Bloody green hair AGAIN! Any hairdressers can advise?

[DoinItForTheKids]

DDs hair. This is about the third time we've been to a proper salon to get brassy/yellowy bleached hair changed into a more ashy tone. Third time it's gone green. It looked beautiful when she walked out the salon but its gone into 3 distinctly different colours from the original mid-light brown base at the roots and ash on the rest.

Now we have green (again) at the ends and some small sections have gone a peachy colour (on the ash parts) and therefore the darker roots and underneaths now seem to look really dark.

What I want to try and understand is, why does this keep happening even with 'good' salon colours? What is the stylist not taking account of (porosity, condition?) And she knew it had gone green on previous occasions. My daughter uses purple shampoo to counteract brassyness but this greening has happened several times now and in each case within 14 days of the colour.

This was a £97 bill for hair that looks really really dreadful.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated as this is now two separate hairdressers and three separate occasions of the same thing happening.

Cheers!

Your DD does have beautiful hair.

If you are unsure as to the salon's capabilities to put it right, I'd ask for a refund.

I think the problem is that her hair was lightened previously and then the hair dye that's been put in since is too ash with not enough warmth. Hair goes green when it's been lightened/bleached when there's not enough red in the new brown shade. Ash has no red. As your DD's base colour is auburn, it has a lot of red naturally and so she probably needs a warmer brown shade not ash brown. More lightest chestnut, or even a warm dark blonde.

This is why people are suggesting tomato ketchup, as it contains red literally to put the red shade (warmth) back in the ash brown.

You need a salon specialising in colour correction really as to be honest not every colourist knows how to correct colour especially on top of other bleaching/lightening/ then dyeing. It's experience more than anything and again to be honest some of the younger colourists know how to add colour but they don't know how to correct colour, it's completely different.

When my brunette highlighted hair went greenish (when I was much younger!) I had some success with colour mousse to lightly stain it. My hair was a lot shorter than your DD's though so it didn't take much whereas hair your DD's length and thickness this probably wouldn't be practical. I wonder if a tint in a warmer very light golden brown might help.

I wouldn't recommend any more ash shades though, not for the time being.

Hope she gets it sorted! On the plus side her hair is still beautiful and colours can get fixed and they do grow out

If your daughter does have it redone and they're wanting to add highlights and toners then I don't think you'd be unreasonable to ask them to throw in an Olaplex treatment first? That would repair the broken bonds in her bleached hair and protect it from further damage.

Blonde toned hair will stay looking good if the hair is really well looked after at home too. So invest in intensive conditioners, oil treatments and protective serums, heat protection as well as toning at home.
I'm sorry this is working out so expensive for you

Oh and I would not be using that violet/purple shampoo etc at all.

That is for keeping bleached or lightened hair from going brassy, not ash brown. Ash brown doesn't go brassy. I would probably use a shampoo and conditioner formulated to protect coloured hair. It''s not necessarily the direct cause of the green but it would only strip any little remaining warmth away from the previously bleached then dyed ash brown hair.

Just re-read through the posts.

The old hairdressing technique to put any kind of brown back onto bleached hair was to dye it red first, then dye it brown.

New colours have red built in but I cannot understand why you were advised to go for a colour close to DD's natural on the top section (which is warm, seeing as she's auburn) then an ash shade on the rest to the ends?!

The ends have not enough warmth so they've gone green. The top has been dyed with a warm colour dye but it's faded so it's left a peach shade.

You really do need a colour correctionist or a very experienced colourist. And again, definitely no more violet/purple shampoo, and definitely not the Bleach white whatever it was mentioned upthread, omg. Step away from these products! They are not designed to keep brassiness from brunette/ash dyed hair. They are designed to keep brassy tones away from bleach blonde.

To be fair lilac the main issue was that her hair was bleached blonde.

Op explained that this was the third time she had visited the salon to get brassy/yellow bleached hair changed to a more ashy tone.
That's why posters are recommending a violet toner to neutralise.

ILostIt - this is what that Bleach White Toner does:

"Nourishing toner to knock out yellow tones from blonde hair. If your hair just can't be light enough, this may be your new hair hero-achieve your lightest, brightest blonde with expert help from Bleach London".

Op's DD now has dyed brown/auburn hair on top of the bleach blonde. She has no blonde to knock out yellow tones from. She isn't looking for her lightest, brightest blonde.

Not having a go. Just saying it's not the right product at all.

It's not brown, ash or otherwise, Lilac, look at the other picture.

She had a root stretch with an ash toner, which made it appear darker initially but has washed out to a yellowy-blonde with a silvery-green tinge at the ends.

At this point, the best thing to do would be to leave the root stretch as it is and retone the ends with a warmer toner, preferably using a quasi as a toner, as this will give longer lasting results than a semi or regular toner.

I'd still look at shades with a violet secondary tone, to keep any brassiness at bay. Ash brown shades can go brassy but tend to lean more to the orange side than yellow. If the green is still present when it's re-toned the stylist could add a tiny dot of red to the mix to neutralise it but it's so pale, a warmer colour might cover it, especially if the stylist applies a toner a level darker than the bleached ends.

I'm not really seeing the green from the pictures - doesn't look that bad

Well. I've emailed the hairdresser. Can I say that I was really really fair and very very nice in my wording and tone - I've got no need to slate or berate her, at the end of the day it is just hair and all I want is a fair resolution.

Anyway, she 'wondered why I'd left it for six weeks before telling her'. I have the invoice confirming that the appointment was two weeks ago so that's a moot point. She starts off by saying she used a tint because she didn't want to damage DDs hair any more and saying 'it should last 4 - 6 weeks for someone shampooing their hair 1 - 2 times a week'. So I replied and provided the evidence to say that it was actually a fortnight ago and therefore the hair hadn't done the amount of time she'd said it would.

I then said that I'd taken advice and that I had some concerns that the approach taken may not have been right based on DD having naturally auburn hair that was bleached, was quite dry, and contained no red. She said that she would 'do exactly the same thing again if we walked in there tomorrow' asking her to sort DDs hair. (Which literally makes NO sense!).

Bearing in mind the hair went green (which has to be classed as a fail surely) but the cut and blow dry were fine, I asked just for a refund of the colour element (£70). To confirm she didn't do an Olaplex (although DD always had this at the previous salon whilst DD was keeping her blonde going).

She's just confirmed she refuses to offer a refund and would be happy to 'have a look at the hair and take it back to a natural tone (ie blonde or brown)'. She refused to explain what approach she would take and mentioned she was 'happy to lift the colour from the ends to take the green tone out of the hair which is there' (she doesn't say how).

You see, this doesn't fill me with confidence - at all. And so if I don't feel there's any point going back to her, I'll have to leave it and be out of pocket. Again.

It's ok though because she's 'very understanding' .

A tint that lasts 4-12 washes? I'm thinking she used something like www.coolblades.co.uk/wella-color-fresh-ph6-5-acid.html, in which case, you might be best off refreshing it yourself.

Those colours are simple and non-damaging, it's a case of squeezing it onto damp hair, combing it through and leaving it to develop.

If you use this in violet underneath, it will neutarlise any yellow.

That's what I was suggesting Frequency, just tone it at home rather than spending hundreds of pounds in a salon. You can't go far wrong with colour correcting toners as they're subtle and wash out fairly quickly (as you have discovered Op!)

There are loads of decent ones on the market that won't damage the hair. That also means you can maintain the colour at home.

Sorry you couldn't get a refund OP that's annoying. Maybe it would have been better to turn up at the salon with dd, parading her green bits in front of customers!

Sometimes I get the impression hairdressers only care about how you look when you leave the salon? There's no advice about after care or how to maintain the look at home. I've had cuts that look great but it's bloody impossible to recreate the look at home after you've washed it because they spent 3 hours blowdrying and straightening it to within an inch of it's life.

Sometimes I get the impression hairdressers only care about how you look when you leave the salon

That's not true, in most cases. We want you to be happy because we want you to come back to us and say nice things to your friends about us.

I think what happens is hairdressers go into hair because we love it. We've been giving our Girl's World heads Hollywood blow dries and corn rows since we were six and so have all our colleagues. We met out mates in hairdressing school and the ones we knew from before hairdressing ask to us to style their hair and have done since we were wandering about with poodle perms and coke tin fringes.

It sometimes doesn't occur to us to advise you on how to blow dry your hair because everyone in our worlds knows you blow dry x style with brush and finish it with products A and B, it's common sense to us

It's naughty, especially as there's entire unit on advise and consult in our qualification, with exams and coursework and everything. As in we literally have to sit an exam on how to advise clients.

I personally, do try to remember to offer helpful tips if someone is having a restyle but it wouldn't occur to me to do that if they were having a trim unless they explicitly mentioned something they struggle with.

I'm not sure why OP's salon is being arsey. They clearly haven't advised or consulted if OP and her DD didn't know the toner would wash out so quickly, so the fault is theirs. Good practise would be to rectify it for free.

Sorry Frequency didn't mean to shit on all hairdressers! In this example OP and daughter seem to be in the dark about exactly what was done and how to maintain it at home.
Lots of hairdresser like yourself do care

I didn't think you were shitting all over all hairdressers . Hairdressers have come across bad hairdressers too and had have bad blow dries.

I've lost count of the times I've said "bouncy blow dry please," and walked out with stick straight hair stuck to my scalp . I just leave them to it now and wash it again when I get home.

I used to love my Girl's world head too. It was a sad day when I cut all her hair off and decided to paint it pink with nail varnish. Options were limited after that.

Frequency - I can’t understand the logic of applying an ash or violet shade onto previously bleached hair and then using violet shampoo etc as upkeep.

Surely the hair has gone green because it’s been stripped of its warmth and further ash tones and violet shampoo are worsening the problem?

If the hairdresser had put on a golden blonde or golden dark blonde and then it started going brassy, that might be the time to use a violet shampoo (sparingly) to tone it down? But I cannot honestly see the logic of putting an ash shade in bleached auburn hair and expect it to look natural particularly when the top section has been dyed a mid-brown separately. Surely it would never match as top section has warm tones (existing natural warm tones also from the mid brown dye which unless ash will contain warm tones too).

The green tinge is a sign that it’s lacking in warm tones. No matter what’s gone on before, that’s where it is now. You can have golden or warm blonde that would not automatically go brassy. On someone with naturally auburn based hair, why dye the ends ash/then use violet? A golden blonde would look more natural than ash blonde

The hair has gone green because an ash shade with either green or blue was used to tone it. When it's started washing out, the blue or green undertones have been exposed and blue on yellow = green.

Green only happens because of no warmth when bleached hair is being darkened by more than 2 levels and shows up right away, which is why you remember hairdressers using red before browns. We still do that but the way professional colours are these days, it's often easier just to add a red tone to the colour you chose.

OP said the main issue was the yellow/brassiness, a colour with a violet undertone will eliminate the yellow and make the hair appear more natural than raw bleached yellow. It won't be warmer and won't blend with the roots as well as a warmer shade would but it will cancel the yellow. In a root stretch the roots are supposed to be a different colour to the ends, dark roots are a look now.

Ps OP - I am not a hairdresser, so my contribution is purely personal speculation, not professional. I am the (not so proud) owner of past home-bleached brunette hair disasters, so I’m reading with interest what the professionals say here too! Genuinely curious. I’m happy to be educated

I see your point Lilac. My logic would be that the toner on the ends of the hair giving it a green tinge will quickly wash out after a few more washes. Correcting a toner mistake with dye would be like smashing a nut with a sledgehammer.
That leaves the original problem that the bleached parts of the hair are too yellow and brassy.

Frequency - that makes sense, thanks.

I throughly the main issue was the green ends, not brassiness I must have misread somewhere. Sorry about that.

It's been a damn long journey of hair colouring disasters time after time after time. I'm burnt out with salons at the minute if I'm honest.

I think for hair colour not to last the length of time she said it should - deserves a refund. For the hair to go green in places - deserves a refund.

I wasn't really sure what she meant by the approach she said she'd take if I took DD back - it's a bit vague and lacking in detail and I fear if we set foot in there again it's gonna be slapping on an actual dye but I'm honestly not sure what she'd specifically do - if anyone can illuminate me on what they think she means I'd be grateful (and whether what she's suggesting is gonna do the job or not)...

We did get aftercare advice. Well, we got wrong aftercare advice as it was 'you MUST wash it with purple shampoo" which clearly was utter rot.

So, these tints look quite good that you've recommended.

Can you tell me exactly what I should do with one of these? - would I put it on all over the hair, would we need to do the violet 'underneath' first or am I mixing that with another colour? Am I putting it (and another toner?) on for different durations on different parts of the hair length? And then what about aftercare to help lock the colour in as long as is reasonably expected for this type of colouring method?

I have found a salon now (better late than never) that does colour correction and train apprentices as well so might pop in to them so if DD went as a model, it might cost nothing or just not very much.

Yes Lilac you're right, the green ends are the issue - now - but before that we were trying to address brassy blonde - we've had so many colour -ups we've been trying to rectify them, then rectify the attempt to rectify and so on and so on. It is really unfair.

This hairdresser simply cannot understand what I said to her about bleached auburn hair and how an ash might not be ok - she's adamant it is ok. Even with the evidence that it's clearly not!

If the shade you chose has a 6 in it, i.e 10/36, you won't need to add violet. 6 is violet, so any tint with a 6 after the / has violet.

The first number is the level or depth. DD looks to be a 10 in the pic you showed, which means you need to stay with a 10/something, 9/something or 8/something. If you go lower than this, you need to 'pre-pig' with the second tint I linked (the perfecton one) to replace the warmth as Lilac mentioned and prevent more green.

For a level 6 you'd pre-pig with orange, then apply the level 6 tint over the orange hair. For level five you need red/orange, lower than that you need red.

If the tint you choose does not have /6 in it, there is a possibility the brassiness would show through, so you would pre-tone (with prefecton). It's mixed with water, applied to towel dried hair and not rinsed out and you throw on the tint over the top.

They're designed for home use for use between pricey colour services or to tone severely compromised hair so you really can't go wrong with them. You apply to damp hair, comb through, leave for 20 minutes and rinse off.

There really isn't a way to make them last longer, sadly. They are a true-semi permanent shade, however a little goes a long way, so one bottle should give you a couple of applications. Other than that the advise would be usual for coloured hair - use a colour safe shampoo (not violet - they tend to be quite harsh), wash your hair in cool water and go easy on the heat tools. They'll still rinse out within 4-8ish washes.

My DD uses them as she does have severely compromised hair, after also playing with bleach. They wash off her hair within a week but she washes her hair daily and it is extremely porous.

You don't need to apply at different times for different sections but if you find the ends are fading before the mid lengths, you could re-tint the ends and leave the mid lengths, it's not at all damaging to the hair and can be used as often as needed.

I'd go with the 10/36 if DD is happy with that, that way you only need to apply the tint and not bother with any pre-pigging or pre-toning.

As an aside and for future reference 'dyes' are normally used as toners these days, so if it's suggested in the future don't panic. They're applied differently when used as a toner and would last longer than a true semi. I can't understand why the stylist didn't tone with a quasi dye to begin with? DD's hair does not look severely compromised in the pics, unless she's hiding an inch of split ends under leave-in conditioner?

If the salon is offering to re tone for free, let them and once that fades then you can try another salon or buy a home toner, although 'lifting' screams bleach bath to me, don't let her lift anything without explaining what she is doing first i.e pre-toning with red to neutralise the green = fine. Bleach bath/soap cap/anything involving lightener = not needed. Bleaching out the green would be overkill, it'll be gone in a few washes.

If you want something longer lasting ask the first salon to tone with a violet based quasi colour when/if you go back to have it corrected. If they refuse, ask them to explain why. The only time I wouldn't use a quasi to tone with is if the hair was at it's limit and using an oxidative tint would be likely to cause breakage.

Frequency - will those light blonde toner shades (10, 9, 8) be enough to knock the green out though?

In the past the only way to knock green out would be a brunette dye, if you were lucky you’d manage to get a decent light brown/almost dark blonde colour (rather than actual brown, which can turn out too dark on porous hair - I’ve dyed my bleached disasters mid-brown before and had them come out dark brown).

I can see how it a violet blonde would sort out the brassy peach top section but not the green ends which op said is the main problem now. The brassiness was the previous problem (what she was attempting to cover up before this last visit).

They're not really toners, as such. Toners tend not to be used much in the UK these days. I gather, from hairdressing forums, that the US still use toners. They're a tint, with tones in which help with toning but they also contain natural pigments too.

I can't say for certain as lighting etc sometimes effects how light/dark the hair looks in photographs but if the hair is as light as it appears in the second pic, then yeah, the natural tones in the colour should cover the green tinge. If there's still loads of it (and it is def caused by previous toners washing out) then OP's DD could wash with a clarifying shampoo and it should remove most if not all of the remaining green.