How to Die Your Hair Blonde at Home

blonde hair

Die your hair blonde at home can be tricky, but it's not impossible to do, even if you have no experience coloring your own hair at home. You will need a two-step process bleaching and then apply color on bleached hair. It is not advisable to dye your hair blonde if your hair is already damaged from dyeing or already permed.

Tips for Dyeing Brown Hair Blonde

Hair is made of both black and red pigments. Bleaching your hair will remove the dark pigments but will leave the red pigments. This causes bleached hair to look brassy or orange. For a warmer blonde shade, you will have to use a blonde hair dye after you lighten your hair with bleach.

When going from brown hair to blonde hair, hair will be darker when it is wet. It's very important to test a strand of hair and let the strand dry completely. Leaving bleach on too long can cause hair to turn a dark shade of green. If you do accidentally end up with green hair, you will need to balance it with something red. Henna or ketchup left on the hair for 30 minutes are both effective and safe to use.

How to Use Bleach and Toner

Because the roots are always darker than the rest of the hair, begin applying bleach 1/2 an inch from the scalp. Comb the bleach through your hair to ensure each strand is covered. Comb your hair a second time to make sure all strands are covered. Once you reach the middle of the total time as indicated by your strand test, apply bleach to the 1/2 inch you left untouched.

Always go by the time and not the color, since color will be darker when it is wet. When time is up, rinse your hair thoroughly to remove the bleach. Wash with a gentle shampoo and rinse again. Towel dries your hair.

The toner is the dye that will add blonde color to your hair. Sometimes the color you get after bleaching is the color you want, and you can skip adding toner. If you are using a toner, use one that does not have peroxide or ammonia.

Mix toner with developer before applying to the hair. Leave the toner on your hair long enough to let the color soak into the hair and rinse. Use a deep conditioner after bleaching your brown hair to blonde hair.

How to Dye Your Hair from Brown to Blonde without Bleach

• Mix lemon juice with water in a spray bottle. Fill a plastic spray bottle with water, and add lemon juice (fresh or concentrated). Shake up to mix.

• Spray the lemon juice on the hair you want dyed blonde. If you want blonde streaks instead of dying whole areas, separate out the strand, hold the spritzer so that it's a half-inch (about 2 cm) from your hair and spray. Use your fingers to wet the rest of the strand with the juice that's on it. If you're dying all of your hair, spray liberally and run your fingers through your hair to make sure you get full coverage.

   

• Apply heat or sunlight to your hair to make the color process. You have 2 options for this step:

Apply the lemon juice to wet or dry hair, and go outside in the sun for a few hours. If you choose this option, apply sunscreen that's at least SPF 15 to any exposed skin.
Or apply the lemon juice to wet hair, and blow it dry on high heat.
   

• Repeat the above process every 2 or 3 days. You might not see results after the first time, but you'll notice a difference in a week.

Keep your hair healthy. While dying your hair with lemon juice doesn't require you to damage your hair with bleach, lemon juice is an acid, and will dry out your hair. Use a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner, and try not to blow dry, curl, or flat iron your hair more than 2 or 3 times a week.