orange

Here's the problem: bleach does not remove dye. So you can bleach your hair until it is destroyed, but it'll still have that same dye in it.

What you needed was a product to lift the dye out of the hair. One product is called Colorfix. I'm sure there must be something like it available in the UK, since you can't be the only one with this problem.

A professional stylist would have avoided dying the parts you wanted highlighted, in order to process the hair as little as possible. You might want to consider doing it this way next time.

Circle One, I feel for you. I've had some hair colour disasters too.

I think you're right about the bleach removing all of the permanent dye from your hair. The orange you're seeing is what's left of your natural pigment. As I'm sure you know, when you bleach your hair it goes through a number of levels -- one of them is orange. It's quite common for dark hair to require 3 bleachings to get past the orange stage -- to yellow or pale yellow. I think the permanent dye slowed down the process. If you had used ColorFix or Igora Modulat first, your bleaching probably would have been more successful. It's too late for colour remover now, though. No use crying over spilt milk. :-)

You could try bleaching the orange sections again (avoiding the lighter areas), but this will be tedious and may not be successful. It will also cause more damage to your hair.

If you don't want to risk bleaching again, you could try a blue/violet shampoo to tone down the orange. I use a drugstore product called Silver Brights shampoo and conditioner. A couple of other good ones are Clairol Shimmering Lights and Artec White Violet. You need to use these shampoos a few times before you'll see any noticeable difference in your hair colour.

If the orange is too overwhelming to live with and violet or blue shampoos don't help, you might consider using a semi-permanent hair colour. Unfortunately, you will have to choose a dark enough shade to cover the orange. If you choose a blue or violet-based ash shade, it will counteract the orange. You could try a test strand with Clairol Natural Instincts 06 Linen (medium ash blonde). If this isn't dark enough to counteract the orange, try a test strand with a darker ash shade. I don't think Natural Instincts makes a dark ash blonde. You could try ColourSpa (I think it's called Castings in the UK) in a dark ash blonde; it's very gentle too.

P.S. I accidentally coloured my hair apricot a while ago. I panicked and ended up dying it with a permanent dye -- Nice N Easy Light Ash Brown. It got rid of the orange, but my hair was a dark, walnut colour. It faded to a light golden brown within about 3 weeks. When I decided to go blonde again I had to deal with that permanent colour first. That's why I recommend a semi-permanent.

I hope some of this helps.

P.S. If you choose to colour your hair with a semi-permanent, make sure you do a test strand first. It's a pain, but it's worth the extra time and money. Good luck. :-)

Natural Instincts does make a dark ash blonde. I've used it before.

Try looking online for the products, thats a thought. Many companies will ship to international addresses...

But you may be better off to just go to a salon, although the products should be cheaper for you coming from the US to to the exchange rate.