Can I use permanent home hair colour over bleached hair?

[MegGriffin]

I cant afford the hair dressers at the moment. I had blond foils done in aug and now have dark roots with grey in them. Can i buy a home kit and go over the top (colour suggestions?) or will i be on dodgy ground? Using phone so appologies for bad post.

Watching, as wondering the same.

No. If you put a brown on top of bleach it will turn green. You need a pre colour first.

i've done this, it didn't turn green, but you do lose the bleach bits forever

Warning: Be very careful if you decide to do this.

Remember that when colouring over bleached hair, you're needing to fill in pigment where pigment was removed. So, if you're using a store bought kit, you won't need to mix it the same way you would if you were just dying it or touching up the roots. This is because in these instances you'd be using the box colour to lift your natural pigment out and deposit a new colour onto it.

In your case (bleached hair), the pigment has already been lifted so you don't need to do that step of the process. To accommodate for this you will need to 'lower' the strength of the box-kit developer so that the colour simply deposits pigment onto your hair.

The most straight forward way to 'lower' the box-kit developer is with water. What I'd suggest is that you dump half of the developer that comes with the box-kit and replace the exact same amount with water. Then mix the developer with the tube of colour and apply as normal.

Since you're filling in pigment (& I have no idea of the condition of your hair), be advised that it may take two times of doing this to achieve the colour you're hoping for. This would be because you need to add pigment to the bleached out hair so that more pigment can adhere to your hair cuticle. Basically, the colour molecules need to be able to 'grab on' to something.

Good luck!

blimey, i just used a nice and easy semi-perm

Meg - specifically in your case (grown out highlights with some grey in the new growth), I would do the water/developer combo first - but ONLY APPLY IT TO THE OLD HIGHLIGHTED BITS (meaning from the end of your new growth to the ends I your hair. ). Then, once that's filled in with some pigment, do the second box kit as normal on your ROOTS ONLY (to cover the grey) then add water to the left over mixture and pull that through the ends of your hair (as the second filling-in).

Tip - dry your hair between steps one and two as the water molecules will prevent as many colour molecules from adhering to your hair!

I didn't mean to 'shout' - sorry!

Disclaimer - my background is in using professional salon products and I give mu advice based on store bought permanent box-colour. For all I know, Boots or Superdrug may now sell pigment fillers! If this is the case then go with that for step one and then for step two use permanent to cover the roots (w/ watered down version to continue filling in the ends).

May seem like more work than slapping on one box of nice 'n easy but I'm assuming you want your hair to look good and retain the best possible condition!

I still think it gives that ' khaki' tinge to hair.

I know what you mean doin but it should only give that horrid greenish tinge if you're not putting enough pigment base back into the beached bits.

The last pigment to be bleached out of hair when turing it blonde is red, therefore you need to add red pigment back into it. (You basically need to work backwards, adding in the pigments that you took out.) Lowering the strength of the developer with water will allow the strongest amount of red pigment to adhere to the bleached hair. Then that will be the base from which you can add colour onto.

*turning

Also, the OP needs to cover grey in her roots so the semi-permanent you've used doin won't work for her.

(And we're all jealous that you don't need to cover greys!)

think you mean me, though i have grey hairs too, though i got bored with the brown and went back to highlights

You can buy red pigment to put on before dye. I've used it and the results are good.

Then definitely use a red pigment filler if you can get one in the shops! I haven't looked down a Boots colour aisle in years so didn't know how thorough the range of box colours would be.

(I think I've just shown my age...)

I don't know if Boots sell pre pigment. I get it from wholesalers. Home colours are so much better these days. I just don't want the op to have a hair disaster and then end up having to pay to have it put right or having to wear a smashing hat while it grows out

...this thread has just unearthed a deeply buried memory of having to go out to dinner with pink hair when I decided to dye my bleached-blonde hair auburn...

pink was not fashionable at the time. everybody was too polite to say anything (but they looked)

Done this.

Was fine came out a lovely dark chocolate, no khaki or orange.

Thank you for the replies.

Hats dont suit me so i need to work out if im brave enough to self colour or if i should buy a big bow to wear as a diversion tactic?!

I put brown on top of bleach all the time. Always turned out ok, the only thing is the bleachy bits fade quicker than the rest.

I was thinking of staying blond rather than brown so dont know if that makes a difference?

Just whack it on.

You don't know where I live,do you?

Ha ha no I don't but I am in awe of your hair colouring authority.