Dark Brown --> Yellow --> Silver/White (Looking for advice on my method)

Oct 26, 2013

Jonah R.

Hey there guys, I'm new here.
Currently my hair is dark brown but unfortunately some of it isn't virgin. I had dyed my hair a dark red colour (from a box dye) and it turned out wonderful but when it started to wash out I just dyed my hair back dark brown (my natural colour) and that worked out fine. I have portions of my hair that are still dyed however a lot of it is most likely fresh grown.

I'm trying to achieve silver/white and here is how I plan to attempt this:
1. Bleach + 30 vol developper from Sally's.
2. Bleach until light yellow/blonde.
3. Use a purple shampoo to tone out the yellow into white.

Now, I went to Sally's today to purchase a small amount of both developper and bleach as well as the purple shampoo.
I cut a strand of my hair and used the bleach and kept it in for 40 minutes.
At the end of the process my hair strand was a caramel (still fairly dark).
I used to purple shampoo and it toned down the orange but it wasn't anywhere near white.

This lead my to believe that I would have to bleach more hair more than once in order to achieve the yellowy-blonde colour. Now, I'm just looking for the best possible advice before I even attempt to do it to my full head.
PS. My hair is healthy, I have never bleached before.

Thank you!

Oct 26, 2013

Carolyn H.

I bleached mine from dark brown to platinum over the course of 3 days.

2 times the first day to a medium orange, let my hair breath then finally a third time 2 days later.

Lots of deep treatments, but it was still a more golden blonde.

I waited a bit them bleached it again to achieve a white platinum..


To get it silver I used a gloss on top white made it more gray then yellow.

But this was over the course of months since initially I wanted a more yellow platinum.

Oct 26, 2013

Jonah R.

And you didn't find it dried it out too much doing it twice in the same day?

Oct 26, 2013

Carolyn H.

I did an olive oil mask which helped a lot. Honestly my hair was pretty damaged after but I constantly conditioned and treated it and it worked out fine.

Oct 26, 2013

Jonah R.

Yeah, I'm trying to bleach my hair in the best most safest way bleaching can be done, which is isn't very safe at it's safest. I guess I might have to wait a week between bleaching. :P.

Oct 26, 2013

Carolyn H.

If it's orange- I'd do a mask give it a day or 2 and try again- either way bleach is stripping your hair of the moisture

Oct 26, 2013

Taylor W.

Try using kaleidocolors bleach in neutral. That tends to work well on dark hair. It eliminates red undertones and yellow undertones. Or you can use the violet one, but I've noticed that doesn't get you as light the first time on dark hair but that one will put you closer to the ashy color your going for. Or you could lift to the caramel the use a high lift platinum blonde color with 40 vol.

Oct 26, 2013

Taylor W.

Or use a toner.

Oct 26, 2013

Jonah R.

Okay so I just remembered that about 2 summers ago I tried to dye my bangs a lighter version of brown so I bought a blonde highlighting kit at the store (just a drug store kind) and I left it in too long and it went straight to yellow blonde. Most of my hair now is uncoloured fresh growth but some has been dyed with ash blonde. Is there any hope in achieving the yellow blonde in one bleaching or am I jumping the gun? I don't want to do anything at all if It's going to destroy my hair. My hair is fairly short so at most there would be copper ends on the top of my hair I'd think.

Oct 27, 2013

Taylor W.

Try a soap cap first

Oct 28, 2013

Hali H.

I would just leave the lightner on about 5 or 10 minutes longer as long as it is still wet it will still develop. also make sure you are not somewhere cold it will develop slower.. after the 40 minutes just take a wet towel n wipe a small amount off and keep checking it until it looks yellow.
and for toning if you don't want to have to continue doing it you need a violet toner from sallys that you put wirh developer. I also went almost white blonde by using manic panic violet mixed with conditioner (more violet then you have in the violet conditioner or shampoos) you can find the tutorial on youtube just search toning with manic panic violet.. there is also a silver toner by manic panic it should be at sallys too