To dye my hair twice in one day?

[y0rkier0se]

Firstly I know IABU for posting this here but I need help quickly

My hair is a murky blonde/brown colour. It has been bleached to blonde in the past (about 5 years ago) don't know if that's relevant. Today I've put a light blonde dye on it and I don't like it It's got an orangey tint to it despite washing it with purple shampoo, and it's just too light, it doesn't look right against my skin tone.

So I call upon the wisdom of mumsnet, can I go to Boots and buy a brown dye to cover it? Or will my hair fall out/go green or something bad?

I know you probably don't want to hear this, but if you really can't stand the new colour, it might be best going to a hairdresser, they'd know what to use to change it properly, and they would have good ideas about what would work with your skin tone.

If it's a case of having to go to the hairdresser I will live with it, it's not awful, it's a nice colour I suppose it just doesn't suit my skin tone. I can't afford to go to the hairdressers so if I can't do it with a box dye I've got no choice but to live with it :(

i've done 2 dies in one day with no problems - going darker is a better idea, and get a semi permanent, rather than a permanent as they are kinder to your hair

I wouldn't personally. I would leave it to settle a week, give it a few deep conditioning treatments and then do it again.

Wear a hat?

I've done it, and it's never caused any problems. Usually as a teen missing bits and having to re dye.

Look online at reviews of best colour to go over the orange tone, and go for it.

You could dry a dark, chocolate brown? And when that fades out you could try to go a lighter brown? If you use too light a brown, you could end up with copper tones/streaks still showing.

Thanks everyone, think I'll try the dark brown. I'm very pale and always had light ish hair but this just looks silly I think it's because the roots are too light. Gonna brave it if other people have and their hair didn't fall out!

I have done this before, it's fine. I find Olia dyes are not drying so could be a good choice if you are worried about damaging your hair.

I've bleached and dyed in one day before, no problem, and I've still got nice hair! Actually I've done it more than once.

My hairdresser told me that if I regretted a dye colour to use a harmony darker temp dye the next time I washed my hair and that would cover it and then re-dye once the harmony had washed out.

Or you can buy a dye remover, I've seen it in superdrug to take it back to the previous colour. Never tried that though.

DO NOT PUT BROWN DYE OVER BLONDE! You'll go green you need a hairdresser to introduce red then brown to the hair.

I have a light complexion and for some reason if I dye my hair blonde (it's naturally mousy dark blonde) it comes out orangy, same with light brown. Someone suggested dark ash blonde to me and that works much better with not looking brassy. Just a suggestion.

i have done this before too. i would go for a semi permanent that you can commit to reapply every few months, otherwise it may get a greenish tinge. choose a shade lighter than you want as the colour can sink very deeply to lightened hair. be prepared that it will be near-impossible to go lighter again after this though, and get some intensive treatments!

Don't use dark brown it will go almost black, I've done the same as you and then used john Frieda foam dye
It's really gentle on your hair and you won't go green

The shade I used was lightest almond brown and it turned dark to medium brown

You wont go green if you have a warm base - the orangey tone is warm - and particularly if you use a warmish brown, which most box dyes bought from the shop are. Avoid anything called "ash brown" which might have the green ash in it which is the culprit of the green. If the shade is dark enough this won't happen. Anything called "chocolate" or "mocha" is a safe bet, as they usually have a gold reflect. Also look at the numbers on the box. There is a colour numbering system which Loreal and most other dyes use, though Clairol have their own (but are good at describing the shade).

Green ash is number 1, and it will appear after the decimal point. So if you buy a 5.3 that means Light Golden Brown (the 3 represents gold). Whereas if you bought a 5.12 for instance that would be Light Ash Brown (the 1 is green ash, the 2 is violet ash).

I wouldn't go any darker than a base 5 which is a light to medium brown, a 4 is dark and a 3 is very dark and you might find it quite harsh, though it will fade.

In terms of the condition, if your hair wasn't over processed to start with (5 years is a long time since bleaching) it will probably be fine. Most box dyes don't use a terribly high volume of peroxide - the fact that your hair went an orangey shade suggests it didn't have a lot of "lift" - you shouldn't have any problems though its ideal to get your shade right in the first place, which is easily done if you do a strand test before dying your entire head.

Use the colour b4 stuff which removes the day and will restore your natural colour. I hate box dyes (I might be just crap at it) but maybe invest in a saloon do!

Colour B4 wont work on this scenario. She has gone from a dark blonde and has dyed it a light blonde, which has lifted the natural colour, though not enough, which is why she has the orangey tone. Colour B4 cannot restore hair that has been lifted - it is designed to remove deposited colour. In fact a lot of people who have dyed their hair too dark who use it often report an orangey tone once they have used Colour B4, because it rinses out the pigment and exposes the lightened natural colour underneath which will often have a rusty tinge due to the fact that it has been lightened slightly with peroxide.

It explains it all in the leaflet which comes with it, which is epically long and technical and boring

I don't want my natural colour back particularly or I would use the stripper, also the colour that's on now is lighter than my natural colour so not sure it would even work. Apologies for the awful photo but this is the colour it is now, although it looks darker because there's no natural light now - when the sun was on it earlier it had a very orangey tint. That explanation is very helpful Tatty thanks I'm off to Tesco to look at chocolate/mocha colours and I've made a mental note to avoid anything ash-y

Did you go for it?

Yes thanks, I went for a semi permenant reddy brown, it's quite red but I like it ?? I only did it today, tried to learn to like the blonde but just wasn't keen!