I have a classmate that sported a funky looking hair cut. She had dyed her hair strawberry red and I thought it suited her fine. Her skin complemented the vibrant color, so it was easy on the eyes.
But then she got tired of it because she saw someone else sporting the color. She wanted something different, something that would be more difficult to replicate. I asked her what she was going to do with her hair but she didn’t say anything because apparently she thought that I would sport the same hair dye as well. 
Anyways, she said that she was going to change her hair color during the weekend because she wanted it to be a surprise. So, a week passed and we’re in choir class.
I see a girl with a pixie-styled hair cut and I thought to myself, “Another student joined the choir?”. I saw her drop her pen and went to help her pick it up, because I saw that she was having difficulty to do so because she was wearing pretty high platform boots. When I picked up the pen and looked up at her… I was surprised to see that the girl was actually my classmate! I looked at her hair and she had it dyed brown, I thought it looked okay but I thought that she was going to do something far more… extravagant? I complimented her new hair style and then she gave me an insecure look mixed with the stink eye.
Was it something I said?
Later she went up to me and explained to me what she was actually planning to do to her hair. She was bleaching her hair with the lowest level of peroxide (20); she wanted her hair blonde so that she could then dye it with other colors like blue, pink, silver and what not. Apparently, it didn’t go as well as she planned, as when she began to bleach her hair she said that her hair “melted”. She freaked out and chopped it all off. Then she freaked out even more because she had done an awful mistake by cutting her hair all crazy-like. She had to go to a beauty salon right away to get it fixed, so they just fixed her hair cut and evened it out into a nice pixie cut and then they dyed her hair light brown, which I think compliments her quite well.
You can be sure that she won’t do something like this ever again, the girl was traumatized. She wanted to “wow” everyone with her rainbow-inspired hair but instead tasted the bitter taste of fail. This is was her main idea, but unfortunately it didn’t go as well as she hoped.
She doesn’t like her haircut very much, especially since she had to chop off her beautiful long hair. She doesn’t want to hear the word “dye” or “bleached” for a long time.
We all do things that sometimes end up a horrible mistake. Heck, I’ve done crazy things myself with my hair. But never had I thought of doing something like what she was going to do. I like colors but that kind of style is just too colorful for my taste. Although there are plenty of women, I’m sure, that do sport it quite well.
Have you ever had a bad experience with the process of bleaching your hair? How did you deal with your negative experience?
guest
If you count having it fall out in handfuls, and break mid way down, yes indeed.
Not all hair can survive the chemicals we use.
I can’t dye my hair—which I discovered at 20.
Bald is a BAD LOOK for me.
guest
I have done all sorts of crazy breaking games to my hair nit it always grows back
hydrangea / 56 posts
I don’t speak for all cosmetologists but I know I have done some crazy stuff to my hair, especially in beauty school when we had time to “experiment”.
I have dark hair, and I really wanted to see what the lightest blonde would look like on me. Impatient, and knowing some skills, I’ve done things to my hair that I would never do to anyone such as bleach and 40 volume developer on my hair paired with something hot like a blowdryer or flat iron directly over the foil.I’ve had it turn to mush when wet and not been able to wear a black shirt due to my ends randomly falling off onto my shoulders. Not even the best deep conditioners can bring that back to life.All of this to avoid the yucky orange stage of bleaching.
rose / 937 posts
The only bad experience was orange and super dry/damaged hair. Didn’t help that I flat ironed it daily though.
guest
Never bleached it on my own, but I have had professionals handle it and thankfully my hair didn’t all fall out.
sunflower / 413 posts
My hair is naturally blonde but I do highlight it. I’ve never had a problem and it usually comes out looking awesome.
guest
My hair dresser is fabulous, so no. I have special silver shampoo and conditioner to stop it from going that yellowy colour.
However, when I did the box dyes it was a horrible blonde/yellow colour.
guest
I’d never bleach my hair at home! That’s just a recipe for disaster, lol. I dye my hair at home using box dyes ALL the time though, and I’ve never had a problem with it at all.
guest
i have naturally dark dark brown hair but i maintained blonde hair for over a year by bleaching my roots every 2 months. my hair super long and it’s damaged but it’s still manageable. recently, i went back to brown and i’m giving my hair a break for a year… but as long as you don’t dye your black, a bad bleach job is hard to come by. DYED black hair is IMPOSSIBLE TO GET RID OF so don’t do it if you ever wanna go blonde
guest
No, never. Ive bleached it over and over, dyed it 3x in one week, permed it unsuccessfully and now my hair is just a little damaged (and that’s all thanks to the perm).
I think some peoples hair cant handle it or theyre doing it the wrong way.
guest
Yeah. I found it very difficult to find a good stylist overseas. One of them turned it orange. It was supposed to be platinum blonde, which I had done before with great results.
guest
I have super-fine hair but it is shockingly resilient and has never turned mushy or fallen out. I do a lot of at-home dye, but rarely bleach. And I’ve never gone to a beauty supply store to get the real stuff because I don’t know how to mix it…I stick to box dye. Last weekend I bleached my hair that was previously dyed a very intense red-auburn. It definitely turned a shade that I would call tangerine-gold. But I pretty much expected that and I didn’t want to leave the color on for the max recommended time lest it weaken and break.
My basic rule is this: no matter what color it turns, work it like you meant it to come out that way. Most people will never know it was a “mistake,” and even if they look at it and think to themselves that it’s godawful, that doesn’t really matter because it’s not their head, it’s yours
guest
@BaBeEeE_pUcCa@xanga - A-freaking-men to the dyed black thing. If you want to go black, be prepared to drop tons of money into going back. I went to a stylist once to go almost-platinum from jet black, and while I cringed when I found out how much it would cost, she did a beautiful job and my hair felt amazing. Sometimes it’s worth the money, but I had to save up for a long time.
guest
No, I am very very particular about my hair. My entire life I had virgin hair, very long, only had it trimmed and it fell to about my butt.
When my mom passed away when I was 21 I decided to honor her by colouring my hair for the every first time the same colour she used to colour hers. It was a RADICAL change for me.
I’ve had my hair many shades of reds/ maroons since then, but still only within that spectrum and I never ever do my own hair, I happily pay my wonderful stylist. I’ve had layered put in my hair, but I still keep it long and I doubt I will ever dye it any other colour.
daisy / 505 posts
Good thing she messed up bc her intentional haircut is hideous!
daffodil / 1525 posts
i’ve bleached and toned my hair 3 times each within the past month. it’s doing alright. it’s just important to put deep conditioner on it for the first few days following the bleaching.
guest
For a long time I had the blackest black hair possible (dyed of course) and then suddenly, I decided I wanted white hair, so I decided to just try bleaching it, and bought bleach from walmart. My hair instead of becoming blonde, or even brown, went orange, red, then black, roots to tip, and the more I bleached it, the lighter it got. Yellow, orange, red, then blonde, yellow, and orange, and it badly damaged my hair to the point of me cutting it really really short, and just going with a darker blonde color. Even after all of that though, my hair is rather healthy now, after using good conditioner, and such. Oh, and the time between these bleachings was around two weeks for each.
Yeah, I think my hair hates me now because of it.
Tl;dr: go to a professional, always, for bleaching.
guest
i dyed my hair a TON when i was 16. it was white, purple, a nasty orange colour (thanks to the repercussions of dyeing it too much), and black (i dyed my hair on my own… bad idea, btw). i finally accepted the fact that none of the colours suited me and had my cut hair in a pixie (like your friend) by a professional. if you have damaged your hair a lot, the best thing to do is cut it and start over. now my hair is in a bob and back to it’s natural colour, and i am quite happy. i think everyone goes through some sort of “hair crisis”, and tries different styles. it’s just part of figuring out what you want to do with your hair.
my main advice is to a) always have your hair cut professionally. b) never dye your hair yourself c) never cut your hair yourself.
guest
I wanted a red color, so I bleached it first. Then I dyed it red. It came out an awful fire engine red and was so dry and damaged. I dyed it a dark brown over top of it, and it was a brown with a reddish tint. It looked amazing on me, and I’ve never been able to get the color back. I dye it myself using the box kits, and I’ve never had a problem with them.I like Deep Burgundy by Garnier, but it fades so fast. I never cut it myself but since I have psoriasis all over my head I can only get my hair cut in between flare ups (which is very rare), because most hair stylists think it’s contagious and refuses to do my hair.
guest
I had dyed my hair without bleach for 12 years, and finally decided I wanted it a fire-engine red, which required bleaching. I bleached it in November and it’s still falling out, and I’ve developed split ends, which I’ve never had before. Toward the ends it’s like straw and it’s really thinned out. I won’t be bleaching again! Regular dye all the way!
guest
wow some of the advice in these comments is completely misguided. You can lift solid black hair, my friends and I did on myself while I was in beauty school. We did a shampoo cap process with 1/3 bleach, 1/3 20 vol developer, 1/3 shampoo and worked that through my hair for a few hours, lifted it beautifully and did NOT fry it at all. However, I had professional black color on my hair, not box dye. I would not recommend trying to bleach over box dye. I had a horrible bleach experience in high school though. I was 15 and messing around with bleach with my friends. We ended up frying my hair to the point where it was mushy, I used dumb blonde reconstructor for a few months and it definitely helped heal my hair.
guest
“Have you ever had a negative experience bleaching you hair?” Have you ever bleached your hair (yourself)? ’Nuff sed.
At least the first time you do it yourself, it’s complete gong show. Then you start figuring out what works for you hair and what doesn’t. Namely which product will kill it less than others. Fortunately, colouring it (a “natural” colour or blue) puts some of the life back into your frazzled strands…
guest
I have crazy dark hair, so I bleached it myself, stupidly, and the end result was clown orange hair. The roots where perfectly blonde, the tips were red, and the mass bright orange. It was in 7th grade and I remember getting made fun of at the school dance that night!
guest
My dad bleached my hair….. lol.. It turned out alright though.
guest
I bleach and tone the ends of my hair with 30 volume developer and blue bleach once a month to maintain my ombre. My hair literally feels like a mop (mushy, spongy ends and all) when it’s wet, but I use a lot of shine and conditioning serums to combat it. Looks fine when it’s dry, hah
sunflower / 323 posts
the worst thing i’ve done is bleach it with palty hair dye . i wanted a ash/yellow tone but my hair is naturally dark dark brown w/ red undertones so when i bleached it it was freakin orange/yellow . naaasty colour n i had to keep it cz i didnt’ want to redye my hair and damage reit anymo