Can You Bleach Your Hair With Clorox? How To Do Without Damage?
Going to a professional salon for outstanding highlights and coloring of the hair can be time-consuming and expensive.
This is when most people start wondering how to bleach hair with the product name Clorox.
So the question is, can you use Clorox bleach on your hair? Is it safe for you? Let’s find out the answers.
What is Clorox?
Clorox is a brand bleach. Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product which is used industrially and domestically to clean, to lighten hair color.
Oxidizing bleaching agents that do not contain chlorine are usually based on peroxides such as hydrogen peroxide.
There are so many restrictions on what can be used and quantity of use in bleach for hair, as a lot of the chemicals are poisonous, corrosive, mutagens.
Yet look at the chemical ingredients of Clorox is quite similar to the hair bleach, so basically, the effect is quite the same.
Is hydrogen peroxide safe?
Look across all of the commercial hair bleach in the shopping mall, you can notice that hydrogen peroxide is the main ingredient of almost all of them, so it is typical to use on people’s hair.
Yet what happens if you use just hydrogen peroxide alone to bleach your hair? Well, the answer is yes, but you must follow some precaution due to its harshness of hydrogen peroxide alone.
You definitely know that bleaching and hair dyeing can hurt your strands, but it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use peroxide to reward yourself the vibrancy that you deserve.
If you do it correctly, the lightening product can do wonders for your hair.
While hydrogen peroxide is a perfect ingredient to dye hair, it can cause severe damages to your hair and skin. The chemical has the following effects when misused:
- Skin heat, tenderness, and pus.
- A serious allergy reaction.
- Skin rash, itching, and swelling
- Inelastic, dry, brittle hair.
- Burns on your scalp.
To reduce hair damage, you can use these 4 tips to bleach hair.
See also: Lightening your hair with peroxide and shampoo
What happens if you put Clorox bleach in your hair?
So we should understand which ingredients that Clorox bleach contains first.
This home bleach is mostly made of sodium hydrochloride, sodium chloride, sodium carbonate, sodium chlorate, sodium hydroxide, and sodium polyacrylamide with a more concentrated form.
The main purpose of Clorox is to remove dirt and stains on garments, floors, or other cleaning surfaces.
Therefore, when putting Clorox bleach in your hair, it might cause burns to your scalp and the contact-skin, or hair loss if you improperly use it.
Can you bleach hair with household bleach?
Generally, you should not bleach hair with household bleach like Clorox.
However, to some extent, you can still use it to lighten your hair. Of course, this process will require much more delicacy and the proper ratio to limit the damage to your hair or skin.
What is the difference between hair bleach and regular bleach?
Although both hair bleach and regular bleach aim to lighten things by removing colors, they are basically different from ingredients to the main purpose.
Look at the table below to see how to differentiate hair bleach and regular household bleach.
| Hair bleach | Regular home bleach | |
| Main ingredients | hydrogen peroxide, ammonia | sodium hydrochloride, sodium chloride, sodium carbonate, sodium chlorate, sodium hydroxide, and sodium polyacrylamide. |
| Purpose | Bleach hair | Remove stains on clothes, baths, toilets,… |
How to bleach hair with Clorox?
Keep in mind that with any home bleaching or dyeing process, there is a chance of damaging your hair or getting an unnatural looking result.
However, if you keep the procedure healthy, the above peroxide effects on skin and hair will never affect you.
Please follow the instructions step-by-step to achieve the best result.
Things you’ll need
- A 3% hydrogen peroxide solution. Any higher than 3% and you risk hair loss when applying.
- A clean, empty spray bottle
- Hair clips.
- Cotton balls.
- A towel.
- Gloves.
- Shower cap, if you plan to bleach your whole head of hair.
- Non-metallic bowl
- Conditioner
- Vaseline
Instructions
- Step 1: Prepare your hair.
- You should better start with healthy hair. Even old hair dye can affect the results. Don’t dye or otherwise process your hair in the weeks leading up to the bleaching.
- Bleaching your hair will work better and cause less damage if your hair is strong and unprocessed. Otherwise, you should go to the hair salon to strengthen your hair or take care of your strands by apply natural oils.
- Step 2: On the day you plan to bleach your hair, wash and condition it as normal to make sure the oils and grime caused by natural wear and styling products don’t interfere with the peroxide.
- Step 3: Your hair will best absorb peroxide and baking soda if it is damp and not soaking wet. Leave your hair to dry for about half an hour. For lighter beautiful hair, 15 to 20 minutes are more than enough.
- Step 4:
- Mixing your paste. Use a non-metallic bowl to mix the combination.
- Pour in a cup (250g) of baking soda, 44ml of 3$ Clorox, then use a plastic spoon to stir it well until it’s well-mixed.
- Step 5: Section your hair with clips. Sectioning your hair will help you make sure you treat every last lock with peroxide.
- Step 6: Protect your skin using vaseline to cover up your hairline, back of your neck to avoid skin burn caused by harsh chemicals.
- Step 7: Do a strand test.
- Take a small section of your hair from the underside.
- Use a cotton ball to apply the paste. Let it sit for about 30 minutes until you get your desired color before rinsing it.
- From then, you can have your exact time for the mixture to sit on your hair.
- Step 8: Apply the mixture onto your hair.
- Use a spray bottle to apply peroxide to your whole head.
- To bleach, all of your hair, use a spray bottle to spray the entire section of hair you left down.
- Spray it thoroughly and run a comb through your hair multiple times. Repeat with the remaining clipped sections of your hair.
- Step 9: After you have finished applying the peroxide, put on a shower cap to keep the peroxide from dripping or touching your clothes.
- Step 10: Let it sit on your head for the time of the strand test to achieve your desired color.
- Step 11: Rinse your hair with cold water. We advise sticking to cold water as it seals your hair cuticles, thus making your hair shiner. Never use shampoo right after this bleaching procedure as you don’t want to stress your strands too much.
- Step 12:
- Apply deep conditioner to nurture your strands and give your hair a shiny look.
- Then massage it into your scalp so that it helps cool any irritation you might have.
- Let the conditioner sit on for about three minutes.
- Step 13: Rinse your hair and let it dry naturally. Using a dryer or a straightener is risky and can damage your hair, so remember not to use any heat treatment on your hair after three days.
Caution: If your hair is severely damaged, consider waiting for at least one month to perform the bleaching process. Read more here to know about the time to bleach hair again.
See also: 4 Easy Steps To Whiten Gray Hair With Peroxide At Home
Conclusion
Clorox might sound a bit strong and overwhelming for your strands, yet it could be a time-saving and cheap method for your outlook appearance if you intend to bleach your hair, and the result can be amazing.
Remember to stick to the instructions, for the good of your healthy hair as well as the efficiency of the bleaching process
Aida
