As you can see in the pictures I started off with NATURAL dirty blond hair with a little bit of red which, for some reason , showed up under indoor lighting. (The before photos are all my natural hair color. It was very light in the sun and dirty blond inside with a bit of red)

Also, if anyone has any style ideas i'd love to hear them. I hate the style I have. I want something smoother and whispy-er but i want to keep the length. Im trying to grow my hair out long like i had it before.

I have a really hard time explaing "smooth and whispy" to stylists. They never listen! Hence the side bang which has gotta go! She made it a little thick dontcha think?  

http://lilashie83.tripod.com/hair_suggestion_final.jpg -  

Lil Ashie...

UGH.  So sad.  Your before color was gorgeous...even picking up the reds in the lights which is not a bad thing.  Unfortunately right now the big hair news is full sweeping side bangs.  In fact, a lot of the models at the latest fashion shows had long sideswept bangs or severe middle parts with side bangs.  So that may be why your hairdresser decided to go with the bangs.  I agree with LHD that you would look better losing the side bangs and that a demi perm color would be the best way for you to go.

Ironically I am recovering from my own color disaster performed at the hands of my professional haircolorist who decided that "she knew best what to do with my hair" and just slapped on a brand new color w/out telling me what she was doing.  After 15 years of great success for my hair with gorgeous Matrix Socolor highlights, she glopped on Redken color that turned my roots red, my middle chocolate brown and then I had a line where my original blonde highlights remained.  I cried for two days & wore baseball caps everywhere.  I was a striped zebra.

My friend is a Paul Mitchell color trainer and she overnighted me a special mixture that I could apply myself with her talking me through it (no way was I going back to my hairdresser ever again) and it stripped all the horrible new color off so that I was back to my original highlighted hair.  Now I have to wait a bit to find someone else (that I can trust) to apply the Matrix Socolor.  In the meantime I am deep conditioning my heart out.

When I confronted my hairdresser she said "oh I just knew you would like Redken so much better but I didn't tell you that I wasn't using Matrix because you would not have been willing to try it because it was something new". Well DUH.

Ok.  Well w/out even knowing it, I tried something new and it turned out horrible.  Even worse, the Redken color burned my scalp.  I had watery eyes for 2 solid days after she applied it.  Even worse the color kept getting darker and darker until I was able to get it striped off.

What a nightmare!!!!!

I feel for anyone that has color disasters and it is even worse when it was done to them by a pro.  No excuses.

Oh my gosh that IS a nightmare!!  I also cried for a few days(weeks). I feeeel your pain!

Every morning I'd wake up, pluck the peach fuzz off of my forehead/cheeks and ears that she dyed black (out of desperation).. and cry some more. I seriously thought I was having a bad dream!

I have to thank you both for the advice! I'm am so lost myself. So thank you millions for taking the time to read my post and reply.. it means a lot to me!

So stip the top layers of color, then apply my natural shade in a demi. Q: Do you think the bottom layers will blend in? Not having to strip/dye my whole head sounds too good to be true. 

She only put the highlights in the top layer of my hair which is pretty short. The rest is a pretty deep brown like in the braid picture.

Q: Would it matter if it was perm dye or semi perm? At the moment I have no idea what I have in my hair due to the snit I had on the phone post dye with the girl who did it. She was offended I didn't like the color and wanted her to blech my face because she dyed the majority of it black. But if need be I'll go back and find out . For the sake of my hair I'd do anything at this point.

That's all the questions I can really think of at the moment so  once again a BIG thank you guys!

lil_ashie wrote: So stip the top layers of color, then apply my natural shade in a demi. Q: Do you think the bottom layers will blend in? Not having to strip/dye my whole head sounds too good to be true.  She only put the highlights in the top layer of my hair which is pretty short. The rest is a pretty deep brown like in the braid picture. Q: Would it matter if it was perm dye or semi perm? At the moment I have no idea what I have in my hair due to the snit I had on the phone post dye with the girl who did it. She was offended I didn't like the color and wanted her to blech my face because she dyed the majority of it black. But if need be I'll go back and find out . For the sake of my hair I'd do anything at this point.

Hi,

I would think that doing the top layers should work just fine.  At least you can do the top layers first and see how it goes.

The advantage of the demi is that it will blend by fading over time and help to even everything out w/out obvious roots.  Of coures LHD may have some other helpful tips but I would go with top only and demi to blend.

What do you think LongHairDreams?

Wow, I cant believe that stylist just did what she wanted without even talking to you about beforehand.Makes me  a little more leery of salons than I already was.

Yes and I totally agree that as long as you get a demi to match your natural color doing the top only should be fine.Good luck.And keep us updated how it works out.It always makes me feel good to know that I might have helped someone.

Hi LHD,

Yes...I was in shock.  Me of all people who is about as paranoid as they come when I go to a salon because I get hundreds of emails from consumers that have had horrible experiences.  I ask for clarification over and over like I will say when I call....will you be using Matrix Socolor 11N & foils?  Then when I call the day before to confirm my appointment...will you be using Matrix Socolor 11N & foils?  And then when I arrive...same question. 

Even when she was glooping the goop on my head I was asking...is this Matrix Solor 11N?  Yes of course she said..but I am applying it differently..when I asked about the foils.  Which was bizarre because it is a highlight process that uses either foils or cap.  So right there I knew something was "up".  But she continued to mislead me even as I was telling her the aroma was different, my head was burning, my eyes were watering...she kept on smiling and saying...well that is weird because it IS Matrix Socolor.

I guess I should have had the presence of mind to run to the shampoo station and rinse it out OR run out the door, which would have been a little harder to do.

In reality, it wasn't Matrix Socolor.  She decided to glop Redken colors on my hair as a "shortcut" because she was so late getting there for my appointment and then kept lying to me the entire time like I was an idiot. Like I wouldn't notice that she wasn't using foils or that the color was much darker or that my head was burning.  Very bizarre.

Yes...she was definitely very unprofessional and I will never ever go back or refer anyone to her.  In fact, I called all my friends to warn them about what she did.  I had already referred some people to her and was very worried that she would ruin their hair as well. Thank god for my friends in the industry that helped me recover so quickly.  What happens to the average consumer that gets into a similar pickle?  I feel for anyone that gets bad color from a professional.  Yes, things can go wrong but this was blatant bait and switch for the convenience of the hairdresser because she was looking for a shortcut.  No excuse at all. 

shheeesssshhhhhhhhhhhh

Thanks Bryan.

Appreciate your thoughts.  It all happened so fast, it never occurred to me that something like this could even happen.  You know what I mean? 

Longhairdreams wrote: Rediculous.I cant believe even after like the millionth time asking if she was using your normal dye she lied.I hope you raised some kind of stink.There's no way she should be able to get away with that.Its because of stuff like that why I do my own hair.But I understand what you mean about not thinking twice that maybe the stylist is lying through her teeth.When you sit in they're chair,you can only assume they have your best interest at heart.

Hi LHD,

Yes...really crazy.  After she was done my hair was all one color BUT very dark.  Definitely not highlighted and it felt different.  I kept saying to her....my hair could not possibly have been highlighted and she kept saying...well no...but this is sooooooooo much better because the color is so even.  Then instead of charging me $150, she said...since this is a new process...you only owe me $40.  HUH?  She said she was only charging me for the "colors".  Which I know was BS.

Anyway, because she was so late getting to me, she had 2 customers stacked up in the waiting room and was literally pushing me out the door.

My hair immediately started getting darker and darker.  My hair color friend in New York told me that Redken dyes have a molecular structure that cause them to continually permeate deeper into the cuticle of the hair and thus getting darker and darker.  Which explains the fact that in no time my roots were red, the middle was chocolate brown but the ends, where she didn't apply anything...thank god...were still blonde.  It also explains why when I washed it...nothing washed out.

I called my hairdresser immediately and emailed her as well.  That was on Wednesday.  She did not call me back or email me until Sunday afternoon.  By then I had already gotten the color corrected because I was freaking out. My friends....the color experts...talked me through everything and the Redken was striped from my hair. My hairdresser offered for me to come back for Matrix highlights "at no charge" except that now I don't trust her at all so there is no way I am going back. Even if it is free.  No way. 

I am back looking for a hairdresser I can trust that will really use Matrix on my hair.  Ironically years ago a hairdresser talked me into trying Framesi hair color as a temporary color inbetween highlights.  It didn't damage the color like this most recent Redken experience but it did really dry out my hair to the point of it feeling crunchy.  I had to deep condition for weeks until the moisture was restored. 

I don't care what a hair colorist tells me.  If they aren't going to use Matrix Socolor...I am walking out the door.  :-)

Have a great week.