Virgin hair not lifting evenly, help!

[Georgiavanilla]

Hi,
It’s my first time posting on here but I’m desperate to know if anyone else has experienced this. I studied hairdressing and have never seen anything like it.
I bleached my own roots for ten years with no problem, I’m a base 4 naturally - with bleach and 12% for 40 mins and I had clean white blonde.
After ten years I overlapped a bit on the back and decided to go to a salon to have it done instead as it snapped.
It didn’t lift as clean, it lifted dark yellow and then the toner (which i didn’t use before) didn’t take the yellow out. My hair is full of banding from 20 different hairdressers attempt to bleach my roots (raccoon stripe looking).
Now, whenever I’ve had my hair bleached since, Maybe 30 times at Upto 20 different salons, my virgin hair roots don’t lift evenly;
I have patches that refuse to bleach lighter than orange. The patch is never in the same place though. It makes no difference if I have it bleached at 3 weeks or 8 weeks either.
I work in a wholesalers so I use all the proper hair care so I know it’s not build up, I’m on no medication and no matter how many times it’s bleached of high lifted over, it won’t lift.
I have never known anything like it and neither has any hairdresser that I’ve met.
Today I had my hair done, blonde me bleach with 9% which had to go on twice and two lots of L’Oréal luo in p01. The front is yellow at the root and the back is darker in a patch that won’t budge. The salon were unable to do any more as I’d had two rounds of bleach and toner (the second bleach with a low peroxide for longer).
I’m at a loss of why this is happening, if there was colour or product build up then I’d understand but it’s virgin hair with no product and clarified. Please don’t suggest going dark, that’s not an option; I just want to know if anyone has known anything like it or what could stop virgin hair lifting.
T.i.a
Xx

 

[ronray]

Hi,
It’s my first time posting on here but I’m desperate to know if anyone else has experienced this. I studied hairdressing and have never seen anything like it.
I bleached my own roots for ten years with no problem, I’m a base 4 naturally - with bleach and 12% for 40 mins and I had clean white blonde.
After ten years I overlapped a bit on the back and decided to go to a salon to have it done instead as it snapped.
It didn’t lift as clean, it lifted dark yellow and then the toner (which i didn’t use before) didn’t take the yellow out. My hair is full of banding from 20 different hairdressers attempt to bleach my roots (raccoon stripe looking).
Now, whenever I’ve had my hair bleached since, Maybe 30 times at Upto 20 different salons, my virgin hair roots don’t lift evenly;
I have patches that refuse to bleach lighter than orange. The patch is never in the same place though. It makes no difference if I have it bleached at 3 weeks or 8 weeks either.
I work in a wholesalers so I use all the proper hair care so I know it’s not build up, I’m on no medication and no matter how many times it’s bleached of high lifted over, it won’t lift.
I have never known anything like it and neither has any hairdresser that I’ve met.
Today I had my hair done, blonde me bleach with 9% which had to go on twice and two lots of L’Oréal luo in p01. The front is yellow at the root and the back is darker in a patch that won’t budge. The salon were unable to do any more as I’d had two rounds of bleach and toner (the second bleach with a low peroxide for longer).
I’m at a loss of why this is happening, if there was colour or product build up then I’d understand but it’s virgin hair with no product and clarified. Please don’t suggest going dark, that’s not an option; I just want to know if anyone has known anything like it or what could stop virgin hair lifting.
T.i.a
XxView attachment 209473

Have you had your hormone levels checked? This sounds like something that's coming from within the hair or body rather than what's being applied. I have a client whose haircare regime and colour hasn't changed in 5 years, yet sometimes she has her roots done and it lifts lovely, sometimes it's orange! The only reasonable explanation that we could come to was it differs depending on time of the month.
Has anyone suggested deep cleansing your hair pror to the appointment?
I suggest you look in to either malibu c colour prepare or wow dream filter. Scrub your scalp with this maybe the night before your appointment and then see what kind of results you get. Are you having the roots done on a regular, consistent appointment or are you going 4 weeks sometimes, 8 the next etc...

 

[Georgiavanilla]

Have you had your hormone levels checked? This sounds like something that's coming from within the hair or body rather than what's being applied. I have a client whose haircare regime and colour hasn't changed in 5 years, yet sometimes she has her roots done and it lifts lovely, sometimes it's orange! The only reasonable explanation that we could come to was it differs depending on time of the month.
Has anyone suggested deep cleansing your hair pror to the appointment?
I suggest you look in to either malibu c colour prepare or wow dream filter. Scrub your scalp with this maybe the night before your appointment and then see what kind of results you get. Are you having the roots done on a regular, consistent appointment or are you going 4 weeks sometimes, 8 the next etc...

Thank you for your reply; last time I had them checked was about a year ago and they were fine but this has been going on longer than that. I’ve been on the pill 10 years, it’s the only medicine I take and so I don’t have a time of the month or fluctuation as I run them back to back under my doctors supervision.
I do deep cleanse before I go and use no product on it.
I usually go every 4-5 weeks as I was told this was best, after this hair becomes harder to lift and you can get a band but I left it 8 weeks this time as the hairdresser said it would be fine, it’s just not lifting In patches, but always a different patch, it’s so bizarre!
She’s told me to leave my hair a week then go back and she will have another round at bleaching it.
I’m at an absolute loss as I’ve had nearly 20 hairdressers all rule out the same things but all I can think is either something internally wrong with my hair as it grows but surely it would go patchy all over and not just in random areas xx

 

[ronray]

Thank you for your reply; last time I had them checked was about a year ago and they were fine but this has been going on longer than that. I’ve been on the pill 10 years, it’s the only medicine I take and so I don’t have a time of the month or fluctuation as I run them back to back under my doctors supervision.
I do deep cleanse before I go and use no product on it.
I usually go every 4-5 weeks as I was told this was best, after this hair becomes harder to lift and you can get a band but I left it 8 weeks this time as the hairdresser said it would be fine, it’s just not lifting In patches, but always a different patch, it’s so bizarre!
She’s told me to leave my hair a week then go back and she will have another round at bleaching it.
I’m at an absolute loss as I’ve had nearly 20 hairdressers all rule out the same things but all I can think is either something internally wrong with my hair as it grows but surely it would go patchy all over and not just in random areas xx

If it was something individual tot he hair strand then it would be the same are, as the root or follicle will be lacking or overproducing something. The only way this kind of thing would normally happen is if the product isn't being applied in thin enough sections or they are taking a long time to apply the product and its oxidised before its applied as you know. Or the pruduct isn't blended / mixed enough, so when they are applying it its creating pockets or bubbles of more bleach in some areas and more peroxide in others, but I can't imagine this would be the case for over 20 hairdressers! Lol.
I wish I could see it lol! I love problem solving and would love the opportunity to get to the bottom of this lol.
Has anyone offered to correct the banding for you?

 

[Georgiavanilla]

Yeah it’s a different area every time and I’ve had 20 different hairdressers have a go at it and it’s always an issue. It’s not because my hair is dark as I’ve bleached it with no issues in the past, my hormones seem fine and I use all natural products and no styling products so I have no idea what’s going on it just keeps happening every time.
That’s why I’m so blagged. Everyone says they can fix it and then they have the same issue, it’s like my hair is kicking it off, but when she reapplied the bleach with a lower peroxide hoping to knock the orange out, it just didn’t budge at all, like it stops processing at a certain point in random areas. it’s usually a smaller area but this time it’s dark in all of my back panel and yellow in patches down my parting.
I wish you could!! I’m so desperate for someone to get to the bottom of this but with doing hairdressing, working with hairdressers In the industry, working in a wholesalers selling the best products for hair and having 20 different people have a go at it... no one has any idea at all why I’m desperate for help now! There has to be a reason!
& yes the lady that did it today said leave it a week and come back and she will have another go at getting it out but she won’t want to do it again because it’s stubborn so I’ll be back to square one again xx

 

[Piercednige]

How bizarre!!

Are they using olaplex in their bleach? I find it takes forever to clean out blonde if I ever use olaplex when lifting hair. if they are ask them not to use it an see what result you start getting then.

it sounds to me that the bleach is drying out so losing its oomph so ending up with a patchy result. Are they really saturating the roots so you cant see the hair under it? if i do a scalp bleach on a dark base I I apply plenty of product and then once I have finished applying I mix up a fresh batch and reapply and get great results.

And another question I would ask, are they measuring out their bleach to the manufacturer's instructions and using the prescribed developers for the brand? As this makes a huge different to product performance.

 

[Georgiavanilla]

I’ve had bleached with it built in, I’ve had it added and I’ve had it without; it makes no difference
The bleach she used was the blonde me bleach, 9 levels lift so it should of lifted significantly more than it has, especially with two applications.

She did that yesterday and kept checking it was still wet.
I’ve had this problem with 20 hairdressers so I didn’t think it would be a ratio problem
The place that doesn’t lift always moves but this time it was more extreme than normal and has barely lifted compared to how it normally goes x

 

[Jake nattrass hair]

Have you not tried covering to hi lites / baby lites. Much better lift generally than a full head bleach If you are struggling with banding constantly from a full head blonde.

 

[Georgiavanilla]

No, I want it ice white blonde all over, I have achieved this for many years but this problem has occurred in the last year and a half, to which I’m trying to work out why

 

[ronray]

No, I want it ice white blonde all over, I have achieved this for many years but this problem has occurred in the last year and a half, to which I’m trying to work out why

You mention above that you used to bleach your hair yourself with bleach and 12% is that correct?

 

[Georgiavanilla]

Yeah, I did that myself for 10 years and it was fine, it was only once I overlapped it and snapped some off that I let other people do it and had this issue... but no hairdresser will touch my hair with 12% It’s a base 4 naturally and very resistant; it tends to react better to a higher peroxide for a lower time than the other way around for some reason ‍

 

[ronray]

Yeah, I did that myself for 10 years and it was fine, it was only once I overlapped it and snapped some off that I let other people do it and had this issue... but no hairdresser will touch my hair with 12% It’s a base 4 naturally and very resistant; it tends to react better to a higher peroxide for a lower time than the other way around for some reason ‍

Has anyone gone above 6%? I suppose general rule of hairdressing is that you don't go over 6% with bleach on the scalp.

 

[Piercednige]

but if every hairdresser "mixes it to a consistency they like" then it wont perform at it's best, it will either be too wet and not stick to the hair properly or too dry and sont stay wet.

With it being a patchy result on a different parts everytime then it can possible be an uneven distribution of product. there might be alot less in certain areas so drys out quicker.

it must be an absolute pain in the bum for you!!

another option to try is a full head back to back slice with foils and then paint on the bleach on the tiny regrowth whilst the foils are developing

 

[Georgiavanilla]

Yeah, a few have tried 6%... one hairdresser left it on for over an hour and then reapplied it as it hadn’t lifted enough and she snapped some of my hair.
9% has pretty much been the go-to. Only one hairdresser used 12% and that was only when reapplying as it hadn’t lifted much in patches. It still didn’t really lift.
If I could get it to lift to pale blonde evenly then I’d be happy but it just refuses to lift in certain patches and it’s never the same place.
The time before last I ended up with an orange patch behind one of my ears and no amount of bleaching really lifted it.
I have ended up with so many patches, hot spots and banding from people trying to sort it; it’s so frustrating and had left so many people stumped.

 

[Georgiavanilla]

but if every hairdresser "mixes it to a consistency they like" then it wont perform at it's best, it will either be too wet and not stick to the hair properly or too dry and sont stay wet.

With it being a patchy result on a different parts everytime then it can possible be an uneven distribution of product. there might be alot less in certain areas so drys out quicker.

it must be an absolute pain in the bum for you!!

another option to try is a full head back to back slice with foils and then paint on the bleach on the tiny regrowth whilst the foils are developing

It’s an absolute nightmare, so many people have been left stumped; it takes extra time so no one then wants to do it for me, I’ve spent crazy money trying to fix it and no one can help... I’m at my wits end haha.
I never know which patch isn’t going to lift either so it’s not even like I can prepare for it by sectioning a certain part off.
I’m running out of hairdressers to try now, I hoped there would be a magic fix haha.

 

[ronray]

It’s an absolute nightmare, so many people have been left stumped; it takes extra time so no one then wants to do it for me, I’ve spent crazy money trying to fix it and no one can help... I’m at my wits end haha.
I never know which patch isn’t going to lift either so it’s not even like I can prepare for it by sectioning a certain part off.
I’m running out of hairdressers to try now, I hoped there would be a magic fix haha.

Have you thought about going to see a trichologist? I think we have literally covered everything here in the posts... I don't know what else to suggest I don't see why people give up on you that easy. My only other thought is, which is totally out of the box! I wonder if you'd be better off using a high lift tint first to detect the stubborn patch, then use bleach and a lower volume on the bits that lifted evenly and use a stronger formula on the patchy bit. I understand that no-one wants to go in with 12% from the off for the fear of being sued...

 

[Georgiavanilla]

I’ve had a high lift used on the patchy parts afterwards before which helped but didn’t lift it fully.
Well most hairdressers like easy and quick as it’s more profit for them, I get it but I’m willing to pay for someone to do it right haha.
I’ll look into that though, thank you!

 

[ronray]

I’ve had a high lift used on the patchy parts afterwards before which helped but didn’t lift it fully.
Well most hairdressers like easy and quick as it’s more profit for them, I get it but I’m willing to pay for someone to do it right haha.
I’ll look into that though, thank you!

Highlify afterwards won't work as well. The best lift you'll get is with bleach, so if you can expose the stubborn bit first, then the bleaching up process should be easier. It's difficult enough to get a level 4 to platinum anyway without the difficulties you experience. If you were closer I'd definitely love to do your hair.

 

[Georgiavanilla]

I know it’s a big ask as it’s so dark but because I’ve done it myself and seen that it’s doable, I’m not giving up on it haha.
That might have to be an option, I’ll ask her to try that next time.
Thank you for your help