Should You Bleach Your Hair With Hydrogen Peroxide?

Going to the salon to get your hair done is one of the best ways to pamper yourself and practice self-care. However, if you’re on a tight budget or you simply don’t have time to go to a salon for a hair appointment, doing your hair on your own is good too. 

Or is it? 

The internet is filled with videos of people attempting to do their hair on their own. While some have been successful, there are lots who ended up with disasters that required professional intervention. One of the hardest and trickiest DIY hair projects to pull off is bleaching your hair on your own. They say you can use hydrogen peroxide in place of bleach since it is way gentler than actual bleach, but we have our reservations. 

Should you bleach your hair with hydrogen peroxide? Read this to find out.

Go ahead and bleach your hair with hydrogen peroxide if: 

1. You’re confident that your hair is healthy enough to take on some damage - hydrogen peroxide won’t damage your hair as much as actual bleach, but it will still harm your hair a little bit so if your hair is already damaged, to begin with, you might want to rethink your decision. 
2. You want to go only about a shade lighter - if your natural hair color is dark and you just want to lighten it by about one shade, go ahead and use hydrogen peroxide. Planning to go even lighter? H2O2 might not be for you. Even when you use actual bleach hair products, going lighter than a full shade is quite difficult to achieve and requires re-application after at least a month. 
3. You don’t have anything important coming up in the next month - let’s face it, DIY hair projects are 80% bound to go haywire so if you’re planning on experimenting with hydrogen peroxide, make sure you don’t have anything important coming up like a wedding or a job interview. 

Don’t bleach your hair with hydrogen peroxide if: 

1. You can afford not to - some people bleach their hair with hydrogen peroxide because it’s cheaper than going to the salon or getting the proper products, like a hair lightening kit, to do it at home. If you can afford these things, though, skip the hydrogen peroxide, get it done right, and look for something else to experiment with.  
2. You don’t have the time or money to maintain it after - using any chemical on your hair can cause damage. To reverse the damage or prevent it from getting worse, maintenance and care are required. If you know you can’t commit to a hair care routine that will nourish your hair, just leave it untouched. 

Looking for an alternative to traditional bleach and hydrogen peroxide? Why not try using hair lightening powder instead? You could also try using hair lightening granules which are easy to use, especially when you’re planning to DIY.