hair-dryer, the flat iron, and the curling iron are absolutely forbidden.
They’re as forbidden as driving a car after partying with friends.
Instead, you could opt for healthier options like some fun hairstyles, such as ponytails, braids, and buns.
Even hats are a good option to keep you away from the flat iron. If you’re a fan of curls, you can go back to the healthy habit of our grandmothers and use curling irons overnight to set the curl pattern.
- Look at the ends of your hair.
Do you notice your ends split, brittle, dull, or easily tangled?
It’s time for a trim to maintain healthy, moisturized hair.
- Don’t wash your hair before you bleach it. I recommend that you don’t wash it that day or 48 hours before. [/su_list]
If you do, you’ll reduce the natural oils generated by the hair follicles on the scalp that act as a defense barrier against harmful external agents.
- Something else I recommend is to apply coconut oil to your hair before bleaching.
I don't mean smearing your hair with coconut oil half an hour before applying the bleaching mixture. You should be proactive and apply coconut oil the night before.
Simply divide your hair into strands, and apply a generous amount of coconut oil from mid-lengths to ends. Carefully brush your hair and cover it with a shower cap so as not to ruin your pillow sheets while you sleep.
The next morning, without rinsing your hair, begin the bleaching process.
If you prefer not to apply coconut oil the night before, you can do it two hours before bleaching. But remember not to rinse it out.
Do you want to know a professional stylist's secret?
When clients come to my salon, in addition to applying coconut oil to their hair, I also add 15 drops of oil to the bleach.
It further reduces the harsh effects of hydrogen peroxide and bleach powder.
Conclusions
As a professional, I always recommend having your hair bleached at a salon to minimize hair damage.
But if you can't go to a salon, and you need to bleach your hair again, you should wait three weeks between each session and nourish your hair intensively during that time
