Why Bleaching Your Hair Like Kim Kardashian Could Be A Bad Idea

By now, whether we’ve wanted to or not, we’ve all seen Kim Kardashian’s newest fashion risk. Her hair is *gasp* blonde! It’s not just a few highlights to lighten up her dark locks, either. It’s platinum Marilyn Monroe meets Draco Malfoy blonde. Like everything else that has to do with Kim Kardashian West, some people love the new look and some people hate it. But, we can all agree on one thing – it is going to take a lot of dye-jobs and bleach to maintain the platinum blonde color on her naturally dark hair.

If you’re inspired by Kim’s new hair and are thinking of following in her footsteps, there are a few things you should consider before making the reach for that bleach.

Cost & Maintenance

Once you start bleaching your hair, there’s no going back. Dark roots can start to show up in light hair within a couple weeks. In the last few weeks, Kim has posted three Instagram pictures in the salon touching up her color. That’s a lot of bleach and a lot of time. Kim K might have the money to re-dye her hair every week, but a broke college student definitely doesn’t.

Damaging Effects

Bleach strips away the moisture in your hair, leaving it dry and unhealthy. Dry hair is more prone to separation and breakage, which is not cute. Hairdryers, straighteners and curling irons should be used sparingly or not at all after a bleach job, because the heat from these styling tools only adds to the damage.

Scalp Sensitivity

If you have sensitive skin or skin allergies, watch out for bleaches and hair dyes. Although rare, they can cause burns or irritation to your scalp. This isn’t likely, but if you notice discomfort while getting your hair colored, don’t ignore it.

Unnatural Appearance

Going lighter looks great on some, but for others it washes them out and makes skin appear more pale than normal. Kim K has a professional makeup artist to fix her up every morning, but if you feel like you need to pile on the makeup to avoid looking washed out, your hair is probably too light.

If you want to go lighter but aren’t ready to bleach as much as Kim, try highlights or lowlights. Lowlights actually make light hair appear lighter and won’t fry your ends. If you want to save your hair from the damage extreme bleaching causes, it’s probably not the best idea to follow Kim K’s lead – at least not this time.

Image source: instagram.com/kimkardashian