Can you tint over bleach? | Abingdon | Didcot | Wantage | Oxfordshire

Tinting over bleached hair isn’t as you might expect as straightforward as applying a darker colour (tint) directly onto bleach and hoping for a perfect and consistent end result. A misconception among many is that bleach isn’t a hair colour; bleach merely removes the natural pigment from your hair, often leaving it in a lighter, more porous state. Think of when you get household bleach on your clothes. If you have black clothes, it tends to turn them red. This isn’t because bleach is ‘red’, it’s simply ‘lightens’ the starting colour which in this instance is black. Yet when applying tint to already bleached hair, because it behaves differently to your virgin hair, your desired colour will absorb differently than it would on unbleached hair, sometimes resulting in patchiness and usually a darker colour.

It’s important to consider that bleach is used for lightening hair and will only ever present as one of the following; red, orange, yellow or white. When applying a tint directly to bleach this can affect how the tint appears once applied. For example, if you don’t address the bleach first and jump straight in with a tint, if your intended colour was a brown, you may end up with green! It’s important that if you intend to go for a darker a shade to consult with a professional first.