How to: Lighten Your Hair with Minimal Damage

We've all dreamt from time to time about dying our hair blonde or lightening it from almost black to a light brown or fiery auburn red, or having Kylie Jenner inspired fashion coloured hair. The problem with this is, whilst it is crazy expensive to have a proffessional do it, it is incredibly damaging. 

I myself went from having 3 years of black hair, to platinum blonde, back to brown, then almost black, then white-blonde, then dark brown, and now I've got some weird mixture of natural ash brown roots with ash blonde balyage (with some really awesome pink ends). My hair doesn't grow fast and, as you can imagine, is in pretty poor condition.

I've paid hairdressers hundreds of dollars, gone out and bought bleach, absolutely pummelled my hair with so many chemicals I'm surprised I still have any left. A week ago I went from dark brown hair with reddish undertones, to ash blonde with minimal damage! Here's what I used to do so;

What you'll need;
You're going to need a few things to do this. Firstly you'll need the colour stripper, the colour you desire to go (maybe even a halfway colour if your doing a drastic change and don't want to be seen with possibly embarrassing hair), some good latex gloves (the thicker the better), hair clips or elastics (use plastic only, no metal as it could react with the chemicals), a shirt you don't mind getting dirty, and at least 2-3 hours for the process to happen.

Stripping the Colour;
For the colour stripper I used Scott Cornwall Decolour Stripper. You can use this on natural hair as well as previously dyed. Following the instructions, I let this process for 30 minutes then washed it out. Whilst processing you can tie it up in a bun or clip it up off your clothes and neck. The mixture feels a little like sand in your hair, this is normal, don't worry. Whilst washing that out just keep in mind to be gentle with your hair and make sure you've gotten it all out. You may wish to repeat this step a second time if you find you haven't gotten the colour lift you wanted, or you missed a few spots.

Dying your Hair;
After I was happy with how much colour was lifted, I used the L'Oreal Excellence Creme in 9.1 Ash Blonde. Following the instructions in the packet, I left this one on again for 30 minutes and washed it out. Whilst in the shower I used Fudge Purple Shampoo to tone and get any brassy colours out. Conditioning as normal, drying and styling afterwards and I'm left with my final result. 

Overall I'm happy with the result. Having warm tones has always bugged me, and I've had them since I originally dyed my hair black in 2008. I'm also super happy that there is minimal damage. In the past with blonde hair I've had hair break off after one wash after the trip to the hair dresser and have been incredibly disappointed. With these products I haven't noticed any additional damage to my hair which is suuuper awesome.

If you guys have any hair dying stories or products you like to use, let me know in the comments!

Cate-Marie xxx