Should I dye my dark hair blonde??

[ralice]

I've dyed my hair dark brown for the past 10 years. I'm stuck in a rut fashion/style-wise (jeans, converse and a tshirt every day. 'Dressing up' is swapping slim-fitting light blue jeans for dark skinnies) and I really need to change SOMETHING to give me more confidence and to help me feel, well, nice again.

I bought some colourb4 to strip the brown dye out and also picked up some blonde. Only now I'm too scared to go through with it!

If it's not clear from the (terrible) photo, I'm naturally very pale. Blue eyes. My natural hair colour is a mousy brown, from what I can remember! My eyebrows are quite light and generally crappy, I use a brown eyebrow pencil to make them somewhat similar and to fill in gaps.

Help! Should I go through with it? I'm torn.

It's too blonde, isn't it?

[clumsyduck]

In my limited experience I think a blonde dye won't work unless you are very blonde and going darker . To go dark to light it needs to have bleach in it I think . I destroyed my hair bleaching it back in my youth though !!! I'd go to a hairdresser I know it's expensive but if you after a bit of a revamp then you don't want to end up disappointed

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

There is something about using Colour B4 that means when you use a dye after, it oxidises and produces a dark colour. The hair grabs onto the dark tones, I'm not sure of the science behind this but it is common.

Try using Head and Shoulders or a clarifying shampoo. That will wash out the semi dye more quickly. Then I would use a permanent blonde dye. If your hair has slightly orange tones, go for an ash blonde to counteract that and chose lighter than you think you'll need, so lightest ash blonde, ultra light or similar. It won't come out as light as the picture on the box, the guide on the back gives you a better idea.
I like the L'Oreal Excellence range.

[camena]

I'd wait a good few weeks before you put a lightening product anywhere near it. ColourB4 is quite a strong process that will have chemically stressed the hair. Bad things are likely to happen if you add more strong chemicals too quickly.

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

The lighter blonde permanent box dyes do contain a fair amount of bleach, clumsyduck so will lighten hair but you're right, bleach can be very damaging. Follow the instructions carefully and don't re bleach too often.
If roots need doing every month apply only to the roots or you will damage your hair.

[clumsyduck]

Ah ok just because op said Itl wash out in 24 washes I thought maybe she'd bought the wrong stuff
Yeh I seriously ruined my hair bleaching it to often

Op just be careful now I probably wouldn't stick another colour on it yet !!

[Blueisthemagicnumber]

Use head and shoulders like a pp said. If you really can't afford to go to a hairdresser, get a purple shampoo. This will take any brassiness away. They sell it quite cheaply in Savers. Or look for the pastel colour section in Superdrug. As well as pastel colours they will have temporary toners for lightened hair. Go for an ashy one, or even a silver one to encourage cool tones.

[jasmine1979]

There are a couple of reasons your hair has reoxidised op.
Using a 24 wash out hair colour after using colourb4 is a huge no no. You need to use one of the dyes like nice and easy 8 wash in an ash tone for at least a few weeks before letting even a semi perm dye near your hair.
The other thing is to make sure you rinse out the colourb4 for long enough. I think I did it for nearly 45minutes in the end! It is a very long time, but it makes all the difference!

[VeganCow]

Colourb4 is crap. It works for a day, then it oxidises and goes darker over the next 24 hours. Then as soon as you put a dye on, any colour, even blonde it goes back to dark again. Its the peroxide in it that makes it dark.
Read a forum yrs ago where the maker of the product came and answered questions and he always recommended putting an ash blonde on after the stripping process, in a semi, and seeing what happened. But, I reckon the most you can expect with colourb4 is 1-2 shades lighter.

[PoppyBirdOnAWire]

I think your being brunette really suits you.

[PoppyBirdOnAWire]

...your brunette colour

[SuperFlyHigh]

if you want a complete change why don't you go for a model night at your local salon who does them and ask for that colour (they normally follow what you want).

far better risk of it turning out nice rather than a disaster or nothing happening.

[ralice]

Wow thanks for all the replies! Clearly I have no idea what I'm really doing, I'm actually quite amazed I've survived this long! Ha!

Luckily my hair is in good condition after all this so I don't think I've done any damage.

To be honest, I think I might just stick with brown after all this faff. Not the style revolution I was aiming for but oh well!

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

[Goldorsilver]

As someone said above, the colour b4 stuff makes your hair very porous so any dye you put on top will come out much darker. I used it to strip a few years of bright red dye out of my hair, then it went the light orange/coppery colour and I used a very light ash brown which turned it dark brown. It did get most of the red out though so I was very impressed with it. Left my hair in nice condition too.

I would wash with vosene or head and shoulders to lighten it up and see what happens

[ralice]

DH has head and shoulders so I'll give that a go!