How to Bleach Hair - A 10 Step Guide for Perfect Blonde Results

First, start off by opening up your client's hair and taking a careful loo at the roots, mid lengths and ends.

If they are at different levels, you will need to figure out where you are going to apply bleach and when.

The rule is to apply the bleach first on the darkest parts, the parts that need the most bleaching.

Then you extend to parts which are a little lighter, but still need bleaching.

And be sure never to overlap onto parts (like the ends in the picture below) which are already white and could break if they are over-bleached.

A typical case: Roots are virgin regrowth level 6, mid-lengths are level 8 and brassy, ends are level 10.

Step Two: Choose The Right Bleach 

Based on your hair analysis above you are ready to choose your bleach.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that all bleaches are the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.

They all have different lifting properties. Using a bleach which does not lift well will force you to use higher developer strength than necessary.

Even then you may get inconsistent results.

Ugly Duckling recommends that you use one of the bleaches below depending upon your client's hair situation.

Brilliant Blonde Blue Bleach:

Brilliant Blonde - 8 level Lift Blue Based Bleach

This is literally one of the most powerful bleaches on the market.

Use this for Ultra Dark Asian hair and for hair color removal operations.

Use this bleach primarily on the lengths.

If using on the root area, use with 20 Vol only and for short applications.

Because it is powerful!

Here is what the bleach will look like after mixing - a thick gravy-like mix. 

Brilliant Blondexx - 7 level lift White Bleach with Bond Protect

This bleach is a white bleach with Bond Protect built in.

It gives an excellent balance of hair protection and lift and is really also very powerful indeed: its lifting capability covers almost all regular needs.

When mixed with developer, it produces a creamy white mix which is pleasant to apply and non-irritating on the scalp.

It can be used very easily for all full-head and on-scalp bleaching operations, because it is so gentle.

It protects the hair from breakage and will keep the hair fiber thick and resistant. So it is good for the ends also.

Brilliant Blondexx with Bond Protect:

Creamy, oil-like mix:

Step Three: Deciding on Your Developer Strength

10 Vol

This strength is almost never used in bleaching operations - it is too weak.

20 Vol

20 Vol is the most commonly used developer strength for medium lifting requirements - for 2-3 levels lift and for the root area.

Assuming that you are going to bleach the root area, you will need to get some 20 Vol developer in no matter what else you do!

30 Vol

30 Vol is the developer strength you need for anything more than 3 levels lift. 

In case of very dark or very resistant hair, you can do a first application with 30 Vol on the lengths & do a second application with 20 Vol

See what we mean when we say you will need to get some 20 Vol developer in no matter what else?

40 Vol

40 Vol is really too strong to be used with bleach. At Ugly Duckling we never recommend that you use this with bleach. You will be literally blowing the hair cuticle apart if you do.

Sometimes customer say to us that they need to use 40 Vol because the bleach they are using is not lifting enough.

Our answer: are you sure you are using a good bleach? Ugly Duckling bleaches never require 40 Vol, for example.

Step Four: Prepare & Section the hair

Bleach is best applied on dried, unwashed hair. The natural oils in the hair protect it from the bleaching process.

Sometimes clients do, however, have styling products or silicon-based shampoos when they come in.

Which is why now is the time you need to open up the hair, comb it through thoroughly and section and prepare it for bleaching.

When sectioning, separate the hair into 4 large separate areas.

Tie up 3 areas and leave one down. That is the area where you are going to bleach first.

Section this part of the hair finely. Your aim is to get a really consistent penetration of the bleach mixture.

You can use foils at the first stage. This helps keep the heat in and to work faster.

Later, once you ave checked that the hair has lifted fully, you can take out the foils as a preparation for the rinsing stage.

Step Five: Mix Your Bleach & Developer

The rule for mixing bleach to developer is 1 part bleach to 2 parts developer.

This will give you a nice thick gravy-like consistency. Moist enough to work fast, but sufficiently thick so that it is not going to drip off your brush as you apply.

It will also give you good product saturation of the bleach mixture onto the hair.

When mixing, keep whisking until you have a really smooth, consistent paste with no lumps whatsoever.

Refer to the pictures above for what the bleach mixture should look like.

Step Six: Apply Your Bleach - Saturate & work Fast

Now you are ready to start applying. If you are new to this, don't be tentative, whatever you do.

You need to whack on the bleach mixture and really really saturate the hair. So no feeble jabs, please. 

Also, you need to be fast The reason you need to act fast is that with bleach, the clock is always ticking away.

You want to get all parts of the hair as equal processing time as possible in order to get the most consistent result possible.