Every time you try to lighten your hair color or shift to a more trendy tint, you have to use bleach. The bleaching process that employs a developer is a simple and easy way to remove the original pigment from your hair strands. However, all of this doesn’t come without a cost. The chemicals from bleach damage your hair making it gummy, stretchy, dry, and weak.
A few days ago, when I asked ladies to ask me anything about problems they often face when coloring their manes, one question popped up frequently. It was the gummy and greasy hair after bleaching. So, I decided to detail down this whole topic about bleach-damaged hair.
Gummy hair after bleaching is a common concern of many, and it happens due to the overprocessing of the hair with bleach chemicals. The hair strands take hours to dry when you wet them and lose all of their vibrance.
Read on to know what you can do to fix the gummy hair from bleaching.
Why Is Your Hair Gummy After Bleaching?
Typically, the hair strands are smooth because the cuticle remains closed, locking in the moisture. But, when you leave the bleach in your hair for too long or do it twice in one day, the bonds holding the hair shaft break irreversibly. The bleaching chemicals, especially the developer, strip off the proteins from the hair, resulting in gummy, greasy, and stretched hair.
If you have gummy hair after bleaching, it is mainly caused by the excessive protein loss from the hair strands and the broken bonds, which leave the cuticle open and take away the hair’s elasticity. Fortunately, a few good options like olaplex and aphogee protein treatment are available that help with gummy hair.
The fixes mentioned below for gummy bleached hair mainly do two things. First, they replenish the lost protein from the hair strands. Second, they reform broken bonds from bleach and restore hair’s elasticity and vibrance.
How To Fix Gummy Bleached Hair?
If your hair has turned gummy and easily breaks away or looks ridiculous after the bleaching, don’t think of trimming it down straight away. There are helpful options like olaplex and aphogee protein treatment available to fix the manes, no matter how severely damaged they are.
1. Can Olaplex Fix Gummy Hair?
The developer in the bleach, which is chemically known as hydrogen peroxide, has a harsh action on your hair strands. When it is left for too long in the hair to get maximum color lifting or used too often, hydrogen peroxide breaks the core bonds of the hair, leaving it damaged, gummy, and rough.
Olaplex contains magic ingredients that coat the cracks on hair strands to make them look smoother and repair the broken disulfide bonds. It is an immediate treatment that fixes your gummy bleached hair.
This ingredient, bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, also called bonds builder, in olaplex, rebuilds the structure and integrity of your gummy bleached hair and gets you smoother and considerably stronger locks.
Nine products are available from olaplex, all intended to be used before, during, or after the bleach. But, you need to buy olaplex No. 3, which repairs all the broken bonds.
You will need to apply olaplex once a week before washing your bleached or colored hair. Just pour 2-3 tbsp of it all over your hair and gently comb through the hair strands.
2. Aphogee Protein Treatment For Gummy Bleached Hair
One of the main reasons for gummy hair after bleaching is protein loss. The harsh chemicals of bleach rip away the protective proteins, leaving hair cuticles open. Therefore, the hair becomes unable to hold any moisture which is inevitable for stronger bonding in the core of the hair shaft.
Aphogee treatment employs active proteins alongside natural oils and minerals that replenish the lost protein from your hair. It is a perfect formula to repair the damaged and gummy hair due to bleaching because its proteins dramatically fuse with hair and harden it from the inside.
Aphogee is a two-step treatment, which means you have to repeat the whole process twice. And what is that process?
- Wash your gummy bleached hair gently with aphogee shampoo.
- Apply the aphogee protein treatment thoroughly on your manes.
- Gently comb through the hair strands so that all of them get the solution.
- Let hair dry on its own or use the drying hood while not covering it with anything. Uncovered! Yeah.
- When hair is dry, rinse out the aphogee protein treatment and repeat the whole process.
The bleached hair, which is stretchy, gummy, and dry, will become healthier and smoother with aphogee protein solution for 4 to 6 weeks following the treatment.
3. Use Coconut Oil
According to a study, coconut oil is the most valuable oil for hair when moisturizing and nourishing your mane. It contains 20 out of 22 amino acids, vitamins, and medium-chain fatty acids that are incredibly nourishing.
The coconut oil help replenish the protein lost during the bleaching process and treats the gummy hair by restoring its elasticity and vibrancy. So, which type of coconut oil is best for bleached hair?
Experts recommend cold-pressed coconut oil for chemically treated hair because it contains all of the proteins and vitamins, unlike its other types.
But is coconut oil an immediate solution for your gummy bleached hair? No, unlike the olaplex and aphogee treatments, coconut oil needs some time to restore your smoother and healthier hair.
So, you should employ it alongside the above two treatments to get better and more sustainable results.
How To Take Care of Gummy Bleached Hair
In addition to going for quick fixes for your gummy hair, you also need to take care of it to prevent further damage and breakage. In that regard, the following points will help you to look after your damaged hair strand from bleaching.
- Your hair has already lost its natural oil that helps retain the moisture. Therefore, don’t wash your mane too often to allow the oil to build up. Washing your hair not more than once or twice every week after the bleaching will help hydrate the strands.
- Nourish and condition the gummy hair with a leave-in conditioner.
- Abstain from using any heat and chemical products on your bleached hair.
- Don’t try brushing the dry hair.
- Use rice water to replenish the lost keratin from your hair strands. It will help harden and smoothen your gummy bleached hair by coating it.
- Go for a trim.
Wrapping Up
Leaving bleach in your hair for too long or using it too often can severely damage your hair and make it gummy, stretchy, dry, and weak. While fixing the gummy bleached hair is not easy, a few specialized treatments like olaplex and aphogee protein are available.
Visit your hairstylist or buy any of these options to do it at home. Talking to an expert always helps your hair recover quickly.
