QuoteReplyTopic: fixing brassy blonde...ADDED PICS! Posted: October 27 2008 at 10:02pm
Hey everyone, I just registered about 5 min ago, so please bear with me! Anyway, I have naturally dark blonde hair and tried to go lighter today and--SURPRISE--ended up with brassy/orangey/reddish on top and darker everywhere else.
I've been researching online and I am unsure which option would be best... 1. deal with it (does washing it make it any better? will it become less brassy over time?) 2. get a toner/"blue" shampoo (heard some horror stories about hair turning gray/bluish from these!) 3. re-dye with an "ash" or "cooler" tone...(wouldn't all-over color again be really damaging to my hair?) 4. try to dye it back to my natural color...again worried about damaging my hair (because its very healthy and soft and shiny and I want to maintain that as much as possible!) 5. go to a salon and hope they can fix it!
HELP! I can't decide what to do...I don't want to risk completely damaging my hair, but this color is ugggly....thanks!!
What did you use to lighten it? If you still want it lighter, you might want to try and bleach it again until it gets up to the pale yellow stage everyone talks about (I'm new too :) Then maybe you could dye over it with a light ash blonde color. You will probably have to give your hair some rest in between and condition it a lot so it doesn't get too dry.
I guess it depends on what level blonde you are trying to get too.
If it was a Medium Blonde, it probably was just a high-lift, and not a bleach? I would guess that the lighter blonde colors would be the only ones that contained bleach, unless the box specified. I know that whenever I have tried to dye my hair lighter (mine is naturally dark brown) I would have to get 2-3 shades lighter than the color I actually wanted for it even to show up, even if it was a so called "high-lift". Of course, my hair being dark, I would pull red and orange.
I know that the bleaching kits you usually have to leave on long enough to get past the orange stage. Then, once you hair is bleached light enough (pale yellow) you can probably dye over it with a "cool" shade of blonde and have it show up. Cool dyes meaning: blue based counters orange, violet counters yellow, blue/violet counters yellow/orange(gold) etc..
But I am not an expert, I just want to try and help, cus I know I have been there before and it sucks! There's a good sticky post by Claude about the base tones in dye and what helps to correct orange. I would also suggest that when you try and fix it, you should probably get your gear from Sally's, that way you can know what base colors are in the dyes you are using.
Good luck to you, and I hope I helped a little
Edited by jender - October 27 2008 at 11:41pm
karen s
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Jender has gave you good advise. I see from you pics that it is still very orange. You will have to use bleach to lift the colour to yellow stage, bleach can be left on for up to 45 mins. When you get to the yellow stage you then need to use a light ash blonde this will cool down any remaining warm tones in your hair. Good advise too, use professional colours, go to Sally's the should have shade charts to help you choose your colour. Go for a blue powdered bleach as they tend to work best when removing orange from the hair.
Thanks for your help everyone...I am just worried about all this bleaching and re-coloring, as this is the first time I've done all-over dye and it all sounds so damaging! I am so worried about this blonde not being fixed that I am considering going the other direction and dying it brunette, which seems like it would be easier to not mess up.
What do you all think? I don't know if I want to trust myself with fixing my hair or if I should just go ahead and shell out the dough to have a professional fix it/dye it darker...advice? Opinions? Suggestions?
Thanks again!
karen s
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Well you have came this far. If you hadn't used bleach the first time, your hair will withstand bleach, as long as you follow the manufacturers instruction you should be fine. When you get to the point of the yellow stage the colour you then re apply with to tone down the yellow, you will use a lesser volume of peroxide (10/20 vol, as you are only altering the tone of the blonde.
Why don't you do a strand test first, apply the bleach to the strand of hair, then apply your chosen colour to see the results and how your hair will withstand the bleach etc. If after that you still feel you don't want to put your hair through this, then you can always go back to your natural depth.
I hope this has helped a little.
Karen.
Ps, do an elasticity test on your hair, take a strand of hair between your fingers and pull the hair slowly to see how stretchy your hair is, if it very stretchy or snaps pretty easily, then your hair is pretty damaged, if it doesn't snap off, the your hair will withstand another bleach. I hope that makes sense, without sounding too scary, lol
Edited by karen s - October 28 2008 at 2:21pm
karen sanderson
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Yeah, but if you go darker it will be so much harder to get it light again. I say go for the blonde, you're already halfway there! I really like the color you are going for, it looks similar to what I'm trying to get to. If you really are uncertain, than go to the salon, you also don't want to regret going dark and then have to spend even more money trying to fix it.
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I was in your situation just last week! I had a dark color on my hair from the salon and tried to lighten it with a bleach (Prism Lights) and 20 Volume developer, and a base color of 7n. It just turned it orangy and not a pale blond like I wanted. I also learned that color will not lift color. I finally found this site, but it was too late. ;)
I went back to Sally's and bought One and Only Color Fix to remove all of the color on my hair (the salon color and the colors that I applied). It took it to a light, baby chick colored orange (I freaked , but that is what the website says it will do). I then mixed 7n and 8gn Clairol together with 20 volume developer. I added about 15 drops of Unred drops to the formula. Left it on for 30 minutes and the results were great! The base was a soft, natural medium blond. I then added foils to the front to give it dimension using Born Blond Lightener with a packet of Activator and 20 volume developer. It look it to a pale blond QUICK. It was just barely 30 minutes and it was a pale blond. I love the results! It is a bit light, but looks very much like the picture of your hair a few years ago.
I would maybe suggest that you use a bit of a darker base (looking at the picture of what you want) like a 6n and a 7n mixed together. I would say that you can do this, I was able to do it! A salon will charge you a fortune to do a corrective color. Just make sure to use professional products. I would never ever use a boxed color again. Make sure you stay away from Gold Tones, pick neutrals or blue tones at this point. The unred drops seem to really help and my hair definately pulls reds. I am NOT a professional, so take my advice for what it is worth. I did do research though, and did go through what you did just last week. My sister took pictures of my hair at each step, I will try to get her to post them later today. Btw, my hair is in very good condition, I used a deep conditioning treatment from Sally's when I was done. Good luck!
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, but that is what the website says it will do). I then mixed 7n and 8gn Clairol together with 20 volume developer. I added about 15 drops of Unred drops to the formula. Left it on for 30 minutes and the results were great! The base was a soft, natural medium blond. I then added foils to the front to give it dimension using Born Blond Lightener with a packet of Activator and 20 volume developer. It look it to a pale blond QUICK. It was just barely 30 minutes and it was a pale blond. I love the results! It is a bit light, but looks very much like the picture of your hair a few years ago.