Dyeing Platinum Hair

[ElliesJellies]

Hey guys! (first post)
A few years ago I decided to go blonde (from a light ash brown which had previously been dyed and redyed to death). I used to go to a salon till my stylist relocated. I went to the same salon once after, got my hair completely screwed up by another chick who had no clue what she was doing, so I decided that if I wanted nice hair I'd have to do it myself.
What I usually used to get were highlights and lots of them. Well, after a while it got pretty pointless to do highlights so I just started touching up my roots with bleach and toning them as light as possible.
After doing that for so long, I now have platinum blonde hair. Though I like it and it's very easy to maintain, I am kind of getting a little bit sick of it and want a slight change.

I am not in the position to fork over $100+ at a salon and am pretty good at figuring products out myself... but I would like some help on this one.
I know that bleached hair is extremely porous and it can take on some strange shades if dyed with the wrong dye, so I would like some input on what to do next.

Basically, I just want to darken it a little bit... maybe onto a strawberry blonde or something along those lines, nothing overly dark. I have done a little bit of research and I keep getting conflicting information. Some people say that it's okay to dye it with an ash dye, others say that it will turn green. Some say that dyeing platinum hair with a glonden shade is a no-no as well.
Well, what are my options then?

I have also heard from a former hair stylist that you should dye platinum hair with a dye lighter than you want it to be so that it will absorb some color, and than redye it again with the shade that you want it to be.

I shop at Sally Beauty Supply (excessively); that is where I get all my supplies. I also plan on using a demi-permanent dye so that I don't need to do any further unnecessary processing.
Any opinions on how I should go about achieving this goal?

P.S. I have relatively long hair (almost halfway down my back). Not sure if that helps but just though it's worth mentioning.

[Lianna]

I have also heard from a former hair stylist that you should dye platinum hair with a dye lighter than you want it to be so that it will absorb some color, and than redye it again with the shade that you want it to be.


I have never been to very light shades, but as a person who dyes her own hair, I tend to read a lot on the subject, I know my results aren't perfect.

The quote is something I have read too. From experience, there was one time that my ends where lighter and more porous, just dying over it didn't help much because it would fade dramatically. So I did that procedure and it helped to hold on more to color.

[Maverick494]

Okay, dye expert here! I went from überblonde to black and back and then to the color you can see in my profile.

My hair wasn't quite platinum when I dyed it back to brown, but the change is pretty much just as drastic so I think I can help.

- ashy colours don't work: I can attest to that. Tried it on a platinum blonde friend and she got this muddy green colour. We had to correct it with a red toned dye and she got a nice shade after that.
- golden colours: they're not as bad as the ashy ones, but there's something unnatural looking about the result. Something greenish in the shine. However, since you only want to go a few shades up, you might be able to get away with it.

All that said, personally I would go with a reddish tone. There are strawberry blonde dyes on the market (L'oreal has plenty of shades in that range). Using the red cancels out the greenish hue you're likely to get when you go ashy.

[ElliesJellies]

Thanks for the replies!
I will defeinitely take the hair stylist's advice and dye my hair twice so that it doesn't end up being a bunch of different shades. I also thought about using a 'neutral light blonde' shade, but then I read a review from someone who was in a similar situation as me, and the neutral also ended up with a slight green-ish hue.
So it's safe to say that I will go with a glonden blonde since I don't want to go overly dark, golden shades will probably work out well.
Thanks again!

[HairFaerie]

I had platinum blonde hair when it was pixie length. I bleached it and then applied a toner to achieve the platinum look. The bleach by itself had too much brassiness to it, the toner gave me that perfect platinum look I was going for. When I got tired of the platinum, but still wanted blonde, I just picked out a different color of toner (they have a lot of color selections at Sally).
I would suggest looking for a toner rather than a full on dye. That's just a suggestion though, based on my own personal experience.

[ElliesJellies]

That was my plan :). Since I have relatively long hair I was going to just dye it (with a demi-permanent dye) a darker blonde for now (the parts that I don't need to bleach anymore). Then when my roots grow out and it's time to bleach them again (about once a month) I'm going to tone just the roots with a different shade toner. That seems like a good idea to me. I just want to dye it all a darker blonde for now and then tone it darker from now on... makes all the sense in the world :).
Thanks!

[sunshine80]

OMG I am getting flashbacks! Are you prepared to cut your hair if it get ruined? All I know is I would pay a million dollars to turn back the day my sis (hair stylist) fried my hair...If you love your lenght and your looking for long hair my advice would be to try to stay as natural as possible...

But if you really want to do it...I know there is an aveda school around here that student do your hair at a reasonable price...BUT with all the teacher there telling them what to do this way they dont mess!

Good luck!

[Lianna]

OMG I am getting flashbacks! Are you prepared to cut your hair if it get ruined? All I know is I would pay a million dollars to turn back the day my sis (hair stylist) fried my hair...If you love your lenght and your looking for long hair my advice would be to try to stay as natural as possible...


I know you're new in here and while natural works for a lot of people here, this isn't a hair forum for just virgin long haired people. It's not everyone that needs to cut their hair after a bleach, while my hair was weaker when I overdone it, it didn't need to be cut. Doing it in a proper way I think a lot of people could have bleached hair and still look good, where I live most women have BSL to waist length hair with some kind of dye or highlights, those who don't, heat style, mostly to straight. I would not recommend both, that gave me some breakage, but I'm sure some people in the world can do it.

Here's a few threads you might like, OP. It adresses those who chemical treat and also who are blonde (there might be more in the forum that I don't know).

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=21256
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=6310
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=889
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=58201
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=55280
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10495
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=53883

[sunshine80]

I didnt say that di I Lianna? I was just letting her know I had a bad experience with it and if someone told me happen with coloring I wouldnt of done it...Thats all...

and that is why I told her about the aveda schools....so the "newbies" should just shut there mouths I get it....

[Demetrue]

Umm - Look for a porosity equalizer protein filler at Sally's like "Colorful Professional Protein Filler" in Gold or "Colorful Neutral Protein Filler". Follow the instructions - you use it before you dye. Then you can do a pre-pigmentation process using Wella Demi Color Charm 1 ounce 9G plus 1 ounce 10G plus 4 ounces Wella Color Charm Demi Activator- (formula for Wella color products is almost always 1 part color to 2 parts Wella Activator) process 20 minutes. Rinse completely clear, towel dry, then apply the color you actually want, like 9G or 9NG - 1 part color to 2 parts activator process another 20 minutes. All products available at Sally's.

[Lianna]

I didnt say that di I Lianna? I was just letting her know I had a bad experience with it and if someone told me happen with coloring I wouldnt of done it...Thats all...

and that is why I told her about the aveda schools....so the "newbies" should just shut there mouths I get it....

I didn't say you couldn't talk about your experience, if I remember it well I also commented on your thread about it yesterday. What I see often in this board is people who discourage any chemical process (and even talk bad things about it). That behavior makes someone never do anything with their hair, and that's fine if you genuinely don't, but often what I see is people terrified of it. People who is always wondering and *wanting* to go blonde for years of their lives, yet afraid, is very common. Like I said, most often people don't end up bald from a chemical treatment. Some dryness, sure, but that can be fixed. Don't feel bad about anything I said, please. The ones who feel bad on this board are the ones who choose to alter their hair, I'm just trying to help these people feel less bad about it.

[ElliesJellies]

Thanks for all the replies!
I would like to mention that I have extremely thick hair. When I used to get full highlights, it would take my stylist literally two whole hours just to apply the highlights, then I had to sit in the chair for an additional 30-40 minutes to process, and than toning...I would sit at the salon for minimum of 3.5 hours just for highlights :/. So I am definitely not concerned about damage. I have extremely thick hair (in fact, my stylist has told me that I probably have enough hair on my head for 3 different people). So basically, dyeing/bleaching is not my concern at all... especially since I have done it myself so many times and have never experienced any major damage/brakeage whatsoever (I have experienced A LOT more damage from box dyes than I did while using bleach, no joke).

There is an Aveda insitutute in my area, but why should I trust some student when I went to a "professional" salon (a couple of years ago), where a "professional stylist" turned my hair orange and had no idea what to do afterwards... apparently she was unaware that leaving bleach on virgin hair LONGER than 20 minutes actually makes it turn lighter (yellow rather than clown-orange) and that toning eliminates the orange/yellow. I have had enough of "professional stylists" telling me what to do with my hair and charnging me $80+ for their poor services when (obviously) many of them have no clue what they're talking about.

I am not concerned about breakage or hair loss, because even if it did happen, hair grows! I have extremely thick hair and I shead A LOT yet the thickness remains the same. I would rather go through this process myself then have some student work on it and screw it up. I believe that I understand the texture of my own hair better than anyone else.

I have had my hair bleached, rebleached, and redyed professionally and at home numreous times... yet it is still in relatively good condition, almost halfway down my back, and platinum blonde. I am not worried about having to cut it off at all.

P.S. - I currently use the Aphogee Two Step Protein Treatment... I have only used it twice so far and it has done wonders for my hair. I just used it yesterday and plan on dyeing my hair Wednesday... so thanks, Demetrue... I am following your advice :). Though I think that I may go with Ion Brilliance Demi-Permanent color rather than Wella Color Charm solely because I have researched it online and Ion Brilliance has really great reviews in general. If that doesn't work, then Wella Color Charm is definitely my second option.
I am going to process it once with a color that's lighter than desired the first time, and then dye it the color that I want it to be the second time around and hope that it turns out well.
Thanks everyone for all your input!

[kwaniesiam]

What is your natural color and how many levels of lift are you going through to get platinum blonde, and just how light to you is platinum? I'm a hair stylist so I can probably help you :)

That first of all will really help in trying to fix your color. You'll probably need to use a filler, which is basically just a neutral based color. When you lighten hair you remove most of the natural pigment, in order to put the color back in to your hair you need to fill it in with the three primary colors, red, blue, and yellow which is in a neutral shade of dye. Don't use an ash based color on your hair, it can turn out green. It is safer to use a golden or warm shade over processed hair but sometimes that results in unwanted brassy tones. Your best bet are colors that are a mixture of a dominant hue along with a neutral, that way you're able to fill in the missing colors without the color looking too drab. Neutrals on their own sometimes come up a bit drab and lifeless looking.

If you're using a demi be aware that it will fade out faster than usual because your hair has been processed so light. In your case I'd recommend using a deposit-only semi color until you get a feel for the shade you really want then after you've adjusted use a filler and a permanent shade to get the color you want. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions.

You say you want a slight change, perhaps strawberry or golden blonde? Check out the henna and cassia threads, maybe you'll find something there that may help you. Thoroughly research though as it's very permanent and not for everyone. The cassia treatment may be a good idea to deposit a bit of golden tone back to your hair and help strengthen it as well.

EDIT: Just saw your reply, the Aphogee protein treatment is amazing. I've used it many times with great results when I was bleaching and toning my hair WHITE. IMHO, Ion dye sucks. It seems like it fades way too fast. I'd personally go for the Clairol if you're going to get something from Sally's. I like Wella too but I'm not a fan of their Color Charm line. I prefer the Koleston Perfect and ColorTouch but I don't think you can get those there :twocents:

[Demetrue]

Oh yeah - definitely check out the Clairol demi's at Sally's (that ratio is one part color to one part activator/developer). And I agree that if you find a demi you like, move on to using a similar color (using pre-fill process) in the permanent for the next time you color.

[ElliesJellies]

Thanks, Kwaniesiam!
My natural hair color is light ash brown (I guess it's a level 6, depending on which swatch you're looking at). Basically, I used to be able to get natural highlights just from the sun, until I started dyeing it 10 years ago. Ha, didn't realize I had been dyeing my hair for that long, jeez.
Anyway, I lighten it to the lightest blonde (level 10)... so my hair is very light but not quite white-platinum.
So even though my natural color isn't that dark, I still have to use a 30vol developer because my hair is so resistant. I have tried 20vol and it just did not lighten as much as I wanted it to... though now that I want darker hair 20vol developer maybe be more fitting since 30vol lightens my hair to a very pale yellow, and I probably won't need to lighten it that far anymore.

You're probably right about the semi-/demi- permanent deal... I haven't made up my mind on that one yet but they both wash out eventually which is great.
I was actually thinking of mixing a netural with a golden light blonde and see what happens. That's probably the best thing to do; I am staying away from ash for sure.

I have actually already tried a Clairol Demi-Permanent dye and it worked well. I tried out the two-tone thing for about a week just to see if I'd like it. I used a light ash brown; it was the bottom part of my hair so I didn't care how it turned out. I only left it in for about 10 minutes and my hair absorbed the color really quickly. I washed it a few times after and the color did fade, but not significantly. So Clairol is another option I am considering since I have already used it.
Ion and Wella get relatively good reviews but I am going to wait till I can see the swatches in person to decide which one to try. I haven't seen all their shades and I don't want to rely on online swatches since those never look like they do in reality.

I'm doing this crazy business tomorrow. Super excited so I will post an update, possibly photos if it turns out well :).

[kwaniesiam]

Good luck!

My issue with Ion isn't the swatches. The swatches always look nice, it just doesn't seem to have the staying power other brands do from what I've used.

Are you using the 30 vol. developer with bleach or a high lift color to get what you currently have? If you want something just a smidge darker you should be fine with a higher lift color and 20 vol. developer after you get where you want to be. Less harsh on your hair than a powder bleach.

[ElliesJellies]

I used 30vol developer with liquid bleach (not powder) to get it as light as I could. I could not use it with a permanent color because my hair is very resistant and it probably wouldn't lighten with just a dye. I have dyed it before with lighter dyes and it just destroyed my hair completely.

I actually dyed my hair yesterday. I went to Sally's to pick up some dye and a 10vol developer. I got the Ion Color Brilliance. Originally I was going to use a 9G very light golden blonde and pair it with a light natural blonde... but my boyfriend was with me and for some reason suggested that "If you're going to go darker, you might as well go darker for real." So he kinda, in a way, talked me into getting a 7N medium natural blonde. And the funny thing about it is that the medum blonde was the only one that was missing a swatch, but I went for it anyway.

I got home, mixed both of the colors together and just went for it. I had my boyfriend do a lot of the work for me (so much easier). He didn't saturate the hair well enough so I still had some straking the first time. I washed it and then applied another layer of the color just on top to cover some of the parts that he missed.
Not sure why I decided to mix then rather than just dyeing my hair with the light golden blonde first and then doing the medium blonde.
Basically, it turned out weird. Since I mixed two different shades and the coverage wasn't ideal, I am left with kind of a medium ash blonde (I would prefer to call it a light ash brown, but I guess it's too light to be called brown). I also have a lot of blonde underneath throughout my hair, that basically now looks like I added subtle highlights. In natural lighting some of the "highlights" appear golden while others are ash blonde.

I guess this is something that's much closer to my natural hair color. I am okay with the outcome but it's been less than 24 hours and I am already bored with it. That sounds bad but I really don't think that this color does anything for me... it kind of washes me out. Though I am not really a natural blonde I think that my hair looks best and goes best with my freatures when it's lighter than this. So overall I am glad that I went with Ion because I am looking forward to this color washing out.
I still have a tube of each dye left so I may dye my hair again at the end of the month only because it's going to be my birthday and I don't want to look plain and boring (I am sure that by then some of the color will have washed out).

So... not exactly feeling the color but it's not the ugliest thing in the world. I can live with it till it washes out and from now on I'll probably just use a darker toner. I used to use Clairol Creme Toner in 301D, but they discontinued the product, which is fine I guess since I'm going to look for a toner that produces slightly darker results. The 301 turns my hair blue-ish.

That's the end of that story, lol. I am sooooo soooo glad that I didn't get a permanent dye because for some ridiculous reason, for a split second, I thought of dyeing it with a permanent color.
I should also mention that after using the Aphogee Two Step Treatment, then dyeing my hair, and conditioning it with a leave-in conditioner and a couple of different smoothing serums, my hair feels ridiculously soft and silky... Not sure if that's going to go away as the color washes out, but we will see.

[MClass]

I had platnium blond last year and now I am going natural. I colored my hair a light brown because I knew it would fade so much. I avoided ash colors. It was brown for maybe 2 months and was a fun change! It faded and now my roots are not extremely obvious... the dyed part is a darker blond and my roots... an even darker blond lol.

[Demetrue]

I think 7N would have come out way too dark for what you initially wanted. I would wait a month and try the 9G first with the 9N second.

[kwaniesiam]

Mixing 7N and 9G would give you basically an 8GN. Level 8 is pretty dark when you were probably around a level 12. Level 10 is still within the normal range of blondes, platinum that requires a high lift is usually 11 or 12 so it's no wonder you feel a bit drab. Going that much darker does tend to pull out the ash tones when your hair has been processed. I'd suggest getting something in the B series, perhaps a 10BG or 10GB (not entirely familiar with Ion's line if that's what you're using but close enough).

[orbiting]

About student stylists -- They can be brilliant. Honestly. My ex-friend dyed my hair as a student and it came out *amazing*

She also did the work on my hair for my wedding -- also amazing and she had only just graduated. I don't miss her, but I sure miss having my own pro stylist... and access to CosmoProf :D

The last time I dyed my hair really light blond, when I got tired of it, I put a dark auburn over it... It came out candy apple red. While not the intended result, I did love it! (and it faded to an electric orange)

[ElliesJellies]

7N was a bit too dark from what I initially wanted but the color isn't that bad. I guess it may be growing on me a little bit, but this is definitely not going to stay. I will let it fade out for now and see what happens.
I guess I prefer a golden blonde over almost completely white, the only thing I dislike about golden shades is that they tend to look brassy (though I know that can easily be fixed). I've had issues with dyeing my hair dark brown with box dyes and having it fade out to the ugliest shade of orangey-brown... ugh, I don't want to go through that phase again.

I will stick with this for now and try to achieve the color that I actually want next time - probably with a level 9 or 10. I can't say that I haven't thought of going even a little bit darker.... The only thing is that I really don't want to have brown hair for very long and I want to always have the option of going back to blonde with minimal damage potential. I guess that's what semi-/demi- colors are for :).

So far I've had positive reactions and most people don't think that I went too dark at all, which is great. It seems that my biggest issue is not knowing exactly what I want to do with my hair; so indecisive.

[ElliesJellies]

Mixing 7N and 9G would give you basically an 8GN. Level 8 is pretty dark when you were probably around a level 12. Level 10 is still within the normal range of blondes, platinum that requires a high lift is usually 11 or 12 so it's no wonder you feel a bit drab. Going that much darker does tend to pull out the ash tones when your hair has been processed. I'd suggest getting something in the B series, perhaps a 10BG or 10GB (not entirely familiar with Ion's line if that's what you're using but close enough).

I see what you mean about the 10GB color. Clairol Pro has that exact shade in a semi-permanent. I will have to see a swatch in person because the one online looks very, very bright yellow - a similar shade to something I can achieve by just bleaching my hair and skipping a toner. If it looks less yellow in person (lets hope so), I and definitely willing to give it a try next time. Based on their swatches a 10N looks really nice as well, but again, I'll have to see what it looks like in person.

I gotta narrow my choices down because this is a really bad time to play around with various hair colors.:eek::)

[amaiaisabella]

Hm, I used Ion's line and it didn't fade as much as I thought it would. My concern is with your hair being so porous the brown/blonde might stick around. YMMV, though.

From Sally's, I personally liked Wella Color Charm. I use Natural Instincts now, though :)

[ElliesJellies]

Well, I washed it for the first time today since dyeing it, and a lot of the dye did come out. My hair is a very ashy light blonde now and it looks like I just put some light brown highlights on top. It is washing out pretty fast thankfully. I think it would look really awesome if I put some highlights in. So I think I might just put a some highlights on the top half and leave the rest alone to wash out. I am not worried about damage too much because since I started using Aphogee and dyed my hair it is very silky and appears stronger. So a few highlights won't hurt and it will brighten it up a little bit so it's not so ashy.
Can't wait because when I first got highlights it looked really good and I got tons and tons of compliments... probably because my natural hair is ashy and gets naturally highlighted from the sun (too bad I can't achieve the look naturally anymore).

[ElliesJellies]

So after sporting this color for a while I decided it had to go soon because I didn't want to look like this on my birthday that's coming up. A friend of mine told me she just started going to Aveda, so I went to her and jokingly said that she needed to fix my hair because I ruined it and wanted my old color back. So glad I did because she probably saved my hair. For some reason I had forgotten that hair color removers exist. Go figure!
Instead of adding more color to my hair or subtracting some by adding highlights, I decided to research color removers. One n' Only seemed to be a good one so I decided I had to get it... I didn't really have anything to lose since I had to go back to Sally's anyway and reutrn two tubes of those colors that I didn't end up using.
So I bought the stuff and decided that I'd do it myself. I applied it according to directions and realize this was doing something good.
After shampooing and repeating the removal process with the remainder of the product, I washed my hair with purple shampoo. I was pleased after I got out of the shower and saw that while wet, that hair color was perfect! It's originally what I was aiming for.
Sad to think that a hair color remover produced better results that hair colors did. I need to fix the roots since they're a little bit more golden then the rest of my hair, which is a strawberry blonde. I think that it could use some definition though.... that will get done when I bleach my roots and tone. Really glad I tried that product - works wonders. I expect it to gradually get even lighter as I wash my hair, which is good since I was some of the higlights back, but overall I'm much happier with this result.

[Lianna]

I'm glad you like your hair more now. :)

[ElliesJellies]

I'm glad you like your hair more now. :)
Thanks! It's way better now... not as bright/white but not dark either.