By now, you’re probably thinking that we think bleaching is really evil! After all, these past two weeks, we’ve talked about bleaching horror stories, discussed how bleaching can damage hair, and listed down negative side effects of bleaching.

Actually, we don’t hate bleaching – we just don’t condone wrong bleaching practices! That’s why, if you want to bleach hair without damage, or at least want to minimize damages, read on!

1. Give your hair a break between bleaches

The darker your hair is, the more times you have to bleach it in order to get the color that you want. In fact, some people take even four times before they can get their desired color!

The problem with this is that it adds a lot of stress to your hair, in addition to all the dryness that comes automatically with bleaching. Make sure that if you’re going to bleach your hair multiple times, you’ll give it enough time to rest in between.

2. Schedule your touch ups properly

Bleaching usually requires plenty of touch-ups, since you wouldn’t want to have dark roots with ultra light ends, right? However, you have to ensure that you are scheduling your touch ups properly. You don’t want to have to lighten hair too many times and risk damaging it, or wait too long before touch ups and have too much hair growth.

Also, if you’re going to a salon for a touch up, make sure to tell them to only bleach the roots. Bleaching your entire hair is just unnecessary as it already has your desired color, anyway.

3. Regularly trim the ends of your hair

(c) Unsplash

Bleaching makes hair really dry, so it makes your hair more susceptible to breakages and split ends. To be perfectly honest, it’s almost impossible to bleach hair without damage. After all, the very process that makes your hair change color is the same reason why your hair becomes dry!

Still, regular trimming can help keep the damage, specifically split-ends, at bay. Plus, it helps keep your hair looking salon-perfect all the time!

4. Deep-condition hair between bleaches

Since bleaching already dries your hair out, it would also make perfect sense to deep-condition your hair between your bleaching sessions. Deep-conditioning at least helps your hair get a bit more moisture and hydration while waiting for the next session of bleach.

Get a deep conditioner whose main purpose is to hydrate and moisturise. Some of our favorites are deep conditioners containing coconut oil, keratin oil, or argan oil. If you really want to bleach hair without damage, better try these out.

5. Maintain color with toners or purple shampoos

(c) Unsplash

It’s normal for bleached hair to change color slightly as time goes by. For example, a lot of people who got blonde bleached hair found out that their hair would end up having an orange tint after a while.

Don’t worry – it’s super easy to fix! All you need is a toner or… wait for it… purple shampoo! Purple shampoo can ‘lift’ the color from your hair and  ‘cancel’ it out. Try it our and watch your hair turn from old to brand new!

Got any questions? Ask away at the comment section below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can! And as always, for more hair care tips and tricks, feel free to check out the ZALA blog!

So you love your bleached hair, huh?

You love the color, you love the texture, you love how you can make every head in the room turn towards you, thanks to your new hairstyle.

But see, if you want that to last, you have to understand that bleaching hair: it’s not just something you do on a whim. To all the girls who bleached their hair and regretted it afterward, here’s a guide to taking care of bleached hair!

1. Hair masks, hair masks, hair masks

We cannot emphasize hair masks enough when it comes to talking about bleached hair care. Bleached hair tends to be stiff, dry, and brittle, and hair masks can bring back the moisture that was stripped off of your hair during the bleaching process.

2. Use a conditioner and a leave-in conditioner

Conditioners should definitely be every girl’s best friend. Especially for those with bleached hair, conditioners can make a lot of difference. In addition to that, make it a habit to use leave-in conditioners too! It’s a very easy way of retaining moisture in your hair even if you go on your day-to-day activities.

3. Buy toners or purple shampoo

Toners or purple shampoo are an absolute must if you’re interested in taking care of bleached hair properly. Purple shampoo not as effective as a toner in actually toning your hair color, but it does help keep your hair more cool-toned. See, as time goes by, bleached hair slowly becomes more yellow or orange in color. Purple shampoo helps maintain its regular color by lifting the other color from your strands. If you want best results though, just get a toner and use that once a week.

4. Get some hair oils

Hair oils can certainly do wonders for your hair! They can bring back the shine and luster that usually disappear if you get your hair bleached. It’s almost worthless to have hair of a nice color but an ugly-looking texture and feel, so make sure that you keep its appearances in tip-top shape too!

5. Heat protectant sprays are a must

Heat can damage your hair in more ways that you can think of. That’s why you should always have a heat protectant spray with you, more so if you’re going to be using some heat styling tools. But even if you’re not, the sun itself is already harmful enough, so better be ready to protect your beloved bleached hair from that.

Got any questions? Ask away at the comment section below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can! And as always, for more hair care tips and tricks, feel free to check out the ZALA blog!

Since we’re already on the topic of bleach, it seems like now’s the perfect time to just make a series of posts about it!

Last time, we talked about how bleach works and bleaching damage to hair. This time, we’re going to focus on another aspect of this interesting coloring method: the side effects of bleaching hair.

1. Bleaching hurts the scalp

Sure, bleaching your hair takes no more than a couple of hours. But depending on your pain tolerance and your skin, bleaching can hurt your scalp quite badly. Bleach is a really strong chemical so it’s not uncommon for it to give burning or tingling sensations if you make contact with it. If it gets really painful or itchy though, remove the bleach immediately. You might be having an allergic reaction or a chemical burn, neither of which are good.

2. Your hair will get really dry

The biggest concern that people consider is that bleached hair tends to get really dry. This is due to the process of oxidation which we briefly explained in our previous article. If you’re planning to get your hair bleached, make sure that it’s done after an extra long period of rest and relaxation.

3. You might get discolored hair

Another one of the side effects of bleaching hair is discolored hair, which, unfortunately, is very common. Discolored hair can look quite ugly and it may even give the impression like you don’t care about your hair or your appearance. Sometimes, especially if you just did it at home and weren’t able to apply the agents evenly, you could end up with this problem.

4. Your hair will be more prone to damage

We all hate frizzy hair, but there’s a strong contender to all that hate: split-end riddled hair! Sadly, bleaching can make things so much worse. Bleached hair can be really brittle and prone to damage, if done poorly. And we promise you, it takes very little to completely ruin badly damaged bleached hair. Just take a look at these bleaching horror stories!

5. Bleached hair is high maintenance

Since bleached hair is so weak and prone to damage, a lot of times, it also requires a lot of aftercare. This means maintaining a regular hair care routine, using protective hair products every day, and remembering not to be rough with it. Plus, imagine having to touch up your very obvious roots every few weeks or so. What could be more high maintenance than that?

Got any questions? Ask away at the comment section below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can! And as always, for more hair care tips and tricks, feel free to check out the ZALA blog!

Can bleaching damage hair? After all, we’ve shared horror stories about bleaching before. We even mentioned some tips on how to avoid bleaching damage.

But some of you may be asking – if bleaching was so dangerous, how come we’re still doing it? How come bleaching products aren’t banned yet? How come we haven’t found an alternative yet? Does bleaching really damage your hair?

How bleach works on your hair

If you think about it, bleach is quite amazing. A technological innovation, somehow. Come on, don’t you ever wonder how bleach actually manages to change your hair color? Just look – from dark to pale in just a few hours!

Bleach removes all color from your hair through a process known as ‘oxidation’. The term refers to the chemical reaction that happens every time your hair gets exposed to oxygen and UV light at the same time. Oxidation affects the pigments, called melanin, in your strands which causes them to lose all their color.

This is done through bleaching agents or lightening agents, which open up your strands’ cuticles to let the oxidative agents change the chemistry inside your shafts. The most common lightening agents nowadays are ammonia and hydrogen peroxide. In addition, these two are often mixed together as well since they work much slower when they’re on their own.

While bleach can be used simply to lighten hair, it can also turn your hair white, or close to white, when left on too long. They usually have yellowish or reddish tones though, and most of the time, you’d have to use a white tint if you want the platinum blonde look.

Bleaching and hair damage

Bleaching isn’t necessarily bad, but it is an undeniable truth that bleaching can be quite damaging to your hair.

This is because the very process that allows your hair to change its color also makes your strands more susceptible to dryness. Remember when we said that bleaching agents open up your hair cuticles to let in oxidative agents? Repeated bleaching can cause your hair cuticles to open permanently, leaving them exposed. And if there’s one thing you should know about hair,  it’s that dryness – and anything that causes it – is your hair’s biggest enemy.

So yes, bleaching does damage hair. Though, it also depends on how healthy your hair is in the first place and how light you want your hair to be. If you just want it to be a few shades lighter, for example, the damaging effect on your hair won’t be as big as someone who went from deep black to full-on white.

A lot of the bleaching damage caused to your hair is also not caused by bleaching itself. Instead, they’re more of by-effects of the bleach itself. Your hair gets more brittle when you bleach it, so if you’re always using heat styling on a daily basis, you can expect your hair to get some repercussions too.

Got any questions? Ask away at the comment section below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can! And as always, for more hair care tips and tricks, feel free to check out the ZALA blog!