Frizzy hair got you frazzled? Split ends taking over your head? 

Lots of things can put stress on your hair, from chemically straightening and perming, heat styling too often or even pollution. Bleaching can weaken your hair as well – it kind of needs to in order to lift your natural colour and make room for toner and dye – but it’s not the end of the world, or your hair!

With the right hair care, you can rebuild broken bonds within the hair cuticle, revive smooth and shiny locks and tame frizz – without giving up the bleach! AND it doesn’t have to be super time-consuming. 

Here’s our five top tips for easily repairing damaged hair at home, with recommendations from Bleach boss and celebrity hair stylist Alex Brownsell herself!

1. USE A BOND BUILDING SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER

One of the best and easiest things you can do for damaged hair is to start incorporating a shampoo and conditioner that are packed with nourishing ingredients and bond restoring technology. 

“Since you use them just like a normal shampoo and conditioner,” says Alex, “they don’t add any extra time to your wash routine, and you’ll leave your shower with softer, smoother and stronger hair!”

Of course, Alex loves our NEW Reincarnation Shampoo and Conditioner, which are suitable for regular use so you don’t have to worry about over-proteinating your hair. The shampoo soothes your scalp and strands, while the conditioner seals raised cuticles to improve the look and feel of your hair. Plus, both are formulated with Creatine, an amazing ingredient that helps build damaged electrostatic bonds within the hair strand. 

2. APPLY A WEEKLY MASK

Then, complement your regular bond-building wash with a weekly protein mask. 

Protein masks are one of the best hair repair treatments according to Alex, “because the hair is mostly made of proteins. But you don’t want to use protein-heavy masks too often or you risk over-proteinating, which could mean your hair gets brittle, limp and/or dull.”

Once a week is the perfect frequency for our best-selling Reincarnation Mask, an ultra restorative protein treatment.

The three products are meant to work in tandem, building two different types of bonds in the hair for a more complete bond-building routine.

‘Bonds are responsible for so much of how your hair looks and feels, so nourishing them is one of the best things you can do for your hair”

- Alex Brownsell, Bleach Co-founder

3. WATCH HOW YOU WASH

We’ve covered the products you should be using in the shower, but what about HOW you wash your hair? 

Lukewarm or cool water is better for all hair, whether you’ve already got some damage or want to prevent it in the future. Washing less often is also a good option to retain some of your natural oils and moisture, which might already be a bit lacking if you’ve got dry or bleached hair. 

To make sure you don’t weaken your hair any further, detangle your hair pre-shower and/or when your conditioner is in because wet hair is more fragile than dry! 

4. TURN DOWN THE HEAT

A big cause of damaged hair is over-using heat styling tools, which dries out your hair. For all hair – but especially bleached hair, which doesn’t hold moisture as well as virgin hair – Alex recommends using heat less often. And when you do use them, reduce the heat and don’t re-style the same section of hair more than once if you can help it!

5. GET REGULAR TRIMS

Split ends can give your hair a dry, dull look, and if left alone, they’ll actually travel further up your hair, worsening the effect. 

We recommend getting trims every 6-8 weeks, whether at the salon or in your bathroom. However, if you’re going to do them at home, remember to use super sharp scissors so you don’t just make the split ends worse with blunt kitchen scissors! 

For trimming your hair at home, Alex recommends you use professional-standard, super sharp scissors like the ones in our Trim Kit. 

She likes to do what we call a secret trim about once a month or whenever she notices dead, dry or split ends.

“Working section by section, gently cut away the ends of your hair with a point cut – which is where you hold the scissors at an angle so the result looks very natural,” Alex advises. “You can also twist the sections of your hair and snip away any flyaways that pop out.”

For curly hair, Alex and the team recommend what we call dusting, where the dead ends of curls are removed with a horizontal trim technique, club cutting. Bleach stylist Sapphire illustrates this method on her own curls here.