Hairdressers.. Can anyone help me help my mum

[isthismylifenow]

My lovely mum is 78. She is isolating at the moment as her partner has covid.

I live in another country so can't really do much from here and I don't know some of your products.

She was meant to go to the hairdresser but she now had to cancel her appointment. So she ordered a box dye and dyed her hair herself. She has the most beautiful silver hair, but she hates it do does an ash blonde colour.

After she had rinsed it off she thought it awfully dark. Well it's brown. Dark brown! Not a hint of blonde there. It's now turned out that she mixed it wrong. She mistook the two bottles and mixed the conditioner into the dye and not the activator 🙈.

She is so upset so I suggested she wash it with head and shoulders, she ordered some and that did nothing. She said she tried Dove as well and nothing is lightning it. I'm just more worried she might have damaged her scalp by mixing it wrong and now washed it every day for 3 days, when she normally washes twice a week.

I don't know what to suggest to her. She can't go to a salon yet which is what she thinks she should do.

Ah bless her, I just want to give her a big hug. But failing that, some tips to make her feel better about herself might help.

Can anyone suggest anything?

Try esalon and see if they can conjure up something to correct it?

www.esalon.co.uk/support/category/1/all-about-esalon/96/personalized-instructions/

Aww bless her, I’ve had plenty of hair disasters in my time, so I sympathise.

If she has any vitamin C tablets, she can try the following:

Crush 5-10 vit C tablets to a fine powder, mix with anti dandruff shampoo to create a paste. Apply the paste to hair, leave for up to an hour, then rinse.

I’m not a hairdresser, but you can buy hair colour removers in the same places they sell hair dye, usually.

Maybe she could phone her usual hairdresser, who’ll be versed in the usual health of her hair, and could advise on the best solution?

You get products that remove hair dye e.g. colourB4. Could she see if there's anything like that available?

Thank you everyone.

I didn't know about the vitamin C, but that is handy to know.

I will message her with these suggestions. She won't even talk to me on video call right now....

I mentioned the colour remover, that is when she said about the bottle mix up, so I think she is worried that it may be too harsh.

We had a small giggle that she had an excuse not to be seen for a few more days...

Colour remover will likely turn her hair orange and then she’ll need to redo the blonde box dye.

I’d recommend she sticks with trying natural ways to wash the colour out and then books in with her hairdresser as soon as she can.

It will fade over time but if she can't wait then a hat and a hairdresser. Lifting dark dye at home can leave the red behind can result in orange hair.

I’m a hairdresser.

First, she didn’t use the activator ( peroxide) which in a way is good, as technically the colour shouldn’t have taken at all.

However, because her hair is relatively white and porous it seems to have soaked in the inactivated colour. If this had happened to someone with full natural hair colour it would have just washed straight off.
Also, there’s probably a contraindication with whatever is already on her hair.

This is the dilemma, without knowing what the heck is on her hair I can’t really say any other than just keep shampooing. Tell her categorically NOT to touch any colour strippers, otherwise they’ll be double disaster.

Not many hairdressers will touch unknown colour disasters as it’s a minefield and generally turns the clients problem into the hairdressers problem, which no hairdresser wants.

Please advise her, in future to stick to the hairdresser, no matter what crops up and how long she may have to wait, we know what we’re doing. Hence we don’t use shop bought box colour!

Would she feel comfortable to ring her regular hairdresser and describe exactly what she’s done ,and describe the directions, with shade number on the box, as that is more of an indicator of the level of colour than just “ ash blonde “ . The base of some blonde box colours can be quite dark.
I hope she gets sorted.

Yep as above!

just carry on with head and shoulders for now without the activator it should fade.