rainey73 wrote: I am a natural level 8 and a few months back went a permanent level 4. I decided a couple months later to lift to a 6. Then decided to go back 4. Now I'm trying to get back to 8 and I can't seem to break through the orange. I have tried a soap cap with 20 vol. developer mixed with blondor bleach and shampoo. It would not work. Then I tried just a few highlights with no success. Please tell me how to lift this color on already damaged hair. By the way, my hair is only 3 inches long so cutting it is not an option.

Using Blondor bleach and shampoo as a soap cap to try and neutralize orange hair will not work. If you look at a color wheel you will see the the neutralizer for orange hair is blue. That means to neutralize and cool down that warmth in the hair you should use an Ash series that is blue based.....not blue violet which would be Pearl series and 20 volume developer at the current level you are lightening to let's say 8A....leave it on for 5-10 minutes....depending on the porosity of your hair. If it doesn't tone it down enuff leave it on a little longer till you achieve the desired results. As you lighten even more your hair will pull a warm gold then to neutralize it you would use blue violet which is purple and that offsets the gold or yellow color on the color wheel.

G'luck