Hair dye not covering - what do I do?

[FortyWorth]

Hi, I was hoping someone can offer me a solution ...

I have mid brown hair that I have to dye as otherwise I would be completely grey. The problem is that hair dye is just not covering my roots anymore. It just makes my hair go ginger.

I can't go any darker as it really doesn't suit me and I have tried going blonde with highlights which I actually quite liked the colour but the bleach totally ruined my hair. And I don't mean just a little bit, I mean it literally turned to straw and I couldn't dry it anyway that didn't make it look frizzy snd broken even tho I have the Airwrap which is meant to be good for your hair.

I tried masques and every expensive product under the sun but it didn't help the condition.

Has anyone else experienced this? I feel like I can't stay mid brown as the roots look awful and I can't go lighter because of the condition.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Ah sounds crap! First of all the home dye your using is it box dye? Permanent colour

Secondly when bleaching was it an at home kit? Or at hairdresser

Are you using permanent dye? Anything else looked faded on mine but it's pretty harsh and drying as it essentially bleaches out the colour first

Hi thank you for replying.

It is both with box dyes that I am doing at home at the moment and also when the hairdresser does it. Two different hairdressers and the same thing.

The bleach is also at the hairdressers.

Yea it is permanent dye

My grey eventually stopped taking colour too.
I used to do the grey first and leave it on for way longer but even that only gave me about 10 days.
Even at the hair dresser they eventually stopped colouring. I'm going natural now but used to use a lot of that spray cover up stuff.

Have you tried a salon dye? I mean as opposed to a traditional box dye. You can buy some online.
I buy tubes of wella koleston (they do intense versions for more Grey coverage) on Amazon and the welloxon developer. (You just weigh n mix 50/50)
When choosing your colour, the number before the / is the shade level. The number after is the tone. For example I sometimes use a 9/16 a light blonde ash violet. An intense natural blonde would be 99/0 which I would use to cover more grey.

Sounds as if you could benefit from a 66/0 or a 77/0 depending on how dark/light - look at a chart online.

Also choose the developer level for you wella do a 4%,6%,12% etc. (Anything above a 20 starts lifting colour out of your hair) I choose to use a 6% as due to growth I do it about once a month or 6 weeks ish anyway - And I'm a natural blonde so I don't need any lift, to go blonder I'd need 20 or above)

This is the wella page that suggests 6% is ok to cover grey blog.wella.com/gb/how-to-cover-grey-roots#paragraph-2

This is the chart for the pure naturals www.wella.com/professional/en-UK/hair-color/koleston-perfect/koleston-perfect#/?_k=fzhx3k

It's changed my life switching.
It's so much cheaper than salon. A litre of developer is about £13 and the tubes are about £10. My colour is good and the condition is good.

Yes, salon dyes are much better. I by Inoa from Amazon. You need the developer too.

My grey eventually stopped taking colour. I had been having it professionally coloured at a salon every 4 weeks for about 6 years.
I tried different hennas and natural dyes for a year (with a lot of faff, smell and mess in the bathroom) but the results were patchy and saturated in the certain places.
That's when I embraced the grey. I love it now. Completely freeing. I use a warm Superdrug toner at home as there was a lot more brown hair left than I expected. It now looks brown with warm highlights. Thicker, not dry and soft. It used to be extremely dry and brittle from dying - despite throwing money at hair rescue masks.
Best thing I've ever done and it will mean an extra 10k in my pension pot or for holidays too.
The transition year is tough though.

I can't embrace the grey!!!! I'm not ready !!!!!

Seriously tho I just don't think grey would suit me. It looks so lovely on some people but I just don't think I am one of those people lol!

There is a place on line that does hair dye tailored to you, sorry can’t remember what it is called.

I went totally grey very young and have spent a fortune with hairdressers over the years. Despite succumbing to their sales pitches for expensive treatments and masques the condition of my hair got worse with age, it was a frizzy mess. The grey coverage was becoming less effective too so I had a badger stripe very quickly after shelling out at the salon every six weeks.

When lockdown kicked in it pushed me into a decision about going grey, I had dithered about this for a while. As my permanent dye faded and the new grey came through it looked dreadful. So I embarked on some research (including YouTube Josh Wood videos of how to apply colour) and started experimenting with various semi permanent box colours.

I too had mid brown hair and wanted to keep that. I’ve finally settled on Nice’n’Easy which is a demi permanent (so a bit stronger than semi, but no ammonia to damage hair or scalp). I use it every 3/4 weeks, takes me about an hour to apply (edges first, then centimetre partings to get to roots). I gently rub each squirt over the roots, as per Josh Wood). Then leave for 40 minutes - far longer than they suggest, but it does no harm.

The two most effective shades for me are 91 and 92. Any lighter and, as you say the grey roots dye a lighter colour. I’m glad I experimented, I’ve learned so much.

My hair is now in fabulous glossy condition, using off the shelf colour saving shampoo and conditioner too. Shows how vicious permanent dye can be.

Only downside is my horror at how much money I’ve wasted over the years.

To help the dye to 'stick', I always wash my hair with a clarifying shampoo (then dry it) before colouring. This gets rid of any build-up or grease that gets between your hair and the dye.

I use Daniel Field Water Colour box dye at home, I am a complete devotée.

It's permanent, but has no peroxide or ppd, so it is very gentle on the condition and has basically saved my hair because I can touch up the roots frequently without turning it to straw.

To be honest, it's weak point is coverage of greys but it does do it. It's just that my roots are a little bit lighter than the rest as they've only been dyed once, but not so that you'd notice particularly.

I am attaching a photo where you can see the not-so-perfect lighter coverage at the roots, but it doesn't notice so much when it's not seen from above, and I've convinced myself that it's better to have some variation in shade rather than solid colour. And as you can see the colour builds up with repeated dyeing so the rest of the hair is dark (rather than white!).

The other thing I do is make up the dye in a more concentrated formulation (diluting with less water), but this is only appropriate for this particular dye, where this technique is suggested in the instructions. Any other box dye you had better follow the instructions to the letter.

I has the same issue with box dye and after lots of research I do similar to @cravingthelook, I use Wella Illumina Color (dye) with Wella Welloxon Perfect 6% 20 volume. Mix them 50/50 in a small bowl on electric scales, my long hair takes about 35grams of each. Leave on for 40 minutes, all grey covered, no orange roots.

After rinsing out I use Wella Invigo Color Service and leave on for 5 minutes to neutralise the PH and prevent creeping oxidation.

This is exactly how salons dye hair, I spent ages reading training manuals online and Wella have lots available.

My hair is mid to dark brown and I use the 7/0 shade. For lighter maybe try an 8 or 9? Start lighter than you think as going too dark is awful, as you know! The number after the / is the tone, so a zero means neutral but you can choose an ash tone or a red tone. Wella have the colour charts online and you can work out which colour/tone you would want.

I buy most of it from hairdressing suppliers and also bought gloves, mixing bowl and application brush.

Thanks for replies but even when I go to a hairdresser this happens.

I am thinking I might have to get highlights again but just find a way of not turning my hair to straw. Maybe a Brazilian hair treatment ?

When I use to dye my natural auburn/lbrown hair to a medium brown it was a bugger - my roots were super resistant to dye, the only one I found that worked was the Schwarzkopf Poly Colour Tint - Natural Brown, the Medium Brown is a quite dark. However I got fed up of doing my roots & the colour would fade after a few weeks, even though it’s a permanent dye, so a while back I decided to try & lighten my hair.

I’m now a medium blonde, I’ve had a few sessions of highlights, each time using olaplex, my hairdresser reckoned it must of helped my hair keep its strength as it’s not knackered by the bleach. And I’ve had a fair few trims as well. Yes I still have roots - who doesn’t in lockdown, but I think darker roots with lighter lengths look better than lighter roots with darker lengths, iukwim.

If you do decided to go down the highlight road, do it gradually & ask for olaplex & have a decent trim each time.

Try pre-pigmenting it before www.wecolour.com/en/blog-en/pre-pigmenting-or-pre-soften-grey-hair/

^ I second pre softening/pigmenting tbh!

I threw all sorts of chemicals at my hair and finally decided to go grey. The condition of my dye free and bleach free hair is so much better.

I have similar colour hair to you (maybe slightly darker). I buy Wella Kolleston online at Salons Direct with the bleach too.

But... I leave it on for 1 hour and 15 mins which makes all the difference!!!!

I use a mixture of 4 and 33 which is just perfect for me.

The extra development time makes all the difference!'n

But just to add that I have to do it every 4/5 weeks. So way cheaper to do it at home.

I'm only 43 and don't fancy full grey yet.