Okay..I give in!! What's the secret? (Hair related)

[CaptainButtock]

FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS AND LANGUAGE ALERT.

I have: Naturally dark brown curly hair.
I've always wanted: Poker straight blonde hair.

Because, ya know, why make life cheap or easy for yourself aye?

Fortunately, I have a lovely hairdresser (who I'm on the verge of writing a love-letter to) in a lovely (fucking closed) salon who makes me a natural blonde every couple of months.

I think you may know where this is going right...?

So, there I am on Saturday night, feeling pissed brave and in possession of something called 'Swchwarzkopf Color (sic) Expert Light Blonde'.

How hard can it be?, I think. The people of youtube make it look pretty easy after all...

Fast forward to Sunday morning and the cold light of day....sweet jesus help me!!! 😨

'Light Blonde'??! Fucking Chernobyl orange more like 😬

I thought I'd only done a few tasteful strands, but no, I had in fact done massive orange blotches 😕

I have done loads of research since, but am totally baffled by all the bleach/peroxide/volume/developer/% talk.

Please mumsnet, please tell me the secret to lovely DIY ashy blonde highlights??

Tldr: My fucking hair has orange splotches and I want them gone.

(And yep, I've tried the blue stuff...no joy)

Google Vosene to strip hair dye.

Firstly most of the comments on here are wrong so please ignore them..
Dark brown hair has an undertone of red. When you bleach it, it was go red, dark orange, light orange, dark yellow, pale yellow. To get an "ashy blonde" you need a mid to pale yellow base before you apply a toner.
Colour is based on levels, each level has a corresponding undertone. For example level 1/2 is black levels 3-5 are what most people would call dark brown (these have an underlying red tone) levels 6-7 are mid to light brown with an orange undertone and 8-10 are the yellow undertones.

Your problem is that if you have an orange undertone you are likely not at the correct level to be able to tone out the orange as I'm betting your ends are a lighter level and were originally bleached to a nice yellow before toning.

So a blue toner may help to reduce the orange "slightly" but it's not going to go light blonde, or brown. You either need to leave it. Which would be my advice. Or it needs to be lightened again to a yellow and then toned with a "purple" toner and no dont just use purple shampoo lol. Or you need to dye it to your natural colour ( if you do this you would need to be prepared to damage it again having the box colour bleached back out to go blonde again by your hairdresser or keep it brown for a while after) however as I've said about the undertone for a dark brown is red. Not orange. So you would need to apply a brown with a lot of red in, or a red (semi or a permanent) onto the hair first before dying. Applying a dark brown over an orange and existing light blonde will lead to a very dull ashy colour that will potentially look a greeny colour.

Hairdressers open in a few weeks from now. I'd just put my hair up and buy one of those bandana headbands to go round it to be honest, wait it out and learn from my mistakes lol. We have all been there! X

The secret is being a professional unfortunately. Stick a brown dye on and hope for the best.

Purple roots would look wicked though if you're up for some fun. My hair is never a natural colour but I dont have the balls or patience for blonde.

Yeh chuck some directions violet dye on it. Mix a little bit with some conditioner and use like a hair mask then rinse. It’ll sort the orange although it might so a light purple colour which looks awesome anyway

Bleach then tone. Bleaching powder with 9% developer. Tone with Loreal Dialight or whichever toner you prefer with 2% developer.

I usually go to a hairdresser, naturally mid brown hair, have managed to do my own using the above and Loreal Dialight milkshake toner in 10.12, your hair has to be bleached to a light yellow blonde for this to work though, otherwise best looking at 9/8 toners.

My hair with just bleach or putting a box dye on would just go madly orange through to yellow.

@Grumpos

Watch some Brad Mondo on YouTube for a start.

Girl never ever ever box bleach your hair.

Hair stylists study and practice colouring for years. You can’t achieve what they do at home. Sorry you just can’t.

But as one pp says, you need to tone the blonde with a purple toner. It should remove the orange brassy tones. Don’t throw another box dye over it.

Message a professional for help and buy a sunhat to wear until July

100% watch Brad Mondo, he'll tell you exactly what not to do and give you some great pointers (basically box dye is the devils work!) plus you can easily waste several hours being entertained by his videos

Please watch some Brad Mondo videos on YouTube - he's a fantastic hairdresser who reacts to people doing things like bleaching their hair and while watching it, explains what they are doing wrong and what they should be doing. Also he's really fun.

Sorry the posts didn't load so didn't know other people already suggested Brad Mondo!

Oooh @Laiste that lady knows her stuff.
And @NelliePig thankyou very informative.

I feel well and truly humbled. Who knew you had to be a feckin scientist to colour hair? Much respect.

I'm off to sleep on it (ha ha) and see what I've got the nerve to attempt tomorrow.

Sleep well all.

Ok.
You will need.
Coconut oil
40vol peroxide. (Bblonde or Wella Welloxon)
Blue bleach powder ( as above)
Plastic bowl and application brushes.
Plastic bag or disposable shower cap

Gloves

Toner or purple shampoo (bold uniqu shampoo is good. Wella do nice toners)

Conditioning hair mask

Coconut oil protects the hair without interfering with the bleach. Put it on dry hair.

Mix the peroxide with the powder using a PLASTIC spoon.
I part powder to 2 parts peroxide.

Apply with brush

Wrap hair in a plastic bag or
disposable shower cap to keep the heat in.

Leave 30 mins (or up to 45 to get a light yellow)
Wash hair. Do not just rinse. Wash it!

At this point you can use either a purple shampoo or a toner. Both are drying so you'll need a good hair mask after this.

Good luck.

The secret to straight blonde hair with highlights is to choose your parents carefully and to get out in the sun a bit.

I asked my dh to put some highlights in my hair & after watching a few YouTube videos, had a go. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking! My natural colour is dark brown, so obviously my hair went a streaky orange colour. Not satisfied, I bought even more bleach & asked him to do it again-the next day. It went a lot lighter this time & less orange more yellow. I bought purple toner & have that a go. Then I bought a box of light ash blonde & put that over all of my hair followed by lots of purple shampoo. My hair now looks a mixture of orange, yellow, purple & a strange browny colour. Moral of the story is, don’t get your dh to dye your hair.

Do what I did and shave your head off lol

I feel for you. I did this a few years ago and no amount of toner could salvage it, I tried blues and purples and nothing worked. Only thing that fixed it was a trip to the hairdressers to bleach it again.

If you are really desperate then leave it a couple of weeks and go over it again.

The secret, young Padawan, is never to bleach your hair at home

@FudgeBrownie2019

Did mine at home. Went from orange to blonde-ish using fanola no orange

Covid buzz cut

OP! Please don't don't don't slap on a brown dye over it- it's going to make things worse for your hairdresser.

I second @NelliePig - you need purple, not blue toner to fix orange. Please, use purple toner, then find a hair mask that will help you fix the condition of your hair, as box bleach will absolutely do a number on it. Olaplex #3 is the absolute best you can get, failing that a lot of brands do decent repair masks (Shea Moisture and Hask are good). Get your hair in as good a state as you can then if you really, really need to play with the colour again (I wouldn't) then consider using a coloured conditioner <a class="break-all" href="//(nakhair.com.au/products/signature-range/colour-masque-coloured-conditioners" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this one is good) in a medium, ashy tone to cover it. This means you won't be depositing more dye as heavily over your hair, and the conditioner will help with the damage. You'll need to use it every few washes, but it's easy and worth it.

If you can't hold off on the dye to brown as some are suggesting (please don't!) then please remember that box dye veers much darker than you'd think. Even if you know your levels, it tends to go a fair bit darker than expected- I'm a natural L6, dark blonde, and if I buy L6 dye it comes out practically black.

Remember that whatever you put on top of it now, your hairdresser will have to remove later, and hair that has been bleached is porous and will take to dye and hold it a lot more right now. Honestly, I do a lot of DIY beauty, gel nails, gave my DH and DF a haircut in lockdown, and I would never attempt bleach at home. It's about the one beauty procedure I'd never go for .

You most definitely need a BLUE toner for orange. Purple neurtralises yellow :) you need the opposite on the colour wheel x

The secret is to use a bleach rather than a hair dye aimed at people with lighter hair (eg someone with ashy blonde hair wanting to make it more golden).

I’ve used Schwarzkopf for years and, with care, got my hair a very pale blonde.

Try the Schwarzkopf Max Blonde 00B

Obviously do NOT try that now as you’re best waiting as you’ve just put something on it, but, in future, go for the bleach-y ones not the colour ones (there’s also a Platinum one).

Forgot to add that my hair is naturally dark brown.

Ooooh dont do it! Go back to hairdresser with inches of healthy roots.