Salvaging my Bleached Hair: Leaf and Flower + Split End Correction Treatments

Last updated: November 4, 2023

Disclaimer: I can talk a lot about hair! While it may not feel like you’ll ever get there, before and after photos do exist towards the end, I promise! Also, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.” which means if you click a link and purchase the item, I’ll earn some money at no additional cost to you which I’ll use to buy more cool stuff to blog about!

After an 18 month balayage journey, my once luscious locks were left fried, dull, and completely damaged. As my hair continued to fall out in clumps, I decided healthy hair was more important to me than having blonde hair so in January 2022, I abandoned the blonde life to go back to the color I inherited from my Native American ancestors. I was doubtful I could salvage what was left of my processed hair and was sure I’d have to cut it all off. While I can rock a short bob, I really had my heart set on having long hair since I’ve had shorter hair for going on a decade. After apologizing to it for putting it through so much trauma, I promised it I would do my part to save it and never ever put it through bleaching again if it could just hold on and repair itself. Yes, I apologized and made that promise out loud to my hair while standing in front of my bathroom mirror right before I left to go get it dyed back to its original color.

Don’t get me wrong, I really liked being blonde! I liked how it brightened my face and brought out my eyes. While that’s all fine and dandy, I was not prepared for the trauma that was in store for my luscious locks by going blonde. I went from rolling out of bed and out the door in 10 minutes with a tousle to my hair and it looking great to painstakingly spending an hour on it before leaving the house and it looking meh. I had to do overnight moisture treatments, curl it just right to hide all the dead ends, use special shampoo, conditioners and masks… AND I was tripling the cost and cadence of my salon visits. I went from never thinking about my hair to constantly worrying about it. It became very apparent that I, nor my hair, was made for the bleach life. When I saw how thin my hair had become (I would estimate I lost ~50% of my hair), that was the last straw. Yes, I was getting the best bonding treatments on the market. Yes, I was following instructions for after care perfectly. Yes, I was avoiding heat as best I could and washing my hair as infrequently as possible. At the end of the day, I discovered there was no way to escape the damage from bleaching and even if there was, the maintenance was just too much. I have better things to worry about than the health of my hair when it was perfectly healthy before I decided I wanted to “try something different”. I’m not sure if this is everyone’s experience with going blonde or if my hair just wasn’t made for it. All I know is, if there was a way to make it work, I would have done it. My hair just isn’t made to handle the bleaching and processing involved with being blonde. Now that I’ve told you why I decided to go back to my raven glossy mane, let me tell you about the treatment that finally got me there.

In my recent blog about my favorite hair products, I talked about the Leaf and Flower (L+F) Molecular Bonding Treatment which I did this weekend in combination to the Brazilian Blowout Split-end Correction. I’m still not over how much the L+F treatment set the foundation for the healing of my hair (thank you Anna at Blooms!) and have now received the treatment 3 times in the past 9 months. While it was awesome at getting my hair back on track, my hair still had a long way to go and after being so damaged.

While I would have loved to continue going to Blooms since it was so great and only 15 minutes from my sweet Alabama home, moving to Indiana rendered that impossible. Ever determined, I searched out an Indiana salon that would offer the L+F treatment. Let’s talk about that for a minute.

I found a place that honestly looked pretty cool about five minutes from new home. I called them and explained my hair situation. I asked specially if they had L+F and was told no, that they’d never heard of it but they had a wonderful treatment that they could apply that worked beautifully for damaged hair. I made the appointment and showed up pretty hopeful this could be comparable to the L+F treatment. I have an open mind when it comes to treatments, especially if recommended by a salon (I mean, that’s how I was introduced to L+F!). So, while this treatment was being applied, I asked to see the bottle so I could read about and noticed it was called the kure by amika. While the treatment was setting, I looked it up on my phone and was disappointed to see I could purchase it from Amazon for $22 and do it myself at home. The next day my hair was extremely dry and the existing damage was noticeable on the ends. This was beyond disappointing. I have at home hair masks I apply once a week. When I go to a salon, I want something that I can’t do at home… I’m still a little perplexed about why this happened. So, the search continued.

After 10+ calls to salons within 30 minutes of my home, I could not find one that had heard of L+F or who had a website that gave any indication they offered specialized treatments. I finally just went to the official L+F website and saw they had a salon locator. I typed in my zip code and The Bianca Rose Salon returned as a result. It being 40 miles away in Ohio was not ideal, but after 10 minutes of exploring their website, I was SOLD and here’s why:

Extensive list of every single service available, including in-salon treatments.
Each service listed provides a detailed description of the service such as the time it will take to complete, the cost, and even the brand name of the product they will use.

This website listed it all. Every. Single. Service. From haircuts to extensions to specific treatments. Do you know how rare this is? No, wait; so you know how IMPORTANT this is? I am not a licensed hair professional. I have no idea what is on the market. To have a menu of hair treatment options available to scroll through in detail is simply a dream come true. Listing the brand name of the product allows me to research the product ahead of time and read reviews (or blogs like this one 🙃). Did you know there are split-end treatments, scalp exfoliating treatments, and smoothing treatments? The list goes on and on, and these are not treatments you can buy and do at home. These are profession treatments that can only be purchased and applied by licensed salons. I’m not talking about a medspa (who are usually pretty good about listing their services). I’m talking about a place that does hair and nails. Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but I haven’t seen a salon that has such an extensive menu of services listed on their website like this. I was legit impressed!

I was really happy to discover that the recommended shampoo and conditioner (full size!) were waiting on me when I went to check out. I know the cost was included in the service, but I liked this as people may not be too keen on buying expensive products after they have an expensive treatment which in the end, is really just is a disadvantage to their hair. Including the products with the treatment really guarantee long lasting results and healthy hair!

And now here are the before and after photos you’ve been waiting for…. Note that I have not had my hair dyed since Jan 2022 other than root touch ups. My hair looks darker in the last photo, but that’s just from being so glossy.

I plan on doing other treatments to take advantage of the benefits they offer and may throw in some extension once I feel like I have my hair in a good place to thicken it up to compensate for the hair that I have lost. As I continue to make discoveries in the world of hair, I’ll blog about them and try to do better at taking before and after photos. I really didn’t know I’d be blogging about these treatments or I would have planned better, so you have my commitment for back of the head, full hair photos going forward.

So there you have it! I am bummed I didn’t know about these treatments until now… I had SO MUCH HAIR as a teen and would have loved to get one of these smoothing treatments back in the day to tame it! I’m obviously behind so if you know of any treatments you recommend, I’m all ears!

Until next time, I’m wishing you fabulous hair and love!