so it's been a while since i messed with my hair, and i haven't even been keeping up with the usual red i do. so now i've got dark blonde roots sticking out badly.

the first time i bleached it, it was about a year ago, and i bleached it twice to get the black streaks out. i tried using the ruby color by SFX but that was a disaster. i looked like the little mermaid -_-; so i dyed over that with some semi-permanent red stuff from sally's

that brings me to my current goal. i want purple hair. okay so i've wanted it since i was about 12 or so, but i couldn't get away with it then. this last attempt, i had originally used the kaleidocolors to get my hair a blonde color back in september/october. then i used the raspeberry kamikaze from beyond the zone, which was supposed to be a pinkish purple. but my hair was an uber pink color for a while instead and then i stuck the red back over it. in december or so i went to the salon at jc penny's and had them do it a deep plum color, which lasted about two days. then it went to some odd brown color.

so it's been through a lot really. i'm guessing the bleaching from almost a year ago would have grown out by now? my hair seems to grow faster now that it's shoulder length.

it doesn't like to hold color tho, especially underneath. the deep plum i got at the salon was semi-permanent of course but faded way too fast. i was mad that i wasted $90 on the cut and dye.

so, i've been told by a friend who has her cosmotology liscence that my hair can take it, but i should use a 20 vol developer for it, and use heat to process it. i have two tubs of the plumb from la riche, and i also have two bottles of beyond the zone's purple passion. i know the la riche is supposed to be a better quality but which one i use depends on the person who does it. my mom will refuse to work with the la riche stuff because of how thick it is. she was pretty mad when i tried SFX. but if my friend who has her liscence does it, she'll be willing to use the la riche.

since the raspberry kamikaze came out so pink, i'm a little aprehensive to use the purple passion. but again, that all depends.

what i'm wondering is, is it okay to bleach my hair again? i don't wash it every day, but i always spray in infusium's leave in treatment every night after i get out of the shower. towards the bottom it kind of feels fake but it's not too bad. i already have some hair that's broken off in places and that's what i'm worried about, is getting more breakage.

tips and advice are welcome! and thanks in advance :)

A typical year's growth will see your roots grown out to about just below your cheekbones so if your hair is shoulder length half of the top portion of your hair will still be damaged from the previous bleaching (the underside will have grown out assuming your hair is cut straight with no layers).
You know what I'm going to suggest; a strand test. Your hair is likely to bleach out at different rates due to the varying degrees of colour so you need to make sure you can get something half-way even when you bleach.

Plum is a great colour and covers well. It has a lot of pigment in it so tends to stain a bit so be careful when applying. My ears are still purple from using it 3 days ago

Thanks! I'll be sure to do that. I'll probably apply the bleach to the upper parts of my hair first, then the bottom, and then the roots. I also got some blue-violet toner by Clairol. It's the torrid line which I like. I want to use it to cancel out any yellow before I even attempt the purple. I really want this to go right, because I've had a lot of mess ups :(

What volume of developer should I use with the toner? I was guessing 20, just to lift any slight yellow color that's there. Would that work?

Yeah 20 should be fine. Maybe best to check on their website to be sure. Any time I've done it I've used 20 without problems.