Bleaching is an incredible way to lift your natural hair color, but it has a price that your hair strands have to pay by undergoing chemical processing. So, If you are to bleach your thin hair, especially fragile one, you should consider a few things first.
You can have thin hair for various reasons, which will determine if your hair can withstand bleaching.
Technically, you can bleach thin hair even if it is fine and weak. However, the bleaching will worsen the strength of your hair strands by breaking their core bonds and stripping proteins.
But I have discussed a few ways below to protect your hair strength against bleaching. These techniques reduce hair fall from bleach by 90%.
Let’s find out how you can bleach your thin and fine hair while keeping the damage at bay.
Is It Okay To Bleach Thin Hair That Has Thick Texture?
Do you know the difference between thin and fine hair? If you have fewer hair strands on your head than the average number, your hair is thin.
On the contrary, you call it fine hair when the hair strands have low density or thickness, like baby hair.
Even when you have more hair strands on your head than the people around you, but their texture is not thick, you will call them fine, not thin. So, both are different.
If your thin hair has thick and healthy strands, you can bleach it.
However, hair roots will be more visible after bleaching, especially when you go blonde from dark hair color. It will be challenging to hide your original hair color at the roots when the hair grows out.
Secondly, when bleaching your black or brown hair blonde, some extent of hair breakage is inevitable because you use high volume developer.
Therefore, if you have fewer hair strands on your head before bleaching, they will further thin out from the bleach.
Experts use the following two products when bleaching relaxed hair to limit the damage. You can do the same for your fine hair strands.
| Buy Olaplex n0. 3 | To be used before and during the bleach to repair broken disulfide bonds |
| Buy Olaplex no. 7 Oil | Repair bleach damage 95%, strengthen hair, and provides a smooth shine |
So, it would be better not to lift your hair color to 4 or 5 levels with bleach in a single go. Instead, go for gradual hair bleaching, lightening your thin hair to two levels, waiting for some days, and then lifting the other two levels.
This way, you use the low-volume developer that’s less damaging and allows your hair some time to recover from the previous chemical processing.
If you get a keratin treatment over your bleached hair, studies confirm it will increase your hair strand diameter by 40% and its strength up to 30-45%.
Can You Bleach Fine Hair?
The hair that is fine has fewer proteins to lose to the bleaching. Also, it might not be well protected by the cuticle as thick hair is.
Therefore, thin and fine hair will suffer aggressive damage from the bleaching, mainly when you use the 30 or 40-volume developer.
When you try to bleach your thin hair to lighten it up to 3-5 levels, it will experience more breakage than an average or thick texture hair. So, experts do not suggest bleaching hair that is thin, fine, and weak.
But is there any way you can bleach your thin and fine hair? Yes, by using olaplex no. 2 as the pre and post-bleach treatment.
Typically, people think bleaching will add volume to their thin hair and give it a curly and textured look. While it is true that your hair strands seem thick after bleaching, the reality is the contrary.
Because of the bleach damage, hair gets dry and rough because of the ripped cuticle. And you know smooth hair feels less thick than rough and curly one.
How To Bleach Thin and Fine Hair?
In the case of men, hair mostly thins out because of progressive hair loss, which is rarely other than genetic. And it also loses its thickness and texture because hair starts to weaken from the roots.
But for women, the causes of thin and fine hair can be hormonal imbalance or various others you can find on the internet. The question is, how do you bleach thin hair that’s already falling? The following two ways will help.
1. Prepare Your Thin and Fine Hair For Bleach
There are a few things you should start doing to your fine hair before bleaching. You will need to reduce shampooing your hair once or twice a week. In addition, you have to forget about all the styling products and tools.
The most crucial part of bleaching fine hair is employing olaplex no. 2 pre and post-treatment. Olaplex no. 2 multiplies disulfide bonds in your hair to strengthen and repair the broken ones.
You can add it to your bleach mixture to prevent the breaking of disulfide bonds while bleach stays on your manes.
Olaplex does not stop the bleach action as the oils do. Mixing coconut oil with bleach or getting your hair too greasy with it or naturally won’t help.
Some people try bleaching their hair while it contains coconut oil to minimize the possible damage from the bleach. But, it is more of a trial and test technique and may not work in every case.
2. Bleaching Hair in Sessions
Drastically changing your hair shade can make your hair gummy and straw-like, and it will suffer excessive breakage. Therefore, risking your already thin and weak hair for lighter color might not be a good deal.
The most suitable way to lift your hair color above two levels is to bleach your hair in Sessions. And give it two to three weak between every two sessions to recover and strengthen.
In each session, the expert stylist will apply the bleach mixture to your thin and fine hair for a short time compared to the usual 20-30 minutes. It is an excellent way to minimize damage.
Secondly, the stylist will use the low-strength developer so that it doesn’t cause too much protein loss in your hair. Within 2-3 sessions of bleach on different days, you can lighten your thin and fine hair to any color you want.
Wrapping Up
While you can bleach thin hair with a thick texture, it may not be possible for fine hair. Hair that is both thin and fine will suffer excessive breakage from bleaching.
However, if you prepare it for the chemical process using coconut oil and then bleach it in different sessions, your thin hair will not experience any dire damage.
