STOP Highlighting...Until you read this ;)

Have you been wanting to make a drastic change lately? Wanting to go from your dark dark brown hair to a beautiful platinum blonde? Well here are some things you need to know before going through the transition. The first thing you should realize is that the change is not going to happen on your first visit at your salon. A lot of the time people will wonder how celebrities like the Kardashians can go from being blonde on Tuesday to purple on Wedneday and back to dark brown by Friday night. Those transitions happen from the power of wigs. In order to make your way to platinum blonde you must first go through the color level system and it is impossible to move from level 1 to level 10 without ruining the integrity of ones hair. To further understand the level system please reference the picture below. (Under picture: The color level system 1-10 1 being black, 10 being pale yellow or where platinum blonde status is achievable). 

There is a lot more to your hair then you may think. When you lighten your hair you are removing the natural pigment within the hair cuticle called melanin. This is a lengthy process and would require the bleach to sit on the hair for a long period of time. However, the longer the bleach stays on your hair the more damaging it can be. If bleach is left on for too long it can cause breakage, burning, or strip the moisture from your hair eventually causing it to fall off. It is always important that your stylist do a strand test. Your stylists will take a small section of your hair usually in the back of your head underneath some more hair where no one can see. They then will apply the lightener to that small section of hair and let it process for about 30 minutes keeping an eye on it and observing how the hair is reacting. The reaction of the hair will tell your stylist if it is healthy for your hair to move forward or if there are extra steps needed before starting the blending process. After a couple visits in the chair you will be able to reach your goal of being a bright blonde but it is important to realize that in order to protect the hair and have it looking shiny and healthy it can not happen in one sitting. Its also important to keep up with the maintenance and taking care of your new blonde hair. Conditioning treatments, hair trims, and at home products are all staples of maintaining that bleach blonde look.