what’s harder on hair-bleach or stripping

Colour strippers like Colorfix and Goldwell have the reputation of being gentle strippers, and as I've tried and tested both I'd be inclined to agree.  You can't tell you're hair has been stripped at all - I would advise anyone to try stripping before considering bleaching if you only want to remove dye.  The downside to stripping is that if you have naturally dark hair but want to put a vibrant colour over, then the Colorfix will only remove colour down to your virgin colour (or near enough), it won't lighten hair.

Bleach is harsh on the hair if used a lot and without the appropriate hair care before and after bleaching.  It also depends on the present condition of your hair and how long you're going to leave it on for i.e if you want to get an orangey base it will be less damaging than if you want platinum blonde hair.  I would say that bleach made my hair dry and porous, much more so than when using a colour stripper.

Hope that helps.

Personally, I think bleaching has been more damaging to my hair than stripping color out.  But maybe because I've only stripped color out of my hair a few times.

Unlike bleaching, stripping doesn't seem to take out a lot of the "red" color.  You get that lovely <cough> attractive <choke> pumpkin color - which is a nice base for adding color.  I think it's harder to add color back on to bleached hair.  You have to worry about it turning green or violet.

So I don't know which is technically more damaging, but if you're trying to decide which one to do, I think it depends on the current condition of your hair and what your ultimate goal is.


Karen