Bleaching Out Red

Red dye is infamous for bleaching out.

Full disclosure: I wasn't able to get from red to bleach blonde like I wanted.

I started out with a faded red color:

For bleach, I used Clairol Basic White Lightener , with Salon Care Volume 40 Clear Developer, both purchased from Sally's Beauty. A pound of bleach is usually around $20, but I got it on sale for $10. 40oz of developer is around $4. I use 40 volume developer because I have thick hair that's resistant to bleaching, but if your hair is finer, you should a 20 or 30 volume developer to avoid more damage.

After one bleach attempt, my hair was a copper color:

For the second lightening attempt the next day, I decided to try using an ash blonde hair dye instead of bleach. I was hoping that the blue ash tones would cancel out the red tones in my hair, and would be less harsh than bleach. I used Revlon's Ultra Light Ash Blonde, purchased from Walmart for $3. This did lighten my hair, but there were still orangish tones:

Since I was planning on dying my hair pink, which takes fairly well over any orangish tones, I quit the bleaching process here. If I had bleached one more time, my hair would have been blonder. 

In summary: Bleaching out red is no fun. Even after several bleaching attempts, your hair will probably still have some orangish tones in it. Boo.