Bleaching naturally blonde hair to take punky colours

You can either try a quick bleach bath, or pre-softening with just peroxide.
To bleach bath, mix up bleach powder and a low vol peroxide, add an equal amount of shampoo and apply quickly to the hair. As you don't want it to lighten you will only need to leave it on for 5 or 10 minutes max.
Pre-softening involves applying peroxide to your hair, then rinsing out directly before you apply the dye. It lifts the cuticle so allows the dye to penetrate better.
Are you already using all the tricks to get the dye to last? (Washing with hot water and shampoo only before applying the dye, covering, dding some heat and leaving on for a really long time eg overnight.) Also your routine for washing can affect the longevity, so only wash in cool water and avoid SLS shampoos. Finish with a conditioner, a blast of cold water and/or a vinegar rinse. Adding some colour to your regular conditioner really helps to prevent fading too.

I agree with WP, some presoftening may do the trick, but if it doesn't then a quick low vol bleach bath should. In situations like yours I usually just do a 10 vol bleach bath (equal parts developer to shampoo, then add the bleach powder/crème until it's a thin yogurt like consistency) for 5-10 minutes and it makes a world of difference in how the dye takes and lasts 🙂 Your hair won't feel any different afterwards, the condition will still feel the same if your hair is virgin and healthy right now.

Thanks Wicked Pixie and Katiesiepierski for the advice, it's really helpful and made me a bit less nervous about the idea of bleaching my hair.  I'm assumng I can dye straight over the bleach-bathed hair?

I've previously tried all the tricks I can to get dye to last better - pre-washing with hot as I can stand water and head & shoulders to really lift the cuticle, leaving dye on for hours upon hours, after applying dye using hairdrier to heat it up orwrapping in tin foil and using my straighters for the same reason.  I always use SLS free shampoo afterwards and cool water only.

I'll give the bleach bath a try this weekend and see how I get on.  I'm at the end of my tether, I've actually started redying weekly this month as I've had a few events on the weekends where my hair needed to look it's best and brightest instead of half faded and wishy-washy.

The tin foil and straighteners thing is not a great idea, have you tried conditioner only washing? There are lots of threads on it, and it is what most of us here do. It really makes a difference. 🙂 You can indeed dye straight over bleach bathed hair.

The tinfoil and straighteneres was something I read online and I was feeling desperate.  Didn't lock the dye in, didn't do any damge either though.

I have really fine, straight oily hair, so have to use SLS free shampoo daily, there's no way I can do without.  I've tried washing without using shampoo, tried alternatives like using cider vinegar, bicarb or co-washing and it's just looked terrible - grease-city!  After a week or so I can't handle looking so gross, it's seriously awful and I get too embarressed to leave the house as it looks like I don't wash, lol.  Just using conditioner on the ends of my hair leaves it lank as it is and nasty looking by the end of the day, same goes for if I use hairspray or other styling products.  It's frustating, my friend only has to wash hers once a week as it looks fine and her colour stays bright for months.

Thanks for confirming I can dye straight over the bleach bathed hair, would rather not wait.

Have you tried silicone free conditioner? Silicones can really weigh down and build up on fine hair. Dry shampoo is also worth a go if you haven't used it yet.  Bleach bathing your hair might also reduce the oiliness a little too.

However if you are going to keep washing your hair daily there isn't a lot you can do to make it stay. Unless you can space your washes out a bit, you are going to have a quick fade I'm afraid.

I am using a silicone free conditioner, it's much better than ones I've previously used.  Dry shampoo helps, but after 1 day with it in my scalp itches like crazy.

I've resigned myself to quick fading hair as I can't skip washes, I'm just hoping to get a little bit more time out of my dye by using the bleach bath.

Did the bleach bath last Friday, I left it on for 5 minutes and it removed most of the previous dye (a mix of Rubine and Rose Red) and lightened my hair a teeny tiny bit. 

The texture of the hair felt a little coarser and when I then applied the dye (Pravana Violet) it soaked it up really easily.  I needed to use much less dye than in the past and it was much easier to saturate the bleach bathed hair.  The end result was really vibrant, even more so than in the past, and a week on despite daily washes the fade is reasonably minimal.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice, it seems to have worked a treat  *yay*

Moderator combined posts.

So glad you got the result you wanted 😀