Dying dark brown hair to blonde

[Guest]

I've been a hairstylist for years and just happened on this site. If you want my two cents, read on, if not, skip my post. ANY time you lighten hair with no exceptions you are opening the cuticle of the hair and stripping pigment out. Doesn't matter if the pigment is your natural pigment or hair dye, it is still stripping it. Incidently, artificial color is harder to lift than natural pigment thus even harder on your hair to lighten. Whenever you shampoo the lightener out (any lightener is bleach no matter what the package says, highlighters are bleach, if it lifts color more than two levels it is bleach!) you are closing the cuticle back up. The cuticle or outer layer of hair looks like fishscales. With each color service they close back down less tightly than before which is a result of chemical damage. When you dye your hair darker it is always healthier than lightening it. Darker than your natural shade and you are depositing pigment into the cortex rather than stripping it out. Depositing is of course better than stripping (common sense). The developer is what is the strong chemical in any color process. Dyeing darker requires a much gentler strength (say 10 to 20 volume rather than 40) to deposit color than bleach/highlighting/lightening or stipping color out. By each power of 10 that you increase developer (example 10 vol up to 20vol) you are actually making it 10 TIMES stronger. You can only bleach hair so many times before it becomes so dehydrated and porous that you end up with what we call "spaghetti hair" in the business. Coloring hair is ABSOLUTELY NOT LIKE PAINT! People think for some reason that they are just coating their hair another color like painting a wall. Rule of thumb, if you have thick, short hair....have at it. It's going to get cut off sooner rather than later. Your hair grows on average 6" a year. Do the math. If you bleach it, dye it, bleach it, dye it....The hair that is a year old is shot. Might feel okay after conditioning treatments now, maybe even two months from now, if you're lucky six months from now.......But regardless of who you are you will find yourself wondering why your hair won't seem to grow as fast as it used to, and you'll see these sprigs around your part that many fools will say is new growth. HELLO! It's growing as fast as it ever did, but it is now breaking off at the bottom at a relatively uniform length where it is most stressed. And that "new growth" you're talking about isn't new growth at all...it is hair that has broken off. Hair color is great, but if you're lightening it......go to a reputable stylist. Granted it isn't brain surgery, but there is far more chemistry involved than most people realize.

Its just as easy to do it yourself.. Hair stylist charge way more than its worth. My wife went to the salon to change her hair from dark brown to blonde. They screwed it up so much we had to fix it at home.
If you have dark hair you must strip the color first. You can buy Born to blonde to do this process. After you strip it and any shade of blonde to it you like.
A hair stylist is going to tell you to come to them, they dont want you to do it at home. Thats how a stylist makes there money. Its easy to do at home anyone can do it.
My wife never goes to the salon anymore. I cut and color her hair now which looks just as good as the salon does.. Any ? email me @ Vintagevolks@aol.com

[vintage]

I went from medium brown hair to black and then decided to go blonde. and to tell you that was an all day event. not all the pieces were black so they had to use different strengths of bleach to strip my hair then after sitting with goop in my hair for a bit, it was washed out and then revealed as a big bird type yellow. then it was toned to a brassy brown and blonde was added to get a foiled in multicolor blonde. The draw back is i was almost late to work, it took all day. It cost a good penny. And my hair had a cornsilk strechy damaged feel. Time and deep conditioners fixed it well and my hair was fine for prom. Now the roots are coming in (eek) and i'm thinking about dying it back my natural color because being a student my job doesn't pay me enough to get my hair fixed all the time. Nexxus shampoos and conditioners work well and also biolage deep conditioning balm is what saved it. i definitly say go to the salon. i couldn't argue it looked great. You are never going to have undamaged hair when you dye it blonde.

[Guest]

I've had my hair highlighted and i hate it, can I put a brown dye on top of this at home?

Many thanks xx

[Guest]

"colorlift"
The process you are referring to is called "stripping" hair and it does exactly what it sounds like. It removes all of the color in the hair (to the best of its ability) This WILL NOT return you to your natural color underneath all of the dye. It removes ALL COLOR leaving you an extremely light, sometimes grayish, nonflattering color. This process is used to bring the hair back to a neutral base so the desired color can be applied over it. Beware, this is damaging and should be used as a last resort. Most hairdressers will not do this right away if you walk in asking for it.

Dying is for making your hair darker.
A light dye alone on dark hair will always turn your hair an orange color and never what you want.
If you want blonde hair you must lighten and then tone.
With this you are also better off going to a professional.
Toners are very complicated and the right look is next to impossible to achieve on drug store products.

[Guest]

Light hair may easily be dyed back to dark.
Remember to fill the hair first.
Skipping this step willl result in your color not fully taking and then bleeding out quickly.

[6chazzy9]

i saw this make over program and this girl dyed her hair from bleached blonde to a nice light brown. Ever since then i wanted light brown hair. My friend tasha work in a salon and she gave me some light brown hair dye a couple of my friends came over to help me dye my hair. I was shocked by the result!! my hair was rly dark and it didnt go wiv my complextion it made me look like a goth!! i also had patches of blond where they have missed
i read about loreal colour zap and other hair dye removers and i need some advice about what it does to your hair as ive heard its damaging and stuff like tht , i dnt wna stay like this coz its my b-day party soon!!!

[Lex]

Just to share a little experiance... If you have natural dark hair with a red tint and you want to go and put blonde in it. You might not want to go run out and bleach your hair unless your looking for pumpkin orange. Since you have a natural red tint in the sun the process of bleach will take a lot longer and usually will have to be done more than once if done yourself. If you leave it in your hair to long it would end up getting fry'd. The best option is to go to someone with color experiance because a special color will have to be added to get rid of the red. Otherwise you may not get that desierd blonde and end up with brassy yellow or orange.

[Vintagevolks]

Anyone can email me @ Vintagevolks@aol.com
If you need help..I dont come to this form much..

[Guest]

I've seen somme of your advise on the Female First Forum about hair dyeing and it's trials and tribulations.

I wondered if you could gieve me some pointers on getting my hair back to a light ash blonde colour.

I started bleaching my naturally light brown hair with home dye kits (usually garnier nutrisse) when I was 15. I carried on doing this until about 3 months ago when i'd just turned 22. Instead I decided to go dark brown and have most recently been using nutrisse's cocoa brown colour.

I am already fed up with my dark hair and am desparate to return to my blonde days. I've bought Clairol Born Blonde hair dye which claims to not require a pre-lightening kit. Would this actually work or would you recommend a "stripper" before I use this product. If so which is best (btw I live in England, we have most big name brands available such as L'oreal, Jerrome Russell, Garnier, etc.) and is it possible to use the pre-lightener and the blonde hair dye on the same day or should there be a gap to let my hair heal at all?

Thanks for any advise its most appreciated.

Charlie

[emily;anne]

i want to dye my hair lighter on top ( like a golden bloonde actually) and then a dark brown underneath. My mom says i cant do this because you have to go back every three weeks and its too much money. I usually get my hair done 3-4 times a year, last time i was there i dyed it dark brown(march) and now its back to my normal colour, which is a light brown,or dark golden bloonde, and its alot healthier because i havent been straightening it. But i was just wondering if you actually had to go back every three weeks, im supposed to go next week, and the next time ill go will probably be in december.

[Guest]

I've seen somme of your advise on the Female First Forum about hair dyeing and it's trials and tribulations.

I wondered if you could gieve me some pointers on getting my hair back to a light ash blonde colour.

I started bleaching my naturally light brown hair with home dye kits (usually garnier nutrisse) when I was 15. I carried on doing this until about 3 months ago when i'd just turned 22. Instead I decided to go dark brown and have most recently been using nutrisse's cocoa brown colour.

I am already fed up with my dark hair and am desparate to return to my blonde days. I've bought Clairol Born Blonde hair dye which claims to not require a pre-lightening kit. Would this actually work or would you recommend a "stripper" before I use this product. If so which is best (btw I live in England, we have most big name brands available such as L'oreal, Jerrome Russell, Garnier, etc.) and is it possible to use the pre-lightener and the blonde hair dye on the same day or should there be a gap to let my hair heal at all?

Thanks for any advise its most appreciated.

Charlie

wow!! this sounds just like what i did. i was a brown/auburn shade, i used a pre lightener and then a blonde dye, both garnier nutrise.

i ended up looking like a chick, yellow and orange.

went to the hairdressers today, she said it was the worst at home job she had ever seen!!! she wasnt very optimistic about it turning out blonde, but she perserveered and i am now a lovely natural looking blonde! i love it!

she was a miracle worker, god was on my side today. pure luck it ended up ok in the end.

id say for anyone wanting to go blonde seek professional help!

[Guest]

Can I have some advice please?

My hair is naturally blonde but i have been dying it red for the past few months.

What is the best thing to do to get my hair back to blonde?

Don't say sally's because I live in the UK and I don't know what that is.

Please help!

sally's is a Whole sail hairdressers’ product shop located in the U.K. I have one near me in West London just of Tottenham court road look them up on the internet (goggle) for store locations.

[kittykat18]

I dye my hair soooo much im always changing my mind about what i want but it hasnt started falling out yet and i managed to get it from black to a med ash blonde.
first of all its hard work i was when i was doing it all by myself!.
ok so you will need to boxes of pre lightner, a mate to help you apply this as it easily goes patchy and a semi permenant dye in a med dark blonde and something like loreal prefrence (the blue boxes are extra lightening- yay) if your hair isnt too dark try a strand test of this alone, two boxes may sort u out!
so follow the instructions put on a brave face cus garenteed the chances are this prelightner crap will mess up. did for me! i used my two boxes one week appart, though its recomened u wait two.
by the time your applying the second box u may have already have had a mental brake down! i walked the street ginger orange for a week! be brave! anyway the second box i applyed it to the dark patchy parts first then rinsed then applyed the remainder all over. you should get a pale yellow colour once rinsing. apply lots of conditioner and if poss wait another two weeks before applyin the tone of blonde you want, i didnt know this myself so every week due to colur fade i had to dye my hair! ive used over 10 boxes in the last 2 months! but they all will fade unless you chill out and wait. this went on for weeks until a cool camp guys from work told me the hair needs time to rest then it can hold the dye and last longer! my naturally dark brown roots come through within two weeks though so prepare to be dying one hell of alot! another option is just ask for loads of light blonde highlights, if you look around quite alot of the brunette girls do this and its better for regrowth and ginger bits oh and your mental health! oh and if your wondering i defo got more attention from the guys when i was..... brunette! those were the days!

[Guest]

Me again forgot to say recomended by may hair dresser is loreal products and ganrier (however u spell it) ive always forund these to have the stongest colour and last the longest! ok im defo gone now byeeeee xxxxx

[Guest]

i have naturally dirty blOndfe hair n i dyed it DARK brown but tha sun chnaged it ta a lighter brown buh kina red..well i want it close 2 my natural buh i think ima dye it light brown buh im afraid it will turn green or sumthin can any1 help me plz?!?