The best thing to keep in mind is your hair type and texture. If you have naturally dry or fragile hair, or if you've chemically treated your strands with perms or relaxers, then forcing it to cook underneath bleach and heat will most likely contribute to fast damage, says Hazan. If your hair is healthy and not prone to breakage, then find a good colorist (this isn’t something you’ll want to buy off Groupon or do at home) and book a consultation to discuss your expectations and the most realistic results, then go home and sleep on it before jumping in.Going blonde — any blonde — is a big life change. Roxie Darling, NYC hair colorist, put it best: “ Dramatically changing your color is life-changing. As a platinum blonde, you become a beacon. People's eyes are drawn to light, so you can expect people to be more attracted to you."There are several ways to take someone platinum, so the consult is key. Some colorists, like Friedman, prefer to take most clients platinum in one round of bleach. (That means the peroxide mix won’t touch the same piece of hair more than once.) If your hair has naturally red or orange undertones, a colorist might paint your hair over two to three appointments to lift the color evenly. And others, like Ess, prefer micro-highlighting the hair in a longer, more precise process to avoid flat results.Still, how your colorist bleaches your hair depends on a few variables, like the volume developer, the bleaching agents, how thick or fine your hair is, and whether or not they use a bond-strengthening product, like Olaplex (but more on that later). All of this will ultimately gauge how long the bleach stays on your hair, how many rounds of bleach you'll need, and how many appointments it could take.Everyone’s hair is different, which means you won’t know how well your hair color will lift until you get the bleach on it. If you leave the salon after the first appointment and aren’t Daenerys-Targaryen white yet, then your colorist will likely recommend you come back in about a month (no sooner to avoid damage) for another round of bleaching. “This will require much less processing than the first time," says Ess. "But don’t go more than four weeks before your second appointment in order to avoid getting yellow-y, blonde bands. If the root gets too long you run the risk of inconsistent processing.”