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Lady Verity
April 22nd, 2011, 01:25 PM
What the title said.

I haven't been back here for about a year, although my hair's been getting longer and longer.

Yesterday, in preparation for my Easter trip Oop North to see the boyfriend's parents, I did a stupid thing. I decided to dye red streaks in my naturally blonde hair. I'd done it once before and it turned out well, but Boots didn't have the brand I'd used before, so I used Loreal's Feria shade of red.

Guess whose hair is bright orange now. Guess.

The strand test turned out fine. I have no idea what went wrong the second time. We're talking luminous orange streaks here. Traffic cone.

I need a peroxide/colour remover that actually works.

I've used Boots Blonde twice on the orange areas to very little effect. I'm a few hundred miles from home now, and somewhat desperate. Can anybody help me?

Anje
April 22nd, 2011, 01:30 PM
Hi. Long time, no see.

Can you find anything like Color Oops or another haircolor remover is the first thing to try, if you can dig something like that up. (Perhaps the UK people can tell you what's available and where to get it?!)

Have you tried calling Feria's hotline? It's probably somewhere on the box.

If all else fails, you may need to find a salon colorist. They might be able to strip it out, or perhaps give you a toner and lowlights over the orange areas. It wouldn't be blond, but at least it wouldn't be traffic cone.

Lady Verity
April 22nd, 2011, 01:38 PM
Hi, Anje. :)

I was wondering about a colour remover, but I'm yet to see a good review of them. I'm not in my home town and Boots is quite a long way away, so it limits my choice.

The only surefire blonding products I can find online are only available in the USA. :mad:

I've already shaved a fair bit off in desperation.

jojo
April 22nd, 2011, 01:42 PM
get yourself to boots and get some scott cornwalls colour B4 works brilliantly, you may have to order online if you only have a small Boots!

Nightshade
April 22nd, 2011, 01:43 PM
Sadly Feria is a nightmare to get out. While most dyes are either direct (like Manic Panic) or oxidative (like most permanent dyes), Feria is both. That makes it very, VERY hard to get out.

Have you tried doing some heavy oilings? Or PMing Kwaniesaim? She's a hairdresser and trained colorist, she may have better advice.

MsBubbles
April 22nd, 2011, 01:45 PM
:joy: and :cry: It's so great to 'see' you! But I'm sorry about the traffic-cone. I hope this isn't a stupid question: is what you used a demi, semi permanent, or what kind of dye? That might help in determining what best gets rid of it. I'm no help. Sorry.

Lady Verity
April 22nd, 2011, 01:50 PM
Sadly Feria is a nightmare to get out.

:(

By heavy oilings, do you mean something household like olive oil? I'm at my inlaws' house until Wednesday and it's practically in the middle of nowhere, so it makes things tricky.

Nightshade
April 22nd, 2011, 01:52 PM
Any sort of oil :) Warm it up (warm, but not so warm it'll burn you), soak your streaks in it, then bundle it up with saran wrap and a warm hat for an hour. The warmer you can keep it the better.

Then shampoo it out.

You can also try a 1/1 mix of shampoo and honey left on in the same manner. I'd try the hot oil first, though :)

Lady Verity
April 22nd, 2011, 02:10 PM
Any sort of oil :) Warm it up (warm, but not so warm it'll burn you), soak your streaks in it, then bundle it up with saran wrap and a warm hat for an hour.

Okay, first chance I get, I'll buy some olive oil and try to find some of the Scott Cornwalls colour B4 Jojo recommended.

After this, no more chemical dye ever. Ever. Kill it with fire.

Unofficial_Rose
April 22nd, 2011, 02:14 PM
Agree with Anje - I haven't tried Color Oops but I have tried Colorfix. It works and is very gentle - just don't bother with Step 3, which contains peroxide. Just mix the other two liquids, which basically shrink the dye molecule in the hair so that it is small enough to pass out through the hair with the help of some shampoo.

Upside - it is very gentle
Downsides - stinks like rotten eggs, and AFAIK, not available in this country (unless Sally's has started to stock it). You can get it from Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/OneN-Only-Jheri-Redding-Color/dp/B000R13G8K. Might even be on Ebay. :)

EDIT: ooh, I cross-posted with Jojo and Nightshade. Did not know Feria was a direct dye though, so maybe as Nightshade said, colour remover won't be effective. Probably oil first, then Color B4 would be worth trying, at least you won't have to pay postage.

Lady Verity
April 22nd, 2011, 02:25 PM
Thanks to everyone for commenting.

I'm totally miserable right now, especially after Googling quite how awful Feria is. As I said to the BF, the one thing I like about myself is my hair, and now I've destroyed it. I suppose all dye has to fade sometime, or they wouldn't keep selling it to the same people.

I did wonder about some Schwarzkopf Live Color XXL to really platinum the hell out of the red bits if all else fails. Is that a bad idea?

Nightshade
April 22nd, 2011, 02:30 PM
Please don't dye it more. :( At least not right away.

Red does fade better than other colors, but too much dye right away is going to make it all melt or break off :(

I know you upset, but please try to take your time :grouphug:

Anje
April 22nd, 2011, 02:32 PM
I did wonder about some Schwarzkopf Live Color XXL to really platinum the hell out of the red bits if all else fails. Is that a bad idea?
It might make it break off. Feria's pretty harsh, and you've already tried bleaching that off twice.

If nothing else, wait on that until you've tried oil and color remover. Any oil -- olive, rapeseed, corn, cooked chicken fat... Surely there's something around the house.

Personally, I'd opt for lowlights before risking bleach-broken stubs of hair, but I don't know what your hair can withstand.

Lady Verity
April 22nd, 2011, 02:38 PM
Okay, definitely no XXL. Thanks for that. I'm looking at the B4 stuff Jojo mentioned, and one review says they'd used Feria red and the B4 got it out.

Praying to the hair gods that it's in stock somewhere nearby and actually works.

GlassEyes
April 22nd, 2011, 03:03 PM
I'm with Nightshade on asking Kwanie as well. I'd stil ask her, even if you are trying to track down the other stuff.

I'd also be open to going to a salon to get it "fixed", if I were you.

Er, at least it isn't henna, right?

PamelaViktoria
April 22nd, 2011, 04:25 PM
I would use baking soda, until it gets light enough. Then a purple conditioner, or punky color 'platinum'

kwaniesiam
April 22nd, 2011, 06:03 PM
Ooh, Feria. Yikes. That stuff is a real b*tch to deal with when you want to be rid of it. Colorfix if you can find it, I've never used the B4 color but a quick google tells me that should work as well. It will lift most of the color. Then you'll likely need to lighten and tone it to get it as close as possible to your natural color, if thats what you want to get back to. For that I'd recommend going to a professional, corrective color requires a lot of formulating.

If you cant get to a pro, try a soap cap. Mix one part clarifying or other sulfate shampoo with at least 20 or 30 vol. bleach. Mix the bleach separately. Make sure its a powder bleach with a cream developer as that will have the most lifting power. Scrub the colored sections with the mixture after you've lifted the color as much as you can with the remover to lighten them further. You may need to foil them off to keep the bleach mixture away from the rest of your hair while it processes. Leave that sit anywhere from 10-30 minutes, keep an eye on how fast it is lifting. Ideally you want it a tad lighter than what you are aiming for. To reduce the damage saturate your hair in oil prior to doing this and shampoo/condition when you rinse it out.

If the color is still brassy after that, you'll want a color close to your natural but in the neutral-ash range. Don't go straight ash as that has a tendency to pull green. Do you have a sallys nearby? What brands of color are available for you to get? A demi permanent would be ideal as it would be less harsh on your hair and be more forgiving to tone with. Wella color touch or Clairol professional are both decent from Sally's

Another option to hide the brassy streaks would be to opt for high and lowlights to blend it in and hide it. A salon can do this easily, if you dont want your natural color back as close as possible I'd recommend going that route. Ask for a fine weave to blend the colors as much as possible, maybe having a shade or two darker and lighter than your natural to keep it from getting too drastic and streaky looking. If you have any more questions I'll do my best to help. Good luck and I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. Screwing up color sucks :(

Elaborating further, Nightshade is right. Feria is both a direct and oxidative color. The color remover may not lift as much as it would on a strictly oxidative color, hence why you'll need to go through two steps to deal with it, the soapcap and the remover. The color remover portion will help shrink and lift the oxidative dye molecules, but the color may appear to be the same. That's the direct dye portion, which will need lightened with a peroxide bleach. I've removed Feria red once before, it was a long process but they were only trying to get back to a light brown. Blonde is going to be trickier. I think the money and time you'll spend tracking down all the products you need to tackle this yourself would be best spent on a colorist fixing it for you.

Firefox7275
April 22nd, 2011, 07:35 PM
Could you not use another red over the top of the orange streaks? I use Live XXL 'Red Passion' which is not dissimilar to the Feria red (I previously used what I *think* is 'Pure Scarlet' as the model looks familiar). Alternatively you could go over the streaks with a semi-permanent. I'd be nervous of bleaching again if I had done so twice: pre-oiling with coconut is supposed to help protect from chemical damage.

McFearless
April 22nd, 2011, 08:37 PM
Do you still want the red streaks? Could you try going over them to get a darker colour? Or do you completely regret dyeing your hair?

Edit: Nightshade is right, red fades better than any other colour. I'd wait it out, do oil soaks and honey lightening.

Mesmerise
April 22nd, 2011, 10:25 PM
I used to use Feria cause it gave me the BEST red colour!

But it always faded fast for me ;) Maybe you will get lucky and it'll fade?! Then you can always put something else over the top, or go to a professional colourist.

In the meantime, tie your hair up and try and forget about it! It's probably not as bad as you think.

Lady Verity
April 23rd, 2011, 03:40 AM
If you cant get to a pro, try a soap cap. Mix one part clarifying or other sulfate shampoo with at least 20 or 30 vol. bleach. Mix the bleach separately. Make sure its a powder bleach with a cream developer as that will have the most lifting power. Scrub the colored sections with the mixture after you've lifted the color as much as you can with the remover to lighten them further. You may need to foil them off to keep the bleach mixture away from the rest of your hair while it processes. Leave that sit anywhere from 10-30 minutes, keep an eye on how fast it is lifting. Ideally you want it a tad lighter than what you are aiming for. To reduce the damage saturate your hair in oil prior to doing this and shampoo/condition when you rinse it out.


Thank you for taking the time to write this, kwaniesiam (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/member.php?u=7921). I appreciate it. I think the soap cap is what I've inadvertently been doing so far, but not with a powder. No powder was available. I'm in the UK, so no Sally's. Boyfriend has been applying it for me, and he says it looks about 30% better than it did originally.

I'll go in search of B4 today, but I'm nervous because I'm in a strange town and I'm not sure how big the Boots is. If I can get hold of it, I'll try it and take it from there.

As for a colourist, I've never been to one and have no idea what to look for. I don't have an awful lot of money, and last I heard, a professional dye job is in the realms of £60, which I don't have. Maybe that's for a full head of hair.

Failing this, I'll just fade it as much as possible and wait for it to go away. Anyone who's used Feria - do you remember how long the stuff took to fade off?

louisemg82
April 23rd, 2011, 04:54 AM
Any sort of oil :) Warm it up (warm, but not so warm it'll burn you), soak your streaks in it, then bundle it up with saran wrap and a warm hat for an hour. The warmer you can keep it the better.

Then shampoo it out.

You can also try a 1/1 mix of shampoo and honey left on in the same manner. I'd try the hot oil first, though :)

Definitely try this - this is one of the only successful ways to remove henna and that's a nightmare to remove! get the oil nice and warm, wrap and sit. I'd also suggest trying colour B4 first to see how much that removes.
Good luck x

Panth
April 23rd, 2011, 05:57 AM
If you do end up trying the oil methods, conditioner is often reported to be better for washing a heavy oiling out than shampoo. Hope that helps.

Firefox7275
April 23rd, 2011, 06:47 AM
Failing this, I'll just fade it as much as possible and wait for it to go away. Anyone who's used Feria - do you remember how long the stuff took to fade off?

Isn't Feria permanent? When I used it, the burgundy/ red faded somewhat in 6-8 weeks, but the orange/ brown undertones did not fade. :(

Kristamommyx3
April 23rd, 2011, 07:55 AM
Sorry to hear about your hair color oops. I once tried to dye my very blonde hair light brown in HS, and it came out slate gray with green highlights! Nothing a trip to the salon can't fix! :D

Lady Verity
April 23rd, 2011, 08:00 AM
Okay, I've got a box of B4. Let's blitz this orange head of mine. :luke:

jojo
April 23rd, 2011, 08:31 AM
hows it gone? make sure you rinse, rinse, rinse and more rinse with the buffer bit!

misstwist
April 23rd, 2011, 08:36 AM
Happy to see you again! Sorry you are having a color crisis. :flowers:

Lady Verity
April 23rd, 2011, 09:02 AM
The stinky B4 is on right now. I look like a Russian babushka, all wrapped up in towels and clingfilm.

There's enough for a second try if this first go doesn't turn out well.

From this day forth I shall appreciate the natural beauty of my hair and never mistreat it again! EVER.

julliams
April 23rd, 2011, 09:07 AM
I'm on tenderhooks - how is it turning out???

Unofficial_Rose
April 23rd, 2011, 09:16 AM
If you decide you need to tone it, there are Sallys in the UK. Here is the search page: http://stores.sallybeauty.com/default.aspx. Not sure where in UK you are, though. Gormenghast, indeed :)

As one who has screwed up her own hair colour many times I do sympathise. But as Glasseyes says, at least its not henna you're trying to get out. Or henndigo. :eek:

Lady Verity
April 23rd, 2011, 09:44 AM
If you decide you need to tone it, there are Sallys in the UK. Here is the search page: http://stores.sallybeauty.com/default.aspx. Not sure where in UK you are, though. Gormenghast, indeed :)

Huh - there's one a few miles from my house! I'd never heard of Sally's till I started coming to these forums. I might take a trip there when I get back home.

As for the B4, it's currently sweltering on my very hot, clingfilm-wrapped head. About ten more minutes and it'll be ready to wash out. Wish me luck.

HappyKarin
April 23rd, 2011, 09:57 AM
I heard that glycerin help to get rid some of the color. Or a product with glycerin, like head and shoulder. Never tried it my self

Lady Verity
April 23rd, 2011, 11:00 AM
Okay, the deed is done! I just need to wait for it to dry. Something has definitely happened - even when wet, the offending patches were light. We rinsed like crazy, so hopefully it will have done something positive to the overall traffic cone effect.

Off to dinner now, but I'll be back with (hopefully positive) results!

PS - Big love to everyone on LHC. I'd forgotten how friendly and helpful this place is. You're all stars.

jojo
April 23rd, 2011, 11:49 AM
so how is it now? red all gone? keep checking this thread! hurry back and tell us!

Lady Verity
April 23rd, 2011, 02:29 PM
I think - I think! - all the red is gone!

There are baby-blonde streaks where the red once was! I conditioned heavily after the intense rinsing, so it looks like my own hair after two weeks of sunshine. I am so relieved. It's dark here now, so I can't see the hair in daylight yet, but right now I think I'm saved!

Thank you all for your suggestions and patience! And thank you to Jojo for pointing me towards a product that actually works!

jojo
April 23rd, 2011, 04:04 PM
Brilliant im so pleased! I just love it when a plan goes right!

annieangel149
April 23rd, 2011, 04:50 PM
yay! wish we could all teleport to your place and have a celebratory party! so glad its getting sorted now! so kool!!!! :D :)

jojo
April 23rd, 2011, 04:59 PM
^^ yes it would! will have a cyber party instead!:beerchug: a few drinks.......:violin::lala: a sing song.........and plenty of :disco::disco::cheer: and I will bring the :drama::stirpot::gobblecheese::pizza:! enjoy!

ArienEllariel
April 23rd, 2011, 05:23 PM
Oh oh oh, I'm so happy you were able to fix it. I would have been freaking out too especially since I know nothing about removing/color correcting a bad dye job. Congrats on fixing your hair and making it livable again! :D

RitaCeleste
April 23rd, 2011, 05:48 PM
Just keep it conditioned really well for awhile. The whole color, color remover thing can dry out your hair. I had to use a little protein treatment on mine but its really been colored a lot. Glad you found something that worked. The only color remover brand I ever used was ion from Sally's. Definitely not helpful in the UK!

Lady Verity
April 24th, 2011, 07:01 AM
It's a little dry now, but nothing a couple of eggs and some coconut oil won't fix when I get home. I'll hunt down some violet-based shampoo to deal with the yellow tone. I've got six weeks before my summer holiday, so hopefully it will have calmed down and forgiven me my sins by then. :rolleyes:

Alvrodul
April 24th, 2011, 07:43 AM
I am really glad you managed to get your hair back to a reasonable color! Back in my chemical-dying days, I did use Feria a couple of times, and while my results weren't completely bad, I wasn't all that happy with them either.
I hope your hair gets back to something like normal with a bit of coconut oil - and perhaps a SMT? Whatever works, I suppose.:)

Lady Verity
April 24th, 2011, 08:00 AM
Back in my chemical-dying days, I did use Feria a couple of times, and while my results weren't completely bad, I wasn't all that happy with them either.


Since Googling Feria, I've found countless people really unhappy with the stuff. There's no indication on the box that it's hardcore stuff, so people new to dye are unlikely to know what they're getting into.

The offending streaks are a light blonde now, presumably because of the bleach in the Feria. That's close enough to my normal hair to get away with.

Violet shampoo - is that what I'm looking for? I know it's a purple tone, but there are so many words for purple!