Dear HairTalk Readers,

I am new to the board and everyone here seems much more knowledgeable than myself.  My daughter has an appt. THIS morning and we need your immediate advice - STAT (as they say on tv medical shows). Sorry for the extended post but I know you can help. 

Background:

As our teenage daughter  (who was born with what I'd call "Swedish blond" type hair ) got older, her hair naturally became a darker blonde or as she calls it a "mousy blond." I really don't like that term because I know adults who loved her actual color and was wishing they could have artificial high and low lights to look like hers did naturally.

Anyway, she never liked this natural color and decided to go to a professional salon and have her hair highlighted two years ago. Then, over the past year she has had her whole head of hair professionally dyed a VERY VERY DARK BROWN - at first it looked black, but was never actually black. She has returned to get it redyed the dark brown color.  You can also see she has some reds over/undertones in it as the color has faded a little over the past 4 weeks. The red wasn't a highlight but I think just part of the dark brown color.

She realizes now that her fair skin doesn't match the dark hair and wants to go back to the original "mousy" blond  color but add highlights to it.

She made an appt. this morning at a salon and as a teenager, of course, wants it back ASAP.  As a mom, I want to make her happy but have it done safely, without chemically burning her scalp or having her hair get so brittle that it will fall out. (I know someone who got a terrible chemical scalp burn.)

Several salons here are telling me different things from a color rinse to a chemical bleaching scrub, etc.  It is estimated to take 4-6 hours (!) to do this and they want to bleach it, condition it, and then color it lighter?  Isn't that a lot for your head to go through? As a teenager, she doesn't want to be embarrased in school and as a senior this is what she'll have on her head for graduation.

Without waiting a year to grow this out, what do you suggest?

I can't thank you all enough.  Merry  Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. 

Anne

Hi Anne:

I know this is a day late, but I thought that I would throw my two cents in.  I am not an expert by any means, but I have had my hair dyed too dark and it is much harder to go lighter than it is to go dark. 

I think that you daughter should first have the color removed with Colorfix or a color remover and then tone to her natural color.  This might be the first thing to try because Colorfix is not too damaging.

The only other way to get rid of dark dye is to bleach it and tone to color you want, either with very thick highlights or all over color. 

Good luck to you and your daughter. 

I am curious to know what the salon did and how it worked out.