Hairdresser not sorting out my hair!

[dairymilkisevil]

I had my hair cut and coloured last week.
We agreed on a dark all over base with two colours of highlights to try to cover what was there before which was too many bleach blonde highlights.
First attempt: hair comes out completely blond, highlights all disappeared and it's just yellow-blonde. Hairdresser says the dark colour hasn't taken.
We start again all over again with a darker base and two highlights - one blonde one caramel. It looks loads better so I pay.
I have washed it three times since and all the dark has gone. It looks like it's literally washed out and I'm left with yellow blonde and ginger on the top.
I've contacted her (she works for herself) and first she says the dark will take a few washes to come through, which doesn't sound right.
I send her photos.
Now she says my hair is stubborn and that "the copper in my hair doesn't want to lift the dark for some reason." And that it's not her work that's at fault, she's now on holiday for two weeks, then it's her daughter's birthday so she can't do anything and the only thing she can suggest is that I buy a purple shampoo to tone the yellow out.

AIBU to think this isn't good enough? I asked for dark hair with some caramel coloured highlights. First off she gave me blonde all over and now the dark is all washing out - it's supposed to be a permanent colour, I thought?

Photos -

1. what I wanted
2. what I got after attempt 1
3. what is looks like after attempt 2 and after three washes

You need to get a second opinion. Are there any hairdressers on here?
If not, go and find onet to look

I don't think what you wanted was possible with the first treatment. Too much bleach to cover in one visit.

BTW the photos didn't work

Can't see the pics, but did she pre colour your hair before applying the dark? If your hair was blonde she needed to 'fill' it with a copper orange colour and then wash that out and apply the darker brown for it to take. Putting dark over blonde will fade quickly but should not be as quick as just a few washes.

I can’t see the photos, but from what you’ve described it doesn’t sound like it’s worked and maybe she doesn’t want to admit it.
I don’t believe the dark will ‘come through’ now either.

Do you have a before photo?

I had my hair blonde for about a year and even now over a year later I struggle to get my brown colour to stay in for 6 weeks between appointments. It's always a lot lighter when I go for my next appointment as it seems to fade off very quickly. In fact people think I've had the ombré look.

Not sure if this is common or if we've both got crap hairdressers

When I went from bleach blonde to brown the hairdresser had to dye my hair orange first for my hair to take the brown...

She's obviously messed up...your choices are now use the purple shampoo and wait until she's back at work and see if she can fix it or go elsewhere

Can only see your first photo on the app

Looks like she's used a 7 base on it. If she's already lightened it then a 7 is gonna go karky after being washed which is what has happened. She should have used at least a 5 on it go get that colour it would have gone dark to start with but would have faded slightly better and stayed dark.

No she did not mention pre colouring it at all.
In fact I specifically asked this question saying I didn't think you could dye bleach highlights dark, but she said you could, and when I asked for clarification she said "who told you that, it's not true."

Trying photos again. This is after the first attempt

I also cannot see the photos.

If what you wanted wasn't possible, she should have been honest & told you, instead of taking your money when it probably wouldn't work.

I can see all the photos from your first post OP, can't help with the hair though, sorry

It won't let me post any more photos, I've reached my daily limit

I can not see the photos. Sounds like your hair can’t hold the colour due to the bleach.

I can see the photos OP, can you get a second opinion? It's defo not like the one you wanted

You can dye highlights darker.

Your issue is that your hair was bleached before. The hair shaft is open and therefore the dark dye won't take.

You also washed it too much in one week after having it dyed.

To get what you want would have required visits every couple of weeks to have the darker colour re added. It will cost you alot of money and time to achieve this.

I can't see the photos either, maybe someone that can see them could post them?

Can't see the photos but it sounds like you need a protein filler before any colour because of the bleach.

I'd go somewhere else because she hasn't the first idea what she's doing.

Can't see the photos, but having lightened my hair previously, it's a nightmare going from bleach to dark. If I put a dark colour on mine, it fades within a couple of weeks.

As someone else has said though, washing so frequently probably isn't great for a new colour either. Are you using a shampoo for coloured hair?

Can't see any photos...

Hi, she never said a word about me not being able to wash it in the first week after it was done. Not a word. I wash it every other day as normal.

I did bring up this issue saying I thought it was difficult to dye bleach blonde highlights a darker colour but she told me I was wrong, asked me who told me that, and launched into a lengthy explanation about why it was possible.

She never warned me that what I wanted was difficult to achieve, would take more than one visit etc.

Can any hairdresser tell me why, the first time, when she put on a darker base and a caramel and a bleach highlight, that the whole top of the hair went horribly blonde all over? Is it because the previous blonde highlights prevented the darker colour from being taken up? And therefore she "fixed" this by putting the darkest brown on that she could, but again the blonde in there previously is making it all wash out quickly? Is that a fair summary?

Similar happened to me last week. Colour was totally wrong. She added more highlights to sort it out. I'm still not happy but I think not colour will ruin my hair.

I can see your pics. I think the last pic looks nice. It's too blonde on the second pic. It doesn't look like the picture you wanted but I think if leave it a couple of weeks before adding more colour.

Flame trees yes I'm also worried that more colour will ruin my hair. I need to find a colour expert I think

Basically yes.

Without seeing photos I am guessing your overall colour was a 10+ so a light blonde.

This will win over a darker blonde level 7, 8 or 9 every time. The 7, 8 or 9 will stick temporarily but it won't stay in the hair.

You'd need to keep topping up the darker blonde every week to 2 weeks to make it stay. And it will stick eventually but the ends will be lighter and it will take you quite a long time of hitting it with the darker blonde for it to stay permanently.

Even if you go for a light brown it will be much the same.

As someone else has said the bleaching process damages the hair shaft opening the shaft and lifting the colour out of the hair.

When you put a dark colour on this damaged hair the colour cannot penetrate the hair and so slides off e.g. fades very quickly.

This can be fixed by pre-pigmenting the hair first although tbf if you still want 'highlights' it can be difficult as you're effectively putting colour back into the hair to strip it back out for the highlight.

A base 7 if that is what was originally used would have barely touched blonde hair hence it looking blonde still / blonder if she put additional highlights in at this point.

Using a darker base would give the colour more chance of making a difference but it would still slip (fade) quickly due to the hair being damaged. It really needs pre-pigmenting first.

Also blonde hair can easily go khaki but that is more to do with the tone of the colour rather than the base.

In colouring there is a thing called a colour wheel which basically shows the variety of tones and which tone should be used to combat another tone e.g. purple is used to tone out orange / yellow. Red tones out green so you would always want a warm brown colour over blonde to prevent a khaki tone.