Talking about "adopted" blonde means talking about bleaching, most of the time. Indeed, fans of this color rarely naturally belong to this family. So to enter this highly prized club of successful blonde, you have to go through bleaching. OK, but what's clean in all this? Let's get this straight.
Bleaching, coloring, what exactly is it? The principle of bleaching consists of eliminating, more or less and more or less quickly, the natural pigments that are inside the hair fiber, by using oxidation. We do not completely empty the hair of its original color, we lighten it up to eight tones maximum. A dark hair, for example, will evolve towards red, before arriving at yellow, a future harmonious blond… But the process does not stop there, since it is then necessary to recharge the hair with pigments of the desired color. The good news? today there are plant-based colorings.
What is plant-based coloring?
Be careful, there is plant-based coloring and plant-based coloring, warn Sarah Horlaville El Kamel, head of education for France at Aveda and Céline Herbeaux, advisor within the Couleurs de Jeanne advisory team. A real plant-based coloring only combines dye plants such as turmeric, henna, walnut husk, indigo, and care powders based on other plants, such as marshmallow or jujube. It is superimposed on the natural color.
For blondes who want to achieve a cooler or warmer blonde, more uniform or brighter, there are plants like chamomile or turmeric (provide golden highlights), indigo (neutralizes red, yellow highlights and darkens slightly), red henna (intensifies the warm side). A 100% plant-based coloring only uses a mixture of plants and not an oxidant. Otherwise, it is a "fake plant-based coloring" kit.
If you opt for a homemade color, read the bottle carefully and if you see ammonia, polyquaternium, propylene glycol, or toluenes, move on! Be careful, hair maintained with silicone shampoos or treatments will not be able to hold the plant-based coloring. The pigments will slide on the cuticle. To reset the hair "to zero" after years of silicone treatments or other treatments that clog the hair, do a clay treatment to detoxify it for three weeks, before considering your plant-based coloring.
A “clean” or almost “clean” blonde… does it exist?
All the experts agree that to go blonde when you have a naturally dark color, you have to go through the bleaching process. However, bleaching is not, for the moment, clean since it necessarily requires a chemical process. Unless you are content with the reflections of the sun.
For Romain, colorist, creator of Romain Colors, specialist in gentle, vegan and organic coloring, gentleness is always essential when talking about hair, even if it all depends on the base color.
According to him, it is impossible to bleach hair without oxidant and persalts. But, to soften this process, he uses a plant/chemical mixture: a highlight with clay, kaolin, rice powder, mixed with oxidants in reasonable doses in order to respect the integrity of the fiber as much as possible. Be careful, even the cleanest possible bleachings must be compatible with plant-based colorings. Because plant-based coloring is not compatible with everything. And for good reason, a plant-based coloring can contain indigo, which does not combine very well with bleaches that risk changing the desired color. This is why a plant-based coloring cannot be done immediately after a chemical bleaching. And this is not always known... Even if, and this is its advantage, plant-based coloring respects the hair. Indeed, its active process stops naturally, unlike chemical coloring which continues its work in the heart of the hair. Which explains why plant-based coloring offers a very natural and highly sought-after transparency!
Bleaching, coloring, really not clean
Concretely, to bleach the hair, we use lightening agents (such as hydrogen peroxide, i.e. oxygenated water), which under the effect of a catalyst (ammonia), will lighten the natural pigments of the hair.
Ammonia has two actions: it catalyzes the action of hydrogen peroxide, accelerates the chemical reaction, softens the keratin of the hair, opens the scales and thus the pigments can leave the hair more easily. Associated with hydrogen peroxide and ammonia are persalts, oxidants that are extremely powerful (among them we find ammonium, potassium and sodium persulfates).
Once the hair has been bleached, it is recolored step by step, starting with a pre-coloring that will display an intermediate shade, then finishing with the desired shade. In order to prevent the new pigments from leaving with the water of the next shampoo, the hairdresser ends the cycle with a specific shampoo with an acidic pH, in order to rebalance the pH of the hair and scalp and above all, to close the scales. Depending on the nature and condition of the hair, the professional may suggest to his client to wait a few days after bleaching before moving on to the recoloring step. The goal? Not to over-sensitize hair that has already been very damaged by bleaching. As you will have understood, there is not much natural in all this.
In conclusion, if you have dark hair, don't dream, a clean blonde is impossible. It will necessarily involve intense bleaching. The only "clean" precaution is to play with natural care and the time factor. If you have a natural blonde base, you can enhance it with plants in a clean approach .
A shade of hope? Romain is currently working with the Research and Development department of Pierre Fabre laboratories to come up with a formula capable of lightening hair by two to three tones, in a totally clean way.
In the meantime, love yourself as you are, treat your hair to 100% clean care (without silicones and other pollutants) and choose the path of wisdom... in beauty. Thanks to Romain, colorist and creator of Romain Colors in Paris (romaincolors.fr), Sarah Horlaville El Kamel, head of education for Aveda France (aveda.eu) and Céline Herbeaux, advisor in the Couleurs de Jeanne advisory team (lescouleursdejeanne.fr)
