My Hair is Gummy After Bleaching: What to Do?

You have bleached hair, and at some point either while the bleach is on or when you have taken the bleach off you have realized that the hair is “Gummy”, or “elastic” or super-stretchy. None of these things are good at all!

And if this is the case while you still have bleach in your hair, get it off asap with cool water.

 

What Should I Do If My Hair Is Gummy After Bleaching?

Unfortunately, there is only one real way out. The majority of the “gummy” hair needs to be trimmed off. The first thing to do is to get a high-quality salon treatment to treat your hair.

When your hair is gummy, it is also very hard to dry, will be extremely frizzy, untameable and constantly breaking, it will actually snap off as you are drying it. So, the best bet is to have a reasonable cut to trim the majority of the gummy hair off.

 

Things to Know About Gummy Hair

Suitable Bleach Level for Hair

When you are lightening hair with bleach, slowly (or quickly depending on the percentage of peroxide you are using) the bleach is actually consuming the color pigment molecules.

The darker the hair is, the more color pigment molecules the bleach needs to consume to get to the desired underlying reflect, this enables you to tone on the correct level and have a great result.

In a salon, it is a hairdresser’s job to decide the health of the hair vs the desired hair color, and what bleach level to mix to achieve as much lift as possible, and ensuring that the health of the hair is not compromised beyond return.

 

Gellified Hair

When the hair becomes gummy, the health of the hair has been compromised to such a state as it cannot ever be returned to a healthy state. The terminology used for hair in this state is called “Gellified”. It means becoming a “gel-like state”. And this is exactly what happens to hair that has been over-processed with bleach.

This can happen when-

• The peroxide level is too high for the hair you are working with and lightening.
• When the bleach has consumed all the color pigments and over-processed on the blonde.

 

Gummy Hair Care

Gummy hair can actually occur after bleaching, chemical straightening and perming. Regardless of how it occurs, the outcome is the same.

Gellified hair requires a lot of ongoing care, not only the initial treatment and trim but using a good quality salon shampoo, conditioner and treatments, limited heat treatments (even though you will want to straighten to eliminate the look of the damage, it actually increases the damage), limiting environmental damage (heat and dry) and only using tepid water to shampoo and conditioner as to not open cuticles and incur further damage.

The good news is, at this point of going through this, you are absolutely beside yourself. By following a good healthy hair routine, minimal heat, salon products, not over coloring, you’ll be able to say goodbye to gummy hair and your lovely locks will grow back!