Hair dye: developer %?

[Risha]

Naturally, hair is a darkish ash brown. A while ago I used to dye it dirty blonde, but am since then attempting to dye it back to a darker shade of brown, preferrably of a tone at least somewhat close to the natural shade.

So a while ago, I dyed my hair with Clairol in natural medium ash brown. That colour did turn out a medium brown, but it seems to have quite some warmth to its tone.

Now, I was thinking of trying the L'oreal Preference in dark ash brown, but I'm wondering what % developer comes with that dye? The package doesn't specify that; it just says "minimizes red/orange tones. for optimal results, use on light brown to dark brown hair". What % developer do such dark brown conventional dyes usually come with? If it's a higher %, it safe to replace it with %3 developer? I'm thinking that could work. Or wouldn't it?

Any advice and tips much appreciated. Thanks!

[lapushka]

So a while ago, I dyed my hair with Clairol in natural medium ash brown. That colour did turn out a medium brown, but it seems to have quite some warmth to its tone.

Now, I was thinking of trying the L'oreal Preference in dark ash brown, but I'm wondering what % developer comes with that dye? The package doesn't specify that; it just says "minimizes red/orange tones. for optimal results, use on light brown to dark brown hair". What % developer do such dark brown conventional dyes usually come with? If it's a higher %, it safe to replace it with %3 developer? I'm thinking that could work. Or wouldn't it?

Any advice and tips much appreciated. Thanks!

Covering one dye with another won't solve a thing, IMO. I'd leave it as is. Is it really that bad that you have to dye over it? I'm not sure, but I think you'd need quite a strong developer for the second dye to work, or that you might even have to bleach the first dye out of your hair, for the full effect of the other. Maybe someone more hair dye knowledgeable will jump in here.

[Shermie Girl]

Most box dyes have 20 volume (6%) developer, if I am not mistaken.

If you are planning to go darker or match your current colour, just tweak your tone, you should be okay to proceed. Rather than a box dye, you could try picking up a toner (dye) and developer at a beauty supply. I am not opposed to box dye, a lot of people use them successfully but if they are not giving you the result you want, something a little more custom may be in order.

Your local beauty supply should have a bundle of swatches that look kind of like paint brushes, but the "bristles" are hair. Look through them and find the colour that you want your hair to be, then find the corresponding dye. Someone who works there should be able to direct you to the right tone (ash, neutral, whatever you are looking for). You will also need some creme developer. For just depositing colour, 10 volume should do the trick. Don't forget gloves and so forth. :D

[Louise148]

Tint cannot lift tint so if you want to go lighter tint cannot do that over the top of tint (only bleach can lift tint). You should be able to add different tones i.e ash tones and you can definitely go darker.

You only need the higher percentages of developer (peroxide) to go lighter so since you only want to deposit colour into the hair and not lift colour out, the lower percentages will be fine.

Just be carefull when using cooler tones as if they are used too much hair can start to take on a kharki appearance and will need to be re-balanced with warmer tones. However if your base is already very warm the cooler tones should be OK.

Colours that cancel each other out:

Violet cancels out yellow tones
Green ash cancels out too much red
Blue ash cancels out too much orange.

and all of these work visa versa.

I usually put a litle bit of the colour on some white cotton and you can then see what tones are in it. I have medium brown hair naturally which has a lot of coppery tones in it so I often use a blue ash toned (temp) colour just to cool them down a bit.

Lou x

[akilina]

10 vol. deposit only. Use a demi permanent.
Permanent color uses 20 vol it lifts then deposits...if you want to go darker there is no point in using that :]