How to Successfully Bleach Your Hair At Home

When I first bleached my hair at home, I had no idea that salons offered this. I wouldn’t know that select salons bleached naturally curly hair until much later. Get great tips from one of my best at-home bleach jobs here.

If you’ve read my hair color journey (here you can read parts 1, 2, and 3), then you know I’ve bleached my hair many times; always at home. I did a ton of research beforehand, but I ultimately accepted the risk of making a mistake. I could have ended up with my hair breaking off. I want you to really understand that this is risky business, and for some people it can turn out to be a nightmare! So, for the sake of legality, everything in this post is my experience with bleaching my hair at home. Even if you follow my tips to the letter, by bleaching your hair at home you have put yourself at risk of hair breakage, scalp burns, etc. I’m not liable for any of these things if they happen to you. So please be careful and take every precaution!!!

Step 1: Gather your materials.

I strongly suggest starting with Splat’s Bleach kit, because in it you get nearly everything you need: plastic gloves, a plastic cap, the bleach, deactivating shampoo and deep conditioner. Awesome right? If you’re not using Splat’s bleach kit you’ll need to make sure you still get all of these materials for the job. I also find that Splat’s bleach is really strong and will not take as long to develop (lift your dark color to make the hair lighter), which is good if you have thick, curly, nearly black virgin hair (hair that has never been chemically processed).

Next you’ll want to consider a way to protect your scalp and strands. I opted to use raw coconut butter on my dry, dirty hair as an additional barrier to the harsh chemicals (you don’t want your hair to be too dirty; I’ve found second or third day hair works best). I purchased the raw coconut butter at my local beauty store, but you can also buy it at your local grocery in the baking aisle. I highly recommend this raw coconut butter from Amazon.

Step 2: Read the directions on your bleach!

Don’t skip this part. If you’ve successfully dyed your hair before, go with what you know. But if this is a new process for you, read all the directions. This way, you know what to do, when to do it, and how long you should leave the bleach on your hair.

Step 3: Section your hair, detangling each section as you go.

If you’re like me and you have lots of thick, curly hair, then you can section your hair in 4-8 sections. If you have naturally straight, less voluminous hair, then 4 section will be fine. However many sections you decide to make, you’ll want to detangle each section so there are no knots or kinks. This makes the bleach application process much easier. Plastic hair clips are best to keep your sections separated, but in a jam I’ve used metal hair clips and nothing bad happened to my hair. If I can’t get to my hair clips, I just use a few hair ties and make little loose buns with my sections. When I’m really thorough, I turn each section into a 2-strand twist which gives me even more sections to work with and elongates my 4B/4C curl pattern.

Step 4: Apply the raw coconut butter liberally to each section.

Don’t cake your hair up with it, but apply it to each of your sections as you would a regular leave-in conditioner! When cold, the raw coconut butter will be solid or dense like a grease. I like to use it this way because it creates less of a mess. If it’s hot, the coconut butter will melt and become clear and liquid. It also warms up between your hands if you rub them together. It’s completely fine to use it this way; it will have the same protecting effect on your hair. I just don’t recommend it because you’re liable to get coconut oil everywhere! (FYI, I haven’t been able to get oil to come out of any of my clothes once it gets on by accident, but if anyone knows a way to achieve this, share your secret in the comments below!)

Step 5: Mix your bleach.

The best directions for mixing your bleach will come in the Splat kit. You’ll get bottles to mix it in and it’ll all be very easy to do. If you don’t have the kit and you’re mixing developer with bleach powder, mix them together in a plastic bowl! I like to use cheap plastic utensils for any quick mixing; you can recycle/dispose of them easily afterwards.

Step 6: Apply your bleach.

Put on your plastic gloves (from your Splat bleach kit) and get to it! I like to leave about an inch of virgin hair near my roots so that I don’t burn or irritate my scalp. Always start applying bleach at the front of your hair. Wherever you first apply the bleach will be the lightest. This is especially true if you’re starting from super dark virgin hair. Once you’ve applied bleach to all your sections, you should check your whole head again and make sure that you didn’t miss any spots. Reapply as necessary, then put on your plastic cap (or a plastic bag if you don’t have a cap) and wait! I usually take this time to clean up any messes I’ve made and rinse my plastic gloves so that I can use them again later to rinse out the bleach.

Step 7:  Rinse and deep condition. You’re done!

Once your time is up, put your gloves back on and carefully take off the plastic cap to dispose of it. Rinse most of the bleach out of your hair, and use your deactivating shampoo from the Splat bleach kit to stop the bleach from working any further. If you aren’t using the Splat kit, I suggest using a strong cleansing shampoo to remove all the bleach mixture from your hair. One of the strongest cleansing shampoos I’ve ever used is from Rusk; you can buy it here on Amazon. Once you’ve shampooed once or twice, then you can go in with your deep conditioner. Splat’s deep conditioner is amazinggg. I really wish they sold it separately. But if you’re not using the Splat kit, be sure to use the richest deep condish you know of. (I strongly recommend SheaMoisture’s Mongogo & Hemp Seed Oils High Porosity Moisture Seal Masque. You can buy it here on Amazon or at SheaMoisture’s website.

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I hope you learned something from this walkthrough! If you have any questions or anecdotes, let me know by leaving a comment below! Extra points if you share the color you want to dye your hair!Talk to you soon,




Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. I would NOT recommend any product or method that I do not love or use. I only recommend tried and true products/methods! You can read my full disclaimer here.