Blonde is STILL too gold Help please!

I haven't used this Ion product, but it looks like your typical clarifier.  You will get the same result after clarifying with any clarifying shampoo.  (They tend to be acidic to help remove buildup, and this acidity helps them remove the green copper buildup on hair after a swim in chlorinated water.).  It should not make your kids hair more yellow, but removing buildup may be making their hair look closer to its natural shade (especially if you have well / hard water that builds up on and darkens hair).

Its my understanding that you just need more lift for your golds, but that you still have some oranges?  The oranges will have to be lifted again until they are yellow (use bleach on them only, or use a high level of platinum dye with a blue base and 40 volume developer until they are yellow).  After you get your hair to yellow, you can use a very light (platinum) blonde dye with a violet base, or a violet toner to get it to white. 

You shouldn't need this much work to get to platinum.  I think part of your trouble is the low volumes of peroxide you are using.  20 or 30 is going to make you have to do it over and over again to get enough lift (especially as winter comes and you are less likely to be sitting in a warm room).  For medium brown hair, a person would typically start with bleach and get it to yellow in one shot.  Or if they were going to try to use high lift blue based dye repeatedly, at least use 40 volume developer to get it there in 2 or 3 tries.  I made that mistake the first time I tried to go blonde.  My natural is dark blonde and I was using 30 volume, I must have dyed it 20 times trying to get it to white.

Edited to add:  Always test strand everything, not just to make sure you'll get the color you want, but to see the amount of damage.  The closer you get to white, the more damaged your hair is, so you want some warning before you hit the breaking point. 



Edited by Susan W - August 18 2008 at 9:20am