Highlights

While I was born blonde, and was kind of a toe-head as a kid, when I got into my teen years, my hair started getting darker, and it is now a very boring, bland, unremarkable, medium brown color. That said, I still feel very much like a blonde at heart, so I continue getting “my blond” from a box.
For a long time, it was a struggle getting it right, and getting it very, very, wrong. I will share with you my super hoopty method of highlighting my hair, that happens to work for me. Hairdressers will probably critique me and get a laugh, but at least I’m no longer feeling like a victim of their highway robbery. I don’t claim to be a hairdresser, or to get it exactly perfectly, but I’ve never had a hairdresser get it right either. I save a lot of money doing it this way, and it is absolutely fine with me. I used to pay a fortune for jacked-up hair that always turned out yellow, and begging for a redo, or a refund. Now if I get it wrong, I’ve only spent a few dollars, and I can always redo it myself until I get it right.
This is what I use. There is one other kit that works as well. It’s called “Born Blonde”. Both are fine, and you can find them at most drug stores. I have tried many, many, different kits, and the others only turned my hair yellow, and took FOREVER.I pay thirteen dollars and some change for this, and I only use half. Half of the developing cream, half of the lightening cream, and half of the lightening powder. The lightening powder comes in two packets, so I only use one of them. Once I get what I need into the bowl, I put the rest back into the box for next time.
half of this-half of this-
one of these- mixed into this
I start, by parting my hair down the center, and pulling it into a low ponytail. Then I take the tip of that old broken comb, and paint the bleach onto my hair at the dark part of the root, avoiding the scalp like this…
I let that sit on my hair for about ten minutes, then I check to see how it’s doing like this…
As you can see by the last photo, the hair at the root is not blonde, it is yellow, so I re-coat the root, and let it sit another five minutes or so, and check it again.
Now it is the color it needs to be, so I part all of that hair off and rinse just that hair.Then, I towel dry that hair, and twist it very tightly into a little top-not on top of my head, and clip it in place.

Next, I start painting my hair on each side of the knob on top of my head, and repeat as before.

You can continue to work your way down if you want, that’s actually as far as I go. Once it is blonde, I rinse it out, get it dry, and pull my hair back into a ponytail that exposes the area I want to highlight on the sides, and paint the sides like I did the top.

When the sides are finished, I shampoo my hair with the shampoo packet they provide, condition, and blow dry.

Bleach is very drying, so I am really careful with my hair. I rarely shampoo my hair, I only condition it. I know that’s a hard pill to swallow, but I’ve found that if I scrub the conditioner in really well at the roots, it does get it clean without drying it out. I also try not to brush my hair. I comb it and style it with my fingers to avoid breaking it. 🙂