Hey guys!
So, a few weeks ago I finally took the plunge to attempt to fulfill my dreams of becoming Gwen Stefani and/or Daenerys Targaryen.
That’s right. White blonde hair.
I’m absolutely obsessed with it. I keep telling people that I feel like an enhanced version of myself – one day I can channel Marilyn, and the next I can go full-on punk with ease.
The only problem? The process was TOTALLY frustrating. Every website, magazine, blog, etc. that I used seemed to give different, messy, or just downright confusing directions.
I’m here to clear the air with easy, step-by-step directions. It’s basically like a science project for your hair!
NOTE: I had to bleach my hair twice to get it this light, and I was originally a pretty light, golden blonde. If your hair is darker, you may need to bleach it a few more times.
WARNING: Leave AT LEAST 3-4 weeks in between each time you bleach your hair. Unless you want all your hair to fall out. ‘Nuff said.
Okay, no more disclaimers, I promise. Here we go.
What You’ll Need (all available at Sally Beauty Supply):
– Mixing bowl – $2
– Mixing brush – $2
– Rubber gloves – $2
– L’Oreal Quick Blue Powder Lightener (a.k.a. the bleach) – $25 for a pound, which will last you forever!
– Salon Care 30 Volume Creme Developer – $6 for 32 oz. (also will last you a long while)
– Wella Color Charm Toner in T18 Lightest Ash Blonde – $6 for 1.5 oz.
– Clairol Shimmer Lights Shampoo – $8 for 16 oz.
– Clairol Shimmer Lights Conditioner – $8 for 16 oz.
– Extra virgin olive oil (get at the grocery store for super cheap!)
The Process:
1. Wear an old shirt you don’t care about and lay down an old towel to avoid bleach stains.
2. Put on rubber gloves.
3. Combine two scoops of the L’Oreal Quick Blue with enough 30 volume developer to create a yogurt-like consistency (I know it sounds vague, but it works!), mixing with the mixing brush.
4. Apply bleach mixture to hair, dividing into small sections to ensure every area is bleached. Make sure to apply the bleach at the ends first and work your way up, as your roots bleach a lot faster than your ends. Also, be careful not to get too much bleach on your skin – this stuff burns! Apply Vaseline around hairline if necessary. Make more bleach mixture if needed, and keep going!
5. Do homework, check Facebook, watch TV, WHATEVER for 30-50 minutes, depending on how much lighter you need to go and how damaged your hair already is.
6. Hop in the shower, and thoroughly rinse bleach out of hair.
7. Apply Clairol Shimmer Lights Shampoo, and suds up for about 5 minutes – you want the lather to be pretty white, not blue, when you rinse it.
8. After rinsing out shampoo, towel dry hair.
9. Mix one part Wella T18 toner with two parts 30 volume developer. Apply to damp hair all over, as if it’s shampoo. Let it sit for 20-30 minutes.
10. Hop back in the shower, and thoroughly rinse out toner mixture.
11. Mix a handful of Clairol Shimmer Lights Conditioner with a capful of olive oil, and apply to hair, focusing on ends. Let it sit for a few minutes so hair can regain some of its moisture.
12. Rinse and air dry. DO NOT blow dry, or immediately heat style. Your hair is incredibly fragile at this point!
The Upkeep:
– You can let your roots grow in however much you want, just make sure that when you bleach again, focus on the roots. Your ends won’t be able to handle that bleach damage over and over again!
– Make Clairol Shimmer Lights Shampoo and Conditioner your holy grail products. They’ll keep all nasty, yellow brassiness out of your perfect white! Use twice a week, and let each product soak into your hair for a few minutes before rinsing.
– Consistently use a leave-in conditioner, or apply olive oil to ends. I can’t stress how damaged your hair will be if proper care isn’t taken!
Well, I hope this helped clear up some of the confusion!
Tell me what you think! 🙂
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HIGH VOLTAGE 
Hi, I’ve came across you’re instructions for bleaching and I must say its been the best I’ve came across! I’ve bleached my hair twice now following this and ita been great just having clear easy steps to follow so thank you 😊 I love you’re hair by the way! Mines is needing done another couple times I think to get where I want but thanks again for the easy to follow advice x
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Excellent “bleach to white” blog! This is truly the best, most succinct instruction I can dfind. Thank you!!!
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Hi – desperate for help! For 20 years, my stylist (who is no longer in the area where I live) put heavy ash/white highlights in my medium brown hair, resulting in a great color. Since I need a new stylist, several people have tried to do my hair without success. I tell all of them what she did – no toner and only bleach for 45 mins. Under dryer. I stress nothing but bleach! They all continue to not leave bleach on long enough and also apply a toner. The result has been highlights that are at times too warm rather than ash, and my brown hair turns dark orange. Anyone know why this is such a problem to find someone to do what I ask? I’ve been to both expensive and not expensive salons. My second question is: can I put a wella t18 toner on my hair to get the red out without it turning my more white highlights purple? Thanks so much for reading!
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Hey Bella- Honestly I’m not a hair expert so I have NO idea. From my experience, purple based toners, shampoos, and conditioners don’t usually leave a purple cast for more than one wash, so I think a toner would definitely bring down the brassiness. I have tried the Shimmer Lights Purple shampoos & conditioners and those generally work pretty well for maintenance. My advice would be to look up someone who is a color expert in your area. If you let them know your previous experience maybe they can get to the bottom of it.
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I love your hair so much! Right now I have that silvery/pearly blonde through highlights and using the t18 toner but it is just so much money to go in all the time to touch up my roots and my hair dresser can never really get to exact color on some spots and it drives me crazy! I just ordered everything! I hope it works!!! Thank you!
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I’m sorry, but this will be my first time using the well a t18 toner, so I’ve been dying it lightest ash blonde till today but still looks yellow/orangy, so my question is once I apply this toner, do I have to keep applying it every month or do I go back to dying it the same color? Or do I have to dye it in within weeks or using this toner? Hope you can answer my question, because I’m kind of lost. Thank you
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Having a bit of a nightmare hope you can help. Been dyeing my hair for longer than I care to remember. Always used boxed dyes without any problem and was lucky enough to get the lovely “white” until recently. Just seemed to stop working. Anyway my hair is currently like a pale yellow(ish) some parts white but not as white as i want. I am going for Blondeme Bleaching Powder (9) and also purchased 30vol.Developer.. (I intend to finish with Wella T18) Having never used this method before i am undecided on a) whether to bleach using 30vol ( have currently quite a few dark bits which didnt take this time) then finish with the 20vol or should i use 30vol for everything? Just a little worried incase 30vol may be too strong. *but clearly you seem to have used 20 without a problem) Thx
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I have been using revlon frost & glow blonde for 8 months. Then my husband/helper decided he missed spots & put it all over my hair AAAHHH so i went to Sally’s and they gave me Wella T18 and told me to bleach my roots then the next day apply toner with 10 developer for 15 min. I was going for a natural blonde. However i bleached my roots today and they are white! Help what do i do? Also I was never going for a white blonde. Just a natural blonde I purchased these things on advice from Sally’s. I need help ASAP because I am having to tone today.
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You blog post is by far the most direct and easy to understand tutorial of hair bleaching. Thanks a lot! Been watching a lot of youtube videos and reading blog posts, and most of them tend to leave out some important details. Anyway, can’t wait to bleach for the very first time! Will definitely read this post again just to be sure 🙂
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YAS! Good luck!
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Omg, I don’t know how to thank u, I have been struggling with my hair to get it to this level i went to a saloon, i re did it at home but no use, after following ur steps I feel like I achieved my dream and my look I didn’t have a hard time to get this look ,everybody is amazed with the results, thank u, thank u thank u.
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So glad it worked for you! ❤
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Hi
I have dyed my hair from blue purple red green orange. My question is would I be able to take my previous color out with the bleach process? And I can’t find t18 in my country can I skip that and still get the white effect?! I will appreciate any answer or suggestion:)
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If your current hair colour is a semi permanent you could wait for it to fade, otherwise you need to bleach the colour out as colour doesn’t lift colour.
If you can’t find the T18, you could use Shimmer Lights shampoo, or any other purple shampoo. I have seen on pinterest people making their own with food colouring.
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Hello i already have the snow white hair i wanted i been using the purple shampoo but i still have very light yellow parts that are starting to come out i have wella t18 but the developer i currently have its 10 vol called satin and the other same brand you have but vol 40 if i use one of this with the toner would it work? I have heard not to use the 40 vol because the lady at sallys said it wont work. And is it best to use on wet hair? If i use the 10 vol how long do i leave it on for?
Thanks!
Ps: sorry for all the questions! 🙂
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Using 40vol with the toner wouldn’t be a good idea. It is too strong for a toner, you want to use 5 or 10vol so that the hair shaft is opened and the colour can deposit only, you don’t want any lift. If you used the 40vol I think it would end up torching your hair because it is so strong and meant for lifting colour.
When I tone my hair I always apply to damp hair, either towel dried or spray it with some water, it makes applying it much easier. How long you leave it on depends, the best way is to apply it and keep checking it every couple minutes by wiping a bit of the dye off because if you leave it too long it could turn purple and if you don’t leave it long enough it won’t tone out the yellow. Mine is usually effective in 5-10 minutes.
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Hi Tara,
in my experience, going w a higher volume such as 30 instead of 20v is due to the fact it’s so much more powerful. If u have sensitive skin and fragile hair I would recommend using the 20v not the 30v. Also, (as I have dark hair) the 30v works faster and stronger w stripping out the darker colour.
Also, I have a question as stated by Bailey Rose, isn’t the toner only applied after the completion of the bleaching, however many times necessary for the desired look?
Btw, love this blog u started. Had such a hard time understanding the toner rules. In my youth, I didn’t care, now as an adult, I do!
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When you bleach your roots, do you have to bleach them twice? Also, why do you use 30 dev with the toner – the bottle recommends using 20 dev.?
Thanks!
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Your hair looks amazing!! Did you do the toner process after both times you bleached? Or did you only do it after the second bleaching?
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I’m super in love with this. I’m just not brave enough to bleach my hair at home, or go blonde for that matter!
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Omg do it! Hair is the easiest way to change things up, and it grows back out if you hate it! Esp. with blonde you can just dye it right back!
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