How I Lightened my hair at home

My hair had been driving me mad for a while and a couple of days ago I cut the messy ends off myself. It was around Christmas and I couldn't get an appointment anywhere and I only wanted a trim, which I have done quite a few times before.

It's really easy and saves a lot of money. Obviously I'm no professional but I think the result is pretty good for a quick and easy fix.

Basically all I do is part my hair into bunchies, pull the hair ties down over brushed hair until I get to the length which I want to cut and literally just snip off with sharp hair dressing scissors. Then I take the hairdressing scissors and slightly cut into the ends of hair so it's not dead dead straight and voila.

I then decided I wanted to add a few subtle highlights to make my hair look lighter overall as this is how I like my hair best.

I watched a few YouTube videos on techniques to do this at home and went and bought myself some dye.

I ended up going with The Nordic Blonde by Schwarzkopf Ultimate Hair Lightener which was a level 1++ . I think it only cost about $11. I think I chose this one because of the Anti Yellow formula!

                       

I mixed it up as the instructions said except with one stupid mistake. The instructions told me to mix the POWDER in with the mixture in the bottle. I wasn't concentrating and the bloody CONDITIONER in. I was too impatient to go and get another kit so I decided to just add the mixture in and the developer creme and hope for the best, luckily it didn't seem to affect the end result!! Such a stupid mistake can't believe I did that haha! 

Then I put the gloves provided on and ran the mixture over small thin section of hair, not going quite up to the roots. I wanted it to look as natural and sun-kissed as possible. Like I'd been in the sun too long and my hair had been lightened at the ends.

I didn't want the highlights to look to styled and definitely didn't want them looking stripy. So this is the technique I went with. It was a bit of a risk but I think it turned out exactly as I imagined.

I washed the bleach out and put some Nordic Blonde Toner (again by Schwarzkof) over all my hair, which I left in for five minutes. This helped even the colour out.

I washed the toner out and my hair felt very dry! So I put a shit load of OGX Argan Oil conditioner all over my hair and left for about ten minutes whilst I soaked in the bath.

I was so happy with how the colour turned out, especially with the 'rough' technique I used!

Home hair kits are usually a winner for me and I do tend to use them instead of gong to a salon.

Love Hayley x