Welcome back to another rewritten blog post! I wanted to give my blog a bit of a revamp including rewriting some of my older posts and making them a bit more up to date! So no you're not seeing twice!
My first blog post about my white hair was back when I first went white in 2019! I had white hair from June until February and I was quite a hair journey for me! I have also recently just gone back to having white hair again! So I wanted to talk about how I feel having white hair, managing it, how I achieved it etc etc.
Alright firstly, I am not a hairdresser. I did not do all of this myself, I did go to a hairdresser and I am not claiming to know everything about white hair or that the way I’ve been keeping it/looking after it is the ‘correct’ but it’s the way that’s been working the best for me!
So like I said, I go to a hairdresser and have done both times I went white. So the first time I went white I spent roughly 4.5 hours at my hairdressers? This was over two appointments in the space of about a week. During my first appointment I sat down and had a bleach put all over my hair and was left for roughly 50-60 minutes? I’ll be honest I wasn’t keeping track of time. But anyway once it was washed I looked like a glowing yellow beacon, my hair was the colour of corn. We then added a very pigmented toner and it came out more or less how I wanted it but I did go back for that second appointment to have the toner reapplied and get that icier white.
Now jumping forward to my recent trip back down white hair lane, my appointments where pretty much the same except for the fact that I had about 3 weeks between the two appointments. You can by all means not have the second appointment but for me I wanted another round of toner to really lift any yellow tones. (I also had my roots redone!)
So lets talk roots. If you are someone who hates roots showing then white hair may not be for you because by 3 weeks I have about an inch or so worth of roots showing. I would estimate that including the first time and going forward with white hair this time I'll likely need to rebleach my roots every 3-4 weeks depending on whether I have anything coming up or not, if I have no plans I tend to leave them and just be a bit lazy! But I usually always do the roots myself and then just use a toner at home for them to keep the price low (I'll talk prices in a minute!)
You may be thinking... bleach all over your hair?! How is it still attached to your head?!
Simple answer: I'm lucky? Honestly the first time I went white I had visions of my hair just falling out when they washed the bleach out!! But I was lucky that I actually have hair that can take a real beating when it's done properly. I did give my hair the chop mid way through the first time I had white hair and now its grown back out for the second round. I don't think I would have had to do this to achieve the second round of white hair, I did it purely for a change but I do think it helped because obviously I chopped away the majority of ends which would have shown the most damage.
And also I think it's still okay health wise because I 1: Didn't do it myself, I would never ever attempt white hair at home, my roots is the most I will ever do and 2: Because I put in extra effort when I do have white hair....leading to the next thing I want to talk about....
Maintenance and care: This is what I wrote for the first blog about my white hair back in 2019:
"Every time I wash my hair I use either Head and Shoulders Moisture shampoo or Herbal Essences Coconut Moisture Shampoo (Don’t quote me on those names!) then I use the Garnier Hair Food conditioner, these are amazing because you can use them as either a conditioner as usual, a mask or a leave in. I use the papaya one (Orange tub) as my conditioner and this goes everywhere, no more avoiding the roots when conditioning and then after I use a heat defence spray (TRESemmé is the brand I'm currently using) and then I use the Garnier Hair Food Banana (Yellow tub) as a leave in conditioner on my ends and in any parts of my hair I know get damaged easier like where the bulk of my hair is. I try not to heat style it too often and if I do I make sure to use a bit more of the items above to compensate."
Looking at what I do now...not a lot has changed apart from the fact that I no longer use Head and Shoulders, I swapped that for Garnier's Hair Food Shampoo and Conditioner, which is honestly amazing. I also now use the Yellow tub not the Orange. I use the Tresemme Botanique hair protection mist, same as before I just didn't include the full name. As for toners I have tried a few, back in 2019 I stated that Jerome Russell White Blonde Toner, was the best one I'd used (this is for after doing my roots by the way!). I haven't really had a chance this time round to use a toner yet because so far I've just been to my hairdressers but I did try out the SHRINE Drop It Toner, this is a brand that does semi permanent hair colours that you just drop into conditioner...it didn't really do anything for me, now this may be because I used it during those few weeks between the first session and the second session at the hairdressers and my hair might have been too brassy for it, so I'll give it another go and get back to you. You'll also need to grab a blue shampoo to keep the brassy tones away which I use maybe every couple of washes depending on the tone of my hair.
Alright....let's talk money. Unfortunately white hair is a costly hairstyle to have, in my opinion anyway. So going by what I spent on appointments this time round and what I spend on the additional hair products this is a rough breakdown:
Appointments: £140 for the initial bleach and toner and then another £95 for the second toner and root touch up. (Also consider that these are prices for someone who is already naturally blonde. If you have dark hair to begin with you may need more appointments to achieve the right colour, this is also based on what my hairdresser charges but I would generally say this is a pretty standard price). I would really recommend using a hairdresser if you can, I just would not trust a box job to give the same results, my sister who is naturally a very dark brown bleached her hair herself and it took double the amount of bleach and toners and a good hair chop afterwards to get rid of all the damage and even now she isn't the colour she wanted I don't think and her hair went from her breasts to just touching the top of her shoulders, so other than watching that happen I can’t advise because I simply don’t know anything about doing it yourself.
Hair Products: Tresemme Heat spray is roughly £5-£7 depending on where you grab it from, the Garnier Hair food for all 3 products I use comes to roughly £18 (you can buy the trio online for £12 though!) I wash my hair on the third day so 2-3 times a week and they last usually over a month to two months. When it comes to bleaching my roots I usually go for Garnier Olia maximum bleach for around £7 and then the toner (If we go with the one I used back in 2019) is around £5. The blue shampoo I'm currently using is by Aussie and it costs £6 but this lasts me quite a while because I don't use it every week. So roughly £43 every month to two months.
Misc cost: I also regularly go for hair cuts when I have white hair to keep the dead ends at bay and to just keep it looking healthy, for maybe another £40 every 6-8 weeks.
And that's it! Honestly it probably seems like a huge faff to have white hair after reading that but it's a colour I really enjoy for my hair. When I had the first round of white changed back to my normal hair colour I found I was forever looking at old pictures of the white missing it and since going back to having white hair, I don't know my confidence has spiked a little, I just feel a bit prettier to be perfectly honest and I feel like white hair has kind of become a part of my own personal aesthetic. So for me all of the above is totally worth it!!