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View Full Version : Brassy light brown hair- can't get rid of it!



Calee
August 24th, 2018, 09:35 PM
I have natural blond hair. Over the last 3 years I’ve been dyeing my hair with Clairol Natural Instinct no ammonia 31 Darkest Brown. I liked the color a lot but I got very bored with my dark hair, so decided to go blonde again. 3 weeks ago my girlfriend who is a hair stylist bleached my hair and I ended up with light-brown brassy color.
I wanted to fix the color so my friend told me to use Wella 050 with 10 vol developer. The color turned out too dark & I was brunette again! With each wash my hair was getting lighter & more brassy! I was told to use purple shampoo. I tried 3 different brands with no luck. I guess my hair is too dark & orange for purple shampoo.
There is a lot of info online about using crashed vitamin C mixed with clarifying shampoo to strip color out of hair. I’ve tried it and it seemed to work - my hair got lighter & but also more brassy:)
I have read a lot of great reviews about Wella T14 toner mixed with 20 vol developer. I thought to try one more time, hoping to get my hair lighter & ashy looking.
Result after 15 min: my hair looks less brassy in the front (I started putting the toner from the front) but still brassy in the back ( which is where I applied the toner at the end). I wonder if I should have kept the toner on my hair for 30 min instead of 15min. I am also bummed the toner didn’t make my hair lighter.
I decided to give my hair a break for now. I am happy it doesn't break and is very soft.
I still want to be blonde (didn’t change my mind ☺️) but since my hair is so fine, I am afraid to totally damage it & end up with no hair. I need your advice. 🙏
Thank you

As a brunette :
http://ibb.co/cEsc7p

My brassy hair (the photo was taken in the bathroom with a bad lighting, in person is not that crazy orange though) :
http://ibb..co/hZKw09

Calee
August 24th, 2018, 09:52 PM
Here is the correct link with my brassy hair:

http://ibb.co/hZKw09

Jo Ann
August 24th, 2018, 10:23 PM
Have you tried blue shampoo? According to the hair color wheel, red + yellow = orange and blue should correct that--that's why using an ashy toner usually corrects brassy hair. Toning usually doesn't lighten hair.

Another possibility might be to mix a blue semi-permanent color with conditioner to the level of color your hair is. Depending on the level of color your hair is and amount of brassiness you have, you might need anywhere from a few drops to, say, a teaspoon of the color added to the conditioner to adjust the brassiness of your hair. Double-check with a colorist/stylist to see if that will work in your case.

Rhoward
August 25th, 2018, 12:26 AM
Second the above post! blue shampoo, blue counteracts orange, purple won't do a thing for you, Fanola no orange is a brilliant product if you can get it. They make a shampoo and a mask, or just make your own with some blue manic panic

https://amr.com.au/product/fanola-no-orange-shampoo-350ml/

Obsidian
August 25th, 2018, 09:26 AM
Along with trying a blue shampoo, how were you using the purple ones? Just washing with them really isn't enough to tone hair, you need to apply it somewhat heavy and leave on for 15-30 minutes. Another option for toning is manic panic virgin snow but it may be a bit too light/lavender for your hair. Its not damaging though so it might be worth a try. You could also mix in a little MP ultra violet to boost it to more of a blue

Deborah
August 25th, 2018, 09:58 AM
I think the photo you call brassy shows your hair color looking just fine. I'd leave it alone. Too many more chemicals could do an awful lot of damage.

Margarita
August 25th, 2018, 11:40 AM
Your hair is beautiful! Bumble and Bumble have released these amazing products. I believe the brunette one is just for you:https://www.bumbleandbumble.com/color-gloss
Or you can try putting a toner to your hair, if ofcourse there is a toner for brown hair(i think so? right?)

lapushka
August 25th, 2018, 12:47 PM
Here is the correct link with my brassy hair:

http://ibb.co/hZKw09

It looks strawberry blonde to me, in this picture. Can you possibly grow it out? I would maybe try a blue shampoo, but for the rest leave it alone as much as possible. Once you start the dyeing process, and it doesn't turn out how you want, you just keep doing it, totally messing up the hair, possibly requiring a cut. It's not worth it! Trust me. BTDT plenty of times over. Learned my lesson the hard way (chemical cut & burn).

chrissy-b
August 25th, 2018, 01:16 PM
The color will continue to fade. Just leave it alone for a while. To tone down the brass, use blue or purple manic panic mixed in conditioner. I've had luck with both and considering your color is on the lighter side, I think purple will be fine. It takes about a month for the brassiness to come back after a treatment.

Calee
August 25th, 2018, 10:08 PM
The color will continue to fade. Just leave it alone for a while. To tone down the brass, use blue or purple manic panic mixed in conditioner. I've had luck with both and considering your color is on the lighter side, I think purple will be fine. It takes about a month for the brassiness to come back after a treatment.


THANK YOU SO MUCH for your advice! :heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeatI definitely have to try a blue shampoo.

Pizzakitten
August 26th, 2018, 10:49 AM
Any amount of toner and colored shampoo will not make your hair lighter!

Here’s how it works:
Hair dye uses developer and a (usually) creme color which adds color molecules to your hair. Developer is what does the hard work of inserting the molecules into the shaft of the hair. Developers have levels, which start at 5 volume and move up from there. The higher the number, the more intense the developer is. If you go to a salon to get your hair done, the highest developer you’re ever going to see is 40 volume. If possible, most stylists will use a lesser developer, usually 20 or 30 volume.

Boxed dye uses crazy high developers. I’ve heard one test that came out to 80 volume or above. This is because they have to offer some sort of guarantee of their product, without knowing the clients hair or skill level.

Usually this doesn’t seem to cause an issue - most of the time, any sort of dye leaves your hair feeling healthier. This is because it’s adding a layer to your hair, which adds weight and produces a conditioned sensation. However, with really high developer, the color acts unpredictably when you try to remove it. Sometimes it will work, and you’ll be blonde, and then three weeks later it will darken and show more of the original dye. Sometimes it will just turn orange!

The reason brassiness is so common goes back to those color molecules. Blue molecules are smaller than their red and yellow counterparts. This means that they strip out of the hair more easily. So when you lighten your hair, the lightener opens up the shaft and tries to pull the color molecules out (rather than adding new ones in, like dye) but it invariably pulls out the blue molecules first. What you’re left with is an orange.

Now, toners and colored shampoo (by the way, I’d always recommend toner, or at least making your own colored conditioner by mixing a purple no-developer dye like manic panic into conditioner, as purple shampoos can be really damaging and way overpriced) just add those blue and red molecules back into the hair. They cannot lighten your hair! They sometimes produce the effect of lightening when you’ve already lifted your hair to a high level (level 10 being platinum blonde) because the brassiness fools our eyes into perceiving it as a darker color, when it’s really just a more vibrant one. Balancing the brass in these cases will produce a white effect, which looks lighter.

Okay, so that’s so much info and I’m sorry lol.

For your case, I’d recommend a nice color remover. You need to swear off the box dye, and go to the beauty supply store instead next time you want to dye your hair. Go to a local beauty supply and pick out a color removal kit. You want to make sure it’s not a bleach kit, but specifically a color remover that uses sulfides. There’s one at Sally’s that has conditioning oils that worked great for me in the past, it’s in a gold colored box but I can’t recall the name. Whatever’s available should work.

Use the color remover according to the box directions. It will smell like sulfur. Just embrace the demon summoning vibes!

Color remover attempts to remove dye without bleaching, so as long as you don’t buy a box from a drugstore and go to a beauty supply, you should avoid further damage.

If the remover can combat the box dye, you’ll probably end up with blonde ranging from strawberry to corn silk. Embrace it. Don’t mess with your hair for two weeks, and I’d recommend doing hot oil treatments overnight a couple times. Just warm oil and slather it in, then wash it in the morning.

If you still hate the color after that, you can either do bleach baths, or go ham and relighted the whole thing fully. To do the baths, Just use powdered lightener (try for a blue powder if you can) and 10 volume developer. Mix according to the directions on the powder and mix with your shampoo, then lather it in and leave it for 10 - 15 minutes.

The full lightening is the same process, but you’ll want a toner. I’d recommend ions lavender moon. You’ll also want a friend to help, so grab the hairdresser girlfriend! Mix the bleach with no higher than 20 volume developer. Apply carefully, keeping 1/2-1/4 inch from the scalp. Do not use heat, do not leave it on longer than 30 mins, tops. Then you rinse it out (do NOT condition) and use the toner. If you condition, you will nullify the toner. It’s made to be used after bleaching.

My hair eats toner so fast it’s hard for me to avoid coming out purple, so pay attention to your hair and be ready.


Hope that helps! But seriously, ditch the box dye, and stick to 20-30 volume developer from now on! I’ve gin ham on both, and the dye you mix yourself is so so so much better. Good luck and have fun!

cjk
August 26th, 2018, 11:44 AM
Our hair is similar in color. I don't think of mine as brassy.

Seriously, stop. Just stop it. You're trying to micromanage the color and, with each treatment, causing an increasing number of problems. So, when what you're doing doesn't work...stop.

Your hair is not some weird unnatural color, it is not damaged or falling out. It is not unflattering, and to be totally honest it looks very nice! So stop trying to change it.

spidermom
August 26th, 2018, 06:14 PM
I know that the monitor can be deceiving, but honestly I don't see an unnatural brassy color either.