One of the most common trends in modern hair care is hair bleaching. Hair bleach must be used to lighten your hair, whether you want to become blond, color it brightly, or just add some highlights. Contrary to hair colors, bleaches are harsher and can negatively impact your hair’s health and texture, and it is inevitable that sooner or later, you will face the bleaching hair side effects.

If you choose to bleach your hair, be sure to pay close attention to the tools you use, the procedure itself, and the amount of time the bleach is left on your hair. You may obtain your desired appearance while causing the least amount of harm to your hair by using the best bleaching techniques.

What Is Hair Bleach?

By removing the pigment from your hair strands, hair bleach is a chemical that lightens the color of your hair. One of the quickest and easiest methods for rinsing color off your hair is this one. Once the bleach has sufficiently lightened your hair, you may change the color of your hair using a hair dye. You may also have a number of problems, including hair loss and split ends. Even hair growth slows or abruptly ceases throughout the process.

The pigment molecule known as melanin gives your hair its unique color. Eumelanin and pheomelanin are the two forms of melanin that are frequently detected in human hair. Since these two melanin kinds are present in varying ratios in different persons, hair color varies from person to person. Your hair strands lose melanin when you use bleaching treatments.

You can choose between two different types of hair-bleaching chemicals, depending on the intensity you want. The first, known as a lightener, may bleach black hair into brown. The more potent substance, sometimes known as powder bleach, causes black hair to turn light brown.

How It Works

Whether you use a powder bleach or a lightener, the bleaching process is the same. Alkaline agents and oxidizing agents are the two main chemical kinds included in most hair bleaching treatments. For instance, in lighteners, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) aids in oxidation, while ethanolamine or ammonia provides the alkaline conditions required for lightening. Persulfate salts work as extra oxidizing agents in addition to hydrogen peroxide when it comes to powder bleaches.

Treat your hair strands with the alkaline agent before bleaching them. This facilitates the oxidizing agent’s action by opening up the cuticle of your hair strands. The melanin molecule is chemically broken down by H2O2 in the alkaline environment, leading to oxidative deterioration. The melanin pigments disintegrate as a result. Your hair’s color becomes lighter as a result.

Several individuals mistake home bleaches for hair bleaches. Keep in mind that oxygen or sodium hypochlorite bleaches should be used to clean laundry and sanitize surfaces. Although these household bleaches employ the same oxidation process as hair bleaches to whiten garments and surfaces, they are considerably more hazardous and corrosive and should never be used on your body. Now let’s get to the point and go through the bleaching hair side effects.

1.      Damage to your hair is more likely

The harm that has already been done by the bleaching process can be made worse by environmental factors like wind, humidity, and UV radiation. These environmental factors rob moisture from your hair, aggravating the dryness of bleached hair, which is already dry and damaged.

2.      Bleaching causes an irreversible chemical reaction with melanin.

One of the bleaching hair side effects is that in the process of bleaching, hydrogen peroxide is applied to the hair to relax the cuticle, dissolve the pigment, and lighten the hair by oxidizing the melanin.

In essence, melanin is what gives hair its natural color, and hydrogen peroxide causes an irreversible chemical process in which melanin loses its color. Because the natural fatty acids on the hair shaft are broken down during the oxidation process, this might weaken and damage the hair. For this reason, it’s important to only bleach your hair once or twice.

Only keratin treatments (at least for a few months) have a chance of saving your bleached hair.

3.      The more you bleach your hair, the faster the color disappears.

Your hair’s porosity affects its capacity to take in moisture. Too porous hair is more prone to damage and breakage since it struggles to keep its protein balance and retain moisture. This is frequently brought on by heat damage or chemically modifying the hair, such as bleaching. Frizz and dryness are likely to be a continual fight in hair with high porosity. High to medium porosity hair is ideal since it allows moisture in a while, keeping water out. When the hair’s cuticle is flat and closed, it has low porosity, which causes natural oils and cosmetics to rest on the hair rather than absorb it.

Want to test? Just submerge your hair in the water!

Moisture isn’t the only thing that your hair can’t absorb when it is excessively porous and damaged. Due to open cuticles, which make it impossible for the color molecules to be retained, hair colors fade extremely rapidly.

This includes BLACK hair color; even black hair color can fade quickly if your hair has been bleached 3-5 times in the past (sometimes on purpose, sometimes due to hairdressers’ mistakes).

Hence, the only thing you can do is use colored shampoo. These color-safe shampoos restore the color molecules in your hair to prevent color fading as rapidly.

4. Hair seems to be thick

After bleaching, does your hair appear thick and full? This is due to the fact that your hair becomes drier and more damaged as a result. Your hair volume really rises since damaged hair is less straight.

5. Your scalp may itch, burn, or turn red.

You will have to bleach your hair starting at your roots if you want a full head of color that calls for bleaching. Because bleach is a chemical, it will produce a minor burn on your scalp, which will then begin to itch. It will also get swollen and red. Don’t panic; this is normal. But these bleaching hair side effects highlight how damaging bleaching is to your scalp and hair.

How Can You Reduce Bleaching Hair Side Effects?

Hair strands become weaker when bleached. Decide if your hair is healthy enough to endure hair bleaching before you give it a try. Avoid bleaching it if it’s not to reduce the risk of hair damage.

Bear in mind that getting a significant change in your hair color may require many bleaching procedures. To get the effects you want more quickly, you might be tempted to leave the bleach on your hair for an extended period of time or schedule sessions one after the other. You run the risk of seriously harming your hair if you do that. Always adhere to the suggested sitting time, and schedule your sessions at least 14 days apart. Use products containing bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate and ceramides, which are known to restore the health of bleached hair, if you notice that your strands are breaking more frequently after bleaching.