Many of you become stumped when it comes to gray (grey) hair. You think it can't be bleached when it can. Like non-gray hair, bleach will do what it is suppose to do, remove pigment.
For this post, I show Olivia Sr.'s gray hair as an example. She has a smattering of gray around her hairline but the most concentrated is her right around the ear area. In truth, Olivia Sr. is about 5% to 10% gray. You might say, how lucky, well having gray hair no matter what the amount is the same; just pure frustration when it comes to coloring.
You can see the gray intermingled with her natural dark brown roots and the garnet red hair color.
Bleach has been mixed accordingly and mixed a bit with coconut oil to avoid it from drying out. Bleach dries out easily and when that happens, it will remove the pigments from the hair unevenly. Usually, it will look blotchy or you will have "rings" on a strand of hair. You can't allow bleach to dry out.
This is the result from 45 minutes of bleach. The natural hair color has gone from a dark brown (level 2) to about a bleach level of red/orange which is where it should be for the hair color that is to be applied.
The close-up of the gray that has been bleached. You can see it has turned close to a white but it is more of a pale yellow-white.
As mentioned, you should use the N series in hair color to return the pigments into gray hair. Now, that is fine if you want your gray hair to look like a natural hair color. However, Olivia Sr. isn't always comfortable with natural and likes a bit more intensity. In this case, the N series of hair color is completely ignored, none is used.
This is the end result of the hair color, a pure garnet which is Garnier Olia in Light Garnet Red. Since her hair was bleached to the red/orange level, red or any color in that family becomes more emphasized. In this case, the garnet really comes through. There is no need to bleach the non-gray hair to an unnecessary level.
As mentioned, any percentage of gray hair is frustrating. Low may be more. Why? Coloring such a low percentage to blend with the rest of the hair takes the same amount of effort as someone with 100% gray hair or sometimes more effort. An example would be trying to incorporate gray hair with blonde highlights, instead of just bleaching the entire head. If any of you have had highlights, you know how time consuming it is to divide the hair into little sections and to place them into foils.
Now, you have seen an example of how gray hair reacts when bleached and colored. It is no different from regular bleached hair. Except you are softening the gray hair much more thoroughly than what you would be getting with just regular pre-softening. The only part that makes bleaching difficult is you need someone to help you or you won't get an even application.
Hope this answered some of your gray hair and bleach questions.
Olivia
