Color change ahead, advice needed!

[Lejli]

My hair used to be platinum blonde bleached. I decided to dye it red a few months ago, but Im basically too lazy to constantly renew the red color every few weeks and to do all the work that comes with maintaining it. SO NOW, Ive decided to dye it an auburn brown instead. My question, how do I do this? What is a good brand to use? Do you have any tips for the dying process(to make it less damaging)? Do I just take a brown dye and put it on top of the red? Or should I rather go to the hairdresser and not do it alone? And will the brown really stay, and not fade like the red? Basically I just want nice, healthy looking hair that doesn't need a lot of maintenance.

These past 4 years, my hair has basically been an ongoing, big experiment. I think its now time to settle down with the crazy colours and start to focus more on my hairs health, instead of always bleaching it, and adding new crazy colours, especially since my hair is almost hip length now... I dont want to ruin it completely!

Also a unrelated question if you have time: when I dyed my hair red from the platinum blonde, my hair immediately felt softer and better ever since, do you know why? Does it have something to do with adding the darker molecules to the hair?

[Elyse]

When I went darker over more of a red
Tone, I used a Demi permanent brown with red undertones. Demi permanent tends
To be less damaging, but it states to last around twenty something washes. I used it to tone down my bleached highlights and blend my dyed hair into my roots. I noticed a lightening after a few washes that still allow my blonde highlights to come through, just not as harshly. I love Demi permanent for going darker, especially for a more subtle line between my natural color and dyed color.

[lapushka]

If you can, I would dye as close to your natural color as you can. Less maintenance, and easier to dye. If you don't trust yourself, do visit a salon!

[Obsidian]

I'd let the roots grow out a bit so your natural color is showing then go to a salon and get it color matched. It will be more pricey then doing it at home but you have a lot of hair to loose if it gets damaged from a bad at home dye job. Just do research on your area colorists, ask to see examples of their work before sitting in their chair.

[meteor]

My hair used to be platinum blonde bleached. I decided to dye it red a few months ago, but Im basically too lazy to constantly renew the red color every few weeks and to do all the work that comes with maintaining it. SO NOW, Ive decided to dye it an auburn brown instead. My question, how do I do this? What is a good brand to use? Do you have any tips for the dying process(to make it less damaging)? Do I just take a brown dye and put it on top of the red? Or should I rather go to the hairdresser and not do it alone? And will the brown really stay, and not fade like the red? Basically I just want nice, healthy looking hair that doesn't need a lot of maintenance.

These past 4 years, my hair has basically been an ongoing, big experiment. I think its now time to settle down with the crazy colours and start to focus more on my hairs health, instead of always bleaching it, and adding new crazy colours, especially since my hair is almost hip length now... I dont want to ruin it completely!

What's your long-term plan? Are you trying to grow out bleach blonde and go back to natural color using auburn brown as a way to tide you over this growing-out period? If so, I'd recommend sticking with deposit-only, true semis (peroxide-free and non-damaging). They will be fading, but you can always top off with more color until the natural roots are long enough to let it all fade nicely through an ombre look. Actually, I think I'd recommend deposit-only, true semis anyway, since you mention that your hair is hip-length and you don't want to "ruin" hair and you already have some old chemical processing and damage accumulated there (it's impossible to get to platinum blonde without some damage).

To slow down the fading process, try washing hair in cooler water, avoid frequent washing (esp. harsh clarifying), if possible, avoid the sun or resort to updos and hats when it's sunny outside...


Also a unrelated question if you have time: when I dyed my hair red from the platinum blonde, my hair immediately felt softer and better ever since, do you know why? Does it have something to do with adding the darker molecules to the hair?

That's pretty normal for severely bleached hair. Bleaching increases hair's porosity dramatically and, since you went all the way to platinum, there may be chipped, lifted cuticles, pores that might do well with some "filler". Dye molecules can act like such "fillers", which is probably what you experienced there with that improvement. Deposit-Only/Direct Dyes/Semis (i.e. without developer) can be useful in that situation, actually - they can provide that "filler" function. But also, some clear color fillers (like glosses) and protein treatments can help. For example, you could check out Aphogee 2-Step, Joico K-Pak Reconstruct, Redken Extreme Builder Plus and penetrating oils like coconut to help with that (if you don't want to add color, but want the temporary strengthening effect).

This is also why sometimes severely bleached hair absorbs dye too quickly (end result being sometimes initially deeper color than expected or sometimes blotchy result) and doesn't hold onto dye very well (it washes out fast) and that's also why hairdressers like to sometimes use "protein fillers" before dying very bleached or otherwise very damaged hair (protein fillers reduce porosity before the dye is even applied, for more predictable and even results).