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Everything You Wanted to Know About Bleach

© Marlin Bressi

It is unfortunate that these days, the work "bleach" evokes images of fried and dried-out hair. I've been trained to replace the word bleach with "lightener" or "pigment remover" in the salon to avoid any negative imagery. If you tell a woman you need to bleach her hair, chances are, she's going to ask, "You're going to do WHAT to my hair?!". On the other hand, if you explain to her that you need to "pre-lighten" the hair or "decolorize" the hair, she'll unwittingly oblige.

The truth is that bleach is formulated to be safer and gentler than ever before. Years ago, the chemicals used in the salon were harsh and could damage the hair and irritate the skin. Technology and advances in chemistry have allowed manufacturers to produce a bleach that isn't only safer to use, but more effective as well.

Let's first list all the situations when bleaching some or all of the hair is necessary. The obvious situation is when someone with dark hair wants to be a blonde, or go significantly lighter with their hair. Lifting the hair three levels (on a scale from 2 to 10, with 2 being black, 7 being medium brown, and 10 being blonde), may be possible with some haircolor alone, but to go from a level 3 (the darkest brown found naturally in hair) to a level 8 (light brown) would require bleach. If you want to go more than 4 levels lighter, you'll need to bleach the hair first. Bleaching the hair is necessary if a vibrant color is desired. This is called pre-lightening, and helps achieve a better final color result. Highlighting or frosting also requires the use of bleach, especially if you want to have very pale highlights or streaks.

Now that we have identified the reasons for bleaching, let me take a minute to describe the different types of bleaches.

Powder bleach is the most common and also the strongest. It is a powder that must be mixed with developer (peroxide) in order to work. Developers usually come in four strengths. They are: 10 volume, 20 volume, 30 volume, and 40 volume. Volume refers to the percentage of peroxide in the developer. Mixing bleach with 40 volume developer is maximun strength, and is used only when the hair is healthy and maximun lightening is desired. Mixing bleach with 10 volume developer gives more subtle results. We most commonly mix bleach with either 20 or 30 volume developer, since it is easiest to monitor and control. Sometimes the bleach powder has a blue color, which helps drab unwanted brassy tones. This is the same reason laundry detergent is often blue; blue helps neutralize yellow stains and dinginess.