QuoteReplyTopic: Want to return to darkest brown from medium reddish-brown Posted: May 03 2003 at 7:04pm
Hi all! How do I get rid of the faded orangy-red/rusty look from my hair? My natural haircolor is darkest shade of brown before a true black(looks black in photos) with about 35% grey, and I've been coloring it lately with Excellence 5R Medium Reddish Brown, and to perk it up a bit I added a couple of teaspoons of their 5RR(Intense Copper Red - which they just discontinued) It looked pretty good at first, but within 2 weeks faded out to a really brassy orangy-red brown color which washes my skin out. I'm about a week away from my next coloring - do I just go back to using the medium reddish brown with nothing else in it, or do I mix in just a tad of a dark brown in the formula to safely get some of the depth back into my hair. I don't wish to go any lighter than I am-it will wash me out. Or should I go with a natural medium brown? And would it be better to use regular permanent color, or something like Natural Instincts, or Castings? I realize this is probably hard to answer without seeing my hair, but any input is appreciated. My hair is short and in good condition. TIA!
I am by no means a professional, but I do color at home. In my experience, it's really hard to get rid of that brassy red. I would recommend first that you go to a salon. Being that your hair is short and in good condition, it won't cost all that much and will surely be worth it.
If this is not possible, I would try a medium ash brown. To get rid of the red you have to counter it with the opposite tone--which is blue, or ash. And I would try the Natural Instincts (I think it's called Clove--I have used that). There is no point in using permanent color with 20% peroxide to add color (deposit-only) to darken hair.
Once you're colored, and I hope the ash cuts the brassiness to the degree you desire, I would completely avoid exposing your hair to the sun. It could bring the brassiness back out.
It's semi-permanent, which washes out in 24-36 shampoos theoretically. But in practice, the dark colors don't wash out that soon, and sometimes not at all.
I learned from the sylists on this board that unless you are lightening, there is no reason to subject your hair to 20% volume peroxide (permanent hair color). If you are going darker, or "depositing" color, you should go with the 10% volume peroxide, with which semi and demi permanent hair color is mixed. It's so much better for your hair.
I have used various medium and dark browns in Natural Instincts, and the darker browns grow out on me before they wash out. The lighter medium browns do tend to wash out.
Another reason I recommended you try semi first is that if it doesn't get rid of your brassiness, at least you didn't risk anything. If you use permanent color and it doesn't help your brassiness, you will end up with brassiness plus suffer the hair damage that comes with permanent color.
Home coloring products have a high Ph and are a lot more damaging than salon colors. So if you insist on permanent color and go to the salon, the risk of damage is much lower, in my opinion.
Hopefully Lillibeach or one of the other professionals will have some advice for you, too.
Hi Elissa! Thanks for the info! I'm going to go with the Natural Instincts; basically, I've had it with the home permanent color kits, and I don't have the $$$ to have my hair colored at the salon all the time. It's enough of a challenge to go for the every-8-weeks haircut - LOL! I have another 2.5 weeks to go before I color again, but Natural Instincts it will be!
Elissa has provided some excellent suggestions. I have interviewed a ton of color experts over the past few years and many say that if you want to work on your own color at home, that is OK if you take the time to consider the consequences, read all the instructions AND use semi- or temp color to start out.
One other thing I might add to Elissa's excellent tips is the fact that the major manufacturers have a toll free color consultant help line. I actually dialed the L'Oreal line one day to see what happened. I think they thought I was a little bit nuts but I actually talked to one of the consultants and told her about all the emails I get from frantic at-home-color-virgins that have experienced their first disasters. The woman I talked to was very nice and said that they really can help about 90% of the time and it is always best to call first with questions that afterwards with a disaster.
So why not take advantage of the service? You might buy the color from Instincts that you like but before you use it, call the hotline and ask about your own hair and what to expect. If it sounds like the color might not work for you or other issues, keep your receipt and take the unused product back for an exchange.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Best wishes, Karen
PS. Let us know how it turns out.
That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger or drives you totally insane. :-)
If you have a Sally's Beauty Supply nearby, you might try Clairol's Just Beautiful hair colour. It's a deposit-only dye, which means it can only make your hair darker because it has no ammonia or peroxide. I used the medium ash brown shade a week ago to tone down my bright burgundy hair, and liked it a lot. This stuff was cheap too, at $2.99 a bottle (I had to use 2 because my hair is long).
Hi all! thanks for the great suggestions - today I picked up a box of Natural Instincts Dark Brown(neutral tone) and am going to just leave it in on for 5 minutes or so - am probably going to do this in the next couple of days. Will let you all know how it turned out!
Hi all! I chickened out on the Natural Instincts Dark Brown-took it back to the store without opening it. The color on the box photo looked awfully dark, and I was afraid I'd end up with black hair(not good at my age-55!) I was doing some research on the web about haircoloring, and actually someone with my coloring-yellow undertones to the skin(but I'm not dark, only when I have a tan, which isn't much these days-SPF 30 gets slathered on my face no matter what the weather here in New Mexico) looks better in either goldish, coppery, reddish-brown, auburn to deep bronzy shades. The reason I went to a reddish color was because it brightened up my skintone and golden-brown eyes, it's just that it got a bit faded-out. As long as the warm color is deep it looks great - it's that fade-out rusty look that I can't stand. Any suggestions for a good Natural Instincts in a medium-to-deep warm color to put richness and brilliance back in? Thanks for any input!
There is a medium reddish brown, a medium warm brown, and a dark auburn brown, all of which look gorgeous on the box. I haven't tried the dark auburn. I have tried the medium warm brown (I think it's called "cinnamon stick") but not straight, I have mixed it 50-50 with medium brown (hazelnut). I have used this mixture on roots only many times, my roots are very warm medium brown with about 25% grey. The grey hairs came out fairly cinnamon, the brown came out nice and warm. It had no effect on the rest of my hair which was previously perm. colored darkest brown (almost black).
Clairol has a great site, with every color swatch and even downloadable "try-it-on" technology. You upload a picture and see how you look in different styles and colors. You should check it out. However, remember that the colors you see on the site (and on the boxes) are the pure colors you'd get if your hair was white. You will have a different result based on your current hair color. Your roots will be different when you cover them as well, based on your natural hair color.
Hi all! Here's an update! I went with the Natural Instincts Cinnamon Stick(their medium warm brown) and it looks great! I just did it about an hour ago. I checked out their website, and decided to use their glazing technique with the Natural Instincts, which they posted instruction for. (I'm smack-dab in the middle of the month as far as color jobs go!) The glazing technique, which is very easy to do, serves to perk up fading color and is easy on the hair. Result, I don't have that faded-out orangy-brown anymore - the color has returned to a rich dark warm brown with reddish tones in it, which is perfect with my yellow-undetoned skin that tans well.
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