Lightening your hair is a great way to get a gorgeous, sun-kissed glow and enhance your natural beauty. However, regular use of bleaching treatments can start to cause damage over time. 

Bleached hair can still look healthy and shiny when given the right care. Check out our tips on how to minimise any damage and restore your hair's softness and shine. If you are considering lightening your hair, book an appointment with our professional colourists at our Exeter hair salon.  

Why Do Lightening Treatments Damage Your Hair?

Lightening treatments such as highlights, balayage and babylights, involve applying bleach to your hair cuticle. The bleach removes your natural hair pigment, leaving you with a beautiful bleached blonde. During this process, your hair will lose moisture, which can lead to it becoming dry and more prone to breakage.

Bleaching is more damaging than other types of colour treatment due to it removing your natural hair pigment. This also contributes to hair feeling dry and brittle. These tips will help you to keep your lightened hair strong, soft, and shiny.

Don’t Skip The Conditioner

Regularly conditioning your hair will restore the moisture lost during the bleaching process and transform your hair from dry and brittle to soft and silky. Always use a conditioner after shampooing, and treat yourself to a weekly hair mask for some extra nourishment. 

Sticking to a regular conditioning routine will also help to reduce frizz. Bleached hair is more porous, which means it soaks up moisture easily. Conditioning treatments reduce the need for your hair to soak up moisture from the atmosphere, and therefore reduce frizziness. 

Conditioning treatments are most effective when applied little and often. Using too much can overload your hair and make it look flat. Ensure conditioner is spread evenly throughout your hair by warming up the product in your hands before applying.

Rehydrating hair which has become dry and brittle will take time and patience but is well worth the effort. Visit our online store to shop for conditioning treatments, or call into our Exeter hairdressers and browse the products on display.

Say Goodbye To Breakage

Repeatedly bleaching the same strands of hair will eventually lead to breakage. Avoid over bleaching by only dyeing your roots when it’s time for a touch up, and keeping bleach away from the rest of your (already bleached) hair. Always get your hair lightened by a professional as they will make sure that bleach is only applied to the parts of your hair that need it.

Hair becomes more fragile after it has been bleached, therefore it will need some extra care. Keep the use of heated styling tools to an absolute minimum, and if you can’t dry your hair naturally use no more than the medium heat setting on your hairdryer. 

Your hair is more prone to breakage when wet so be gentle when washing and towel drying it. Use a wide-tooth comb rather than a brush on wet hair, and make sure to use a shampoo that has been specially designed for hair that has been colour treated. 

Your hair may benefit from an Olaplex treatment which restores the broken bonds in the hair caused by bleaching.

Get your hair trimmed regularly to remove any dry or split ends. If not trimmed, split ends can travel further up your hair shaft and cause further damage. Book regular appointments with our hairdressers in Exeter to keep your hair looking and feeling at its best.

Restore Your Shine

Following the tips above for stronger and healthier hair will naturally lead to it becoming smoother and shinier too. 

Make sure you take the time to regularly shampoo your hair (don’t skip the conditioner!). Ideally, this should be done 2-3 times a week but this will depend on your hair type. Regularly washing your hair helps you to look and feel great and makes it super shiny.

Always Read The Label

The products that you use should revitalise and nourish your hair, rather than drying it out more. Avoid any products which contain silicones or alcohol as these can dry out bleached hair.

Pick products that contains some or all of these ingredients:

• Pro-Vitamin B5: Penetrates your hair cuticle and gets moisture right into the core of your hair. This increases elasticity and reduces breakage
• Glycerin: Prevents moisture loss and fights frizz
• Avocado: Helps hair to retain moisture and makes it easier to detangle
• Vitamin E: Promotes smooth and shiny hair

Oils like Argan oil are good for bleached hair, but be careful only to use a very small amount. Using too much can make your hair appear greasy, and this can take several washes to remove. Visit our online store to browse our range of professional hair products, or pop into our hair salon in Exeter.

Take A Break

While there is no quick fix when it comes to restoring strength and shine to hair that has been damaged by regular bleaching, there are plenty of things you can do to minimise the damage. 
If your hair is particularly dry and brittle, it may be worth taking a break from bleach to give it a chance to recover. Our colourists at our hair salon in Exeter can talk you through your options and give expert advice and guidance. Book an appointment online and take advantage of a free consultation.