Getting Black Out

I think you should get the hairdresser to fix this one, it's too tricky to do yourself

Hey, I surfed onto the site after searching for "going back to blonde" on Yahoo. Here is my predicament!

Naturally a childhood blonde, with my hair gradually darkening, I decided I didn't want to do the Sun-In thing and be a "fake" blonde, of which I see too many around my college campus, and I started going red.

At first, about a year ago I used a level 2, I think it was Natural Instincts, and it was just a strawberry color, slightly darker than that sounds. But then I decided I wanted to be auburn, and have been using Ultress "darkest mahogany brown" on a regular basis, with the occasional unsuccessful ventures at different shades. My eyebrows have always been pretty dark, even as a blonde child, so it looks fairly natural.

The problem is it fades constantly, and since I have such thick hair I have to use two boxes if I want it to be even. So the people around me think I have schitzophrenic haircolor disease, when I have really just been trying to keep the same color. Also, the dyeing has taken its toll, and my ends are pretty dry.

So I'm pretty sick of it, and would like to savor what remaining blondeish years I have left. But right now my hair is a dark cherry color. I know the advice will inevitably be "go to a salon" but I would like to know what to expect, if anyone knows. The easiest way would be to chop off my hair at the root ;-) but, um, no. I can't really abide short hair either, since I have a pretty round face, so will I just have to wait until it grows out if I want to keep my hair from becoming horribly brittle? Thanks for the advice!

=)

Oh no! I'm really sorry about your experience with bleach. Mine was somewhat similar to start with.

I had the bleach in for two, maybe two and a half hours on Tuesday. Afterwards I looked like Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer- white roots. The rest was somewhat orangey yellow. They tried putting in color, but since the follicles were so blasted by the bleach, it didn't hold at all, and by the end of the four-plus hour visit my hair was just yellow with light lemon roots. I made sure before I finished that if I didn't end up with what I wanted I could come in later for no charge. Not to mention the fact that my ears were absolutely fried and my scalp felt like it was bleeding.

So after spending a day and a half with yellow hair, I went back this (Thursday) morning and spent another 6 hours there. It took so long mostly because it's a beauty school and everything has to be approved by instructors...you know the deal. And also I have tons of hair- the girl had to mix at least three batches of whatever she was using just to cover my head. First they applied a filler to match the red on the ends (which is basically, as I understand it, a color rinse with no staying power. It only leaves color where it isn't already present.) Then they went back over it with a "dark blonde" which ended up pretty much a light golden brown. I was expecting something lighter, but at least this will (I think) match my natural roots and lighten gradually. And because they had to use so much product on me, they charged me an extra $10.

So I'm waiting for my scalp to recover, lotioning my ears, and praying that my hair will lighten faster than "normal." Overall, I think next time I will just wait for the color to fade out, or grow out. Cheaper, less traumatizing, and less potential for disaster!

Hi! Just a follow-up; I went to a professional colorist on Saturday to get it done...Yikes! I'm blond again! Actually, it turned out OK. I had to have 2 separate bleaching 'treatments', both of which burned my scalp like crazy. The first turned it various horrible shades of orange and yellow, and I almost cried. But then the colorist (who was wonderfully sweet and gave a good name to the profession :) ) informed me that this was normal and that I'd have to get it done again. So I wore a hat all day and went back the next day, and now my hair is a crazy bright platinum color...wierd!
I kinda like it, but I'm not sure if I'll keep it or eventually dye it back to a more natural brown. My hair's a little fried after all of that, so I'll have to get it cut again soon. Darn. I was hoping to let it grow a little...oh well. At least its not black anymore!
Thanx to all for your advice & stuff!

Lotsa love & big hugs,
Inga