I have red permanent hair dye, and I want to go golden blonde. Is this possible?

[KirstyJC]

My original colour is medium brown, heavily laced with white hairs! So for ages I have been dying it various shades of red, always permanent. At the moment I have a lovely regrowth stripe and I have booked a salon appointment for the weekend as I fancy a change.

I have very long hair atm, most of the way down my back, and in the past it has never been possible to bleach it as it would be in awful condition, so when going golden blonde before I have had highlights in various diffrerent lighter tones, which has also helped disguise the regrowth. However, this was always on a background (dyed) colour of mid brown and now I am red.

I think just having highlights again on top of the red would look ridiculous so I wondered if it is possible to bleach it to strip the red out, then overdye with a golden blonde colour with high or lowlights as needed. It would need to be cut first I presume and the style I am considering would probably be short enough to use bleach to lighten it without destroying the hair condition (which amazingly is very good!).

Is this even possible? Or should I just dye it all a mid brown initially and then go from there? I would like it all done at the same time if possible, and I was thinking if I can go lighter all over first then I could keep up with the regrowth by dying it at home in between salon visits- the white hairs would be lighter and the brown would be darker, so might fit with higlights/lowlights?

Any hairdressers out there with advice? Thanks.

You can definitely bleach it to a very light orange. It will go from orange to light orange to banana yellow and it will leave your hair damaged. You'll need an ash blonde over to tone the brassiness out but you'll get there. A hairdresser may not do this saying it isn't possible but it most certainly is within a day or two at home. You'll need a cut and lots of hot oil treatments and leave in conditioner.

If you dye it brown you'll still have the red pigment underneath so you'll have to very gradually go blonder with highlights or you hit the same issue as above. A hairdresser is more likely to highlight this though.

Hmmm sounds like a lot of hard work (and expensive trips to the salon!)

Maybe it might be easier to just get it dyed all over with medium brown this time round......

Food for thought, thanks.

I'm exactly the same!

Its a lengthy process but can be done...you need to get the red stripped out first and really you need to get a hairdresser to do it.....I had my hair red and went back to blonde...my hairdresser stripped red out, and then highlighted it - it was fine!

It's not a lengthy process really, You need to strip your hair, You can use colour b4, Colour oops or any other colour remover, You may need to do this twice or three times as red can be a bit stubborn.

I would go for a professional colour remover as colour b4 absolutley stinks. You can get these online.

Heat makes this process work better so once the stripper is on warm your hair with a medium heat from a hairdryer.

You can use bleach straight after you strip colour, But as you have previously dyed your hair it may take a bit of effort to get the pigment out, hence recommending more than one removal.

Dyed hair is often a lot lighter than orange once all the staining is removed from the cuticle, You may be a golden blonde under the dye as they contain peroxide and this obviously lightens the hair.

You do not need a hairdresser for this! it's easy.

I went from platinum to purple,got bored after a week so I went back to platinum, and I didn't have a hairdresser.

I do have a lot of experience though, and that helps but it is not difficult, Strippers don't damage your hair and even if you just do this yourself you will save a lot of money compared to going to a salon and having someone else do it for you.

You may need a bleach after the stripper though. If its very light but yellow/orangey an ash based colour will get it blonde or if you want to faff with toner a silver shampoo or purple toner works wonders.