Hair Color - Hair color (red-violet-brown) help?

Hair color (red-violet-brown) help?

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=61814
Printed Date: November 21 2025 at 12:24am

Topic: Hair color (red-violet-brown) help?

Posted By: secondnature
Subject: Hair color (red-violet-brown) help?
Date Posted: July 15 2008 at 2:55pm

I'm a natural medium-dark brown, but I regularly color my hair a dark violet-red, which is about half faded out now. I've been doing it for a long time and never have any problems. Normally when I try something new, it's a drastic change and so I take it to the salon for the first time and do it myself after. This time all I want to do is go a bit lighter, so I got professional hair color like I always do, just in a new shade. I can't wait weeks to recolor it if I mess it up, and I'm not willing to spend money at a salon to get it fixed. I dabbed a little from the bottle onto a paper towel and the color was unexpected. It looks like more of a golden yellow than a red. How do I get my hair to look exactly or close to the swatch, using 20 volume developer (it's all I have)?

Swatch (64R Red Oak): http://www.thecreativestudio.com/files/swatches/miss_clairol.php - http://www.thecreativestudio.com/files/s...

My current hair color: http://i36.tinypic.com/vhcb9w.jpg - http://i36.tinypic.com/vhcb9w.jpg

New color dabbed on paper towel: http://i33.tinypic.com/2ypmezt.jpg - http://i33.tinypic.com/2ypmezt.jpg

Replies:

Posted By: karen s
Date Posted: July 15 2008 at 3:06pm

Hi,

Most colours that come out of the bottle are yellow. When you apply them to the hair they start to process into the hair and eventually change colour. Buy the looks of your pic, you hair looks pretty red to me already so to add more tone is really all you are doing, then the 20 vol will be fine.

If its a semi colour you have you wont need developer, only if its a Demi or permanent colour, I cant really tell with the bottle what it is as, Here in the UK and in the US, the bottles of colour, etc look different, lol.

Do a strand test see what the results are, good luck.

Karen

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karen sanderson

Posted By: secondnature
Date Posted: July 15 2008 at 3:34pm

That's a permanent hair color, and I'll probably end up doing the strand test.

Should I leave the color in my hair for 30 minutes, or more like 45, to get my hair like the swatch?