Hair help needed

[surlycurly]

During lockdown I dyed my really thick but silky, dark brown hair purple. When I tried to dye it back it went black. A visit to the hair dresser and I was told the colour needed to be stripped out. Which was done. Three times. I was supposed to end up with a dark blonde and brown balayage. I didn't. I ended up with a coppery brown frizz. Four months on and my incredibly long hair is now broken, frizzy and shoulder length. It's back to being dark but the condition is horrific. The hair dresser saw me weekly for several months (they admitted screwing up and wrecking my hair) but since December I've not been near them (level 4 here) and the condition is getting worse and worse. It won't curl, it breaks when blow drying and it looks crap all the time. I'm used to having fantastic hair (not a big headed comment), and now I've got this horrible, short mess. I have spent a fortune on masks and shampoos and fancy products but nothing really works. Any ideas that I can try (I've done the coconut oil over night etc)? I could cry every time I look at it. Also, any ideas to encourage hair growth? The short bits are only about 2 1/2 inches long. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Bump

Can you post a pic?

I think it’s impossible to repair hair when it’s been so badly damaged with dye and lighteners like this, so having a proper short cut is the only way forward, Ie start again,

Sadly it sounds like you will have to cut off as much as you can stand and then it will be a matter of patience.

Oh goodness that sounds awful for you.

I would stop blow drying all together.

Keep doing overnight makes with your head covered up.

Maybe do conditioner only for a bit, no shampoo

Maybe take extra vitamins etc?

Not sure if it can be salvaged based on what you said but I'd try those steps.

I'm guessing you've tried Olaplex? If not 0 and 3 together are supposed to be good but 2 is supposed to be better if you can get your hands on it (it's only supposed to be used by salons).

Thanks all- I've already cut about 8 inches off and it's now quite short and straggly as it continues to break. I did use olaplex at the beginning but it was so spongy it didn't seem to matter what I used in my hair. I've had several salon strength treatments to use at home (given to me by the hairdresser) but they have now run out. I'm properly gutted as my hair was always my best feature and I never did anything to it re straightening etc. It was in great condition until some silly person over processed it and now it's ruined. I know it sounds trivial but it's damaged my self confidence massively.

Aveda damage remedy.

My hair is an overprocessed shitshow too. And broken off in places. I am so, so cross with my (now ex) hairdresser.

If you can get Olaplex 2, do. Otherwise, use the Olaplex 3 at least once a week.

My routine is finger comb any knots of out hair, then comb hair with varnished wooden comb (no brushes, nothing rough). Wash hair with shampoo for damaged/dry hair. I'm using Shwarzkopf Beology shampoo, which probably isn't available there since it's for the Asian market, but if you see it, it's good. Agitate your hair as little as possible while shampooing. Then, instead of conditioning, I squeeze the excess moisture from my hair, and liberally apply a hair mask. I'm using one from Ryo, but again, I think this is only available in Asia. I was using Aussie reconstructor, but it's shit. You need the thickest, buttery-est mask you can get. So thick it's practically a solid. It's probably full of silicone, but good, because our hair is wrecked and it needs all the coating it can get.

Then, I gently comb the mask through my hair and wash it out. I only rinse downwards, if you see what I mean. No agitation, no swooshing the hair around so it might tangle again.

I blot my hair with a towel. Again, no agitation, just squeezing, and the softest towel I have. Then, I put ten pumps of Ryo hair oil in my palms and run it through my hair. There's an OGX argan oil which I also like, but it's hard to get here. After putting the oil in my hair, I comb through and leave it to air dry.

Once dry, it seems normal. Soft. Obviously the broken bits are still broken, but they're not obvious.

You want to take an iron supplement, preferably one with Biotin in it, and/or a hair, skin, nails supplement with Biotin in it...

Eggs have Biotin in them, as do sunflower seeds, peanuts, avocado, and sweet potato, apparently - but I have found I needed to up my ferritin stores via an iron pill and also add B12, Biotin, and eat more eggs. I make curried hardboiled eggs every week or two, and eat a lot of sweet potato. Also omega-3s, so salmon, fish oil capsules, etc.

My hair began to grow again and is now ridiculously long and no longer looks like tumbleweeds on the last four inches, also. It's quite an astonishing turnaround. I shampoo with a gentle shampoo from the health food store and whack a load of Pantene 3 Minute Miracle for coloured hair on it, and that's it. Working better than Kerastase... Quit hairdresser, also.

Don't give up hope!