black hair, among other things

So I've had a lot more color in my hair than I like to admit. I haven't colored it in over a year, before last Thursday. So there's not too much damage, but I've got experience with that sun-in stuff, different commercial dyes, some bright pink stuff, a horrible experience with henna, and-- now I'm looking at how to maintain black hair.

I do NOT have the money to keep it up in a salon. I'm going to either have to go with the box method or, eventually, head to Sally's and get the stuff in bulk. But for now I'm dealing with box color.

It's almost black at the moment. Naturally a darkish brown, but the sun turned it blonde this summer. Dyeing it black was fairly successful (Garnier Nutrisse) but--

1) I did not realize I had so much hair-- it's been a long time since I did the full color dye job thing-- and so there are a couple small patches that the dye did not reach, and

2) I think I need to find a brand that does not fade quite so quickly. I used soft black; I should have used black black.


I've got a couple boxes of Revlon Colorsilk here. (I'm a two-box kind of girl, I found out.) I'm going to re-do it as soon as I think it'll be okay to do so.

Which brings me to my first question: How soon can I re-dye it without doing horrendous damage to my hair? This is one of my biggest concerns. I've heard to wait at LEAST two weeks, even to fix up a really horrible dye job, or it'll be a disaster for your hair. But I doubt that's exact. AND, this stuff doesn't have ammonia. Does that actually have that big an impact on hair?

And my other question: For you girls (or guys) who have had black hair in the past, and kept it up pretty well, what'd you do? What kind of dye did you use, and how often did you do it?

Is this a decent brand for kind-of-frequent dyeing?

I really want to do this, but I have so many questions!

This says ammonia-free permanent dye. I'm a bit skeptical, because this definitely seems too good to be true-- but I figure, how wrong can you go with black? Especially if it's a low-damage dye, it's not like it can make it TOO black--

Dunno. Going to go give it a go. I'll definitely post about what happens.

This seems like a great board for people like me-- I've had my fair share of hair colors and styles. Ha ha, are there ever some stories there...

*POST-DYE UPDATE*

The Revlon Colorsilk (black, not soft black or blue black) worked fantastically, without any ammonia. It's also a very cheap box dye, so I'm surprised my black turned out so great. I don't know how other colors would work, but I'm very pleased with this brand so far. It is a very deep black, and it left my hair in awesome condition. I guess the only thing left to go wrong is fading. I will update in a couple weeks about how long this black shade ends up lasting, in case anyone else ends up facing a similar dilemma.

And thanks for your quick replies, korsakovhatt3!

I'm glad it turned out well. Hooray, elliejay!

Karee, can you afford to go to a pro to get your hair colour fixed?

You can do it at home, but you'll have to be very careful and carefully test strand before each step of the process. Is the colour in your hair a demi-permanent or permanent colour? Unfortunately, nothing will return your hair to its natural colour at this point. (Other than growing all new hair.) If it's permanent you can remove it with ColorFix or Igora Modulat. They're much less damaging than bleaching. ColorFix will remove the permanent dye from your hair and expose some of your natural pigment -- likely an icky orange. You'll have to dye it to your desired shade. (Do some test strands before putting a colour on your head.) If you want light brown, try a blue-based ash shade. You'll need the blue to counteract the orange.

If the dye in your hair is a demi-permanent colour, I think the Uncolor System removes demis.

Good luck.

I've been coloring my hair black for about 4 months now.I use natural instincts midnight black and am pretty happy with it.It didn't damage my hair at all. Good luck to you!