Dying hair back to dark blonde..

[jissy]

Last year I put up a thread about me dying my dark blond hair to a reddish color. I was not expecting the results I got and had to fix it a week later which didn't really fix it completely. I asked for help here and everyone said to go to salon which I refused to do because I am afraid of them.

I was in the sun and pool water over the summer which made the red go away which we thought was funny. So i used a shampoo for pool swimming and it looked good enough to change the hair to a blonder blond. I used lightest ash blond and it looked good although the bottom half(i have about 37 inches of hair) was about a shade darker than the top. I figure no one would say anything about it so I left it. I continued to do roots a few times. One time I wound up with a scratches on my head due to the bottle(it was rough), I wound up with an infection from it. So i burned the bottle tip to soften it and round it out and that helped. So i did my hair a few more times and just posted several weeks ago about how great it looks. It really does look good, I enjoy being a lighter blond than I am.

Problem is is that my scalp wound up with a touch of eczema and I spoke with dh and said it wasn't worth continuing the bleaching process if I am going to wind up with patches of itchy skin and me scratching and getting infections.

So i am looking at going back to dark blond. I called the hair dye company and they recommend a salon as well and I think i might just do it. I am not sure how much it will cost as they will have to see my hair first. But I might ask them if I can buy the dye myself from a beauty place and see what they say. They were honest and said with confidence that if done right it should only take a few hours but it will be done in one shot.

I called another salon and the woman said it would have to be done all the time because the color would fade. I was like if you do the right treatment it shouldn't...she stuttered so I hung up knowing she was full of it. I think the 1st one I called was honest and willing to work with me knowing i had a lot of hair I wanted to keep.

although my hair has split ends all over, it is fairly healthy, not dry either. So i'm going to let some of the roots grow out then see these nice people and see what they have to say.

Has anyone done this before? I'd like to grow it out but it will look stupid if I dont dye it.

Any suggestions on some good deep conditioning treatments as well?

Oh also, I would like to trim the ends as well, i do this every so often. But should I wait for the coloring to happen or just do it? It will be a about month before I can dye my hair back,i dont have to cut now, but would like to know if i should do it before i dye it or afterward.

[spidermom]

Actually, it may well fade. Bleached hair becomes more porous and it doesn't hang onto color as well as non-bleached hair. My niece has been struggling with this. Her hair was repeatedly bleached, and now color only lasts a couple of weeks, then she's back to an ugly yellowy-orangey sort of non-color. I've seen people around here complain about the same thing.

Fingers crossed that you get a good result.

[jissy]

thank you for the input.

I was told that I will have to go through two processes. One is called in the salon world a "filler". They will have to dye my hair a certain color to put "back" pigment into it. THEN they will do the color that is closest to my natural color or a 1/2 shade darker than my roots.

They say that if you do not go through the Filler process then it will fade out every few weeks. That might be the problem with your niece. But i am new to that Filler thing so it's just from what they told me.

They most likely will do a dark blond with a slight red tint. Although I dont want red in my hair... my natural hair color did have red strands as well as chestnut brown and even platinum strands. So I understand why they have to add a little red do it. They said if i did it on my own from the bleached blond that it is it will always fade. She seemed to know what she was doing and if it doesn't take then I at least know i didn't screw it up by not doing what you all have said in the first place was to go to the salon and get it done. My scalp is more important to me then the color of my hair so back to dark it is.

My hair grows very fast so i figure a couple years and it will all be completely gone. I cut it a few times a year so I know how fast it is.

[rymorg2]

thank you for the input.

I was told that I will have to go through two processes. One is called in the salon world a "filler". They will have to dye my hair a certain color to put "back" pigment into it. THEN they will do the color that is closest to my natural color or a 1/2 shade darker than my roots.

They say that if you do not go through the Filler process then it will fade out every few weeks. That might be the problem with your niece. But i am new to that Filler thing so it's just from what they told me.

They most likely will do a dark blond with a slight red tint. Although I dont want red in my hair... my natural hair color did have red strands as well as chestnut brown and even platinum strands. So I understand why they have to add a little red do it. They said if i did it on my own from the bleached blond that it is it will always fade. She seemed to know what she was doing and if it doesn't take then I at least know i didn't screw it up by not doing what you all have said in the first place was to go to the salon and get it done. My scalp is more important to me then the color of my hair so back to dark it is.

My hair grows very fast so i figure a couple years and it will all be completely gone. I cut it a few times a year so I know how fast it is.


I'm a stylist...

Even if they do a filler the color may still fade. You'll have less of a chance of it though. The problem is that when you go lighter you're lifting natural pigment out and the artificial pigment has nothing left to grab onto.

[wintersun99]

I am by no means, a color guru - I've done enough to screw up my own hair. The one thing I wanted to suggest is this: between now and the time you go to get your color correction, do many, many protein and deep moisture treatments to prepare for and hopefully prevent any damage that is going to occur. Good luck

[manderly]

Have you considered try a deposit-only dye and just redoing it when it fades?

It may be easier on your hair since it's been bleached, and any fade you get can be easily fixed without any extra damage.

I had stripped the color out of my hair, then henna'd twice before I decided I wanted to dye back to my natural dark brown. I dyed it a couple of times with Loving Care which is just a one step deposit only with no ammonia or peroxide. Considering what a dark color I was doing and that it was covering orange, it lasted fairly long before I had to redo it. It also helped make the line between dye and roots less noticeable.


Here was my starting color:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/astrauser/CIMG1787.jpg

And here it was after loving care:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/astrauser/CIMG1818.jpg

[atlantaz3]

Have you considered low lights? When I was letting my hair get back to natural over the process of a few years I had low lights put in every other session rather than highlights. What the low lights did for me was put the natural color back in as the low light color was my natural color. I haven't highlighted since August 07 so other than honey and sunlight (convertible and jogger) my siggy pic is pretty close to my real natural color. I would ask around for a good stylist who does lowlights as well as highlights and visit - ask a lot of questions then decide if you want to try it. PS my stylist used Aveda products and didn't "wreck" my hair.
PS This really did get me through the roots and two tone hair growing out stage.

[iris]

Have you considered try a deposit-only dye and just redoing it when it fades?
That's what I would do, too. If you've bleached before, the deposit-only dye will last longer than it says on the box, and if you're lucky it may even turn out to be permanent. And - no damage.

The reason a deposit-only dye may turn out permanent on bleached hair is that bleached hair is more porous than virgin hairr. The dye molecules in deposit-only hair are too big to really penetrate virgin hair, that is why they wash out of virgin hair. But they may penetrate your bleached hair, and stick there.

The porosity is also the reason why regular dye will wash out - regular dyes have smaller molecules and they need denser hair to get stuck in. One solution is to use a filler and make the hair more dense that way - the other solution is to use the porosity that you already have, and use a deposit-only dye.

If you find that the deposit-only dye doesn't stick, you can always try the other process later. I'd start with the deposit-only dye though because it will for sure not harm your hair.

[Demetrue]

I would just switch from using a bottle with scratchy tip to mixing your highlight color in a bowl using a small dye paint brush to apply the color where you want it without even touching your scalp.

[jeno]

I think it's a good idea to let the salon do the work. My daughter had very bleached hair and wanted to go darker. We let the salon do the first dyeing. She put a lot of red in it so it wouldn't turn green, which is a big risk if you have bleached hair and especially if you are going more ashy. The first dye did come out fast, but the stylist had told us that and that we could use semi-permanent colour for a touch-up.
So go to the salon first, then you can experiment for yourself!

(BTW, my daughter is a satisfied brunette now.)

[Katze]

even if you do go to a salon, the chances are very likely that the color will fade. If you are OK with the "brassier" colors, then you have nothing to lose. :)

I dyed my (dark blonde/light brown/hair colored hair) back to a darker color (see profile pic with horse - that's straight dye) back at the end of June, 2006. By August 2006, the dye itself was mostly gone, leaving me with more brassy color (which does not look good on my cool toned, ruddy complexion).

Yes, bleached hair fades, and in my experience all lighter dyes fade. The only dye color I had which didn't fade was black.

The very best thing you can do is stop dyeing, IMO. If you want healthy hair, and want to avoid brassiness, two toned color, or having to keep dyeing, you are going to have to stop dyeing and grow it out eventually. As a fine haired person, this was especially important for me, as my hair was always too damaged (from repeated dye and heat) to grow.

[brok3nwings]

Im sorry that you are in this situation. If i were you i would probably do lowlights in two different shades. One in your natural colour and one darker... make sure that the stylist is good at making it. Ask your friends, do a research. The colour will eventually fade yes but you can do deposit only after and maybe you are a lucky one that can hold the colour longer. It really depends on how healthy your hair is.
I have a friend that is naturally very dark blonde and used to bleach it into almost white. Her hair was incredibly shiny and health looking (all the time!) now she returned to her natural, that turned up a lovely lovely caramel blonde and it is not fading. See if the stylist dont put you golden tones, ask for sand or something.

[Ursula]

Aside from the color, what are your hair goals? You don't have a length goal mentioned, and it isn't clear if that is because you've reached your goal (in which case I'd suggest making your info show your goal to be the same as your current length) or if it is because it is an open-ended goal (in which case I'd suggest you put in an guess about a goal, just to give people an idea of what you have in mind, or mark with a question mark.)

If people don't know your goals, it is hard to give advice that is consistant with your goals.

If you are planning to stay at or near your current length (which is, by LHC standards fairly short) you can probably get away with doing more things that are potentially damaging than if you're wanting to grow a lot more length, such as aiming for tailbone or longer.

Damage is cumulative, and you've done a lot of things to your hair already. Even if the next process wouldn't be very damaging on its own, it is harder to say whether it will be the proverbial straw to break the camel's back done on top of the things you've already done. A lot of people at salons, and who sell or make conventional products aren't as aware of the potential for cumulative damage, or they discount the amount to which damage can accumulate on very long hair, since they're used to judging the effect on hair that is cut regularly, so it doesn't accumulate. So again, your long-term hair goals become an issue, which we don't have the information to properly judge.

[iris]

If you are planning to stay at or near your current length (which is, by LHC standards fairly short)
37 inches (post info) or 39 inches (profile info) is short for LHC standards? Huh? It's plenty long to worry about cumulative damage if you ask me...

[jissy]

THank you all for such great info.

I rechecked my hair and it is about 33-34 inches. I took about 5 or so inches off in August(i found the ponytail and measured it and yes i kept it lol). So it was even short than 33-34 inches back in august. Being that it is 33-34 inches it has grown 4 inches in 5 months and this is my slower growth period.

I can grow it 6 more inches and take it off as easy as I grew it. There is a point where my hair behaves for me and that is the reason I cut it back in August. Having 4 kids, 3 of them are little and play a lot with my hair and of course damage happens. I of course want healthier hair but my kids wont be little for long and I dont mind them playing.

I am worried with the color because the top to about my middle of neck is one color and the rest down is a different shade. Again not much of a difference but since there is a difference I am afraid to do it myself and screw it up and look like a skunk or something with two tone hair.

Growing it out naturally is not an option. I have bleach blond which looks great but I am a natural very dark blond and growing it out would look rediculious at least for me. My hair is too long even at 33 inches to do that. There is no way that I would be able to hide that I am growing it out and I dont want to look that way for a long time.

So going to a stylist is certainly what I should do, maybe I can ask them about deposit only, at least they can see my hair and the growth that I will be growing out for them and they can tell me what is best. I'll even ask them about what they think of lowlights. Certainly can't hurt to ask them. I surely wouldn't have known to ask any of this if you all didn't respond. Thank you so much.

My 1st goal is to make my hair dark blond again so I can grow out bleach blond. I know it will take long but the health of my head is more important. Doing this one time or even a few is better than doing the roots every 6 weeks.

I have to use a bottle to do my roots. I was able to fix the problem with the bottle by melting it into a rounded tip. It's the eczema that I have on my head that flared up that is the problem. I wont risk my scalp for any hair dye anymore. I thought my head was fine but it reminded me that even after years of no spots that it can come back to bite you.

I have deep conditioners and will do that as well. I dont wash my hair every day so my next shampoo will be a 30 minute deep conditioner on it.

My 2nd goal is to start treating my hair better with better brushes/combs and try to stop the split ends. Since I'll go to the stylist I'll ask them as well. I have not been to someone in years but I am firm when it comes to "oh you should cut all the split ends off". I hate when someone says that.

3rd goal is to let it grow longer. I use to sit on it but again I am a mother and I have no bangs and I have no time to play with it with styles which I adore looking on here for. It just sits there and gets in the way. So eventually I'd like to grow it a bit more.

Not sure if 4 inches in 5months is fast but I thought it was for me. What is the average?

[jissy]

ursula, thank you for the info, i will be sure to ask the salon about long term damage and ask their opinion and remind them that I am someone who has much longer hair then they are use to. Good point. Noting all of this so I can have it with me. Thank you

[Katze]

Jissy, as far as I understand it it is difficult to get bleached blonde hair to be healthy enough to grow longer. In my own experience - and I have fine hair, don't know about your hairtype because one isn't listed - my hair would always break off between shoulder and APL (armpit length). I really wanted it to grow, I did everything people in salons told me (which usually was "buy this product"), and my hair did not grow.

I was also bleaching it, blowdrying it, and occasionally using the curling iron to make it wavier or straighter. Every time I went to a salon, they told me my hair would not grow, and no one could tell me why.

After coming to LHC I realized that fine hair needs more gentle care, and that my goal of waist length hair was indeed more important to me than being platinum blonde. This is a difficult decision for many of us I think - for me being "blonde" (light blonde) was part of my identity - how I felt special, different, better. I suspect - but don't know - that this is the case for many of us.

As for growing out - yes, two toned hair is hard, but as the bleached hairs shed on their own they will be replaced with virgin hair. I think mine looked terrible for a few months, during which I French braided it a lot. Eventually the two toned look was really only noticeable in updos.

You are a grownup, it's your hair, but if you ask most people on this site, they will tend to be of the opinion that you should stop bleaching. The focus of this site is healthy hair, so we are all a bit biased, and some of us also biased from our own long term bleach and dye usage.

Something else to consider - dark blonde is a rare color since so many women bleach theirs. Although I live in a part of the world where more people have dark blonde hair, I get surprised comments on my hair color because most women with a similar color bleach it. In fact I get told it is "unusual" - something bleached blonde just isn't.

Again, it is your decision, but as a fellow former bleach addict, just wanted to try to win you over to the "dark side." :D

Katze

[jissy]

Katse, you are so sweet. I am true golden blond(when I was younger). As I got older I it got darker. I didn't like the darkness of it and wanted to play with it and have played for a year with it. I am READY due to skin issues to stop bleaching. I am not looking to continue to lighten my hair, i am looking at make it dark one last time (hopefully by a professional who only has to do it once to get a decent color). Yes I agree that I should let it grow out naturally but since my hair is so long it would look terrible. We are talking Bleached blond and very very dark blond almost brown roots. I am not ready to look like a clown. If my hair was short and I was going to grow it out I'd say sure. But 33 inches of bleach blond and to let the dark come out will look very silly and I am not looking forward to people looking at me saying hey do your roots. lol

My hair has split ends but doesn't break off easily. It is soft and well conditioned. It grows fairly fast and I cut it to keep it at a length that is suitable for me for now since I have 4 kids. THe damage with the split ends was before I started bleaching it.

I am wondering how long it will take to grow it out know..... Katse you have me thinking.. My hair really does grow fast. At least I think so. Hmmmm pondering my options. ;-)

[jissy]

Katse, I agree dark blond is very unusual. I was always asked what color did i use to get all those colors in one. My streaks were natural from the sun as well. I was tired of the darkness of it. I played for a while and am willing to let it grow out. But I'd like the bleach to be covered during the growing out phase. But again, i am thinking about that now...

My hair color currently is what you see in the avatar picture. Yes that is my husband next to me and his hair is tied back in elastic bands(no metal) and is currently something he is able to sit on. i am going to try to upload a photo of my old hair color.

[Allegra]

Hi, I have recently done a similar thing. My hair was highlighted (like in my avatar) and i wanted to go back to my dark blonde as I didn't want to continue bleaching it.
I used a clairol deposit only dye (as suggested in an earlier post), and have then been using cassia (which adds a very golden 'glow') every few weeks, which helps to blend the two colors (roots and old highlights) together.

[jissy]

Ok I put a picture of what my hair color was before I started bleaching it. Its in my profile I hope.

I am a little confused about the deposit color.

Since my hair is bleached blond ALL OVER. This isn't just highlights or a slight color change,this is several shades lighter than my natural hair color, don't I have to put a filler in BEFORE using a deposit?

I thought I have to put red back into my hair before dying it back to dark blond?
Are you saying with a deposit color I dont have to put the red in it?
And If i do that wont the bottom of hair that is a 1/2 shade darker than the top be a different color as well if i use the deposit color on it?

[wintersun99]

That's a very pretty color! I would think that a professional could return your hair to that color with minimal damage. If you haven't already, than visit many salons, talk to the specialist's in "color correction" evaluate all of the ideas and if you can/want, ask to watch them do a color correction on someone else. After all of that, you should have a fair idea of who you would trust with your color and with your longer hair. Good luck

*I'm sorry, I have no more advice*

:D

[Curlsgirl]

Ok I put a picture of what my hair color was before I started bleaching it. Its in my profile I hope.

I am a little confused about the deposit color.

Since my hair is bleached blond ALL OVER. This isn't just highlights or a slight color change,this is several shades lighter than my natural hair color, don't I have to put a filler in BEFORE using a deposit?

I thought I have to put red back into my hair before dying it back to dark blond?
Are you saying with a deposit color I dont have to put the red in it?
And If i do that wont the bottom of hair that is a 1/2 shade darker than the top be a different color as well if i use the deposit color on it?When my hair was very light from being bleached, I didn't use a filler. I simply used a dark blond color (demi-perm) from Sally's in Clairol (Radiance I think it was called). It took a couple of times but it did stick VERY well. I don't see how any stylist could tell you over the phone that one time coming to them would be permanent and that you wouldn't have to get it done again. They would have no way of knowing. I would be leary of them for that reason honestly. Be advised my hair was very dark after using that dark blonde radiance (more like a medium brown at least) but by the time it faded it was very close to my natural color. I have since gotten highlights because I missed the blond so much. If you already have 2-toned hair though if you put the same color over all of it, you will eventually end up with 2 colors again. You need "corrective" coloring which is more expensive but I wouldn't risk doing it myself. I also wouldn't go to that salon that said they could use a filler and fix everything with one visit. Just my 2 cents! I wish you the best of luck!!!

[Katze]

Jissy, your natural color is very pretty and suits your complexion well.

I agree that going to a salon is the way to go, but unfortunately as you probably know there is no guarantee. I dyed my hair back darker blonde (it looked brown to me, but was called blonde) but then was left with yet another demarcation line (roots).

In your case this seems to be the best way to go, but you might eventually find the color fades out of the bleached parts anyway and you decide to trim, as I have been doing.

The good news is that your hair has gotten this long already, so you 1) are genetically blessed, and 2) are doing something right!

good luck, and I am curious to see how it turns out. We former bleach heads need to support one another! :cheese:

[spidermom]

I just looked at your profile picture; wow - pretty color; you look great.

[jissy]

Curlsgirl, love your hair!! I was told that by using a filler you wont have to do what you had to do.. that is doing it more than once.

I have found a salon that is trained Paul Mitchell. They are willing to talk to me as well. I am in no rush and want to do this right if I let it look silly and naturally let it grow out or i cover the blond to dark blond and let it go that way i'll post either way i'll post to show what is going on.

[jissy]

Well after letting it grow out for about 10 or so weeks I went to a salon I found that the girl was really honest.

She said I didn't need filler, I could do it at home and even showed me what to do and gave me conditioner to help me afterward and for a few days after that!!!

It looks great, i'll have to take pic and put it up.

Thank you girls for saying I should at least speak to someone before doing it.

Now I can grow the rest out without looking off.

[helen2806]

I'm glad you got a good result :). I have recently (yesterday actually) gone back to my natural colour, which is medium/light ashy blonde after lightening it a bit over the summer. My roots weren't really that obvious because the colour wasn't hugely different, but I was getting impatient letting it grow out...

so I used Clairol Loving Care in 'Beige Blonde' and it worked really well so I'm happy, and so is my hair because it's deposit only :D

[jissy]

Helen that looks really good. Glad it did what it should have with no problems.

My goal now is healthier hair, I'm in need of a trim at the bottom.
And I would like to see about growing bangs longer. They are long and I trim them shorter than the rest but I'd like to have them the same length so going to work on that as well.

[Curlsgirl]

I am so glad it worked out well for you!!! :cheese:

[jissy]

http://i582.photobucket.com/albums/ss265/mammabear1973/newcolor.jpg


Here is the new color

[CopperHead]

I think your hair looks great! Good condition and beautiful color! I just dyed my hennaed hair a gorgeous dark chocolate cherry. I had to mix two colors but I am very happy with the result. :) It is all the same color now for the first time in years. :cheese: I think you have found the perfect color for you too.

[jissy]

THanks copperhead. This is to be the last coloring. I did it for almost a year and have had 1 bad infection, and 3 infections that weren't so bad on top of that. My eczema or what ever you want to call it has said oh please stop playing with your hair lady. So it's back to dark blond and letting the sun do the lightening for me. It was fun playing with it for a while, i am very happy that it is one color and understand that it might wash out but for now it looks good and am waiting for some growth to come so I can see roots and what they will look like compared to what I have.

Deep conditioning's are going well and hair feels great.