Is it possible to sort my hair out?!

[Cafeaulait27]

I’ve been dying my hair brown with L’Oréal casting semi permanent dye for about 10 years and I’ve noticed that over time it’s become patchy. It’s always in the same areas of my hair - some become very dark almost black and other areas are lighter. I really take my time to ensure it’s even and I follow the packet instructions, but still this happens. I’ve tried dying it darker and also leaving it longer to try to reset it but it still happens in the same places. I have read that some areas of the hair are just more porous than others, so wondering if anyone who has knowledge could tell me if I can I actually do anything about this? Or would be hairdresser be able to? I’m worried it’s a lost cause and I’m destined to have bad hair forever! Thank you

I'm not a hairdresser but I was advised to make sure the hair is washed twice with a clarifying shampoo a day or two beforehand and no oils or products on it and if your ends are dry and damaged you should colour the growth near the scalp first and then add the dye to the ends for the last 5 or 10 minutes of the processing time. It should say this in your box instructions.

Hi @KiwiLadyPie thank you! I do make sure I follow the instructions exactly including adding it to the lengths of the hair for the last 5 minutes. I haven’t tried washing my hair twice though a few days before and not using any products so I will try this next time thank you!

I could go to the hairdressers to have it sorted but I’m unsure of what they could actually do? Maybe I’ll ask next time I get it cut x

I would ask your hairdressers advice. Some peoples hair (including my own) is resistant to the home hair dye kits. They sorted mine and made it look much better than I ever could, but ultimately I still wasn't fully satisfied with it and ended up going natural grey it's actually now in the best condition it's ever been, and I've come to terms with the grey - it really does suits my skin tone better.

Porous areas absorb colour quicker so can go darker. However porous hair won't hold colour as well either. This results in a patchy look. We would apply a pre-treatment to balance out the porosity (not sure you can buy this on a High Street) or use varying strengths of mix and/or adjust our application sequence. If you went to salon they could camouflage the banding you have created and even out the colour for you. Hope that helps. Repeated colour will cause high porosity, it's vital to use conditioner following the colour to mitigate this and reset the pH levels to close the cuticle layer.

Thank you that’s really useful. Sounds like a trip to the hairdressers is needed!

@freeandfierce just about to talk to my hairdresser about this and just wondering, would this be with permanent dye or semi permanent ?

I love using semi permanent but maybe this is the problem..? I useloreal casting creme gloss x

wondering If I should try just dying the light parts myself and see if that works, or will it not make any difference? Wondering if there’s actually any way to make it better…

Went to the hairdressers and they didn’t listen to me - they just said maybe I didn’t apply the due properly and that all they could do is try dying it again.

I explained that I take a lot of care to apply it evenly and that I think it could be a porosity issue, but she ignored all this. I just nodded along and agreed to the appointment, who knows maybe it’ll work to have it dyed by a pro.

I always find this issue with hairdressers, ones I’ve spoken to don’t seem to be very knowledgeable and don’t seem to listen to me, and they even seem a bit rude and patronising? I don’t know whether I pissed her off by saying I dye it at home? I try really hard to be nice but am often disappointed by their customer service and listening skills.

I rang them up and explained what’s happened to my hair, they asked me to come in for a consultation. It was a bit annoying to be told all they could do was just try dying it again - surely they could’ve just told me that over the phone? The woman didn’t even look at my hair. She was just like ‘so are you looking for us to dye it for you?’ I was like well I was hoping you’d know how to even it out as I don’t have a clue how to sort it and she said ‘all we can do is redye it’.

im getting it done this weekend, so we’ll see if it does improve after they’ve done it for me.

Just a little update on this not that anyone is replying but still 😅

when I turned up at the hairdressers to have the cut and colour she was like ‘it will probably go patchy again the first few times’ which she didn’t say at the consultation. The cut and colour came to £140 and since I’ve washed it myself I can see she hasn’t really done the layers I usually have, it very much looks all one length. It looked like she was doing them while I was in the chair and she blow dried it v straight so I didn’t notice.

after about 4 washes it’s gone patchy again, wish I’d just had a go at stripping the dark bits myself at home and starting again as I don’t feel they did anything, and she was the most senior stylist at that hairdressers.

I might even go elsewhere and ask for some balayage to lighten the dark bits round the front.

How frustrating to spend all that money and not be impressed with what they have done (been there!)

If you're willing to spend money on it why not try something totally different like you said and go for more of an ombré effect. It might disguise patchiness better?

You can buy kits that strip all the colour from your hair. Then you can start over. I dye mine at home too but never had this, but I would use a colour strip if I wnted it all out.

I had dark patches from home dye after I’d done it myself for a couple of years. It’s was darker around the bottom, I realised I’d been overlapping colour. I tried stripping it and dying light brown but the ends were still very dark. It would have taken me years to grow it out.
In the end I went for a balayage (using bleach) at the hairdressers which lightened mine to a caramel brown at the ends, and now after having it re-done is a lighter blonde balayage.

Thanks all, I kind of knew this would happen as I knew their advice to just dye it again wouldn’t work 🙄 wish I’d just trusted my instinct.

I agree balayage is probs the best option at this point, wish I’d just done that in the first place. So annoying when hairdressers don’t listen!

Ah I was going to reply and say have you thought about balayage. I had a similar problem, home dyes don't work that well on me and ended up going really brassy. Plus greys still showed.

I had a balayage last week and I'm really happy with it, it's taken the flatness out of my hair and the colour is much better. Plus now I can go and just get my roots done when I get a trim rather than doing the whole head again.

I managed to find a salon by looking at pictures on FB to see one who did hair like I wanted. The one you went to don't sound very helpful!

D@sleighbellsjiggling thank you, yeah it’s so annoying! I think I might ring them and explain, and see if they might sort it out for me (properly this time) but if not I’ll just cut my losses and go somewhere else.

im also irritated because of the lack of layers, it’s all so strange, she was a senior stylist 😵‍💫 I could see her doing the layers but when I pull strands out to look it’s all the same length. So annoying x

As we get older we slowly lose the colour from our hair, in patches. It could be that parts of your hair are starting on their way to going grey. As they lose pigment they can also lose the ability to hold hair dye colour. Colour resistant greys.

if you want to, you could start using a dye for colour resistant grey hair. If you look up on the Wella website you will see brunette shades designed for colour resistant hair. Then you could buy the shade you want and a developer and colour it at home.

I had a similar problem after having used Casting. I tried stripping the colour out with a home kit, which did take out most of the dark brown/black colour, leaving it a brownish red. Not my natural colour as clearly some dye remained, but much lighter. I then dyed it medium brown, but my hair immediately soaked up the darker tones and I was back to square one again, dark brown to black at the ends. I tried it again with a different brand of stripper with exactly the same results. I’ve now switched to a semi permanent dye by Nice n Easy, which looks better overall than Casting, but is much darker/blacker than I want ideally. Don’t know how to fix it other than getting it cut off and starting again!

@MrsDamonSalvatore it’s so hard isn’t it!! I’m going to get balayage, but I don’t want to do that every time, getting it dyed at the hairdressers is so expensive. I know they do a really thorough job but I just can’t justify spending that much on my hair every few months.

I’m hoping the balayage will lighten it up and then I’ll try dying it myself again I think… fingers crossed x