Bleached hair, posting for traffic

[Nogodsnomasters]

Didn't know where to put this so feel free to move it MN if there is a hair section that I couldn't find lol but posting for traffic.

I previously had a dark brown root smudge leading into blonde hair at the bottom, my hair is not long, collar bone length. This colour was done at the hairdressers but was costing me £60 for this plus a trim every 3 months and I just can't afford it anymore.

Quite liked the blonde at the bottom and decided for the summer I'd like to go full head blonde so I bought a blonde hair dye thinking since most of the hair was that colour anyway it'd be OK... it was not OK, it went a weird pale brown all over, not even a nice shade of brown at all. So I decided to buy a pre-lightner (basically bleach I think it was), I put this on today and the roots are now ginger and the rest is a lovely shade of blonde. My question is will a normal blonde hair dye fix the root colour or am I going to have to bleach it again (after leaving it for a while first of course)?

Thank you!

Ash is a cool tone so eliminates the ginger.

I intend to dye it the same tone every 4-6 weeks just until autumn and then tone down a bit - ultimate plan (whether it works or not is another matter)

No steps taken tonight as I've had to attend a birthday this evening after work and then ds refused bed until 9pm and now I'm too exhausted to start everything so going for an early night. Shall be doing something to it tomorrow night instead, just still don't know what. I have in my possession still, some bleach, a bottle of Jerome Russel toner, a 10.02 hair dye and purple shampoo and conditioner, if anyone can suggest an order to those it'd be great.

how trashed are you looking to get your roots to?

If you're set on it matching - bleach it up then tone with the 10.2 straight after. Forget about everything else for now.

Haven’t read the full thread but just wanted to say - I’m not a professional and best bet is to get a pro to fix it
However I’ve done my own hair for years and box dyes will not lift your hair as light as you want, even if they are “ultra lightening” they still won’t. Bleach is very drying and damaging and honestly best left to a hairdresser as you risk overlapping the already lighter ends and could give yourself a chemical haircut.
What I do is I buy a big bottle of 40 vol developer (Wells koleston) online and I buy the colours I want (wella koleston special blonde) also online and mix them with developer at a ratio of 1:2 and I apply to the roots every 5/6 weeks. I don’t touch box dyes. My hair is naturally a blend of level 6&7 and this formula gives me the lift I want without any brass or ginger and without going as white as bleach.
If your hairdresser has been applying a darker colour to achieve the root stretch that will influence your hair when you’re trying to lift it btw. Even though I colour my own hair, I will say there’s a reason hairdressers charge what they do and it’s all about balancing the hair and understanding the chemicals and what’s already been placed into the hair 😊

guest8989 obviously I'm not looking to trash any part of my hair, what a silly question.

Well we’ve all said get a professional. You’re already well on the way to breakage. Breakage doesn’t happen immediately, it begins to break off even weeks later.

I can’t see the most recent photos so not sure what your hair looks like now.

What is your natural colour, the brown in the ‘before’ photo?

I think if you’re going to do it yourself, you need better quality products than what Boots (etc) offer. Salon products are just better quality, the results that they produce are more consistent, they damage the hair less etc. I am naturally quite dark but I went blonde in 1 session at the salon with absolutely no warm/brassy tone. I had highlights added to my regrowth a few months after and the areas that overlapped went platinum blonde, again no ginger or damage. I reckon my hair would have snapped off had I done it myself!

Would it be an option for you to dye the gingery roots back to brown, and try again in 4-6 weeks time to go blonde? At least you’ll give your hair a break, and you were planning on bleaching your regrowth then anyway? Obviously it’s your hair and your ultimate choice, but be very careful about breakage. You’ll notice your hair start to snap off whilst your brush it and gradually get finer over time etc, put the integrity of your hair as a top priority vs the colour.

I seriously wouldn't use bleach. I did this and it looked awful. I bought so many products trying to correct it myself! The roots were so bad and I had ginger tones. I ended up having to go back to my hair dresser who was nice and non judgemental! I spent hours having my colour stripped then had a darker more natural colour put on (dark ash blonde). It was a very expensive lesson for me. If I were you, go back and ask to have it completely toned down to your natural colour. Then you'll never need to go back again unless it's a trim! I love my natural hair colour now. I still can't believe I spent eighteen years paying for highlights every twelve weeks!

guest8989 and I've said repeatedly that I cannot afford to go to a professional. The original post does not ask what do others recommend the best solution is, the question was will a normal dye cover the ginger or will it need bleached again first. I completely accept that the best way to fix it is a salon however that is not an option for me, if you've read the whole thread you'll see me explain that many times.

Pp the before picture roots are darker than my natural hair tone, I have mousey brown hair with a small patch of grey hairs growing at the front next to my forehead only.

@Nogodsnomasters I think you have established you're not going to the salon... in which case, people are telling you not to go blonde, that's all!

OP, a normal dye depending on what it is probably won’t cover the ginger, when we lighten hair but not enough to lift to blonde it exposes underlying pigment, which is warm. You either need a toner/dye for the correct level you currently have (which will not make it blonder but should correct the tone and cancel out the ginger) or you need to lighten it further with bleach (carefully) or a high vol developer with blonde colour to continue lifting out pigment. Putting blonde box dye on ginger hair, it probably won’t achieve anything but everyone’s hair is different. Why don’t you just try a test on a section and see what it turns out like before committing to doing it all over?

If you're going to bleach Just wanted to say the Jerome Russell toner is shit probably won't do much even when my hairs been pretty white it didn't do much the best I've found is bleach London their bleach and also the white toner is pretty good to get rid of the brassiness. Hope it works out the way you want

harryhenderson I was responding to guest8989 last comment which was "we've all said go to a professional". I don't want to repeat myself but if new posters keep saying this I will respond.

bananayogurt thank you for your helpful comment, it's appreciated. I feel my next step will be to use bleach on the ginger section only, in fact the roots right next to my scalp are very blonde so my natural colour has obviously grown through a little bit maybe a few centimetres at most, it's the section after that which is ginger which is obviously where I had the dark smudge done by the hairdresser. Once I have lightened the ginger section to yellowy white I will be using the Ash coloured hair dye I got from the salon supply shop which is called farmavita 10.02.

@Nogodsnomasters try bleaching your roots then try the toner. Hopefully the brassiness will calm down. If it does give your hair a rest for a few weeks then try an ash colour.
We've all been there, so don't worry! My hair has been a rainbow of colours and the worse that happened was it went all springy (think chewing gum after been chewed for ages) it went back to normal condition after a few months though.

I hope you all can see the pic, I bleached the orange sections only, I do feel it still has some pale ginger to parts of it and I didn't want to leave the bleach on longer the recommended time frame, I also used the the toner afterwards which I'm not sure how much it did or didn't do as you never really know the true shade until its blow dried but anyway, this is it now. I also put purple conditioner on it for 10 minutes as a mask, if I'm totally honest despite what it's been through this week my hair is still surprisingly soft and fluffy. I still want to use the Ash dye next but I don't know if I should leave it a while or just do it in 24hrs.

I've bleached the orange parts this evening and then used a toner, it's still got some pale orange in parts but it's getting there. I still want to use the Ash dye but I'm not sure whether to do it after 24hrs or wait longer. After I used the toner I used purple conditioner left on for 10 minutes as a mask, despite what my hairs been through this week it's actually still soft and fluffy.

It certainly looks like the orangeness is fading. Maybe wait until weekend to put ash on? It'll give your hair a little rest.

It certainly looks more even! I’ve googled the dye you got - what developer are you using? If you use a 30 vol or even 40 it might lift it to the blonde you want, Lifting out the rest of the ginger and depositing the nice ashy blonde however if you’re using a 10 or 20 vol developer I don’t think it will do very much for your hair as your hair is not a level 10 right now!

I agree @Bananayoghurt the 10-2 with 30 or 40 vol would probably finish it off nicely

Oh ladies I have a 20 volume, so you think go 30? Also what ratio of developer should I be mixing with the creme?

By the time you have put all these colours on your hair you may have well went to a salon. Going to take a while to get it to a nice blonde.