Using lighter color to get a medium color
Printed From: HairBoutique.com
Category: Hair Talk
Forum Name: Hair Color
Forum Description: The tricks and tribulations of changing your hair color
URL: https://talk.hairboutique.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=54767
Printed Date: October 03 2025 at 3:41pm
Topic: Using lighter color to get a medium color
Posted By: amberlynn
Subject: Using lighter color to get a medium color
Date Posted: July 17 2007 at 9:47pm
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Right now my hair is between medium and slightly dark brown. i want to keep it a medium brown but want it more reddish brown. i know i cam't used a medium color on it cause it will yurn dark brown. Would a light brown make it medium or should I go up to dark blonde or medium blonde? I'm not looking to make it blonde, I just want to keep it brown but not so as it turns too dark, KWIM?
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Replies:
Posted By: Susan W
Date Posted: July 19 2007 at 9:35am
I think you'll have to test strand and try a couple of things. Since you want it reddish brown, I think using a blond dye would only make it go more orangy than you probably want.
I'm not a pro so I can't tell you exactly, but if I were in your shoes I'd buy a medium auburn red and a light reddish brown, (depending how red you want it) and do test strands to see how they come out.
(Just mix up a little of it in the right proportion, don't mix all of it or you won't be able to use it later...you probably already know that, but since I'm not sure how new you are to dyeing I mention it...I think we've talked before and you are well familiar with dye, but you have a different avatar than the person I knew as Amber, so I just can't be sure and I say it just in case).
If your hair is dyed already, be aware that different lengths may come out different (when I went redder my ends always came out too brown and my roots too orange with the middle nice). This is another reason to test strand, you will be able to see how different lengths of your hair react and adjust the times accordingly.
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Posted By: amberlynn
Date Posted: July 19 2007 at 1:00pm
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Thanks. I don'y think I'm the same person you thought since i just signed up a monyh or 2 ago so thanks for the tips. I was looking at 3 different box brands to use. They were, light reddish brown, lightest reddish brown and dark reddish bolnde. i think the light reddish brown might come out a little too dark so maybe i should start with the blonde one and work my way down the list? I know from reading alot of these posts it's easier to go darker then lighter so do you think I should do that? I'm not so much trying to really lighten it as I am trying not to make it darker so i know i couldn't use a medium reddish brown cause medium colors alway turn out way too dark.
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Posted By: Susan W
Date Posted: July 19 2007 at 2:01pm
You didn't say if your hair was dyed before or not, but going darker on previously dyed or processed hair may cause that to happen. I don't know if yours was dyed before or not, but hair that has been chemically treated is more porous and absorbs more of the darker dyes, so is more likely to come out black. If you really want to make sure you don't go darker, you can try the lightest one first, but on a test strand. Don't do your whole head with it because if your hair hasn't been dyed before, it may come out orangy with that blonde one. Just do a couple of test strands, one with each color and you will see which you need to use.
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Making metal barettes/concord clips hair safe, long hair style how to: http://alonghair.wordpress.com
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Posted By: amberlynn
Date Posted: July 19 2007 at 10:52pm
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Yeah, I've been dying my hair for years that why I know I can't use a medium color to get a medium color. It turns out way too dark! I keep reading you should go up one or two levels to get the color you want but I'm not sure how far to go up, that's why i mentioned the dark blonde one. My hair has alot of underlying red in it so I just want to bring that out and I figured a reddish brown would do that. Maybe I should go with the one that says lightest reddish brown first since it's in the middle of my choices and see what happens? I won't be dying it until next month since i just did it last week. I used a light plum brown. It looks good but just slightly darker then I wanted. So that's why I was thinking I should go to lightest brown or dark blonde so the color wouldn't turn out too dark.
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Posted By: lovetocolor
Date Posted: July 22 2007 at 11:20am
you may have to use a color remover. maybe not....i once went dark auburn....yuck....i went back to my regular color 3 shades lighter and the second time i did it, it matched the swatch....the first rule about color is that color won't lift color.....that is supposed to be a law.....try it...for some weird reason it worked for me.....i keep wanting to find out why that happened, the tint lifting tint...let me know what happens.
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happy coloring
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Posted By: Susan W
Date Posted: July 23 2007 at 7:44am
Just do a test strand, that way you will know for sure exactly what you need, instead of seeing what happens. Especially since your hair's been dyed a lot, you may need to do the ends, the middle, and the roots for different times to get it to all come out even, so you can work that out first.
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Making metal barettes/concord clips hair safe, long hair style how to: http://alonghair.wordpress.com
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