Going "Bronde"

Bored with being brunette I decided one day crazily and hastily to bleach and then dye my hair blonde. My mom owned several salons/day spas for most of my life and so I had basic knowledge on how to do this myself. Yep, I turned my hair from the picture on the top to the one on the bottom all by my lonesome.

Me and my close friend Dan

Me and the Mister

Not completely satisfied and perhaps also bored I decided to then transform myself further to what I look like today. I call it "Bronde".

Me as a bronde

So How did I do it? The first step was using bleaching powder and 40 volume developed that I got from my local beauty store. Here's exactly what I used:

I parted my hair into 4 sections (top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right). Then I bleached each section separately. Yes this took forever because I had to wait the 45 minutes for each section to lift and wash it out. The most crucial part was getting the roots to match the rest of my hair. Because my roots would lift the quickest I made sure NOT to apply the bleach to my roots until 35 minutes after it had been on the rest of my hair. Basically, I waited for the last ten minutes to apply the bleach to my roots. It actually worked! After doing each section my hair lifted uniformly! The bad part was that it was a brassy. That's when the toner came in. Because I didn't want to be brassy I decided to get a 8A Light Ash Blonde color. I applied it to my entire head using a 20 volume developer. Here's what I used:

Satin Light Ash Blonde Hair Color

After two months playing with that color I decided I wanted to add some dimension. The first thing I did was added some low lights using a 5N Light Brown with a 10 volume developer to the underside of my hair. I applied the color to select sections of  the bottom back part of my hair. I made sure to only leave the color on for 10 minutes. I didn't want it to over develop and turn grey or green. I also used a 10 volume developer because I didn't want lift in the color. 

Then I parted my hair down it's natural part and applied a 7N just to the top of my head. I also used a 10 volume developer for the same reasons as above. 

After that I added some highlights using bleaching powder and 40 volume developer. This is the end result: 

I think this chart is so helpful. The rows at the top read Natural, Ash, Gold, Beige, Gold Copper, Copper, Red Copper, Red and Mahogany.