Hair disaster - help please Tatty or other experts!

[CakeandRoses]

I dyed my naturally medium reddy brown hair (around a '5') two shades lighter (a 7) by mistake . I actually loved my natural colour but was starting to get some grey hairs (in hindsight i realise a semi would have been better as i was only about 2% grey).

i didn't like being so light altho it was fine tonally (it was a warm tone) so yday decided to dye it darker/redder and stupidly went a shade darker (a 4) than my natural colour, stupidly thinking I needed to do that to cover the light shade, forgetting my hair was more porous so would take colour well anyway.

i hate it it's now a really fake looking red which is far too strong for my Spring colouring

Can you tell me how I can get it back to my old colour please?

Thank you so much!

[ChaoticAngeltheInnocentOne]

I don't claim to be an expert so feel free to wait for someone else but I've found that this works. There's an extra strength version too which is the one I used but my hair was really dark with loads of build up.

You're supposed to wait a week before putting another colour on it but if you can't wait that long a level 1 colour, the type that washes out in about 8 washes is okay to use. I've used the Clairol Nice n Easy one but had to buy it from Superdrug as Boots didn't stock that one.

[TattyDevine]

I would be tempted to use ColourB4 as well - you are a good candidate for it - it would totally remove it - and dark reddy tones are very hard to "cover over", they always shine through, you are best going back to scratch.

Its a slightly messy stinky product, has a slightly eggy smell to it even after you've rinsed it off, I suggest doing a "vanilla rinse" as your final rinse through after finishing it all off and conditioning, basically add quite a good dash of vanilla extract to some warm water and tip that over as the final "rinse" before wrapping your hair in a towel. That will really help neutralise it.

It will probably expose quite a lightish ginger shade (you might be surprised how light) which should cover well with a Nice n Easy 8 wash medium brown.

After 5 days you can dye it properly and this time we will get your shade right!

Your only other option really is to wash a lot with Head and Shoulders and see if it fades to an acceptable shade. Do not be tempted to dye over it with anything though - it sounds both too dark and too red and it wont be toned to anything vaguely natural so you are better to use ColourB4 than to start trying to correct it.

[TattyDevine]

Check out the photos on my profile - there is one there of my colour after ColourB4 (I'd been bright reds, I'd even used Directions on bleached slices etc so had cuticle staining) and then my result after using Nice n Easy 114 (Ash)

[CakeandRoses]

Thanks both of you. I'm scared of the ColourB4 - will it wreck my hair? how does it remove colour?

Mind you, yours tatty looks distinctly glossy and unwrecked.

I'll PM you some pics of my hair before and now if you don;t mind taking a look and telling me if the ColourB4 does look like the only option now.

[CakeandRoses]

ps - i'd have said you were a winter rather than a spring!

[Clarabumps]

I used colour b4 and it didnt wreck my hair. you do have to rinse for what seems like forever but follow the instructions to the letter and you'll be fine. x

[TattyDevine]

ColourB4 doesn't wreck your hair. It will feel dry for a few days after but there is so much washing and rinsing involved in the process that I couldn't be sure its not just that. Its a hydrosulphate that shrinks the artificial colour molecules, allowing them to be washed out of the hair cuticle. Its nowhere near as damaging as bleach, which alters the structure of the hair and which is really your only other option for lightening hair (and is still perfecly safe if done properly, to be fair, but a last resort for simply reversing a disaster particularly now that ColourB4 is available and affordable)

I promise if you do an application of ColourB4, some reasonable conditioning, followed by a permenant colour a week later if necessary your hair will NOT be wrecked. My hair was far more processed than yours when I did 2 applications of ColourB4 Extra strength. I then did a permenant colour, a full head of bleach highlights, a half head of bleach highlights, before dying over it with Rimini Lightest Brown and Nice N Easy 117 which is one of the more recent photos on there - and its still in good glossy condition!!!

So I'm fairly confident about the condition of your hair.

Re me being a spring - I would have almost definitely been incorrectly diagnosed if I'd had a virtual draping as I used to "live" as a Deep Winter/Autumn without meaning to before I knew what I was, and I "got away with it" I think but honestly now when I'm in my correct colours with my lighter hair colour, with correct makeup or no makeup, its better. Its all much more in focus and balanced. Crazy isn't it...

[TattyDevine]

Just to add I went to my draping pretty much convinced I was a Deep Autumn (having thought I was a Winter at earlier stages but having messed around with warm/cool enough I'd decided it was Autumn) and when she draped me, she kept "comparing back" to the Autumn equivalent when she was doing various colours and they never looked as good as the light bright clear but warm spring version. Its bizarre...

[henrythecat]

tatty can colour b4 take you back to your natural hair colour? I've dyed my hair a little darker than it's natural brunette shade and the tone is quite draining on my skin, I want to strip it out and go back to natural colour rather than wait for it to fade as it always goes quite brassy. Would colour b4 work work ok for this? (sorry for thread hijack!)

[CakeandRoses]

Thank you so much for this (and your PM reply) tatty. I think the shade is too unnatural to fade to anything resembling something that would look right on me so it looks like ColourB4 would be a good option.

Feeling less scared and slightly excited.

I hadn't coloured my hair in decades before this so it's been a bit of a mad couples of months going from natural to dark blonde to dark red to ??!

Should I get normal strength or extra strength and is it something boots normally have in stock?

I'm really surprised about your Springness but the drapes know

[TattyDevine]

Henrythecat: No, it won't get you back to natural, because the peroxide in the colour will have lightened your brunette shade a little but not enough which is why it will probably expose a ginger tone. However, if you were to strip it and wait a week, you could at least get the correct tone. That said, you might be able to alter the tone of a wrong brunette to the correct kind of brunette if its only a shade or so, so that might be your best bet. What did you use? Why don't you like it? I might be able to help.

You could probably use the normal strength - its only one application of colour, and its not terribly dark. If in doubt get extra strength but I think normal would shift it. Its very effective.

On you Cakes I think it might take you back to a similar shade to what you were dying it up to when you were going up a couple of shades and it might only need toning depending what you want to do with it. THIS IS A LESSON TO STRAND TEST MY DEAR

I know, the spring thing is hard to imagine particularly when you see my profile picture which is pretty out of date now. I need to get a shot of me in my natural spring tones. That might be a project for today!

[kyacat]

Slight derail here but where did you get your draping done tatty ? I'd like to get mine done too as I'm not sure what season I am :)

Good luck cakes getting your colour sorted.

[CakeandRoses]

I know, I know re strand test I'm so annoyed with myself as I thought about it and then just didn't bother.

oh and the product was John Frieda. Annoyingly the result (aside from the colour) is amazing - really even and glossy.

just called boots and they have both in stock so about to chuck children in buggy and hotfoot it down there so i can use it when they nap this morning!

Would be great to see an updated spring pic of you

[henrythecat]

Thanks tatty, I used Nice and Easy Colour Blend Foam in dark brown (4). Natural colour is dark brunette but it's kind of a 'flat' colour and I'm aiming for a glossy chestnut. Everytime I use a chestnutty dye it just ends up with a brassy sheen so I thought I'd try going a bit darker but it just seems to make my skin look so sallow and yellow. Any recommendations would be brill :)

[CakeandRoses]

[TattyDevine]

Right I've done an updated spring pic! Its a bit of a naff shot, but not too pouty

I'd just sort of clipped my hair off my face except my side fringe bit so if the style looks weird don't judge me! Also, hair is a little darker than usual at the mo because I did my roots yesterday but ran the colour through for the first time since I changed colour so its a little blocky in the photo though it looks fine in "real life" in the light.

But its a reasonable depiction of me in my "correct" colours, can you see me as a spring now? Or still hard to "get" with the darkness of my hair and eyes?

[TattyDevine]

Henrycat I'll come back to you in a tick when I've separated my children who are trying to murder each other?!

[CakeandRoses]

Hmm, I am seeing it more now. The corally colours do really work.

What colour are your eyes and hair (naturally)?

It seems Spring is the weirdest combo of colouring from what I've read obsessively. Apparently we look young for our age though and according to the 12 Blueprint crazies women, we're charming, friendly and interested in people too

would you make me for a Spring having seen my pics?

hope your children are safe now i've had to start locking my toddler in his room (at his request) to keep his brio trains safe from his baby sister - otherwise bloodshed is on the cards.

[TattyDevine]

I've just added another.

No, I wouldn't necessarily have guessed you as a spring, but your hair is warm and your eyes are bright so it makes sense. I wouldn't have necessarily guessed you as anything else though...I am a big believer in the need to be draped!

The friendly and interested in people thing really hits home - I am really naturally friendly to a fault and very very interested in people. That just sums me up perfectly! Weird!!!

I might go Auburn haired in the future...but not just now...

[TattyDevine]

Kyacat I got my draping done with Trudy Cooper at House of Colour in Thorpe Le Soken...

[TattyDevine]

Right, Henrythecat - Nice n Easy Dark brown is very dark. Its so dark that if you apply it a few times you end up with practically black hair.

ColourB4 would take up up to a rusty ginger I reckon because of the peroxide, or perhaps just a rusty brown. At that point it would be easy enough to get your chestnut colour.

You'd have to be a bit careful matching roots though - particularly if your natural colour is still quite deep.

Depending how light ColourB4 got you, Natural Medium Caramel brown is about as dark as you'd want to go and would hopefully give you the correct tone...

[TattyDevine]

How's it going CakeNRoses? You must be cooked by now. What colour did it reveal? Do you smell like hangover farts?

[CakeandRoses]

I can't believe it - it looks almost like my old colour!! I can barely see my roots like I could before the red dye. How is that possible - surely my hair was bleached by the previous 2-shades-lighter one?

I'm soooo happy and relieved!

Thanks you so much xx

[TattyDevine]

Sorry, just to clarify in my post to Henry, I said "ColourB4 would take you up to a rusty ginger I reckon because of the peroxide", just to clarify I mean the peroxide in the dye you've used that would have lightened your hair. It reads like ColourB4 has peroxide in it which it doesn't...

[CakeandRoses]

tatty did you see my post above? think we cross-posted

have just uploaded (same link as before) a new pic after using the ColourB4