Things that occur to you

I am ambidextrous and wash my left leg first

 

It's not illegal!

 

It should be chancy dip.

 

You would if you were naked and had eyes in the back of your head!

 

Are you going to field test that?

 

Usually, to make up the bleach you mix two chemicals together. The 'developer' is the one containing the H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) and can burn the skin (not badly as, I think, they're not allowed to sell anything stronger than 30 Volume - 9%). Once mixed it is not quite so volatile.

I don't know whether you wanted to go ginger but most people's hair will not go blonde without a strong enough solution - or more applications.

Free lesson coming up:-

In layman's terms, there are three basic colour molecules in everyone's hair and they vary in size.

Primary colours in our hair vary in molecular size and pigment weight. Blue has the largest molecular size and pigment weight, followed by red and then yellow.

In the hair shaft, blue molecules (being the biggest) sit closest to the cuticle and are the easiest pigment to remove during colouring. Red molecules are found deeper in the cortex and are harder to remove than blue. Harder still are the yellow molecules, which sit deepest in the cortex. This is why red and yellow are harder colours to remove during the lightening process, as these pigments are deeper inside the hair shaft.

To remove red and yellow pigments, the hair shaft needs to be expanded large enough and for long enough during colouring to allow oxidation to dissipate the molecules into the air. The peroxide is the chemical which expands the hair shaft.

Hairdressers used to buy concentrated peroxide (60 Volume) and dilute it sufficiently for the required end result - skill and experience required for this. In the old days they had to use it for bleaching and colouring but nowadays the manufacturers make colours with developers (containing the peroxide) already premixed.

You can't bleach hair white (although some shades of natural blonde may appear whitish) and have to add a rinse to the hair which contains a slightly purplish pigment to counteract the last of the gingery yellow that makes it look blonde. You could remove the last of the pigment from the hair without needing to add the rinse but the hair is likely to fall apart before that happens (expands the hair shaft past the stage where it can reform).