Silly Hair Colouring Question / Help Please

[hawaiianorangetree]

Hi Pricescopers

I know there are many wonderful hairdressers on this board so i was hoping you could help me out with a question?

I have had blonde (coloured) hair using foils for the best part of ten years. For the past 7 months I have been growing it out. My natural colour is a brown, nothing special, and the remainder is the blonde colour growing out and Im getting to the point of needing to do something with it. It was looking quite Balyage for a while but now its looking messy and not really brown and not really blonde... kind of wishy washy. My DH would like me to be "Katy Perry or Lady Gaga" but not in between.

So... i have my MIL's 75th birthday this weekend and have decided i need to clean it up a bit. I don't have time to go to a hair dresser between now and saturday so i rushed down to the shops and bought some hair colour to darken it. The hairdresser sold me an orange red colour (like a rinse) to put on the blonde parts to act as a filler and then sold me a dark brown colour tube with a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide to mix together and put over the top.

Ok, finally onto my question...

Is the colour with the 3% hydrogen peroxide in it going to lighten / damage my natural hair colour once the colour washes out? Is it going to undo all of the hard work of growing my hair out for the last 7 months and put me back to square one with roots and dried out hair?

My ultimate goal (for now) is to grow my hair out. The 'new' stuff is looking so much more healthy and shiny than the blonde stuff that has been coloured a zillion times.

I want a change but at the same time I don't want to undo all my patience of growing it out.

I had decided not to go ahead with the colour but then I read on the reciept that they do not give refunds or exchanges so i am stuck with $40 worth of hair dye and i am not sure if i should go ahead with it.....

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Miss Sparkly]

Did she sell you a color to use as a filler? I've never heard of that before and I'm not sure how well it would work. Usually I use a protein filler first and have excellent results each time (can be found at Sally Beauty if you have one).

http://www.amazon.com/Colorful-Neutral-Protein-Filler-oz/dp/B00155FY78

As far as the 3% solution (developer) that is as mild as I've seen it (a level 10). It will damage your hair a bit as the purpose of the developer is to open the cuticle to allow the color to penetrate, however, when going darker with a level 10 the effect isn't very noticeable if at all (I spent years dying my blonde hair chocolate brown with a level 10). Make sure to moisturize your hair with a good deep conditioner! If you buy protein packs use them maybe once per week as too much protein will make your hair feel like straw.

Another option would be to do a hairstyle with a lot of curl/waive to it. A friend of mine from high school had naturally curly hair and she was able to hide regrowth for a good 6 inches before it really became obvious.

 

[hawaiianorangetree]

Thanks Sparkly! I figured as much. My main goal is to not damage the new growth that I have, so guess I shouldn't do it. I've been looking at lighter hair on the train again this morning so I guess I don't really know what I want

I've been doing to curl / wavy style to hide it as well and it has been working well for the past 6 months but now not to much.

 

[maplefemme]

Hi!
It's not giving you much time so I don't know if it's possible for you to do this before the weekend, but can you get a hold of Joico's VeroChrome demi permanent color?
I do tint-backs/color corrections with it often and you don't need to fill, plus its ammonia free and won't lighten your natural color - pigment deposit only. Depending on the amount of warmth you want to have, I use the B series mostly as it gives nice caramel beige shades, however, if you want a cooler or neutral result I'd use equal parts N and G series.

 

[Italiahaircolor]

When you're filling your hair, you're not filling it for lost protein or moisture, you're filling back up with the colors you remove when bleaching or highlighting. Even the lightest brown hair is made up for several different shades to get that exact color. I've said this before, but seriously, if you're trying to "match" or "color correct"...go to a professional. Kitchen beauticians do far more harm than good more often than not. This isn't a simple process, it takes knowing your cools versus warms, knowing how to formulate--there is a reason why people go to school for this, and a reason why many salons now have color specialists who ONLY do this. It's absolutely not an out-of-the-gate kind of deal.

I hate to make hair color sound like a complex science. Sometimes it's really simple but sometimes it's not, and this is one of those times where you should err on the caution, if you can.

If your end goal is not to harm your hair, then you need to proceed with extreme caution. You're working with processed and virgin hair, those two separate conditions take color entirely different. When you have bleached hair, which is pretty much any highlight, the cuticle is wide open and the hair is thirsty. It's going to suck any color up, but because there is nothing for the color to bond to, you're going to get artificial tones, like brassy blondes or watered down browns or pinkish reds. A professional color correction is typically done in stages to help rebuild the hair, adding color after color to layer the hair. Color on top of color goes darker--so if you're a white or level 10+ blond, slowly it will start to richen, but it's not a quick thing. You also need to remember that because the hair cuticle is open, that you'll probably notice the ends fading much faster. Now, if you're trying to match that to existing color---yikes. You have to be super aware not to allow the hair to process too long. Colored hair and natural hair are never going to be a perfect match, so you have to decide what you can or cannot live with.

If I remember correctly, you don't live in the US--so anything I'd recommended either would be unavailable to you or wouldn't arrive to you in time. So, for that reason, I strongly suggest you splurge and go to the salon. I think going the professional route is better aligned with your goal of maintaining healthy hair, and probably going to put you on a better track long term if you want to continue an easy to maintain color. If you're looking to go natural, then just don't color it--do a sleek updo that hides the out color and carry on. Wait it out, and continue to get regular hair cuts.

 

[LGK]

Ditto to what Italia said- I'm no professional but I've seen friends try this very thing- though, possibly with a more bleach-intensive product- and have it go horribly wrong and end up spending far more than they would have initially trying to fix their home-fix. I'd try something else, maybe a hairstyle that hides it better (French twist or some other sort of updo?) or a salon.

 

[lyra]

I'm currently in the process of colour correcting from dark brown to blonde (to grey eventually I guess). I'd definitely vote for going to the salon over trying anything at home, because man is it a loooong expensive process to fix it. Mine will take about 3 sessions and then will be very low maintenance because really I'm grey (naturally) now. It's great getting to the colour closest to your natural one so that you don't have the upkeep issues, but let a good colorist help you. They will make it right. Good luck though!

 

[hawaiianorangetree]

Thank you all for being the voice of reason in my moment of insanity! It didn't do it and the urge to do something drastic has passed, thank goodness. Hopefully I'll be able to get to a hairdresser next month sometime and for this weekends birthday I bought myself a new outfit so hopefully everyone will be looking at that instead of my hair!