I made a hair mistake

[mommy2one05]

I am so upset. See I colored my hair in February at a local salon and I was wanting them to match the color to my roots that had grown in quite a bit but I already had a couple inches of roots showing and it was not even close so I had been disliking it for a long time and debating whether to color again or to leave it be and I caved in yesterday and had a family member color my hair. I picked out a medium rich brown from walmart but let me tell you it does not look anything like the color on the box. I want my old hair back. To me it looks extremely fake. It is really really dark and has red in it which I am realizing my hair naturally wants to pull some reds and that I will never be able to get away from. So here is my current plan. And i currently hate it. I am gonna wait till August or September. I will proabably be swimming alot this summer and if I am just sitting outside i am gonna wear my hair loose in the sun. I plan on washing it alot this week. When I go anywhere I am gonna put it in a braid or up. Hopefully all this will lighten it up alot and soon. If by August or September I am not liking it any better then I will go to the salon I went to in February and have them color the same they did in februaury. I really really regret doing this to my hair. I am pentecostal and do not like to color my hair so I just wanna get it close to my original or real hair color and then leave it alone. Does any one have any advice? Do I have a good plan?

[Kirin]

We're here to help. Everyone has had some hair debachle we have regretted. Color is my stickler, and I know your pain.

First, don't panic! It probably seems worse to you, than to anyone else, and there are ways to minimize what's going on.

If the salon you went to did not satisfactorilly color your hair, you may either wish to return SOON and ask them to correct it.......... or........ avoid that salon. Chances are you will get some of the same unfortunate results.

I am glad you are willing to wait out the summer, to "correct" the problem, instead of rushing in to more color (that'd be me in the past), out of urgency. To remove some color and lightenen it, you can try baby shampoo, purported to remove colors, or deep treatments with honey which can lighten hair. Most treatments too will begin to leech some color out of the hair.

The downside, all colors lift the cuticle, lighten a bit and deposit the new color. The red you are likely seeing is from that process.

After it fades a bit, you can make a better educated decision on what to do next in correcting the color. Or, you can grow it out if you do not like coloring your hair. It depends how much time and investment you wish to place on it.

Lastly, there are salons which specialize in color corrections, you can find many online and check them out.

[Euphony]

Yikes! I'm so sorry this happened.

Okay first off depending on how dark the dye is and how light your natural color is, it could color correct on its own to an acceptable degree. When I was in college I used to color my hair dark brown or dark auburn. My skin has red tones from being 3/8 Native American and my eyes are very dark brown and I have nearly black eyebrows, all due to the Native American...then I ended up with my mother's hair color! My mother was a very white woman, very blue eyes and dark blonde light/light brown hair. My natural color is kind of a light milk chocolate.

Due to finances and time (who has any spare time going to college full-time and raising a 'handicapped' child!?!), coloring my hair would be put on the back burner a lot. After several months the dye would lighten so much that there was barely a difference between it and my natural color. Fortunately I wasn't going the other way and bleaching my dark hair.

My advice would be to live with it, leave it alone, put it up and forget about it - oh and you probably need to implement protein treatments. Generally hair that is dyed screams for protein.

[mommy2one05]

thank you both for your advie and input and for not giving me a lecture about giving in to the color in the first place, trust me I regret it

[Riot Crrl]

I agree with both Kirin and Euphony. Darker drugstore dyes may just not stay in, so sometimes only time may be needed, or only time may be needed at least to make a better decision of how to proceed than you would be able to do if you acted immediately. (On me, darker dyes fall out mostly in about three days, lol.) Especially with your plans of shampooing, etc., a lot of it may just come out. I think your plan does sound good, to me.

[loves2spin]

When I was in college (back when I think there were still dinosaurs roaming the earth), I colored my own hair a few times. I am not sure why, but nevertheless, it is true! ;) I got sick of it and then just let it grow out. It did look a little odd, as the coloring washed out in time and I had sort of blondish length and brown on top for a while. Nevertheless, I just let it go and eventually, all that damaged hair was gone. If you really don't like having colored hair, just take really good care of it, be gentle with it, keep it up most of the time to protect it and don't worry about it. It can't be any worse having it 2 toned than having a color you don't like. And when it gets to where the hair is as long as you wish, you can start doing small trims until all the damaged hair is gone! :joy:

[mommy2one05]

Thanks for the much needed encouragement. I know i am a very self conscious person so I am probably being hard on myself. But who knows maybe by the end of summer it will be better and I will be liking it....keeping fingers crossed.

[Patrycja]

I have one suggestion? Personally,in my experience-I know that deep oiling treatments pull the dye out of my hair.Its not something that you can do once or twice to notice much of a difference in color-but it can be worth a shot.By deep oiling,I mean heavy overnight oilings with EVOO or even coconut oil and then a CWC to wash it all out.

[mommy2one05]

thanks! Oil may be something to try. Now isn't oil also somewhat moisturizing too?-If so that would be good for my hair.

[missy60]

Do you have any olive oil at home? That usually the easiest to find and alot of people already have it on hand. I also love coconut oil it does wonders for my hair also, and its easier to wash out for me any way.

[mommy2one05]

Do you have any olive oil at home? That usually the easiest to find and alot of people already have it on hand. I also love coconut oil it does wonders for my hair also, and its easier to wash out for me any way.

No all I have at home right now is vegetable oil for cooking so I will have to get some.

[Toadstool]

If you wash it a few times in Head and Shoulders anti dandruff shampoo that should remove quite a bit of the dye. You'd need to condition well afterwards though.

[Isilme]

if you don't have a suitable oil at home, just take your normal conditioner, slather your hair in it. Do a loose bun on top of your head and wrap your head in saran wrap and wear it like that as long as you can stand it, at least an hour, a whole day would be better. Since box colours bleach out your natural haircolour and then replace the pigment with that in the bottle you have no natural haircolour to return to. When the dye fades you'll have some kind of reddish brassy hair, more or less dark. Then you can see if you want to colour with a toner, or even a washout colour. That should stick at least for a while. The thing is to avoid peroxide and ammonia until you are in the hands of a professional. Peroxide will only take away more and more of the natural pigment and add damage.
So for now, treat your hair gently, do lots and lots of deep treatments.

[k_hepburn]

Since you dyed it only yesterday, have you considered using something like color fix or color oops to pull out the dye again?

I'm not an expert on these, but some people here have reported quite good success with them. However, from what I've read, your chances of this working for you are much higher if you do it soon after the dyeing process, since the dye is not yet fully stabilized at this stage. Personally, if that is within the budget, I'd suggest going back to the salon that dyed your hair initially to the colour you were happy with and ask them to remove the box set colour, then re-dye your hair in the shade you liked.

As for the reddishness and darkness of your hair colour, the good news is that that will still diminish a little with the first hair wash or two after dyeing. I always find that you can'T really tell what shade a new dye has turned out until you've washed it at least twice. The reddishness is then going to fade further, with time, but the downside to that will be that your hair will have less shine as a result (in brown hair dyes it's the reddishness that creates most of the shine, which is why brown hair dyes all have some element of reddishness to them). However, as far as lightening you hair, from personal experience I have to say that if the dye you used was permanent dye, neither honey nor oil nor sun will have much of a lightening effect. I've tried. Which is why I am advising you that if you seriously dislike the new colour after another wash or two, you might consider getting it removed chemically.

Greetings

katharine

[mommy2one05]

If you wash it a few times in Head and Shoulders anti dandruff shampoo that should remove quite a bit of the dye. You'd need to condition well afterwards though.


Why does head and shoulders remove dye? I hadn't heard of that. I had heard baby shampoo might, but I forgot why.

[mommy2one05]

if you don't have a suitable oil at home, just take your normal conditioner, slather your hair in it. Do a loose bun on top of your head and wrap your head in saran wrap and wear it like that as long as you can stand it, at least an hour, a whole day would be better. Since box colours bleach out your natural haircolour and then replace the pigment with that in the bottle you have no natural haircolour to return to. When the dye fades you'll have some kind of reddish brassy hair, more or less dark. Then you can see if you want to colour with a toner, or even a washout colour. That should stick at least for a while. The thing is to avoid peroxide and ammonia until you are in the hands of a professional. Peroxide will only take away more and more of the natural pigment and add damage.
So for now, treat your hair gently, do lots and lots of deep treatments.


I'm sorry but I did not understand what will the conditioner and saran wrap method do to my hair?
The only oils I have at home is vegetable oil and castor oil (which I forgot I had)....and those were not mentioned.

[mommy2one05]

Since you dyed it only yesterday, have you considered using something like color fix or color oops to pull out the dye again?

I'm not an expert on these, but some people here have reported quite good success with them. However, from what I've read, your chances of this working for you are much higher if you do it soon after the dyeing process, since the dye is not yet fully stabilized at this stage. Personally, if that is within the budget, I'd suggest going back to the salon that dyed your hair initially to the colour you were happy with and ask them to remove the box set colour, then re-dye your hair in the shade you liked.

As for the reddishness and darkness of your hair colour, the good news is that that will still diminish a little with the first hair wash or two after dyeing. I always find that you can'T really tell what shade a new dye has turned out until you've washed it at least twice. The reddishness is then going to fade further, with time, but the downside to that will be that your hair will have less shine as a result (in brown hair dyes it's the reddishness that creates most of the shine, which is why brown hair dyes all have some element of reddishness to them). However, as far as lightening you hair, from personal experience I have to say that if the dye you used was permanent dye, neither honey nor oil nor sun will have much of a lightening effect. I've tried. Which is why I am advising you that if you seriously dislike the new colour after another wash or two, you might consider getting it removed chemically.

Greetings

katharine


Thanks for the advice! I am just really leery of getting it colored again too soon. I dont want to totally fry my hair. SO I would rather braid and updos and forget about it for a couple months.

[Isilme]

the conditioner will pull out some colour, and the sarap wrap will keep moisture and heat in the hair.
What kind of oil is it, sunflower oil? I think that should work too.

[mommy2one05]

if you don't have a suitable oil at home, just take your normal conditioner, slather your hair in it. Do a loose bun on top of your head and wrap your head in saran wrap and wear it like that as long as you can stand it, at least an hour, a whole day would be better. Since box colours bleach out your natural haircolour and then replace the pigment with that in the bottle you have no natural haircolour to return to. When the dye fades you'll have some kind of reddish brassy hair, more or less dark. Then you can see if you want to colour with a toner, or even a washout colour. That should stick at least for a while. The thing is to avoid peroxide and ammonia until you are in the hands of a professional. Peroxide will only take away more and more of the natural pigment and add damage.
So for now, treat your hair gently, do lots and lots of deep treatments.


Would I put the conditioner in my hair with my hair being wet or dry or does it matter? So I use a mist of water and conditioner...the conditioner will pull the color out?

[Shermie Girl]

Ruh-Roh! Too dark dye. Been there, done that. Have the t-shirt. :lol: Here are a few suggestions that may or may not help. I have used all of them with varying degrees of success. The sooner after you dye your hair you do these treatments, the better chance you have of them working. So don't wait too long, if you want to fade your colour.

A long soaking in conditioner will help to fade too dark chemical dye a bit. If you want to see more fade, try mixing it with cheap honey and slather that in your hair and wrap it up and wear it as long as you can stand it. The longer, the better. Don't heat the treatment, you want the honey to release it's natural, gentle peroxide and go to work fading the dye. Heating the honey kills that process. You can do this treatment as often and as long as you like. It won't hurt your hair. In fact, conditioner and honey are both very moisturizing. :D

Deep, hot oil treatments fade colour. Olive oil, vegetable oil, jojoba or coconut oil, any good food or body grade oil will work. Warm the oil up and saturate your hair. Wrap in plastic wrap or disposable processing cap and cover with a turbie. If you have a heating cap, slap that on your head, too. (You can also warm your head gently *be careful!* with a blow dryer.) Wear it for an hour or two then shampoo with clarifying shampoo until all the oil is removed. Condition well and use a leave in.

Clarifying shampoo, dish liquid, laundry soap (I don't recommend this one), Prell, Head and Shoulders will all fade dye. As with anything, YMMV with any of these treatments.

Good luck. :)

[Patrycja]

I completely forgot about dish soap....I would highly recommend a SMT or another type of deep moisturizing treamtment after doing that,though.Dish soap strips the heck outta hair.

[mommy2one05]

So if I strip my hair with dish soap, head and shoulders, baby shampoo, etc. will it go back to the lighter color it was or just this color will be lighter? I know people have said once you color your hair that you never have a natural color to go back to. I wish I had never colored my hair when I was younger to begin with.

[wintersun99]

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[wintersun99]

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[Islandgrrl]

If you can manage to strip out some of the color it will lighten what you have now. You'd just be removing or fading some of the color that was deposited with the last color you put on your hair.

I think your original plan is a good one, though....condition the heck out of it, put it up and let it be. I've found that with the dye-in-the-box stuff (which I used to use to make my red hair brown :shudder:), over time and many shampoos the color does significantly fade anyway. The fewer harsh things you do to your hair the better. If, after a while, it doesn't look right, find a colorist who specializes in corrective color and get a consultation (or two or three with different colorists) to see what they recommend. I did this after I moved to the pacific northwest where the sun shines every day behind a huge thick curtain of clouds (my hair got really, really dark....but the length was really, really light from being in the sunny place I lived before). I had the length colored to match the roots. It was scary dark at first, but the colorist was right on when he told me that in two weeks it would mellow and be perfect. Extra bonus: he was a long hair lover and never even tried to get me to cut my then knee-length hair.

Good luck with whichever path you choose. :) It will all work out!

[mommy2one05]

If you can manage to strip out some of the color it will lighten what you have now. You'd just be removing or fading some of the color that was deposited with the last color you put on your hair.

I think your original plan is a good one, though....condition the heck out of it, put it up and let it be. I've found that with the dye-in-the-box stuff (which I used to use to make my red hair brown :shudder:), over time and many shampoos the color does significantly fade anyway. The fewer harsh things you do to your hair the better. If, after a while, it doesn't look right, find a colorist who specializes in corrective color and get a consultation (or two or three with different colorists) to see what they recommend. I did this after I moved to the pacific northwest where the sun shines every day behind a huge thick curtain of clouds (my hair got really, really dark....but the length was really, really light from being in the sunny place I lived before). I had the length colored to match the roots. It was scary dark at first, but the colorist was right on when he told me that in two weeks it would mellow and be perfect. Extra bonus: he was a long hair lover and never even tried to get me to cut my then knee-length hair.

Good luck with whichever path you choose. :) It will all work out!


thanks! I probably will hold off on the harsh stuff and just wait and see what happens.

[mommy2one05]

Thanks everybody for all the great ideas!

[LaurelSpring]

I have done this so many times. There is a product I think its called Metal ex or Metalax that you can get at Sally's that will strip color. The main ingredient is mineral oil so the next time I did this I just soaked my hair in mineral oil. It did help.

Other than the more natural way of using honey etc. You can also do a shampoo cap type treatment which is mixing some hydrogen peroxide (10 or 20 volume) with shampoo and putting it on your head with a shower cap and letting that lift it. It doesnt damage it too much.

[Tap Dancer]

The color WILL fade after several washings. Use a dandruff shampoo (I like Head & Shoulders) to speed up the process. And if you don't want the "extra" red next time, try an ash shade. You'll probably still get some red tones but much less. I've learned that from personal experience.

I'm sure you look fine. :flower: Sometimes it's just shocking to see very dark hair. My mom colors her hair a medium blonde and she always thinks it's too dark at first. After a few washings, she loves the color.

[mommy2one05]

Ok so here is an update : It has been 6 days since the coloring and I have washed every other day and still not much lightening. I washed with baby shampoo yesterday. Next time when I wash either Sunday or Monday I am gonna try a dandruff shampoo ( like Head and Shoulders). Haven't been able to get outside in the sun cause it has been raining almost everyday this week.