Ahh! Help! Dye job gone wrong!

[Miss P]

I went to a salon to dye my hair as close to my natural colour as possible (Dark ash blonde). Instead I now have DARK COPPER/BROWN hair. Is there ANY way I can fade it and/or get rid of the copper. PLEASE????

[Eastbound&Down]

Well there is Color Oops if you want to go that route. I don't know a out damage, the last time I did that was years ago in his school.

[Miss P]

I don't think that will work since my hair has been dyed and re-dyed continually since I was 13 (the whole reason I wanted my natural colour was so I'd be able to stop dying), so the natural pigment is altered quite a lot by this point :(. But thanks for the suggestion:)

[Aderyn]

You could try some strand tests for the Color Oops if you aren't sure how it will work.

[flickm]

Poor you, nightmare! Same thing happened to me many years ago - i wanted pink streaks and the hairdresser did aubergine. Be careful: my daughter dyed her blonde hair brown when she was younger, then used a preparation for removing hair dye and ended up with patches and blotches. I've been successfully honey lightening my henna (which has to be the hardest substance on the planet to shift), though it's a gradual process. Maybe a good clarifying shampoo. in my experience, even permanent hair dyes don't last, so hopefully it will fade naturally if you don't find a means of shifting it.

[Miss P]

Okay, my friend has made me promise to keep the colour one week to see if it grows on me before taking any action. After a week, if I still don't like it, she'll help me fix it. So, I'll post my choice next week. Any colour removal products, arguments for/against removing will be taken into consideration. Thanks to Eastbound&Down and Aderyn for their quick responses which have assured me that I do have options.

[Miss P]

*and flickm

[bekstamonkey]

I faded a permanent dye years ago (same prob, too dark, not what was supposed to be my natural colour). I used head & shoulders and selsun blue (the yellow bottle) shampoos, adding them to damp hair and using as a leave-in for an hour at a time, over a few days. It dried the heck out of my hair, but it did fade the dye enough to blend-in to my natural colour.

[Eraisuithiel]

I had my hair dyed too dark once (darkest brown vs. medium brown) and it just sorta lightened to the right color after about two weeks. I did wash my hair every day then, though, and my hair doesn't take dye well. So maybe try just waiting a little bit? The color off turns my hair orange when I try to use it, but I know a few people who have had success, so just be careful and research before you make a decision either way.

[Horrorpops]

Why do they always do this?! I had tried to have my hair dyed a dark ashy blonde or light ashy brown... it always turns out too warm and too dark! I think it must be difficult colour to match.

In ny experience a bluey purple toner (particularly blue based toners) will work well to neutralise the cooper red tones and bring the colour to a more ashy shade. However this won't really lighten the colour. For that you could try washing it frequently, soaking it in oil and honey, and colouroops. They are normally the methods recommended to pull dye out of hair.

However you are correct in your recent post, the above might not be as effective when your hair has been dyed a lot (particularly with a lot of regular dark dyes).

Its not a bad idea to leave the colour for a week -sometimes big change looks great but still takes some getting used to. :p Brown dye always fades quickly too. But try and tone it if you feel cooler tones suit your skin, definitely try a toner. :)

[lapushka]

I don't think that will work since my hair has been dyed and re-dyed continually since I was 13 (the whole reason I wanted my natural colour was so I'd be able to stop dying), so the natural pigment is altered quite a lot by this point :(. But thanks for the suggestion:)

So are you sure that your hair is still an ashy brown. Maybe the hair dresser did a good job and matched it to your roots perfectly and you just don't know your color anymore. Maybe it darkened over the years?

[wilderwein]

Hmm I had the same thing happened with drugstore hair dyes.
Baking soda mixed with baby shampoo helped me remove some of the hair dye. But be sure to over moisturize the hair afterwards, couse is quite drying.

It's quite usual for the industry to consider dark blonde a MUCH more darker color that what we think it is.
So when you ask about dark ash blonde you end up with almost brown hair.

Quoting my self from another thread to show you what I mean. So better let your natural hair grow about two inches and then try to match it.


Ok here was two years ago when I was trying to get my natural hair color back, through hair dye. I had mixed dark blonde, medium blonde hair color and those were the results.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/AP2qiiQHy1OrZZDSULs3TZmVdnP1vx-SISNtwqB7tvk=w400-h533-no

And this is the roots of my natural hair color.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7mXiFhKiyRB2xqR4tO7xooOVcwRwVaymD_2bKbMV-jY=w480-h640-no

As you can see what we consider as dark/medium blonde hair color it's quite lighter than what industry and hair dressers consider =/ Even a just "blonde" hair dye that I had tried was quite darker than my natural. But If I would get light blonde, it would bleach my natural hair color to a lighter one! Thats why natural hair color is so special =3 You cant with any god do the same with hair dyes.

[spidermom]

I'd live with it without doing anything special for awhile. It might match your natural color better than you think.

[Quasiquixotic]

I would do nothing as well. I think it will fade and be better than you think.

[applecinn]

Fading dye won't make it more ashy, if anything, it would make it brassier, no? Before doing anything on your own, why not go back to the salon and ask for an adjustment to the toner?

[pastina]

What color did you have before you went into the salon?

[turtlelover]

Vitamin C lifts demi permanent and some permament color a couple of shades. However, you are going to have some brassy tones simply from the lifting the base color if you used ammonia/peroxide based color.

[nakima]

I did this same thing once years ago. I dyed my hair lt. auburn and it turned out plum purple so I tried lightening it and it turned orange when I tried getting that out it turned lemon yellow and destroyed my hair! it took a few years to get it healthy again so my suggestion would be to leave it alone for a while let it fade on it's own until you can change it without causing to much damage.

[Kome]

Wow.... I'm surprised you went to a salon and they messed it up like this. You're going to need to bleach it, although there ARE more natural options, I find bleach to be the fastest and work the best. It will damage your hair obviously. I would youtube how to get copper out of your hair. I've learned a lot through trial and error, but youtube has helped me A LOT too, or just Googling it. Good luck! :)

[Miss P]

A week later and its less brassy/coppery. I'm still not happy with it but I'll wait a month or two to see how my regrowth matches up then go from there. I may just have to bite the bullet and let it grow out natural to regain the natural colour :(

[lapushka]

Maybe you indeed are wrong about your root color, growing it out some will give you the perfect opportunity to see. Good luck! :)

[Jadestorm]

I haven't had this problem myself, so I cannot speak from experience, but if you want a color to go more in the opposite direction, you need to use the color opposite in the color wheel. (basic color theory)
So to remove brassiness/copperiness you'll need to use a purple or blue shampoo & conditioner or toner. A quick Google search tells me that these indeed exist for human hair (I knew that blue shampoo exists for dogs lol) and guess what they're for... to remove brasiness. ;)

I would really try with that for a few weeks first before you do anything harsh to your hair like bleaching or coloring it again.

[Kome]

I haven't had this problem myself, so I cannot speak from experience, but if you want a color to go more in the opposite direction, you need to use the color opposite in the color wheel. (basic color theory)
So to remove brassiness/copperiness you'll need to use a purple or blue shampoo & conditioner or toner. A quick Google search tells me that these indeed exist for human hair (I knew that blue shampoo exists for dogs lol) and guess what they're for... to remove brasiness. ;)

I would really try with that for a few weeks first before you do anything harsh to your hair like bleaching or coloring it again.

Exactly! Even if you do end up bleaching it, follow the same idea. Buy a bleach opposite of your hair color. They have different toned bleach, but for the love of God, please don't use Kalidescopes bleach. You have to use heat and it doesn't work at home with a hair dryer... I've tried. Splotchy.

Anyways, I'm not trying to say you SHOULD bleach your hair. Just that it's an option and coloroops (or whatever it's called) won't work unless it's on dyed hair a day or two later. Sometimes it will, but option times it just dries it out.

I hope it tones done more and you don't have to do anything too serious. There's also the option of sun-in to help get the color out a bit if you need to get out the brassiness to lay another color down. Anyways, I'll shut up now. Good luck!

[ghost]

Try and let it fade before you do anything to it. You don't want to go processing your hair too many times in a row, that's how you end up with stretchy, gummy ends. (How do I know? Been there, done that >_<) If you can live with the copper for at least 2-4 weeks before trying to lift the color, you might find that after a few washes it turns to something a little lighter and easier to live with. In the meantime, see if you can buy a rinse-out, blue-based toner. It'll knock out some of the orange tones and neutralize your shade.

[Rhoward]

This might help with the tone, get some white conditioner and add food colouring to it, home made toner! Depending on what colour you are trying to hide use Blue for orange tones and green for red tones, mix of red and blue to create purple to disguise yellow in blondes.
e.g to hide orange/red tones in hair mix 250ml conditioner with 4 drops blue and 4 drops green - mix really well and use in place of your normal conditioner.

It might help you too be able to live with it while it fades.

Hope I don't sound like a crazy person, I use this myself as its hard to find toning conditioner for brunettes.

[Isilme]

To gently fade permanent colour you can do a deep conditioning treatment and let it soak for an hour or more. You could even use a heavy conditioner and let it stew under a shower cap.

[alexis917]

If your hair has been dyed so much, it's probably porous. I would try to use a clarifying shampoo as often as you can.

[browneyedsusan]

In my experience, red hair dye fades FAST.
You can speed it up by clarifying the be-jabbers out of it: I used to wash my hair in hot water and dish soap, and follow up with a heavy conditioning. (That was back in my pixie days, so damage wasn't an issue.)

If you have lots of color in your hair, it might be more porous and "grabby" for color. You can always get some Adore veggie hair dye and color over it to smooth things out? (I got some chocolate brown Adore from Amazon.com, it comes in tons of shades.)

Good luck and let us know how it goes! :)

[Miss P]

Okay, so my friend let me try her purple shampoo/conditioner and GUESS WHAT??? NO MORE BRASS!!!! :D :D :D Thank you so much for your advice!

[mindwiped]

If your hair dresser uses Paul Mitchell, they have pure color additive that comes in blue to add to the re-dye, to tone down the red/orange, just in case you seen too red still