Question about adding streaks/highlights/etc...

[intothemist1999]

I little while back I did a "temporary" colour. Yes, I should have known better, "temp" is code for "not really temporary"!:D

So, now I have this hair that's quite a bit darker than I'd hoped (which wasn't supposed to happen either). I already have dark hair (with many greys) but this is just TOO dark, and covered the greys (I don't care to cover the greys, and I won't go into all the in's and out's of the 2 recent colouring jobs).

I don't really want to change my colour all together (although it WOULD be interesting! ....oh annaroooosssse....) but I want to lighten it up. I've been using more "natural" colouring products, but they can't make hair lighter, so I'm out of luck for those for now.

So, to kind of break up the dark, I thought of adding highlights or streaks of some sort. Is this something I can do on my own? Am I likely to regret it? :D Is there a product you can recommend?

Even better might be a method of lifting some of the current colour. Any thoughts?

Thanks! :pumpkin:

[spidermom]

Did you try something like Color Oops? A warm olive oil treatment? Washing with baby shampoo or rinsing with baking soda? My blonde niece did temp black, and she had to grow it out/cut it off. But we didn't try any of the above because she didn't care all that much.

[intothemist1999]

Did you try something like Color Oops? A warm olive oil treatment? Washing with baby shampoo or rinsing with baking soda?

No, no, no, and no. :D I wasn't aware of any of those tricks!

Never heard of Color Oops, but I'll see what I can find. I'm curious that olive oil would do anything. Is the baking soda used as a scrub, or is it added to water and used as a rinse?

Thanks!

[Demetrue]

You could get one of the highlighting kits for dark hair - it won't lighten as much, which is what you want in order to look more natural and not like you have platinum streaks in brown hair. If you just mix up a very small amount and put the very top layer of your canopy up into a pony tail, then paint 3 - 5 very thin strands of highlighter down each side of the layer of hair immediately under your canopy. Leave it on for under 10 minutes, rinse out, condition very well and dry. That way, you wil not have a line of demarcation because the canopy will be covering where the highlights meet your part on top. If you think you want more highlights once you see the results, then mix up a little more and do 3 thin sections on each side in the very front of your hair. Timing is everything. If you leave it on under 10 minutes, the effect should be very subtle once it dries and you can always leave it on longer the next time if you want more color lift, or add more high lights if you want the effect to be more dramatic.

[spidermom]

I find baking soda to be very drying, so I'd mix about 1 teaspoon in warm water and pour through, then follow with the baby shampoo maybe. The warm olive oil treatment is said to pull color, but it also conditions, so I'd do that after trying the other options whether or not they work for the conditioning effect. But not if oil makes your hair crunchy, obviously.

[mbaker223]

AH HA! Finally a topic that I'm well versed in!

My sister who has the most BEAUTIFUL natural blonde hair lost her mind one year and bought temp dye in the ugliest, dullest, monochromatic shade I've ever seen.

So here is what we did...

1. PATIENCE! While your hair did get this way overnight, you will NOT fix it overnight without damage being done, and we don't want that. So remember to be patient and this will fix itself.

2. Clarify, clarify, and clarify. Wash your hair as normal, but once a week add 2 tsps of baking soda to your shampoo or condition... or whatever else you use to cleanse your hair.

3. After you clarify DO NOT CONDITION! Instead use this honey recipe:
1/2 cup of RAW honey (make sure it says raw)
3 cups of distilled water
Mix and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
Add the honey mix to your hair and wrap your hair up in plastic and a towel to keep it warm. Keep this mix in your hair AS LONG AS YOU CAN STAND. See honey + distilled water = a SMALL amount of peroxide which will softly lighten your hair

4. Last step here, oils, mainly olive oil is proven to fade color, Oil your hair lightly everyday, and VERY heavily a few hours before you wash your hair.

I know this is a whole lot to do, but please trust me it works brilliantly. This took all of that horrid color out of my sister's hair and we didn't see any damage from it whatsoever. I really hope that this does the same for you.

[Pear Martini]

....Bump :D