Home bleach - help!

[leolion81]

Ah can someone please help me. I have darkish brown hair that I've had highlighted a few times to the point it's more or less a solid blonde. I was already due them being redone at lockdown and had 2 inch roots which I used a box blonde on, didn't lighten much just went orangey. So I thought a Jerome Russell bleach kit would be the answer.

I now have 2/3 inches of yellow hair at my roots. I left the bleach on for almost the full 90 minutes, used a good purple shampoo but it looks awful.

What can I do to remedy this, bleach again? Buy a toner? Ideally I'd like to just go back to my natural colour but I've heard dying brown over bleach turns it green.

My lengths of hair are quite an icy blonde which just highlights the yellow. If anyone could help it would be appreciated!

You could try a white toner. I bleached my own roots and it’s not perfect but the white toner really helped.

Also, rather than dying brown have you consider going a grey/purple semi perm? I think that’s best done over white toner anyway.

I think you’d need a toner or you could get an ash blonde dye and to put over all your hair to help blend the roots and tone down the yellow. Would probably make your hair a darker shade of blonde though.

I would probably gently bleach again but don't use Jerome Russell, it's awful stuff (I know from experience!) . I home bleach and use Schwarzkopf Blonde Me but it's expensive (you get loads though but you probably only need one batch, depends on how much you want to spend?) but use bleach with a 20 vol developer.

I'm just not sure a toner is going to do much of your roots are very yellow, I think you might need to go a little bit lighter?

You can use a brown dye over it, just make sure that you use one thats got some red undertones in it (I think a lot of box dyes do actually anyway) and you won't get green that way, as the red cancels out the green. I think the brown dye, maybe a semi permanent rather than permanent, might be your best best at this stage?

Toner yes
Bleach no

Take it from someone who applied bleach 3 times and lost about 50 per cent of her hair.

Hairdresser here, if you put more bleach on your hair you are risking it breaking off in chunks, try a toner with 10 vol developer.

Thank you everyone for the advice
I put more purple shampoo on my dry hair and left it for an hour and thankfully that has toned the yellow down! I presume that won't last long so will try a toner, depending how that goes I'll dye brown. Good to know a brown dye with red tones will work ok.
Thanks again you've all been very helpful and I have a few options to consider.

Bleach again but don't use 30 volume maybe 10. You need to lift more to remove the yellow orange.

Bleach London White Toner kit will save you! It's a semi permanent toner that turns yellow to white blonde/platinum. I highly recommend.

The repairing conditioner that comes in the box is also brilliant.

Continue using your purple shampoo when you wash to maintain the colour.

I would steer clear of the brown dye all over. A lot can go wrong with that, particularly as your base colour has different tones in it and parts are bleached. A semi permanant will wash out in a few weeks leaving a horrible baked bean colour hue in your hair. Permanent brown (box dye) is notorious for coming out far too dark.

Step away from the brown dye!

I've been following all the highlighted blonde threads but still had an itch to scratch and tried dying my highlighted dark blonde hair with lightest ash blonde. Roots could only be described as irn bru coloured contrasting yuckily with the white highlighted strips. Purple shampoo did bog all as did a toner. I got a darker ash blonde dye, did it all over my hair and it sorted it. Bit darker than my normal but looks presentable. I'll probably lighten it a bit with lightening spray. Better than it was and def better than the copper horror.

@sunkengalleon I ended up going back to brown! Really pleased with it actually and a lot less maintenance. Blonde is great but so expensive and certainly not one to try at home! I suspect there are many with iron bru roots at the moment

Leolion81 can I ask which brown dye did you use, I want to go back to my natural brown colour after highlighting my hair for years, I coming up to sixty and had enough of hairdressers.

@lindyloo57 it was Superdrug own brand, really easy to use and has a lovely bottle of conditioner with it. I bought two boxes as I have long hair and it was two for £7. Natural rich brown was the shade, a nice medium brown colour. I was worried it would go green over the bleach but it looks really good

Thanks for that will try it, when I pluck up the courage.