Resistant virgin hair won’t lift

[Monavegas]

I’m bleaching a client’s hair from a level 3 to 9-10 (she wanted to go as platinum as possible for her south asian hair) and her hair refuses to lift past a level 7-8 on the mids and ends. I’ve never seen anything like it. Lifted evenly from 3 to 5 (20vol, no foils) then from 5 to 7 after a month (30vol, no foils), and on her 3rd session I applied 30vol for 45 min in foils but may as well have thrown water on her ends. Weirdly her dark regrowth lifted beautifully all the way to a solid level 9 with one round of 30vol!!!!
I asked her to come back in today and did a strand test with 30vol in foil again + 2-3 mins under heat and still nothing!!!
Her hair was pure virgin (never even used heat on it before, talk about a colorist’s dream) with no history of coloring before she came to me so we were both pretty confident her hair would lift without any issue and I feel like I’ve let her down.
any ideas as to why this might be happening, and what i should do? I find it particularly odd that it’s only her ends that won’t take the bleach. Should I use more heat the next time around? Her hair is still in good condition, touch wood, so it is possible to do another round. I’ve never had to reach for the 40vol before and don’t know if her hair could take it considering all the lightening it’s been through already.

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Monavegas]

Adding to clarify:

the bleach was wella blondor and the developers were welloxon 6% and 9%. The girl’s hair still holds shine well and is not breaking off anywhere. It is a clean level 9-10 for the 3-4 inches closest to the root, then level 7-8 towards the ends.

 

[ronray]

I’m bleaching a client’s hair from a level 3 to 9-10 (she wanted to go as platinum as possible for her south asian hair) and her hair refuses to lift past a level 7-8 on the mids and ends. I’ve never seen anything like it. Lifted evenly from 3 to 5 (20vol, no foils) then from 5 to 7 after a month (30vol, no foils), and on her 3rd session I applied 30vol for 45 min in foils but may as well have thrown water on her ends. Weirdly her dark regrowth lifted beautifully all the way to a solid level 9 with one round of 30vol!!!!
I asked her to come back in today and did a strand test with 30vol in foil again + 2-3 mins under heat and still nothing!!!
Her hair was pure virgin (never even used heat on it before, talk about a colorist’s dream) with no history of coloring before she came to me so we were both pretty confident her hair would lift without any issue and I feel like I’ve let her down.
any ideas as to why this might be happening, and what i should do? I find it particularly odd that it’s only her ends that won’t take the bleach. Should I use more heat the next time around? Her hair is still in good condition, touch wood, so it is possible to do another round. I’ve never had to reach for the 40vol before and don’t know if her hair could take it considering all the lightening it’s been through already.

Thanks for the help!!!

Do you know product history? Shampoo, conditioner, styling products?
Sounds like something is creating a barrier.

 

[Monavegas]

Do you know product history? Shampoo, conditioner, styling products?
Sounds like something is creating a barrier.

Thanks for the reply! I texted her and she said she stopped using curly hair products So only uses shampoo and silicone free conditioner once a week. Interesting take though. I might ask her to use a chelating shampoo before our next session.