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To make your bleached hair soft and silky like they were before you tortured your manes, you need to keep 3 important things in mind… Hydrate…Befriend Protein…Stay Away From Heat. 

That’s exactly what I did.

How I Made My Bleached Hair Soft Again?

I recently decided to give myself a makeover and I decided to up my hair game by changing my hair color. I have naturally jet black hair and I got really bored carrying the same look for years now. So I figured I would opt for either sunflower hair color or dip dye with a burgundy hair dye.

But for any hair color to show its magic on my manes, I need to go through a disastrous yet mandatory hair bleaching process. And I had to leave it a little longer on my stubborn hair to break the pigments of melanin.

So, as you might have guessed, bleached stripped off all the moisture and life from my hair along with the color pigments. My hair started appearing dull, dry, and lifeless. 

I dreaded the outcome.

Before I applied any hair color(which again has a more drying effect on your hair) on my bleached hair, I needed to make my hair soft and silky again.

21 Tips: How To Make Bleached Hair Soft And Silky?

To add new life to my bleached hair, I knew I had to be consistent with my dry hair care routine and I need to moisturize my extremely dry hair.

Here is exactly what I did to make bleached hair soft and silky and I hope you benefit from it:

Condition Before Your Shampoo

This is something that I do every time I wash my long Indian hair. Just dampen your hair and apply a good hydrating hair conditioner on your dry ends, leave it for 5 minutes, and rinse it off.

Then follow up with your choice of shampoo like you normally would.

This makes sure that your dry hair gets pampered with some good nourishment before you shampoo. You can also opt for reverse hair washing or co-washing if your hair appears too dry.

Use The Right Shampoo According To Your Hair Type

Bleaching leaves your hair lifeless stripping off entire moisture from your hair strands. So you need to skip using your regular shampoo and opt for hydrating shampoos like olive oil shampoos or green tea shampoos or repairing shampoos that will help your hair recover from the damage.

Apart from this, you need to make sure you use a good sulfate-free shampoo.

My personal favorites are:

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Condition Your Hair Again

No, I am not inebriated. But this really does help.

Apply a good hydrating conditioner after you shampoo and leave it just for a minute before you wash your hair with just water.

This will help your hair regain the lost nourishment over time. Also, make sure you use a conditioner that is silicone-free because silicones tend to leave a layer of build-up on our hair strands which in long run may lead to hair breakage.

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Hair Rinses Are My Secret To Make Bleached Hair Soft Again

Hair rinses can help you level up your hair game. I have been using hair rinses since childhood. And when bleached ruined my hair health, I made sure to use fermented rice water rinse or fenugreek hair rinse every time I washed my hair. 

Replace Hair Dryers And Opt For Natural Air Drying

This is a bit difficult one, I know but minimizing or rather eliminating the use of hair dryers just until your hair health recovers a bit is an important hack that worked well for me.

Even in the minimal heat settings, you are still using heat on your already-dried hair. Along with water, the dryer also strips off your natural oils and remaining moisture from your strands.

So, I would recommend you to skip the hair dryer altogether until hair health recovers because that’s exactly what I did here.

Use Microfibre Towels

This is yet another basic change that impacts your hair health for the better. Just try it once and you will notice the difference yourself. Microfiber towel minimizes friction and hair breakage.

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Ditch Serum For Argan oil

I know I have repeated and repeated this hack on this beauty blog but it truly works. Replacing your hair serum with argan oil works well. It not only does what any hair serum would do, but it takes it a step further.

It helps to detangle hair with minimal breakage, add shine, nourish hair, minimize frizz and keep your hair healthy.

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Incorporate Rosehip Oil & Jojoba Oil In Your Routine

These two are perfect hair oils to use for damaged hair. 

Jojoba oil is one of my favorite hair oils for damaged hair. Doing regular hot oil treatment using jojoba oil is just what you need for your hair. Rosehip oil does not prevent hair damage but it does know how to repair it well, especially sun damage.

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Use Leave-In Conditioners

I have ignored leave-in conditioners for a long time, I figured I am doing the hot oil treatment, and using good deep conditioning masks from time to time so why should I use a leave-in conditioner?

But I was way off.

Using leave-in conditioners especially if you have dull hair, dry hair, or damaged hair, leave-ins can be a game changer.

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Also read: Can you use regular conditioner as leave-in?

Do Regular Hot Oil Treatments

Doing regular hot oil treatments using a combination of sealing oils and penetrating oils does play a vital role to make your bleached hair soft again. Just heat your choice of oil using the indirect heat method to enhance its nutrients and apply it generously concentrating well on your scalp.

Follow up with scalp massage or inversion method for best results. 

The reason why Indian hair oiling treatments work so well is that these oils penetrate deep into your scalp promoting better blood flow while coating your hair with the boost of nourishment and moisture. 

Don’t skip it even if you dislike it. It’s gonna help repair damaged hair the fastest.

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Steam Does Help

Every time while oiling your hair, if you take a little effort to wrap your hair in a bun and pamper your oiled hair with some steam, then there is nothing like it.

When we apply steam, the heat helps better penetration of oils to the scalp maximizing the benefits of your hair oiling treatment. 

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Deep Condition Once A Week

To make bleached hair soft and silky like never before, deep conditioning masks are crucial. They not only deeply condition your dry hair but also adds a boost of new life to your hair. 

To maximize the benefits of deep conditioning treatment, just refrigerate your mask for 10 minutes and apply it to your damp hair. Leave it for desired time then rinse it off with cold water.

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Protein Treatments Once A Month

When your hair goes through a bleaching process it disrupts the layer of protein in your shafts making it prone to breakage. Thus, to restore the protein, do regular protein treatments or use protein masks. 

• Banana and Egg hair mask
• Yogurt hair mask
• Himalaya Protein Hair Mask

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Hair Spa To The Rescue

This is what I do when I have a good day to pamper myself, especially my hair. Check out these guides to help you better with hair spa treatments:

• How to do a hair spa at home?
• Hair spa for hair fall control using ingredients in your kitchen

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These DIYs Do Work

If you are on a budget and don’t want to invest any more in store-bought masks, then don’t worry. These DIYs do the job of making bleached hair soft equally well:

• Aloe vera and coconut oil hair mask
• Banana hair mask (check out this Issue by Pondicherry Journal of Nursing which shares the benefits of incorporating banana in your diet and hair care routine helps your hair)
• Coconut milk hair mask
• Avocado hair mask

Don’t Color Until Your Hair Health Improves

Usually, we bleach our hair to color it with another beautiful color but as you might know, coloring is a drying treatment. So if your hair is already dry, I would recommend you to wait at least a week, follow this hair care routine that we are discussing here, and then color. 

Skip More Bleaching Or Bleach Baths

In case your hair doesn’t lighten to the level you desire, don’t go for another bleaching session until a week. You can do a bleach bath for hair after a week. Its gentler compared to the regular bleaching.

• To keep the brassy tones away from your hair, use purple shampoo or blue shampoo to keep your hair color fresh once a month. 

No More Heat Styling For A While

We all know its side effects but we still can’t resist it.

But using heat regularly to style your hair will eventually leave you with fried hair to deal with. Now that you have already dry damaged hair due to bleach, to protect whatever hair health is left, you must skip heat styling for a while.

I hate to take your one pleasure away from you, but again just for a while until you make bleached hair soft and silky again, or at least wait for a week before you use heat to style your hair.

In case you cheat, make sure you use a good heat protectant beforehand.

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Pineapple Hairstyle To Protect Hair While Sleeping

While we sleep, our hair often gets tangled or experiences breakage. Thus, to protect your hair while sleeping, tie your hair in a pineapple hairdo.

Use Silk Pillow Cases

This is yet another basic that I ignored for the longest time but once I made the switch from regular pillow covers to satin pillow covers, I noticed my hair isn’t appearing as dry as before.

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Ditch Poor Hair Care Habits

Poor hair habits are just as damaging to your hair. You need to avoid hair mistakes and take note of these poor hair care habits:

• Don’t use products that are loaded with harsh chemicals.
• Avoid using hair products that aren’t meant for your hair type.
• Keep your scalp clean and healthy.
• Protect your hair from hard water while washing.

Over to You: How To Make Bleached Hair Soft Again?

Hope you found these hacks on how to make bleached hair soft and silky useful. These are my personal tried and tested remedies. In case you think I missed out on any important hack to make bleached hair soft again, please share via comments.

Before you leave, don’t forget to check out:

• 6 Best Volumizing Mousses For Thicker Picture Perfect Hair
• Why Does My Hair Curl At The End? 12 Reasons & Solutions
• Oriflame Nature Secrets Hot Oil For Dry & Damaged Hair Review

Have a lovely day.