help ! hair dye disaster !

[crikeybill]

I dyed my hair dark brown ( usually I'm light brown ) with clairol perfect 10 dark brown. It's gone bloody black !!! I look like a 38 year old , washed out goth !! It's not a good look !! I'm so peed off. I did it a week ago and have washed it every day since with head and shoulders as someone said it tones it down....it hasn't !!! I am thinking of trying colour b4 , does this work or will I end up ginger ??
I feel so washed out and have had so many Crap comments from work coleagues, I really can't just leave it

I'd go with colour b4. I had similar experience with dark dye. I went and got highlights which worked, but the upkeep is a pain in the a*se and looks a bit crap because my base is so dark. I think I'd prefer to be a bit ginger rather than paying a feckin fortune for hair I'm not that mad about.

try washing it over and over again with head & shoulders, that really strips out the colour and makes it fade.

Don't know if this helps but T-gel shampoo completely stripped the colour out of my hair. Hope you get it sorted.

I've been washing it for a week every day with head and shoulders and I can't see s difference. What's worse is soon my roots ( I'm very grey ) will be coming through and I will have no choice but to do a black root touch up !!! I'm going to be stuck with black hair for summer at this rate !!
I want to use colour b4 but I'm scared lol.
Is a trip to the hairdresser inevitable ??

I used colour b4 recently for this same reason. Was v scared but ploughed on. It absolutely sinks to high heaven and the instructions are v precise. When it was all washed out it was a yellow colour and I then put on a dark ash blonde semi. After about a month or so it's def getting better
But u have to be really careful because once you've put that stuff on your hair becomes v porous and will soak up colour like a sponge so u need to put on a colour quite a bit lighter than u want.
Def don't regret using it

skinny did colour b4 actually turn you ginger then ?? Oh god......

Colour B4 may well turn it ginger, but an ash blonde colour over the top will sort that out

As Manda says though, it does strip your hair, so your best bet would be to let it rest for a couple of days before applying the new colour. That lets oil build up on your hair, which protects it during the colouring

I would go to a hairdressers. This happened to me. I kept trying to sort it out, but it just got worse and worse.

Hairdressers sorted it. In fact they made it look lovely. . Best £40.00 ever spent

What's in ColourB4?

Many years ago I had a dark dye disaster and I used something (IIRC by Daniel Field) that contained a high %age of Vitamin C which stripped out the colour but didn't wreck my hair.

Then about 8 years ago I did the same thing, looked like Shakin Stevens (and not in a good way ) but I bit the bullet and had my hair scalped to get rid of it.

if you have only coloured your hair once, colourB4 is unlikely to make your hair orange. This tends to happen when you have repeatedly dyed your hair with permanent dye. This is because the peroxide in the dye lightens your base colour a little each time you use it. The colourB4 removes the artificial pigment, leaving behind the lightened base colour.

Follow the instructions very carefully, especially the rinsing times. Do NOT use a 2 part (semi perm or permanent colour) for one week after. If you need to colour straight away, go several shades lighter and use a wash in wash out / level 1 / 1 part / temporary colour. Using a temp colour also means that if its the wrong one it'll be gone in a week, or faster if you use head and shoulders.

For future reference, clairol medium brown always comes out super dark! Go for a light brown or dark blonde.

There is another option, but you need to be careful as it is more risky as you have less control over the end result, and it can wreck your hair. It is quick though, and you can colour straight away. It's called a bleach bath. you get something like this and make it up according to the instructions. Then you mix it half and half with baby shampoo. Apply to your hair, comb through carefully and check it every couple of minutes. The second the colour seems OK, rinse it off. The final result will be lighter than you expect as it looks lighter once dry. Probably 10 minutes will be enough.

you need tatty devine. i will see if i can get her for you...

Hi I'm here! (have namechanged but I was/is TattyDevine)

I would use colour b4. In fact I have, several times myself. If you are constantly washing it with head and shoulders you will dry it out anyway, and Colourb4 dries your hair slightly but doesn't alter the structure or damage the core like repeated dying can so you may as well do it.

You might have a slightly rusty hue about it, depending. If I were you I would do it anyway, and buy this as well to use after doing the Colour B4. Its tempting to just do a box dye straight after but you WILL reoxidiise (or its highly likely with a dark brown) and go back to where you started - you HAVE to wait a week. In fact, some reoxidisation can occur even if you don't use peroxide in it (any 2 part box dye). So you MUST use a 1 part box dye like I have linked to if you want to cover it straight away and can't live with The Ginge for a week or so.

The one I linked to is best because it will neutralise the warm tones and add some depth but will not effect the overall result. It lasts up to 6 washes and after 3 washes or 7 days you can recolour with any dye you like.

This time though, don't go lower than a "level 5" so in terms of box dye stick to something described as Light Brown or at a pinch a Medium brown but do a strand test - most people find that even using a medium brown repeatedly an build up giving way to the Pauline Prescott effect

LOL at pauline prescott effect
Wow thanks so much for your advice. I think I will follow it through. I washed it about 8 times in the shower last night with head and shoulders and have made a bit of a dent. Trouble is, I now have a dark brown top of head, and black remainder of hair !!!! My bloody roots are coming through already too so as I predicted I have a white line down the centre of my head that really shows because of the balckness !!! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

DH says I should just go to the hairdressers and sort it out. He reckons if I do it myself I will make it worse. On the plus side he has offered to pay for it though . So Im torn. What will a hairdresser do ? Tone it down then dye it brown ?
Also Ive been losing A LOT of hair since the birth of dc3 10 months ago and im really scared I will go bald after all this messing !!

Thanks so much for all your advice ladies.

Im back at my desk today and have been greeted by " oh look its the old lady goth " by the size 8, 21 year old office junior that sits outside my room grrrrrrr. I feel a large batch of photocopying that I urgently need coming on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did a similar thing a few months ago but like a complete div I didn't listen to DunkyWhorey and tried to lighten in my unpleasantly coppery-brown mess to a nicer blonder colour. Which made it even worse, and I then used colour b4. which left me with very very freaky orange hair. so i went to the hairdressers and they had to put a permanent dark ash over the top, which didn't really suit me that much and which faded anyway.

I am now doing semi-permanent ash blonde on a regular basis until the ghastly ghostly orange has grown out. which will take years. listen to dunky and do exactly what she says.

Haha - oh dear Dundee. Right, well your DH is kind and to be fair if its a "one off mistake" a hairdresser would probably be able to sort it out, but they tend to use something called "effacor" or a "bleach bath" so they are generally bleaching out the pigment, whereas Colour B4, much as it is a bit of a faff, shrinks the colour molecules so you can rinse them out. It sort of reverses the process. It is kinder to hair - the reason not many hairdressers offer a reversal service using hydrosulphate is that you cannot use 2 part dyes (i.e anything with hydrogen peroxide, which is anything that isn't a 6-8 wash rinse in job) straight after due to reoxidisation - and hairdressers want/need to have you walking out the salon that day looking good and "finished", their reputation survives on it whereas if you walk out a hairdresser an orange scarecrow then it can damage their brand. Plus, the results are less "predictable" than bleach - at least with bleach or effacor they can do a strand test and know exactly what will happen - whereas a reversal depends on a lot of things including how pourous your hair is, how much you've dyed it, whether you've used silicones, or GHD's as well as silicones, and all sorts.

The reason your roots are lighter than the rest is that you have build up - bear in mind when you colour you are "layering" the effect. The more you dye the darker you get. Even a dark blonde shade can build up to a mid brown over time if you run it through.

Defo do the ColourB4, I promise that if you do that AS WELL as have the bottle of stuff (Wella 6 wash) I recommended you will achieve your goal of ridding yourself of the dark brown AND whilst it might not be your ideal shade in the meantime, it definitely won't look silly - it will look mainstream and sensible!!! And maybe even a bit shiny. Who knows!

I agree with Dunky, go with Colour B4.I used it a few times, then always followed with, this

www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-price-comparison/Hair_Colourant/Clairol_Nice_n_Easy_Non_Permanent_Hair_Colour_8_Washes_75_Light_Ash_Brown.html

Hth.

Just to say that I followed the amazing dunky's advice re colourb4 even tho i was v scared and it turned out so well, i actually didn't need to colour it, it was kind of just chance but i ended up pretty much back to my natural colour (which has got some red in it).

and the condition is fine too!