How I went blonde

Hello everyone! I thought today I would share with you how I went from brown hair to blonde. My natural color is a dirty blonde/light brown with some red tint to it. I haven't had my hair in that natural color for awhile because I don't think it matches me very well. My eyebrows are naturally darker than my natural hair color. Anyway, so here's how I went to blonde.

Step one: 
Bleach

The first step in going blonde is to bleach. I used a developer (top right) at a level 30 because the blonde I wanted was around 3-4 shades lighter than my hair color was. These products can both be bought at Sally's Beauty Supply. Make sure that your hair is dry for this step. I used a tupperware bowl to mix a few scoops of the quick blue bleach with some of the developer. You want the consistency to be somewhat liquidy. It is important to make sure you stir up the bleach very well. I would also suggest doing this in a very well ventilated area. I then applied the bleach mixture to my hair. You want to do your ends first because your roots will develop more quickly and will be quite a bit lighter than what you are going for. After you get the bleach all over your hair, go back to the roots and make sure you get everywhere. Make sure you wear gloves too. Once it is all the way through your hair, you can put on a developing cap. This will keep the heat in which will facilitate development of the product. I let this step sit for about 45 minutes.

Step Two: 

Rinse/Dry.  After the 45 minutes is up, you want to rinse your hair in cold water. Hot water will further damage your hair. You then want to take your Purple Shampoo (pictured to the right) and leave it in your hair for about 5 minutes. This will help to take away any orange or brassiness. This product can also be purchased at Sally's Beauty. Once you rinse out the purple shampoo, you are going to want to dry your hair with a blow dryer to move on to the next step.

Step Three:Tone

 Once your hair is dry, you are going to want to mix up your toner. I used ION toner in Golden Blonde. A toner is used to help achieve a more natural looking blonde, as opposed to an orange or white color. For me, it created the appearance of highlights. You want to use an application bottle (pictured on the right of the photo) to measure out how much developer you will need. It is important to read the instructions provided in the toner to know how much developer to mix. You will be using the same level 30 developer that was used to mix up the bleach. Make sure you mix up the toner and the developer very well in a bowl. Once it is mixed up, you want to apply it all over your hair, starting away from the roots and working through all your hair. After the toner is all over your hair, put on the developer cap again. I left the toner in for about 40 minutes and removed the developing cap after about the first 20 minutes.

Step Four:
Rinse/Purple Shampoo
Once your 40 minutes is up, you are going to want to rinse in cold water again. You will then apply the purple shampoo again for about 5 minutes to help even out the color and lighten the color up some more. After that is done, you will want to apply a deep conditioner and leave it in your hair for at least 5 minutes. This will help your hair retain moisture that the bleach will try to suck out during the bleaching process. Make sure that you do not use hot tools for several days after bleaching to get your hair back to a healthy level. Apply deep conditioner several times during the week after until your hair is back to normal. I recommend using Dove shampoo with the natural oils in it. It has done tremendous things for my naturally dry, coarse hair. 

You're all finished!

Here is my hair the day I finished it in my bathroom lighting. I hope you enjoyed this bleaching tutorial. Let me know what you think by commenting below.