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major mishap

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pato View Drop Down
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    Posted: March 03 2006 at 6:04pm
my name is patty. i'm from PA. i had beautiful long blonde hair. well, with a little help from highlights, etc., as i got older. i am a "young" 51. i moved into a 1700's farmhouse and the water turned my hair green. i had it dyed a light brown, with low lights to cover up the green. they then balanced the pH in the water and i was told i could go back to blonde. the guy who was going to do my hair, (the first time i went to him, but he had a good reputation) tried to lighten my hair, but the solution turned my hair black. he told me go keep it black for a week, condition the heck out of it, and come back the next week and he would strip the color out and we could start over from scratch. so the next week, when he put the solution on to strip the color, my hair started to smoke, got very hot and it turned red. he rushed me under the water and called the Wella hot line in NYC. anyway, i remembered that when they tested my water, it was very high in iron. the woman on the line told him that it was from the iron. he had to cut off all the fried ends, so now my hair is red, orange, gray roots, short and choppy. he told me i can't put any color on my hair until this grows out. well, that will be years, and i can't live like this. is what he's telling me, true? i am going through mental anguish every day. please help. thank you so much.
po
patty o'
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Claude View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Claude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 05 2006 at 7:52am

Ack Pato that's a terrible story. Honestly I've seen people's hair turn green from well water due to the minerals in the water itself...which IMO seems like where your problem began. Obviously you could get a water softener installed to help remove some of those harsh minerals and resolve your water problem that way.

 

Lightener It's hard to tell without knowing what they used to lighten your hair. Regardless I've never seen hair turn black when a lightener was used. After lightening did he try to tone the hair with a color or something that you could just be forgetting? I don't use Wella but their cream lightener for on or off the scalp lightening is excellent.  Typically bleach should only be used with 20 or 30 volume to lighten I guess it's possible the stylist used 40 volume or did something like put you under the dryer and then you began to feel irratation, burning, etc.

Color Remover is similar to bleach in that it lifts the artificial pigment in stages so the end result is usually a brassy orange color that needs to be toned with 10 volume and color. I've never seen hair smoke from using color remover but I guess anything is possible.

Haircolor can always be fixed you just need to remember that you need to deep condition your hair often after any chemical service, perm, color, relaxer, etc. Those chemicals they put on your hair have a very high alkaline PH in the range of 10 - 14 and typically hair has a normal PH of 5 so those services when they are performed pull moisture out from the hair strands and leave them dry and almost feeling like straw if they are overprocessed. It's difficult for me to assess your hair without actually seeing it but I'd suggest deep conditioning your hair weekly for 6 weeks and get yourself a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner to use daily to help improve the hair's condition before you try any other chemical service. The moisturizing shampoo, conditioner and deep conditioning treatments will help to even out the porosity of the hairstrands which sometimes after a chemical service then to be more pourus on the ends of the hair than they are closer to the scalp.

Anytime your hair is colored the roots should be done first then your previously colored hair which has already been chemically processed should be done for the last 20 minutes or so. If it's left on too long on the midshafts to ends of your hair the color could pull darker than the roots and the color will not look even throughout the hairstrands. I'm sure you've seen this on people and wondered why their hair is 2 different colors.

I would recommend finding another master colorist and visit them for a consultation and explain your situation to them just as you have on this thread. Tell them what you want to be colorwise and ask them if they feel comfortable about doing it. Express your fears and concerns and talk to them about the bad experience you had. The more information they have about your haircoloring disaster the better they will be able to accomplish your goal of a satisfactory haircolor that you will be happy with.

What I'd suggest is something like a medium brown let's say Goldwell Level 6 with 20 volume developer. I don't think you should be going lighter at this point like lets say back to blonde....that means bleaching the hair and from the sounds of it your hair is already distressed so no need to stress it out more. After the color service do another round of deep conditioning treatments for 6 weeks and continue to use a moisturizing shampoo for color treated hair and a conditioner as well.

What you are looking to have done is a corrective color service. They cost big bucks $150 - $200 but it depends on what it's worth to you. I wouldn't recommend trying to fix it yourself.....if you don't know what your doing then the end result could be even worse than what you have done to your hair now. I've seen people who keep coloring their hair to the point that it breaks off at or near the scalp and the end result is a short haircut much shorter than they ever wanted.

Leave it to a professional. Just guessing as to the process for your hair they might fill the orange parts of your hair and roots with a red filler to get a more even tone to your hair and then color you brown over it. Like I said it's hard to say how I'd approach it without actually seeing it but find yourself a good master colorist who knows what they are doing.

G'luck

To learn more about HairColoring read my thread here....

http://www.hairboutique.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40328& amp;PN=1

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pato View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pato Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 05 2006 at 8:50am
thank you for your advice. i would like to send photos, but i have to leave soon. i will come back later and send some. as i asked, is there any site that would list color specialists in my area. near reading or allentown, PA?
thanks again,
po
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Susan W View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Susan W Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 07 2006 at 8:57am
I have a tip for you for years down the road, once you've grown out all of the darker dyes and gone back to blonde.  You have copper in your water. Maybe you have iron too, but iron would turn hair more orange, copper turns it green.  They make shampoos that remove both an orange or green hue from metallic water (Malibu 2000 is one), and it may also be worth trying swimmers shampoo (which removes the copper-caused green buildup on blondes caused by chlorinated swimming pools).  You may want to either get a water softener for your house, or if you can't, do a final rinse (after you wash your hair and condition) with bottled water to rinse out as much copper as you can. 

This is, like I said though, for years down the road, after you get back to blonde highlighting.  I do not know what effect these shampoos will have on the dyes you have in now (maybe Claude knows).  A final rinse with bottled water couldn't hurt to start now though.  Good luck, and I'm sorry to hear all that happened.
Making metal barettes/concord clips hair safe, long hair style how to: http://alonghair.wordpress.com
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toobz View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote toobz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 07 2006 at 10:10am
Dear Pato,
As A professional this sounds exactly what others have told you.Give your the much needed rest.It does sounds like there where things being over looked in examining your enitial consultation minerals would be my first answer. And sounds like others agree.And the malibu 2000 is an excellant recommendation! I have found a sight that is for this very situation.Although it wont help you on the color mishaps.Please see a confirm expert in color correction in your area.But not until yor hair is not so vulnerable.That website is www.wellwaterhair.com
Good Luck,Pato
Sincerely, Mark B.
www.markbarrington.com
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pato View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pato Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 07 2006 at 5:37pm
thank you all so much for your responses. the water situation has been resolved with a neutralizer and a water softener. just waiting for the iron test results soon. for a long time i was washing my hair with bottled water, and have just gone back to using the shower water, but rinsing in bottled water as you suggested. my hair is, amazingly, very soft and feels like it is not damaged at all. i just wish i could find a color expert in my area. i'm afraid i don't know any, or how to find one. i thought the guy i went to was a color expert. he won't touch my hair he said, until it all grows out. like i said before, that could be years. i don't think i can wait that long. what do you think about (his suggestion) a dye without metallics?
po
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Susan W View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Susan W Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 10 2006 at 7:25am
I'm not a professional, so I don't know the answer (and its kind of a strange situation to boot with the metals making your hair smoke), but it would seem to me that if you got into trouble because of the metals in your hair, that you should do everything you can to make sure they are all removed before doing anything else to it, (like use the Malibu 2000 or something similar for a few washes to make very sure all the metals are out).  After that, I too would let a pro handle it (a different one than the one you went to before if he won't do anything). Tell them what happened before, and maybe you won't have such a bad reaction with no metals in your hair.  
Making metal barettes/concord clips hair safe, long hair style how to: http://alonghair.wordpress.com
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