How To Make Bleached Hair Soft And Silky – 15 Effective Hacks + Natural Remedies

How Does Damaged Bleached Hair Look Like?

Bleaching doesn’t necessarily make your hair brittle or damaged. However, improper bleaching or repeating this process every few months can result in dry hair, hair breakage, split ends, and brittle hair without elasticity.

The story, unfortunately, does not end there. Namely, your hair gets more and more damaged with each bleaching.

So, if you don’t take steps to protect your hair and make it healthy again, this could result in weaker hair, hair thinning, and ultimately – hair loss.

Why Is My Hair Like Straw After Bleaching?

Bleach contains alkaline agents, which are basically hair lighteners. During the bleaching process, these agents cause your hair to swell and open and expand the hair cuticles.

When the latter happens, these alkaline agents penetrate the hair’s cortex and dissolve the hair’s natural pigment. At the same time, it breaks down your hair shaft’s natural fatty acids. Due to this reason, bleach leaves your hair dry and brittle.

The hair cortex is the thick, central portion of your hair shaft that is responsible for its strength, color, and texture. So, once it becomes exposed, you end up with split ends, and obviously damaged and straw-like hair¹.

15 Best Tips For Making Bleached Hair Soft And Silky Again

If you ended up with damaged hair, you probably want to rebuild the strength of your hair. There are many natural hair care products that can help seal your hair and restore some gloss and shine – and to rebuild your hair cuticle.

Luckily, there are some things you can do to repair your bleached hair and that can help make bleached hair soft and silky again.

These vary from some simple changes in hair care routine, as well as using plant-based oils to hair masks and massaging.

So if your hair looks like straw after bleaching, make sure to check out my tips to learn how to repair bleached hair at home.

1. Use Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has many benefits for your hair. It may relieve dandruff, restore glow to dry or damaged hair, tame frizz, and protect your hair against styling damage. It may seal your hair cuticle and prevent protein loss.

All of these benefits, make coconut oil great choice if you want to make bleached hair soft again.

Rub a small amount of coconut oil between your palms to warm it a little bit before applying it to your hair. Apply it to dry, fizzy parts, and to your split ends. You may also add it to your DIY hair masks.

Best part? It is safe to use on most hair types.

2. Use Olive Oil

Olive oil is a very popular natural hair care product. It has been used for hair care for quite a long time. It contains emollients, proteins, antioxidants, and vitamins that may moisturize, soften, strengthen, and protect your hair.

A couple of drops are enough to give your hair some life. Apply it to your hair ends with your fingertips.

The other option is to add olive oil to your homemade hair mask. Olive oil is a great carrier oil for home remedies for hair.

3. Rice Water

Rice water rinse contains inositol that repairs hair strands from the inside out and makes your hair stronger. In fact, rice water can replace over-the-counter conditioner!

Use the water you used to boil rice and strain it out. Leave that water in your refrigerator overnight. You can repeat this rinse every day if your hair is very damaged.

Rinsing your hair with rice water will surely help to make your bleached hair soft and silky².

4. Use Argan Oil

This oil is full of antioxidants. It may help you rebuild the hair follicles’ strength and protect the hair from further damage.

It moisturizes and soothes internally – while on the outside, it protects strands and skin from oxidative damage and, according to some studies, may also provide UV protection.

A few drops of argan oil are enough to seal in moisture, and to add shine to your hair. You may also add it to your homemade hair masks. It is one of the better ways how to make bleached hair soft and silky again!

Keep in mind that some oils are suitable only for specific hair types! Make sure to read my comparison of argan oil vs. coconut oil and find out which one’s best for YOUR hair.

5. Avoid Heat Styling

Bleaching makes your hair become dry and prone to damage. Hot styling tools may easily cause heat styling damage. Even though you may choose a professional stylist – be careful.

Additional heat stress on your hair cuticle will most probably result in even greater breakage.

It would be best to completely avoid all types of heat styling tools, including blow dryer, curling iron, or hair straightening for a few weeks. Instead, let your hair air dry.

After this period, when your hair become ready for those heat-styling tools again, make sure you keep it to a minimum. And – if you must use these tools, ensure that you always protect the hair with a heat protectant.

6. Sun Protection

As we now know, after you bleached your hair, it became highly vulnerable to heat – whether it comes from styling or the sun.

Hair sun protection also protects your scalp, which is actually very useful, as your scalp may become irritated from bleaching³.

How to protect the hair? You have two options. You can use an SPF spray specifically designed for hair or look out for hair products that include an SPF factor inside.

Otherwise, remember to wear a hat if you plan to spend more time in the sun, to reduce sun exposure to your (already) dry hair. Sun rays can dry out your hair even more!

7. Use Almond Oil

Almond oil is saturated with more nourishing vitamins and proteins. One of the best ingredients of almond oil is vitamin E, which may help bind your hair and make strands of your hair stronger.

Plus – it fills in the gaps that were made inside your hair shaft during the bleaching session (these gaps make bleached hair prone to breakage).

To incorporate almond oil into your hair care routine, you can apply a few drops of it each day on your hair before you head out the door.

If this doesn’t suit you for any reason, you may use it as an ingredient in a deep-conditioning hair mask.

By the way, sweet almond oil has also great benefits for skin! If you’d like to incorporate it into your skincare routine without clogging your pores, read this article first.

8. Leave-In Conditioner

You may now wonder: “Is leave-in conditioner good for frizzy bleached hair?”.

Leave-in conditioners are available at almost any beauty supply store and supermarket. You probably already know about the effects of leave-in conditioner, and you know it can help bring life to your damaged hair again.

While some of the leave-in conditioners are thick and you can apply them in the shower, you can buy others in the form of spray that you can put on your hair before you head outside. This type of leave-in treatment is a great option for those who lack time.

When choosing the right leave-in conditioner, make sure to read the ingredients carefully. Consider protein treatments as well.

Protein treatment will surely help your hair regain its softness and healthy look.

9. Be Careful With Chlorinated Water

Chlorine is generally bad for your hair. This is especially true after hair bleaching, when the strength of your hair is severely compromised.

Chlorine can make bleached locks even weaker, but it may also give your bleached hair a brassy blond, carrot-orange, or greenish-blue color.

To avoid damage caused by chlorine, rinse your hair with cool water before and immediately after spending time in the swimming pool or any other chlorinated water. You may also consider wearing a swim cap.

10. Choose Shampoos Wisely

Bleaching your hair also strips off natural oils from your hair follicle. It then needs some time to heal.

And while it does so, you would definitely want to cut back on how often you wash your hair. It would also be good for your hair to consider switching to sulfate-free shampoos.

Sulfates are harsh chemicals that remove hair’s natural oils. Without these oils, you end up with dry hair. And, because bleached hair is already dry, you need to stay away from sulfates.

So, opt for sulfate-free options for shampooing your bleached hair. This kind of shampooing will remove excess sebum without stripping your hair’s oils.

Note that, it may take some time for your hair to get used to sulfate-free shampoos, or the new schedules of hair washing (especially if you used to wash your hair often), but eventually, your hair will love it.

11. Use Cold Water

Another way how to make bleached hair soft and silky is by washing your color-treated hair with refreshing cold water (but not freezing water!).

Bleached hair that has already been heat-damaged should not be washed in hot water. Steam from the shower may cause further damage to your hair. So, when you wash your hair, make sure to keep the temperature down.

12. Brush Your Hair When It’s Not Fully Dry

Bleached hair is more sensitive. Among other things, it is also more prone to snags and tangles.

To avoid it, it would be best to brush your hair when it’s still a bit wet. You may use a wide-toothed comb on your wet hair – or something like Wet Brush or Tangle Teezer to avoid tangled hair.

13. Use Silk Or Satin Pillowcase

While you may not see the point of changing your pillow sheets, it actually makes a lot of sense. Silk and satin pillowcases will help you make bleached hair soft again, as they protect it from frizzing.

Satin and silk don’t bunch up hair follicles like cotton ones, which means less frizzing – and less hair breaking.

But, that’s not all. As cotton pillowcases tend to absorb moisture, due to wicking properties – that’s not the case with silk and satin. The latter are smoother and less likely to absorb moisture from your dehydrated hair.

14. Trim Regularly

If you want long healthy-looking hair, you need to sacrifice a little bit of it. For maintaining the glowy look of your hair, you simply need to get regular trims. Trimming off those ugly split ends brings some life into dry or damaged hair by bleaching.

Why is it so important?

Unfortunately the split ends keep splitting further up, which eventually leads to breakage. That is the reason you simply have to get rid of it.

15. Drink Plenty Water

This might be the simplest way to hydrate your hair. Make sure you drink enough water every day, in order to hydrate your body (including your hair) from the inside out. How much water is enough?

Your body, skin, and your hair will be thankful. Adequate daily water intake is somewhere around 15.5 cups for men and about 11.5 cups for women. It is recommended anyways, so this one shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Natural Ways To Hydrate Bleached Hair

The solutions to the hair damage caused by bleaching are sometimes very simple and can be found in the form of natural products.

In fact, many tips on how to make bleached hair soft and silky are based on natural oils or other natural products. You can use them alone, in combination with other ingredients, or as part of your own homemade hair mask.

• Apply hair masks based on moisturizing ingredients, like avocado, honey, and egg white, or naturally-based oils;
• Use plant-based oils: olive, argan, almond, and coconut oils to nourish hair damaged by bleach;
• Use aloe vera;
• Rinse your hair with rice water;
• Drink enough water.

Extra Tricks For Treating Severely Damaged Hair

Sometimes, things don’t go smoothly, and you may be already dealing with severely damaged hair. But there is still a way out.

However, in this case, you will probably need to do more than lifestyle changes and home remedies to make your hair healthy again.

Some of the tricks that may help you with extreme hair damage are listed below.

• If your hair started to fall out, try out some tricks for natural hair regrowth. For example, scalp massage can increase blood circulation to your head and stimulate hair growth. Rosemary oil can also promote hair growth, as well as the onion juice.
• If you have scalp issues, or your scalp is irritated by the bleach, and you struggle with scalp redness, dryness, or flaking, you may consider some homemade solutions. Those include peppermint oil, aloe vera, and witch hazel. I also recommend you to consult with a dermatologist.
• If you deal with severe hair breakage that isn’t going away, consider ditching hair elastics, and let your hair air dry whenever that’s possible.

Can Bleached Hair Be Repaired?

The short answer is yes. There are solutions and ways how to make bleached hair soft and silky as it was before bleaching. It may take some time and patience, but you will get there. Follow some simple steps I shared above before and after bleaching to protect your hair.

How Long Does It Take For Bleached Hair To Be Soft Again?

The time required for hair repair and restoring hair health after bleaching depends on several factors, including the severity of the damage, your hair type, previous hair health, and how you treat and protect your hair before and especially after the bleaching sessions.

You should see results of restoring hair health from one month to six weeks. However, it takes approximately three months for bleached hair to grow out.

So, it may take somewhere up to three months to get your hair health back on track. Try out the above-mentioned ways how to make bleached hair soft and silky to fasten up this process.

What Oil Is Best For Bleached Hair?

A few types of natural oil work great on your bleached hair. When choosing an oil for bleached hair, it is important to select one that will not weigh down the hair or leave it looking greasy.

Here are the oils that work best on your hair after bleaching. You can use them anytime!

• Coconut Oil

This one is probably the best oil for bleached hair. It helps to deeply moisturize your hair, making it softer and smoother.

Additionally, it can help you protect your hair from damage caused by heat styling and UV exposure.

• Olive Oil

The benefits of using this oil on your hair after bleaching are numerous. It is a natural moisturizer and helps to deeply nourish your hair.

It can also help to restore moisture to dry, brittle hair. Additionally, it is rich in antioxidants and vitamins A, E, and K, which can help to protect your hair from further damage.

• Almond Oil

It is packed with proteins and vitamin E, which bind to your hair and make your strands stronger.

Furthermore, it contains other kinds of healthy ingredients for hair like omega-3 fatty acids, phospholipids, and magnesium.

Using almond oil nourishes and strengthens your hair, and is optimal for treating hair loss and damaged hair.

• Argan Oil

It is another good option for bleach-damaged hair. This oil is rich in vitamins and is antioxidant-saturated and can help you repair damaged hair and prevent further damage.

Can You Put Coconut Oil On Freshly Bleached Hair?

Yes, you can put coconut oil on freshly bleached hair. You may even put it during the bleaching session⁴.

Yes, you read well – you may apply bleach to the coconut oil-coated hair. This oil creates a barrier between the bleaching agent and the hair, minimizing the damaging effects of the bleach⁵.

This oil, in its organic, cold-pressed form, is among the best products to keep bleached hair healthy. Use it before, during, and after bleaching.

Can You Avoid Damaging Your Hair During Bleaching Process?

There are steps you can take to avoid damage. Actually, this is one of the ways how to make bleached hair soft and silky. Protect your hair even before (and while) bleaching it – and continue caring for your hair following these tricks for soft hair.

Pro tip: if you bleach (or you’re planning to bleach) your hair regularly, give it a break for 8 to 10 weeks between processing sessions.

Bleaching your hair more than once in approximately two months will cause you more damage – and make your bleached hair more sensitive.

With care, you can have gorgeous dyed hair, without that strawy look.