Stripping out blonde bleach - didn't work. How do I go brown?

[Middleoftheroad]

So I used the Colourless hair dye stripper and it made my fake blonde even blonder (I am naturally dark brown with 50 per cent white and grey, had hair bleached and highlighted last year to go blonde but don't like it. plus uneven. Not had it dyed for weeks though)

I don't think I was supposed to use hair stripper on blonde.

Then I used a semi permanent Casting Creme Gloss sweet honey colour (see shade below) and it's kinda strawberry blonde. its ok but uneven and you can see the blonde beneath. I know it'll just wash out too.

But I want to be light/medium brown. I used the above gingery blonde as a mid way step in my wisdom.

Do I use another stripper or do I risk trying a semi brown?

I just want the blonde gone!

I am only an enthusiastic home colourer but I am pretty sure you need to be adding pigment rather than stripping. I am sure a professional will be around surely.to tell you what tones are needed in the correct order. Good luck.

Thanks. I just assumed hair stripper worked on all colours (doh!)

Don't want to end up at salon. Not just the £ I can't stand sitting there for hours....

When you bleach your hair, you remove pigment, so a hair stripper will not work as there isn't anything to remove. You need to add in colour now (preferably at a salon). As you say it is a Strawberry blonde now, that means you have replaced some of the red pigment that is removed by bleach. You can now add on a dark blonde colour and it should come out ok. Just be warned that bleached hair grabs hold of the dye very well so it may come out darker than you expect.

make SURE you go red first before going brown or black. you need a lot of red tones to go darker from blonde.

i know.. i thought 'hey black will cover it. I went blue. Going red or very red-brown then brownier brown work brilliantly.

you can use semi perm for red layer as stripped hair will take colour v well..

hth!

I would continue to use semi permanent dyes by the way. The main reason a dye is classed as permanent is because it contains bleach. You don't need you hair lightened at all, so stick to a semi permanent. The colour will last just as long, it just doesn't contain bleach.

You definitely can't strip blonde. As Vichill has said, you have to add pigment and it will need to be a warm shade or it could go a strange khaki brown.

Don't use any more bleach, it strips the colour out and leaves the hair porous so will soak up any semi permanent colour you put in.

You now have uneven patches as you have bleached over highlights then added colour, which is then going to absorb unevenly.

As PPs have said, bleach IS a stripper, so there isn't anything for you to remove. Whatever you do don't use the stripper again as they are extremely damaging to your hair. Try a second application of the semi-permanent colour.

Thanks! Well I added another Castings - iced mocha so not too dark. It's come out a lovely golden brown because of the blonde and red underneath. It's another semi and under no illusion that it won't wash out quickly or hide the white and grey hairs, but I like it so much more than before.