Hair history:  My natural hair color is dark brown with red undertones.  About 5 years ago I started bleaching my hair blonde and to eventually platinum blonde.  About a year ago I started darkening my hair, lol.  I got it to dark brown and then about 6 months ago decided to dye it black.  (All the times I dyed my hair it was with professional hair dye from Sally's or another beauty supply store, never boxed dye.  Well, when I started dying it black I used box dye.  Well a few weeks ago I decided I was tired of the black hair (made me look washed out, etc.) and decided that I wanted to go back to blonde.

 

This is where my issue comes in.  I tried boxed bleach kits, such as Born Blonde with no luck.  Instead they made my roots a hideous shade of orange (fresh un-dyed virgin hair-so of course that took!) and left the lengths of my hair still a nasty dark color with lots of black left.  I did more then one application.  Still no luck. 

 

I ordered powder bleach from Sally's (I forget the name of the one and the other was the BW2 which is what I always used to use when bleaching my hair.)  I tried a 30 vol. developer and a 40 vol. deloper....at different times.  It did lighten my hair some....but by no means has it gotten it back to a light platinum blonde and the lengths are for the most part still a medium brown which is still way too dark for what I want.  My roots have no problem taking to the bleach so I have been leaving them alone...it's the lengths of my hair that won't get light enough.

 

I am at my wits end and don't know what else to do.  Should I continue to bleach those sections every couple of days?  Should I get a hair color stripper and try that?  And if yes, what brand?  I read on another site people reccommended using L'Oreal Zap Color, or something along those lines.  Does anyone have any experience with that?

 

Please, any advice on how I can get back to a beautiful light blonde would be appreciated!

 

Is there a brand you would recommend or would any work from a walmart, target type store?  I don't have any local beauty stores.

 

And this may be a stupid question, but what color does a stripped take your hair too? 

 

How is the condition? If the hair gets really damaged there's a risk of it breaking off.

Have you read any article by beth minardi (who's like the prophet of color education) she always says that dying colored hair to blonde is a very hard process. And that the only good way is to first use a color stripper and then highlight the hair over a couple of visits so that the hair gradually get lighter.

Getting platinum hair from having black dyed hair in one process is almost impossible, even for professional colorists.

 

No I have not read any postings by her.  I did realize that this wasn't a one step process and was going to take more then one try.  My hair surprisingly is still in good condition after the bleaching.  It's no longer black but is now in the brown family which is still too dark for me.  I figure that maybe it is pointless to use a stripper at this point since I have already gotten it to start lightening and the black is pretty much all out?