 Hi, beautiful. I know a lot of us out here are, well, at our breaking points, which means a lot of at-home haircuts, at-home hair color, a lot of hair disasters. Everybody wants to do something drastic to their hair right now in order to just feel something. And I get it. Over the years, I've watched so many hair color, bleach fail videos. I've learned a lot actually on what people are doing at home that is making their hair look so bad. So that knowledge is gonna help me today bring you guys the basic knowledge of how to properly color your hair yourself at home. I'm gonna debunk all this sort of myths. I'm gonna tell you what things people are doing right, what things people are doing wrong, and make sure it doesn't fall off. We'll go over everything from bleaching, toning, to aftercare, and so much more. However, I will be going over the basics. If I have hairdressers watching, if I have anybody who's sort of advanced in the world of hair color, this may be a bit too basic for you. But for the average person, you've come to the right place. And just as a little reminder, this does not replace a professional hairdresser. Somebody who has studied color theory for years is gonna know a lot more than this, but it is a guide during these tough times on how you can color your hair yourself and do it well. Maybe not amazing, but well, I hope. And with that all said, you guys, let's learn some color theory. Let's do it. Are you ready? Get out your notepad or your phone and a pen or your finger and start taking notes, all right? Cause we're gonna go over a lot here and it is important that you listen. Listen to me. This will be like a fun class, I'm like a cool teacher, you know, I'm like, not like the rest of them. First, we're gonna go over how to prepare your hair for hair coloring. Otherwise known as the category prepare. Don't wash your hair before coloring it. What you do when you wash your hair is you make tiny little abrasions on your scalp. This is going to make coloring your hair very painful. If you're using bleach, that bleach is going to seep into those little tiny cracks in your scalp and it is going to sizzle and burn. So please don't wash your hair before coloring it. It is okay if there's products in your hair. It's honestly fine. It's really not a big deal. The bleach will seep through everything, okay? Bleach is super duper heavy duty and it'll go through a little bit of hair spray and it'll get to the cortex of your hair. It's not a big deal. Please don't wash your hair and also maybe if you're gonna bleach it, don't wash it for several days. That way you have a good amount of oil secretion on your scalp to protect your scalp. Don't wash your damn hair. This is pretty basic but make sure you cover your space. Cover your floor, cover your counters, cover yourself, wear some old clothes. Brush out your hair. Please don't try and color your hair with a bunch of tangles in it. Get all those tangles out before going in with that color or else you're gonna have weird spotting from the tangles. If your hair's like matted or anything in the back, you're gonna end up coloring those matted pieces and then you're gonna get all spotting everywhere. It's not good. Brush your damn heads. You're gonna also wanna separate your hair into four sections. Here I'll show you on Miss Manny Quinn just how you do that. This is super basic sectioning method that every hair stylist uses on the daily. Super easy. Part your hair in the middle all the way back down to the nape of your neck. That's your first section. Those are your two. And then go to the apex. You can find the apex by laying the comb on your head and finding the highest point of your head. That is what you call the apex. Then make a section from the apex to behind the ears and those are your four sections. There it is. Voila. You're gonna wanna make sure your hair is dry. Don't apply color on wet hair unless you're trying to do like a bleach bath that's another advanced thing, okay? We don't need to know about that today. Apply color to dry hair. Please don't put bleach on wet hair. It doesn't really make any sense. It's just gonna dilute your formula. There's really no point, all right? Make sure your hair's dry. I also see a lot of people soaking their hair in excessive amounts of say coconut oil. There's really no point of soaking your hair in coconut oil. The bleach is just gonna eat through it all and it's not gonna matter that you have that oil on your hair strands. It's not. Get rid of the oil. It's not necessary. It just makes a mess and your hair just feels nasty and really gross and greasy after. You're welcome. All right, let's move on to category two. How to mix. Mixing your bleach or your color. You gotta do that properly, all right? This is a big, big factor. Guess what, you guys? Different developers actually do different things. It's not a one-size-fits-all. I know a lot of people think that there's 10, 20, 30 and 40 volume for literally no reason and they just kinda take their guess on what they should use, but actually there is a method to the madness, I promise. So let me just go over the very, very basics of what each different developer does differently. So we're gonna talk mostly today about two different categories. You can either be doing a permanent color, which is not bleach and bleach is bleach, right? So anything that doesn't have that white powder involved, that's just color. That's permanent color. With the white powder, that's bleach. And then we'll also talk about toners later, but just for now, just know the differences between color and bleach. Let's go over color first. So if you're coloring your hair, that means you're not using any of that white powder stuff. You have an option to use 10, 20, 30 or 40 volume. If you're using 10 volume, you're probably somebody who has any hair color and they're trying to go darker because when you're using 10 volume, you're not gonna get any lightening effects. So it's just gonna deposit tone onto your hair permanently but it's not gonna cover any grays. Now, if you have grays and you have any hair color and you're trying to go darker and you're trying to also cover your grays, you're gonna use 20 volume. It lifts, it gets into the cortex of those grays and actually changes the color of your gray hair and all of your hair on your head and it lays there permanently. So 20 volume is great for you. Now, 30 and 40 volume with permanent color, not bleach, is typically used for high lift color, which means maybe you are a natural, this is important. If you have color on your hair, you cannot lift your hair color with more color. So that means if you have a dark brown hair and it's boxed-eyed like that, you can't then use a blonde boxed-eye to lighten your hair. You must use bleach. Just wanna get that very clear. You must use bleach to get your hair lighter if it's already colored. But if your hair is natural, if it is naturally brown and you've never colored it, you can use a blonde dye to make your hair blonde. Now, it might come out a little bit orange, you can also use bleach, but you can also use a high lift color, which is a color that lifts many levels. So you're gonna wanna use a 30 or 40 volume with that in order to get maximum lift with your blonde color. Another thing that I would use 30 or 40 volume for is reds. You can use 30 volume if you're trying to get that very maxed out like bright, bright red. Or 40 volume if you really wanna push it to the max, max, max and get like fuchsia going on in your head. You can do that with permanent color without bleach if your hair has never been colored before. Now, for those of you who are gonna use bleach, so people who have already colored hair wanna go lighter or people who have never colored their hair before and wanna get that max, max, bright platinum blonde, you're gonna wanna use a lightener, aka bleach, that powder white stuff that you mix with developer, okay? Now, we don't use 10 volume with bleach because it has no lifting capabilities. Again, 10 volume just deposits and doesn't lift. When I say lift, I mean like the hair cuticle doesn't actually open, that's what's lifting. And then the color molecules actually go inside. 10 volume, it doesn't do that. It lays pretty much on top, slightly inside. Now, 20 volume is for those of you looking for about one to two levels of lift. If you're highlighting your hair, this is often a great developer to use for highlights. Otherwise, 30 volume is pretty much my standard. I pretty much use 30 volume on everybody and any lightening scenario. It's pretty much my go-to and I highly recommend if you're gonna lighten your hair at any capacity, use a 30 volume. Unless your hair is already like pretty light and you're only trying to go a little bit lighter, 20 volume will work just fine. Now, 40 volume, I just say don't. I don't feel like it does that much more than 30 volume, to be honest with you. I feel like it lightens very fast and then dies out very fast. So I don't really recommend it to anybody. I don't ever use it for pretty much anything. I'm not a huge fan of 40 volume. And if you're using 40 volume on your scalp, it's probably gonna burn a lot and I would not recommend it. You actually shouldn't really be using 30 volume on your scalp either, but I never really found any problem with it and it's always been fine. So 30 volume is pretty much the standard. I highly recommend that with lightener if you're trying to lighten your hair, especially those of you with virgin hair who are trying to lighten your hair for the first time, 30 volume will work great. And if you're asking me, well, Brad, what kind of bleach should I be using? I mean, it's all quite similar. Look for a nice one wherever you're shopping or online or I don't know, wherever you can get lightener at this point, I'm sure it'll be fine. I haven't found a gigantic difference between the different lighteners I've used over the past. If you have the right technique, you can use any kind of lightener and you'll get a great result. And also one last thing, please read the directions. Every lightener has a different mixing ratio. They're very similar across the board, but please mix your lightener correctly to what the directions say. It is important to mix correctly. That way you get the maximum results from the lightener you're using. Let's go over our next category, which is where to start. We've mixed our color. We prepared our at-home salon and our hair and now we're ready to actually apply the color. So let's go over permanent color first. This is the stuff that's not bleach. If you have virgin hair and you're trying to do an all over color, please start at the mid sections and ends. And then later, after you're done with that, apply the root color. Because you have heat from your scalp, I say this all the time, you will get what's called hot roots, which is when your root area develops more than your mids and ends, and you end up with a sort of orange warm color up there because of the heat from your scalp. So please, if you don't want orange roots, don't start with your roots. So it's very similar with lightener. Don't start your roots if you have virgin hair. Please don't or else your roots will end up white and your ends will end up like a yellow-orange. I would recommend probably just doing the mid-links and ends first and then wait about 10 to 15 minutes until your hair has started to develop and your hair has started to lighten and then go and heat your roots with the lightener at the end. If you have pre-existing color and this is not your first time coloring your hair, say you have very dark box dye color on your hair or just any dark color. Start off with the parts that are the darkest. So if you have spots all around, start off from those spots that are the darkest. Then move your way up. Still, don't do your roots first unless you're doing like a retouch on existing hair. Don't start your roots. Next we have application method. This is where your work either turns into a masterpiece or a disaster. This is actually one of the most important parts, if not the most important part. Now listen, I understand that none of you are gonna use a brush. Probably none of you, which is fine. Honestly, it's fine. As long as you're using these things correctly, you'll be fine, I swear. You'll be all good to go. First of all, make sure you have gloves on. It's really not good for your hands to put color all over them, for real. It'll dry them out forever. Permanent color is pretty simple. Mix it up, put it on your head. You can comb or brush it through. I highly recommend that as you work through. Comb it, make sure every single hair strand is applied to. And now with bleach, I'm gonna show you on Miss Mandy Quinn how much bleach you should be using, okay? I see this happen all the time where people do not use enough lightener on their heads. 90% of the time, nobody uses enough. You need a lot of lightener in order to get the maximum results possible. And less lightener doesn't mean that your hair is going to lighten less. It just means that you're probably getting spotting all over your hair. If you don't want as much lightening power, maybe drop down the developer or maybe don't let it sit in your hair as long. If you don't want your hair to lighten as much, don't go and put less lightener. That doesn't make any sense. Now, as shown here on Miss Mandy Quinn, my amazing client today, we are gonna apply that lightener. We're gonna start in the back. If you're using permanent color or bleach, start in the back, it doesn't matter what you're using. We're gonna wanna do those first back to quadrants first. Start at the bottom and work your way up. That way, all the color lays on top of itself as you work up and it doesn't become a total mess. Now, this is how much lightener you should be using. Really coat it. You can use your hands as I'm doing here. Really get it in there. Move the hair around in your palms. Really get it in and avoid that root area at all costs until you can go back around and do it all after. And then once you're done with the entire back section, you can work on the front section. So once you're done applying the color on the entire head, set your timer for however long you're supposed to set it for. Now, for bleach, I definitely recommend putting a bag over your hair, spray a little water inside of it, put it on your head and tie it really tight. That way the water kind of gets a little bit steamy inside the bag. You just don't want the lightener to dry out, okay? Doesn't like dryness, it likes moistness. So make sure it's always moist. Another thing that I see a lot, people try to lather the bleach like shampoo. Bleach does not lather. Let me make that very clear. Bleach doesn't f***ing lather. So stop trying to make that happen. It's never gonna happen. And also don't comb or brush through bleach. Your hair is in a very fragile state right now. That tension is gonna be very bad and detrimental to the health of your hair. Don't do that. So let's go over how long to leave the color on for. For a permanent color, you can leave on for whatever the directions say. Every manufacturer has a different timeframe. You leave the color on for, it's usually 30 or 35 minutes. And for bleach, it's much more complicated. It's gonna vary person to person. If you have virgin hair though and you're trying to go really light, leave on 45 to an hour, okay? Nothing beyond an hour is gonna do anything else because the bleach ends up drying out after an hour basically. Don't leave it on for more than an hour. Nothing's gonna happen, nothing, I promise. If you're trying to get platinum blonde hair, leave it on your hair until it's kind of like white looking because usually once you rinse the lightener off and that kind of white cast comes off, it ends up looking a lot more orange and yellowish when you rinse it off. So pale yellow is what we're going for in order to get that very platinum blonde look. And you can also wash out the back before the front. Because we started in the back, we can wash that out so that it doesn't over process and the front and back end up as the same color. So once your timer is up, maybe wash out the back first, wait another 10 minutes and then rinse out the front. And just overall, make sure you monitor this process. Keep a close eye on your hair. Make sure nothing's falling out. If you're worried about anything falling out, take a piece in the back, kind of stretch it out a little bit, pull on it. If it's not breaking or not stretching ridiculous amount, your hair is probably fine and you can leave it on a little bit longer. And next we have cleansing. And this is a whole category. I can see a lot of things gone wrong in the cleansing category in these videos I've seen. One, use lukewarm water, okay? Don't use cold water to rinse off lightener. I know it's tempting. It feels kind of good because your head's very hot, but you don't want to do that because what's going to happen is it's going to shock your hair. Your hair was just expanded really wide in order to get all that artificial pigment out of your hair or natural pigment out of your hair. When you shock it back, it can cause breakage. So make sure you rinse your hair with lukewarm water. Nothing too hot, nothing too cold, just right in the middle, okay? Do not scrub your scalp. It's very fragile. The skin was just basically ripped off of it. Be gentle, yet thorough. Don't use your nails. Use just like this, just the tops of your fingers, okay? Be gentle, be loving to your scalp. It's doing a lot for you right now. And just say thank you to it by just giving a little massage. And most of the time it takes about two washes to get all the lightener out of your hair if you're using a lot of it. Sometimes your hair can be left with that gritty feeling. That's just because you didn't wash all the lightener out. So wash it at least twice, condition it very nicely, maybe do a little hair mask, show it a little love. You'll be all good. Up next, evaluate the situation. Can your hair handle more bleach if it needs to be bleached again? Is it stringy? Is it falling out? Is your hair white white? Does it look like it can handle more lightener? The answer is no, then don't do it. If the answer is yes, then do it, okay? It'll be fine. And now is when you proceed with another round of lightener if you need to. And now those that are doing permanent color and not using bleach, you'll wanna stop here. You're at the end of your journey. Congratulations, you've colored your hair properly. People that are bleaching, there's more stuff to it, okay? It's a long process. So next up, we have toner. Toner is a tricky situation for a lot of you I've noticed. A lot of you are using permanent color as a toner. Now that's not a toner, okay? See permanent color, like we went over before, lifts and deposits. It goes into the cortex of your hair. Toner lays on top. You don't want to use permanent color when you're toning your hair. Again, it's a very confusing thing to go over. We're going over the basics today. Just listen to me. Don't try to fight it, okay? Just use a toner, not a permanent color. Don't use box dye to tone your hair, okay? Don't go grab the icy blonde box dye and put it over your already blonde hair. There's so much ammonia. There's so much lifting in that box. You don't need any lift at this point. You've already lifted your hair to what it needs to be. It's like pale yellow right now. You don't need to then lift it further. You're just gonna create so much damage for no reason. Toner lays on top of the hair cuticle. Often mixed with anything below a 10 volume developer. Typically there is a toning developer that goes with the toners, okay? So look out for that. T18 is not a toner. It's a permanent color, okay? Don't be using 20 volume with T18 in order to tone your blonde hair. No, it's not good. Use a level 10 toner, maybe an ash neutral one, combined with a toning developer in order to tone your hair. This will leave your hair feeling amazingly healthy. It won't cause any damage. It'll actually help some of that damage feel better. And that's why we use a toner and not a permanent color. When you're toning your hair, opt for something that is at the same level as what your hair is right now, or for something darker, okay? You can't go lighter with a toner. You can only go darker or at the same level. So these are the levels right here, the basics of it all. Level one to 10. One being the darkest, 10 being the lightest. See what you are. And then when you know what your level is, say you're level eight right now and you're trying to be more ash toned, okay? So you know you wanna go with a level eight. Then you about your color wheel, okay? It's not that complicated, I swear. Just listen. I know it sounds scary. Grab your color wheel. If your hair is kinda looking a little orange, you know? Go from that orange across the other side and you'll see across some orange is blue. You're gonna want a blue based toner at a level eight in order to cancel out that orange you're seeing. So you can use something like an 8NA in order to cancel out that orange and get a beautiful level eight tone that looks sort of natural and almost long quality. Purple shampoo is not a toner. Purple shampoo is to keep up with what you've done at the salon or at home. It's not a toner. Don't use it to tone your hair. It's not gonna work well. You're gonna get spotting everywhere. That's not what it's for. And make sure you're leaving the toner on for the recommended amount of time and not longer and not shorter. So using a level 10 toner on a level eight head of hair. See, this is level 10, this is level eight. It's not gonna work because there is no lifting agents. There's nothing that's gonna get your hair higher. There's nothing that's gonna make your hair lighter. Toner doesn't make your hair lighter. It just brings you to the right tone of that lightness that you have achieved with bleach. Consider doing a root and end glaze. You can look up pictures of that. This is basically what it is. It's when you do a darker toner on the top and a lighter one on the bottom. Hair naturally has darker tones at the top and lighter tones at the bottom, typically. We often do that in the salon to make it a bit of a more natural look or to make a little root shadow. So you can use like a level eight on the roots and a level 10 on the ends and blend it all together. It'll look amazing. That is definitely more of an advanced skill. Try it. Might not come out that good, but don't blame me. Our next category, finish and style. At this point, you're pretty much done, okay? You've rinsed it off. You blow dried it. You have the most amazing beautiful hair ever. Evaluate, okay? Is this where you wanna be? Do you wanna be lighter? Maybe you should wait a day. Maybe you should wait a week. Maybe you should wait six months to do it again. Maybe you try to get your hair lighter or maybe it looks great how it is. Just evaluate the situation and don't make any impulse decisions. Make sure you are gentle with your hair and using the proper products to take care and maintain your new color. We have force-filled heat shield here and Viper Smoothing Oil. These are gonna be great for maintaining color and keeping the integrity of your hair. Heat shield protects your hair up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and adds Pro-Vitamin B5 to strengthen and restore your hair. This is great for people with colored hair or not colored hair, people with any hair type or texture. Perfect for protecting against heat damage and the elements. The oil is gonna rehydrate your hair. It's not gonna sit on top of your hair cuticle. It's actually gonna seep in deep into your cortex and rehydrate and restore your hair from the inside out. Great for after color. Please make sure you take care of your hair after color. That's so important. That way when you go back with color again the next time, your hair is in pristine shape to then take more color and not become damaged. And with that, I'll set you guys happy coloring and good luck. Please follow my directions. It took a while for me to put together and I hope you could please learn a thing or two. As much as I think it's fun seeing people do bad shit with their hair, I do really like helping people and making them feel beautiful and learn and I love educating. So this is a lot of fun for me. I can't wait to see what you guys do. Hopefully some good stuff. I'm sure there'll be some bad, but hopefully some good too. That is all for today, guys. Thank you so much for freaking watching me today. Follow me on all the damn social medias. We have Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, at bramondonyc. Follow my haircare brand X mono hair for new products coming out. And that's all for today, guys. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to live your extra life. I'll see you next time. Bye, guys. Hi, beautiful. This is Project X, our everyday conditioner. Project X is gonna give you that basic hydration your hair needs with all the necessary nutrients. So it's still nice and fluffy. It's still beautiful and flowy and has that lightweight hydration and shine your hair is craving. And this is Project X, our everyday conditioner.