Heat and Hair Tests

[AmIGonnaFail]

Hi all,

I'm a daily bud smoker (well, I was up until 17 days ago!) and having a hair test soon, I have been searching the internet for things that may help, ive done 2 bleach and redyes, bought some swimmers shampoo, and going to do a baking soda paste also, and possibly 2 more bleach and redyes if my hair is stil intact.

I had been wondering if I hold my hair straightners on full temperature on the section of hair that they will be testing whether that would help to open the cuticle, I wasn't sure but it seems the answer is a big yes!! Heat does open the cuticle and cold closes it!

This doesn't seem to have been mentioned much in the forum, either that or I haven't stumbled upon the right thread yet...This is what I found..



"you should only wash your hair with luke warm water, not hot. hot water actually causes some damage to your hair. warm water opens the cuticle allowing the conditioner to penetrate it properly. then a blast of cold water, as cold as you can stand will close the cuticle adding shine and locking in the moisture."


Obviously it's only us tokers that actually want to open the cuticle, so the advice should be reversed and you should put your hair in the hottest water you can stand, even boiling. This won't be too helpful for guys with short hair but I'm a girl with long hair and am thinking now of leaning my head back into a bowl of boiling water!! My only concern is that I wont be able to get close enough to the root as I will scald my head, I think when you're as desperate as most of us to pass or drastically reduce levels anything is worth a shot though.

Ill let you know how the boiling water bowl goes tonight (UK night), and if it really isnt possible then all us hair test candidates should just wash hair in the hottest water we can stand

I really hope someone finds this helpful and responds, for now, onwards with our hair-wrecking endeavours!!

S

[Deige]

Hi all,

I'm a daily bud smoker (well, I was up until 17 days ago!) and having a hair test soon, I have been searching the internet for things that may help, ive done 2 bleach and redyes, bought some swimmers shampoo, and going to do a baking soda paste also, and possibly 2 more bleach and redyes if my hair is stil intact.

I had been wondering if I hold my hair straightners on full temperature on the section of hair that they will be testing whether that would help to open the cuticle, I wasn't sure but it seems the answer is a big yes!! Heat does open the cuticle and cold closes it!

This doesn't seem to have been mentioned much in the forum, either that or I haven't stumbled upon the right thread yet...This is what I found..



"you should only wash your hair with luke warm water, not hot. hot water actually causes some damage to your hair. warm water opens the cuticle allowing the conditioner to penetrate it properly. then a blast of cold water, as cold as you can stand will close the cuticle adding shine and locking in the moisture."


Obviously it's only us tokers that actually want to open the cuticle, so the advice should be reversed and you should put your hair in the hottest water you can stand, even boiling. This won't be too helpful for guys with short hair but I'm a girl with long hair and am thinking now of leaning my head back into a bowl of boiling water!! My only concern is that I wont be able to get close enough to the root as I will scald my head, I think when you're as desperate as most of us to pass or drastically reduce levels anything is worth a shot though.

Ill let you know how the boiling water bowl goes tonight (UK night), and if it really isnt possible then all us hair test candidates should just wash hair in the hottest water we can stand

I really hope someone finds this helpful and responds, for now, onwards with our hair-wrecking endeavours!!

S

Yes that's good info, I read that as well. I also found this, but its seems to be a more extreme process. Trying it may produce some better results.

http://www.vitamintrader.com/articles/2005_07_haircolor.html

[AmIGonnaFail]

Thank you Diege,

When it says immerse your hair in ammonia do they mean household ammonia? The one I can see for sale here is only 9.5% ammonia and used for cleaning, can you get pure ammonia or should you not do that?

[AmIGonnaFail]

OK done a bit more reading, pure ammonia is a gas, liquid ammonia is ammonium hydroxide and household ammonia is solution of this in water, wikipedia reckons it will be between 5 and 10% so I guess the one I found 9.5% was quite strong..

Do you think it's worth buying this and putting it in my hair?

[Deige]

OK done a bit more reading, pure ammonia is a gas, liquid ammonia is ammonium hydroxide and household ammonia is solution of this in water, wikipedia reckons it will be between 5 and 10% so I guess the one I found 9.5% was quite strong..

Do you think it's worth buying this and putting it in my hair?

That was the first option and the most harsh as I read it. The other was to use Tints of Nature, A hair color treatment sold at their website. I can't link the website because of spamming rules, so just google Tints of Nature.

[AmIGonnaFail]

ok I've had a look,

I'm a bit reluctant to buy because I've got 2 Clairol Nice and Easy permanent dyes left Im wondering if tints of nature will be any more effective than them..? Plus the cost element - household ammonia is less than £2. I can't find any info on the Clairol site as to the pH level that Nice and Easy would raise the hair to. I'm not bothered about the condition of my hair because this is a child residency drug test, so I would sacrifice anything - I've already sacrificed my bud, which I did love dearly. (And I've invested in a wig incase of worst case scenario and I go bald!)

I think my plan is this..soak my hair in some very hot water and vinegar, then apply a baking soda paste (or should the paste be applied to dry hair?) Then wash in hot water with swimmers shampoo and repeat this daily. I'll do a household ammonia soak 2 or 3 times, I'm also going to do a third bleach and redye on 10th Oct and a fourth (possibly) on 14th Oct, I think I'll have to go in for my test very soon after this, latest I can imagine 17th Oct.

What do you think? I have admitted smoking heavily on my birthday weekend 3rd to 5th Sept and said I had a little smoke on 24 Aug - they are o.k with this but they can't find out I was a daily smoker - I just need to reduce levels quite a lot

[Jerry G]

I promise, do the four bleach and redyes, take the test, if by some small chance you fail, it will be by very little, and you can blame it on the smoking you have already admitted to.

[aracelih]

Well... I have gone through the procedure previously as well.. but I didn't found it very impact as well its much time taking and lengthy.. to remove the ammonia is a jerk..

[AmIGonnaFail]

What??
What do u mean you didnt "find it very impact" ??
Did you take a test and fail?? And yes it's very time consuming, and a complete pain in the ass, but if I pass or reduce levels it will be more than worth it

[robinf]

hi

how did it go? did it work?

[AmIGonnaFail]

Hiya the date for my test hasn't been cofirmed yet becasue of funding problems, I'm so lucky sometimes, I am on day 38/39 now and I think my hair grows pretty fast compared to others, so the longer this takes the better.
I will be posting results definately, its really annoying when you follow a person's story and they don't post results

[robinf]

well, as a natural dark haired person, I'm totally wihite...the girl at the beauty shop begged me not to dye after the first bleach, so I'm gonna hide in my house with white hair.....my test is Monday.....so stressed!

so far, I've done
wash with clarifying shampoo
bleach
rinse out with clarifying shampoo
will wait 2 days and bleach again and dye to dark brown
day of test will be the baking soda water paste and zydot shampoo treatment

I will also post results as soon as I know anything

good luck to us all!

[AmIGonnaFail]

To be honest, the beauty shop people think bleach and redye is a horror story because of the condition it will leave your hair in. They get taught not to do or advise it at college so they simply won't do. My hair is naturally medium brown and they told me the same thing, permanent dye after bleach will "rip my hair out", however, I have bleached and redyed 4 times now and may even do a fifth.
How is your scalp and hair feeling? The very back/bottom of my hair by the nape of my neck is like wire, becasue this is always where I started the bleaches so it is the area that had it on for longest, but it is only a tiiiiny section of hair that feels this way, and after the fourth bleach and redye my scalp hurt for a few days.
Don't get me wrong my hair is in a bad condition now, it has split frazzled ends, is tangled, and even after deep conditioning treatment it is quite dry, but damage is the name of the game here and if your hair feels OK I really really can't see it falling out.
Another thing, I was told that the hair they took would be cosmetically unoticable and they would be sure to take it from the back/middle of my hair. Becasue of this I clipped the front of my hair out of the way and left it out of all but the first treatment in order to keep some good hair in the most visible place.

[robinf]

so what you're saying is I can put color back in my hair and stop looking like a halloween creature? I will do that! only gonna bleach twice, and going with the idea that if I dont get the job, its not meant to be.....

thanks!!!

[AmIGonnaFail]

Yeah I really think you will be ok considering it's your first bleach and redye. I didn't want to damage my hair so much but if you read the other thread started by me, "Hair test coming up - much more than a job at stake" you will see how important it is that I get as much THC out of my hair as possible.

That said, it is halloween in a couple of days so it's not the worst time to be looking like a halloween creature LOL :D

No seriously, you will be fine. If you reallllly think your hair is going to fall out just do a small middle section and see what happens. Bleach is much harsher than dye so in my very unofficial book, if you survive the bleach you'll survive the dye! Haha. Sorry its really late I'm being a bit silly.

[robinf]

I passed my test!

[AmIGonnaFail]

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

GO U!!

Just remind me, how often did you smoke and for how long, and what did you do to your hair before this test??

[robinf]

I smoked all day every day until Sept when I was told I would be a candate for the job......

got my first bleach and redye..waited and waited, never heard from them....so I started smoking about 1 hit a day...out of the blue I got the call they offered me the job...so I had 5 days to clean my hair now

did my own bleach and redye....cost was so much less buying it all at the beauty supply store

washed every day with Clarifying shampoo

3 days later and the day before test, 2nd bleach and redye

day of

baking soda and water......drippy, yucky, for about 15 min
washed out in kitchen sink with zydot 3 step that I got off the internet

good luck to you!