How do I.....

Get my hair white? If you want white hair, you must first bleach your hair to it's lightest possible. That will probably mean multiple bleachings. We reccomend you use a lower volume bleach and leave it on for shorter lengths of time, otherwise you will totally fry your hair.  After you bleach, you will probably have pale yellow hair. Now you need a toner. Special Effects Mixer/Toner works well.

Toners will ONLY work on EXTREMELY bleached hair. Toners cancel out the yellowing caused by bleaching. They can also be used as mixers. Blending white toner with midnight blue for example, will produce a lighter shade of blue. Think of toner as ading water to water color paints. It lightens the color. As a general rule, use cream toners for blending with cream, gel with gel.

You will NOT be able to dye your black (or dark brown) hair pink. As with all temporary hair color, prelightening of dark hair is encouraged and reccomended! You may have very good luck with reds- reds usually take best, but the "stranger" colors (blues, greens, pinks, yellows...)will most probably require some prelightening if your hair is darker than light to medium brown. Blues and greens are the most difficult colors to take. You should really REALLY prebleach if you are going for blue or green. LIGHTER COLORS, Pastels etc, will NOT show up on DARK hair. You MUST PRELIGHTEN.

Blondes. Blondes have special concerns when it comes to blues and greens. As blonde is a yellow tone- you guessed it- blues may turn green and greens may turn blue. If this concerns you, do a strand test and then decide whether you should bleach before proceeding. (blondes are suggested to use a lighter volume peroxide- 20 vol)

BLEACHING.

If you buy developer and bleach seperately, you will not get complete instructions. Here are complete instructions.

WEAR GLOVES. Mix a small amount of peroxide in a NON METAL bowl. Add a small amount of bleach. Mix until creamy. ( NON METAL MIXING TOOLS). Ad the rest of the bleach a little at a time until all well mixed. Let stand 1 minute.

Use a tint brush to apply evenly to hear you want bleached. Saturate but not to dripping.

You may wish to cover your head with a cap.

Natural hair color Approx time

Dark blonde 20-30 min

light brown 25-25 min

medium brown 30-45 min

dark brown 45-60 min

Avoid contact with eyes and skin. ALWAYS do a strand test. Discard unused bleach.

About the author                         Marianne Rackliffe is the owner of http://www.goodgoth.com, online retailer of alternative clothing and footwear.