PDA

View Full Version : I need a hair doctor.. can you help me please?



Pear Martini
November 13th, 2009, 02:01 AM
My hair is APL in the front and BSL in the back. My hair is naturally light/med golden brown. In the past two years my hair has gone blonde (at the salon with bleach) and blonder.

One day I got tired of it and dyed it medium brown myself with some store bought permenent dye. It faded so quickly so I dyed it "Natural Black" twice and now it has faded to an espresso brown.

In the past year it has been heat styled a lot to due to a job I had the required it.

If you are wondering I am about a 2a or 2c. I have a good amount of thickness and for what has been done to my hair, its in okay shape.

But in an effort to salvage my hair I stopped dying my growth and now have about 3 inches of untouched roots/growth.

Its getting to the point where my roots look lighter than the rest of my mop in good lighting/outdoors. I would like to lighten up my lengths to a nice med golden brown perhaps with some highlights ideally.

If I would lose length, I rather skip out on the highlights and wait a year to do those.

Ideally, I want to take all of the dye out of my hair and replace it with the golden brown I want back.

I have thought of using liquid dish soap (such as Dawn) or even color oops and then going to sallys and buying quality dye to do it myself.

I just dont know how safe this would be. I know if there is a way I can remove all the dye from my hair it would look like 3 inches of roots on a super brassy blonde/orange.

It is important to me that I dont lose anymore length than I already have.

So please, play hair doctor and tell me what to do!

rogue_psyche
November 13th, 2009, 02:48 AM
I would first try Clarifying shampoo, and if that doesn't work try Dawn (followed with a moisture treatment). If it seems to fade I'd keep Dawning over time (not a bunch of times at once). If Dawn doesn't work you might want to look into color oops. It would be a good idea to take before and afters in consistent light to know if your methods are working.

I don't recommend using peroxide. Peroxided hair is a pain long even if you do your best to treat it right. I speak from experience; I only did one application of peroxide and as a result BSL onward I've been constantly having to S&D splits away. There's also the chance that your hair will decide it's had it and need to be chopped off.

If you want to chance it with peroxide or get light enough but want to match the roots with dye, go to a trusted hairstylist to match you up. You might want to look into Elumen, which is expensive but supposed to permanent but non-damaging. The big downside is cost and availability since I'm not sure which salons carry it.

There's a livejournal community that often gives decent advice on haircoloring called dyed_hair. You might want to copy this post over there too. :)

You didn't say if you still have to straighten for your job but if you don't I'd like to gently suggest weaning yourself off of it. I actually can't imagine a job that would require straightening besides flat iron salesgirl or a model or something.

brok3nwings
November 13th, 2009, 03:22 AM
If you have deposit of colour in your hair (which you do because of the permanent black) you shouldnt make highlights or colour directly. If i were you i would try to fade the colour first as suggested... maybe with time (as your hair has been blonde and sometimes blonde bleached hair can fade quicker or not! depending on how much deep the colour went.. ). A good reason why it is a good option is because it is less damaging BUT it probably wont work enough.. or it can take about a year to fade.

I understand that you have a job and probably you will eventually want to solve it quickly...

Colour oops with a similar colour as your own over it (i would suggest a bit darker never lighter cause lighter with time will give you the two tone...and the darker eventually blends better)

brok3nwings
November 13th, 2009, 03:23 AM
Ah! Always the best advice for these matters... STRAND TEST PLEASE! :)

EvaSimone
November 13th, 2009, 04:13 AM
I would suggest trying honey lightening before you used harsher methods like dawn and color oops.

Certain kinds of honey will create low, non damaging amounts of peroxide. The best part is that it's not damaging.

Here is a link if you want to look into it: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=148&highlight=honey+lightening

BTW it won't bleach your hair but it has the potential to take you a shade lighter. I've personally used the mix of 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup V05 strawberry champagne conditioner and 1/4 cup coconut milk. It made my hair so soft and I noticed that it lightened it a little after only one treatment.

sherigayle
November 13th, 2009, 09:20 AM
Ditto the honey lightening. I was dying to cover my gray, but stopped to grow it out. I used honey twice and pulled enough color out the my grays so that they show up more and there's no line where I stopped dying.

Pear Martini
November 13th, 2009, 11:42 AM
wow...thanks so much for the advice. I want to put up before and after pics but my hair is way to greasy right now to show its color, I haven't washed it for almost a week and have been applying coconut oil. It may sound kind of gross, but since I am not working now I am taking advantage of my free time.

Yes, I dont have to work that job anymore which was go-go dancing at a club (with clothes on) and promoting once a week. The other girls would spend about 30 minutes at the begining of the shift getting ready hair and makeup. No one ever told me I had to heat-style my hair, but I went along with it anyway not knowing the possible damages.


Anyways thank God I'm going back to college in January.


I am very curious about the honey method but I wasnt able to find pictures of color-treated hair with a good amount of lightening. Maybe I looked over them though.

Today I will simply shampoo with clarifying shampoo to get all the oil out of my hair but the day after tommorow, I will begin my chamelean transformation.

How damaging is color oups and dawn?

I wonder which is worse for the hair?

ETA:
I'll try to post the before and afters once I am starting the process. I have to take them on my cell phone though.

pinchbeck
November 13th, 2009, 11:51 AM
Oh gee, don't use harsh surfactants on your hair! It is better to leave it alone and grow it out or add a few highlights on the canopy only that match the colour of your virgin hair.

meichigo
November 13th, 2009, 11:58 AM
I didn't know Dawn could be used to remove hair color... you learn something new every day.

Pear Martini
November 13th, 2009, 12:15 PM
Oh gee, don't use harsh surfactants on your hair! It is better to leave it alone and grow it out or add a few highlights on the canopy only that match the colour of your virgin hair.


Oooh.. I like that idea. But should I go to a salon or can I do something like this myself?


I didn't know Dawn could be used to remove hair color... you learn something new every day.


Yeah.. if you type in "How to remove semi-permenent dye" in google, dawn comes up a few times. Sounds a bit harsh tho.

I still dont know what to do... I will have to think about it today. I'm going out now but will try to get back later on tonight. thanks :)

Anje
November 13th, 2009, 01:42 PM
I'd skip the Dawn, color oops, and bleach for now. There are gentler ways to get out hair color and your length has aready been through a bit.

First thing I would try, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, is soaking it in oil. Get your hair totally coated in olive oil or some other vegetable oil, leave it in overnight, and wash it out. (Many folks find a CO wash is more effective at getting oil out than shampooing, FWIW.) Doing this a few times might lighten the dark brown enough that you won't have a strong line of demarcation between the colored and virgin hair, and the conditioning effects are quite nice.

Baby shampoo is another relatively mild way of getting color out. It has a higher pH than normal shampoo and therefore is a little harsher on hair (but easier on eyes, which is why it's for babies), and the higher pH can open up the cuticle a bit to help pull color out more than normal shampoo.

Nightshade is a treasure trove of methods for doing this sort of thing.... Hope she shows up in this thread before long.

Pear Martini
November 13th, 2009, 05:25 PM
Thank you, Anje.


When you say "CO wash" you mean conditioner wash right?


I wonder which vegetable oil is best for this? Does coconut oil count?


How often can/should someone do this?