Almighty hair disaster!

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I normally use Clairol Nice and Easy, but decided to try and use L'oreal Sublime Mousse as it was on special offer. I try and get my hair as close to the lovely flame red shade it was when I was 18 (but is now naturally mousier and greying.) The Clairol is fine and I get a good result from it, but I thought I might try something a tiny bit more vivid for Christmas.

Well the l'Oreal Mousse has made my hair feel dry as straw, the colour has gone on patchy, and where it is red it is more tart red than flame red.

Is there anything at all I can do, or should resort to a rueful smile and explanation and accept that I will be the butt of the jokes over the next couple of weeks?

No idea what you can do but didn't want your post to go unanswered. You have my sympathy though

Can you not just put your usual clairol one on top or a clairol shade a bit darker to mask the colour? Wash your hair a lot with a clarifying shampoo as that will strip done of the existing colour down too. I only use semi perm colours so if they are a disaster I know they wash out in 3 weeks. Good luck!

Could you use colour B4? it strips out the dye.

I would use colourB4. Read the instructions very carefully and follow to the letter. especially 1. rinsing times and 2. do not use a 2 part colour for 1 week after. Get a temporary / 1 part / 8 wash colour to apply straight after. The colourB4 will leave you lighter and more orange than you expect if you use permanent colour frequently, so pick a temp colour that is cooler / has more ash tones than you would normally choose. Once you are ready to re- colour with perm dye, stay away again from anything too warm or too dark as you will get a more drastic result that you were hoping for.

OTH, if the patchyness is relatively minor, you could wash it lots with head and shoulders (that will fade the dye), and then dye again with your old favourite. You may still be a bit patchy after though.

Thanks Sprinkles. Where do I get this colour B4 from then?

i would bung on another colour and definitely wouldn't try to strip the colour out

if its a red you can bung one over the top. (in my humble experience)

i once modelled for this fucking drop dead gorgeous bloke at Saks, i was 15.

he did a mick hucknell on me - chopped my waist length hair off, died it orange, permed it and styled it AKA mick.

i was fucking mortified.

hairdresser just put another dye over the top, but in a darker shade.
it worked.
(had to have it cut short...never ever again)

You can get it at boots and superdrug.

I would just use your usual dye over the top, perhaps not leave it on for quite as long as normal as your hair may already be porous from the last dye. Good luck.

Just to let you know I used Colour B4 and it worked brilliantly. Thanks!

It's great stuff. I'm a home hair colour whore and it has got me out of some horrible disasters!