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Hair coloring basics help needed!

Printed From: HairBoutique.com
Category: The HairTalk® Archives
Forum Name: Hair Talk Archive
Forum Description: All the old Hair Talk Messages...
URL: https://talk.hairboutique.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=12787
Printed Date: July 20 2025 at 10:32am


Topic: Hair coloring basics help needed!
Posted By: Unregistered Guest
Subject: Hair coloring basics help needed!
Date Posted: January 11 2000 at 1:17pm
About 2 months ago I used L'Oreal Feria "Brazilian Brown" (level 5) on medium auburn hair hoping to darken up my color a bit for the winter months and also downplay most of the red tones. I might add this was my very first in-home coloring experience! The result was totally different than what I expected however, it was by no means a total disaster--just took some getting used to :O) It turned out much darker than I anticipated from a level 5 with almost maroonish highlights at first that toned down considerably within a couple of weeks. My husband loved it! As for the L'Oreal product, it covered my grey (35-40%) better and my hair felt healthier than after previous salon colorings!

Anyway, I have just returned from almost 3 weeks in the warm Florida sun which lightened my hair quite a bit, my roots are grown out about an inch, and I am ready for color again. My question is, if I want to shoot for a non-red color again how do I go about that? The "Brazilian Brown" swatch was by no means a "cool" color but didn't really show any signs of reddish highlights/undertones either--just a warm, medium/dark brown. I have read many forums answered by William and also his hair coloring basics. If I am correct, I have to add red to red to cancel out the red in the end result. Is this correct?! I am a little vague on the color wheel thing that William was refering to. He said to get rid of certain undertones you have to add the opposite color(from the color wheel) so this would mean to get rid of red you would have to add green which I am translating into meaning a "cool" color such as something labeled "ash". I am just plain confused, I guess :O) Please, if anyone can clear this up for me I would appreciate it greatly. Thanks in advance.



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