Warning: Strand Test Your Hair Before Bleaching Your Hair

Here is some reasons why it's so important to take a strand test before bleaching your hair? Find out what the consequences could be if you don’t take a strand test before bleaching or highlighting your hair.

The whole point of doing a strand test is to see if there are any reactions such as cause allergic reactions, unusual discoloration of the hair or extensive damage to the scalp or hair.

Your hair is made up of natural chemicals. Hair color and bleaches are synthetic chemicals. If you throw in the outside elements. There is always that chance of an unwanted reaction. When you combine these unknown chemicals.

Unexpected Chemical Reactions and Their Causes

Medication: some medications cause unwanted reactions to chemicals in the bleach and peroxide This can damage your hair or even melt your hair into mush thus causing ex-stream breakage or worse complete hair loss.

Water: chemicals found in water such as iron or chlorine builds up on your hair. This can result in unwanted hair color after bleaching your hair. In most cases green hair with chlorine build up mostly swimmers have this problem. Iron caused from well water cause hair to turn orange.

Chemicals: that you come in contact with at work or at home such as fumes, pollution and toxins and chemicals your body absorbs.

These are just some of the things that can go wrong while bleaching your hair.

Chemical Reactions that Could Have Been Prevented by Doing a Strand Test.

When I was in beauty school I witness a lady's hair catch on fire. The girl who was doing her hair did all the right things from preparing the lady's hair to mixing the bleach and peroxide correctly.

She put the bleach on the hair put the plastic bag on the lady's hair than clipped the bag to ensure the plastic stayed secured.

Everything seemed to be normal. The girl set the timer then walked away. I heard the lady say it felt a little warm which is normal.

Heat helps the bleach and peroxide to process quicker. The quicker the bleach process the less damage to the hair.

The lady complained again! The girl looked at the lady's hair then told her to sit at the shampoo bowl.

She walked away to get some clean towels and that's when I saw something that I thought was smoke coming from the top of the lady's hair. I shook my head then looked again there was a blue flame on this ladies head.

I dropped what I was doing with my customer and ran over to the lady and turned on the cold water. I rinsed the plastic first then removed the plastic bag as I was rinsing her hair.

The lady was not completely honest with the girl who was doing her hair. She said she had no chemicals in her hair.

When she used a temporary color a week ago prior to getting the bleach. She thought it was OK because it was a shampoo out color.

Although temporary colors such as the one that only last until the hair gets shampoo. Still leaves behind a metallic residue to the damaged and porous parts of the hair.

Luckily the damages was mostly at the end of her hair.

The girl who was doing the lady's hair was so upset she asked if I could take over so I gave the lady a conditioning treatment than cut and shaped the lady's hair.

Her hair looked fine when it was said and done but that could have ended with an unhappy ending.

A Friend Calls After Bleaching Her Hair

She was one of those people who highlighted her hair with a cap at home. Which is also called frosted hair. She already had her hair frosted so she wanted to touch up her hair so she went out and bought a frosting kit for her hair.

When they frosted her hair at the beauty shop it took 20 to 30 minutes to process. Guess what she did she assume that since they left the bleach and peroxide on for that long she should too.

She gets a phone call and never checks her hair for 30 minutes. The timer went off and knowing her she did not rush off the phone.

She gets off the phone her hair looks like mush. She rinsed her hair to only see her hair rinsing down the drain.

When she towel dried her hair she had spiked hair sticking out of the cap. She calls me on the phone freaked out so I brought some conditioning treatment over and did a treatment on her hair to attempt to save what was left of her hair.

Her hair was badly damaged and it had to be cut short. As a hairdresser myself I recommend doing a strand test to see how the hair will react to the bleach every single time you put any kind of bleach or color in your hair.

I also suggest you time your strand test. When your hair reaches the desired hair color. You will know how long to leave the bleach or hair color in your hair.

Recommended

How to Strand Test Your Hair

Savior Reaction from Bleach and Color

Its better to be safe than sorry when it come to bleaching or dying your hair. I don't care if you have been dying your hair for years or you have colored your hair with the same brand name coloring. You should always do a strand test.

I just recently met a women who had a serious reaction from coloring her hair. Its been months and her skin and scalp don't look much better than the images in the link I shared since she colored her hair.

Imagine having to go to work or go out in the public with an allergic reaction like that for months.

Think twice before you skip doing a strand test. You might just get the same allergic reaction as the girl in the photo.