Help! I want brown hair but it turns reddish
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=62937
Printed Date: July 28 2025 at 5:32am
Topic: Help! I want brown hair but it turns reddish
Posted By: Dancar
Subject: Help! I want brown hair but it turns reddish
Date Posted: November 01 2008 at 1:40pm
Hello everyone,
It's my first post here as I've been reading this forum for over a year and just joined. I've now started using hair color from Sally's Beauty Supply. I used to use Ion and now I use Wella. I've been coloring my own hair for 2 years. I started with Garnier (used that for 1 year)and then with Sally's for a year. I used to be able to get nice looking brown hair that used to have a strong reddish tint in the sun but now it seems to always look like that (I use 20 developer). I have never used a clarifier on my hair and I'm starting to wonder if that's part of it. Oh, and I've been using only ash colors too with either red/gold preventer or stop red or something to that name that Sally's also sells but with no luck.
Most of the time it looks fairly decent on the day I color it but then when I wash it, it gets redder and redder. I've used Pureology color shampoos, Giovanni, and other natural shampoos specifally for colored hair that contains no sulfates. My hair is in decent condition, it's not dry.
Could someone please help me with this? I would love nice looking medium brown hair with no red to it and if possible have it look like that in the sun too!
Thanks for reading and any help you can provide, I appreciate it.
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Replies:
Posted By: julesyjul88
Date Posted: November 11 2008 at 4:33am
Hello,it's hard not have those red highlights because red is the natural undertone to most people's hair.Doesnt mean it's impossible though.
Make sure you're using an Ash brown or blue based brown (which you probably already are,but just making sure.Avoid any colors that says Golden or natural,as they have reddish tones)
Perhaps go slightly darker and use a semi or demi instead of permante which also may help since peroxide LIGHTENS some even if you're going darker.
And,lastly,try using a color depositing shampoo.I use ARTec(which is now Loreal) in coco bean
between colorings and it helps keep it from fading to that brassy/reddish tone.
http://www.haircareusa.com/artec_color_depositing_shampoo.htm - http://www.haircareusa.com/artec_color_depositing_shampoo.htm
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Posted By: DanaCO
Date Posted: November 11 2008 at 12:35pm
Unfortunately, I think some people just have red tones in their hair no matter what they do. My hair is the same. I now use *only* ash colors and I still have quite a bit of warmth/red tones. This has been the case no matter what line of color I use or whether I am lifting or going darker.
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Posted By: Rebwil
Date Posted: November 12 2008 at 9:23pm
Brown has a lot of red in it. It's only when you reach the lighter colors that you lose the red and gain the gold. I like the warm browns.
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Posted By: Slipknothartgir
Date Posted: November 13 2008 at 1:15pm
I think brown hair with red in it looks better than a plain old ash brown.I think an ash color is ugly.It looks too plain.Besides guys love red hair.Good luck with your hair! :)
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Posted By: julesyjul88
Date Posted: November 13 2008 at 3:03pm
I like reddish tones too,but I've noticed alot of people on here dont...to eaches own I suppose...
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Posted By: borne.blonde
Date Posted: November 13 2008 at 6:55pm
OT-I too love beautiful red & red violet glowing under brown when people have that color, I love the rainbow radiance hehe. Idk if slipknothartgir (is this reference to the band or something else?), Idk if that is your hair now but that pic hair of the avatar you have is gorgeous! What do you use to get that color (just curious). Lost In Austin & the actress had a beautiful shade of red. Also, http://www.bbc.co.uk/tess/ Tess (Gemma) of the D"urbervilles hair glowed in the movie.
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Posted By: Slipknothartgir
Date Posted: November 28 2008 at 2:35pm
Hey, Born. blonde,I use diff. kinds of stuff on my hair.My hair looks diff. than this pic now.It's brown with red highlights now.I do it all myself.I don't let people color my hair.That color was a violet red color.Now mine is more of a cooper red with the brown.I love the red colors to.:)
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Posted By: Dancar
Date Posted: November 29 2008 at 9:12am
THanks everyone for your replies! Well, I just colored my hair again and did do a little bit of a darker color and just used an ash brown.......before I was using a mixture of 1/2 ash brown and 1/2 dark brown. It's been washed only once so far and it is looking pretty good (crossing fingers). I went out and got different bags for our water softener, this kind is supposed to eliminate more iron. Also, I now am using 1 tablespoon of vinegar in a cup of water as my final rinse to try to offset any iron in the water. At least I read that on this forum somewhere so I figured it couldn't hurt! I'm also going to purchase the ARTec color depositing shampoo in the cocoa bean.....I had gotten mahogany before based on their recommendation and after reading the description it says it puts in reddish tones.....I don't want anymore of those. Yes, even with all this my hair does not look plain brown but does have some sort of small golden highlights here and there so the color is pretty.....I am hoping it stays like this. I'll have to see how it goes for a few more weeks, thanks again!
oops, I forgot to say that I did do the protein treatment on my hair in combination w/ the coloring and I do think that made a big difference.
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Posted By: julesyjul88
Date Posted: November 29 2008 at 11:28am
I'm glad it turned out better for you! Yes,mahogany is not what you want to use if you dont want reddish tones. I used to use it to put reddish tones IN. The cocoa bean is supposed to diminsh red tones,so it should definitely be what you're looking for.
I dont know anything about the water thing,but it sounds like it will work.Good job! 
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Posted By: borne.blonde
Date Posted: November 29 2008 at 9:50pm
OOH I was wondering if the other color shampoos would work! good find...
I got some hard water shampoo by ION & I really felt it lightened the "red" that I was perhaps getting from my water as the shower head needs cleaning with clr. I also bought a water filter for the shower head so I will be ready when I finally color my hair. I feel it is quality shampoo however it seemed to spontaneously CURL MY HAIR... I thought something odd was occuring ~ an odd rough texture in parts & looked in the mirror OMG it was as if little fairies were making curls weaving into my hair like soap bubbles... the nuttiest thing ever! just crazy, i too used the part water and vinegar mix plus some porosity shampoo/conditioner to smooth it out.
Oh and I wish for the lightest color & somehow "ash" usually adds color & it equals red. The Ardel Unred looked like a green/black drop & didn't appear to make the mixture any less red either. *I am a little worried to use that stuff anyways!*
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Posted By: Dancar
Date Posted: December 20 2008 at 10:27am
Well, I figured I would give a little update on my quest to find that one product/s that help maintain my brown color and not getting the reddish color after a couple of shampoos.
I did buy the ARTec in coco bean and used it a couple of times, but that too did put some reddish tones back in my hair, but at least my hair didn't get lighter. I know it's supposed to be gray based, but when I put some of that color on white paper, it is a violet color....which is part of the red family. When I stopped at a friend's salon, we looked a few others and I decided to try Sebastian's Colourshine in Brilliant Brown (on sale for $9). This line was originally discontinued but brought back with a few changes and a new name for the Brilliant Brown. This color has more of a green base which helps conteract the reddish tones in hair...since it's opposite red in the colorchart. Well, I thought it was a shampoo like the ARTec, but nope, it's a little more complicated....it's a treatment. First you shampoo your hair, wait til it's 75% dry, then apply this thru your hair so it's evenly distributed (you don't really use that much, maybe 1/8 cup for medium hair), comb thru, put in a plastic cap, and sit under blow dryer for 15 - 20 minutes. I didn't have one of those dryers so I stood and used a regular one. After the time is up, then you shampoo again and condition. I thought this was too much to do every time I was going to shampoo my hair until I did some investigating and found out it's supposed to last 4 - 6 weeks! It washes out little by little so I guess it's a semi-permanent that also leaves hair w/ lots of shine. They say they use natural hair pigments and is peroxide free. So far I've washed it twice and it looks great. I will keep updating here and there so hopefully others might find it helpful.
Editing to add that this is also alcohol and ammonia free along w/ peroxide free and the new name is Cellophanes now instead of Colourshines.
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Posted By: arcanjo
Date Posted: January 08 2009 at 11:10pm
Hi Dancar,
It's nice to know that someone out there shares the same difficulties as I do. I've been trying for years to achieve that beautiful brown color without the reddish hue (golden is fine, but not reddish).
I'd like to know what color you used as I've used almost every ash brown out there without success.
My hair is naturally dark brown (with a reddish undertone), but other than my natural hair color, no other reddish color looks good with my olive skin tone.
Recently I dyed my hair with Goldwell Colorance 3N and it turned out blueish black. The color is fading but it's still blackish.
I know I'll have to strip some of the black color before I can achieve the brown I want, meanwhile, can anyone tell me how I can get this brown?
Thanks you guys! I will also keep you posted on my endeavours.
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/83218476/WireImage?axd=DetailPaging.Generic|1&axs=0|83411974%2c83411971%2c83411968%2c83411965%2c83411962%2c83411958%2c83411955%2c83411950%2c83411946%2c83411942%2c83411929%2c83411924%2c83896630%2c83559371%2c83257219%2c83257205%2c83238821%2c83238819%2c83238811%2c83238801%2c83233364%2c83229630%2c83229459%2c83229448%2c83229446%2c83226208%2c83226207%2c83226206%2c83219966%2c83218778%2c83218773%2c83218655%2c83218510%2c83218508%2c83218505%2c83218502%2c83218498%2c83218497%2c83218495%2c83218494%2c83218490%2c83218489%2c83218484%2c83218479%2c83218478%2c83218476%2c83218474%2c83218473%2c83218470%2c83218467%2c83218464%2c83218461%2c83218457%2c83218456%2c83218454%2c83218453%2c83218451%2c83218449%2c83218446%2c83218443|180 - http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/83218476/WireImage?axd=DetailPaging.Generic|1&axs=0|83411974%2c83411971%2c83411968%2c83411965%2c83411962%2c83411958%2c83411955%2c83411950%2c83411946%2c83411942%2c83411929%2c83411924%2c83896630%2c83559371%2c83257219%2c83257205%2c83238821%2c83238819%2c83238811%2c83238801%2c83233364%2c83229630%2c83229459%2c83229448%2c83229446%2c83226208%2c83226207%2c83226206%2c83219966%2c83218778%2c83218773%2c83218655%2c83218510%2c83218508%2c83218505%2c83218502%2c83218498%2c83218497%2c83218495%2c83218494%2c83218490%2c83218489%2c83218484%2c83218479%2c83218478%2c83218476%2c83218474%2c83218473%2c83218470%2c83218467%2c83218464%2c83218461%2c83218457%2c83218456%2c83218454%2c83218453%2c83218451%2c83218449%2c83218446%2c83218443|180

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Posted By: Dancar
Date Posted: January 22 2009 at 2:35pm
**Update** 2/11/09
I didn't want to reply to my own message and move this to the front again.....I figured if anyone wanted to know, they could just read the last message. I am now, aside from using 75% med. ash brown & 25% dark ash brown, I now just use Artec's Blue Orchid to maintain my nice rich dark brown color w/o any red or gold tones.......I love this stuff! Unfortunately this color is discontinued (why???) but I can find it on the internet. I am buying a bunch of bottles since I finally found the answer to my hair dilemma and don't want to be w/o it. I don't have to use Colourshine or anything else to maintain color, yay!!
Hi Arcanjo,
I am using medium ash brown in the Wella Color Charm (237 4A) I purchase from Sally's. I like this better than the Ion brand I was using from them. Even though my hair is in terrific shape, as I mentioned above, the color was still washing out and leaving a reddish hue. I have put a stop to that now. Besides using my sls-free shampoo for color hair, I do also use the Artec shampoo in Coco Bean (even though I had stopped for a week as said in my earlier post) every time I wash my hair. Every 3 weeks, I then use Sebastian's Colorshine in Brillian Brown treatment and this helps prolong my hair color, leaves a great shine, and helps keep down the red tones (I do still use the protein treatment & stopred product from Sally's). I am pretty happy now with my hair color......gosh, I guess I should be after doing all this, huh?! Anyway, I don't think I will every completely eliminate the reddish/goldish tones......but they have pretty much greatly diminished and now you can see really nice brown hair and only hints of reddish hair in the sunlight.
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