Back in late December I colored my hair. I was hoping for a warm brown, and ended up being too red. I don’t want to be a redhead. I want to be a brunette! So, today I got my roots touched up, but sadly had them match my current color which was stupid because duh, it’s too red! I should’ve had them just color my whole head. Sigh.
Being that they only colored the roots (about an inch) and not the rest of my hair, can I get this corrected to a true brunette, like, now without screwing up my hair? The majority of my hair hasn’t been colored in two months, I’m worried that I will make my roots look stoopid. What do you think?
IANA Stylist, but my daughter is. If you want a color correction, see a pro. A very good place to try is your local beauty school. While it’s true that these people are just learning, they will have an experienced instructor on hand for oversight and advice. Be honest about what product you used to color your hair-there are some coloring systems out there that can really cause problems, as Quasi found out!
This. If you still have the boxes, take them with you. I’ve had my hair colored a few times at a local high end beauty salon, and the instructors always went over the color and everything else with me. Plus, the student has to have an instructor check out the job before you pay, whether it’s just a quick trim or some dye job involving three colors, none of which are found in nature. The students and instructors are also completely up to date on the latest products, as well as the old standbys.
I go to one of the Ogle schools, I don’t know whether that’s just a local chain or not, but I’ve only had one student who was clueless. Every other student knew what s/he was doing, and did a great job on me.
If you didn’t lighten your hair - i.e., just regular hair coloring, not bleaching and toning - a stylist shouldn’t have a difficult time correcting the color. He or she might even be able to just tone down the red to something you are happy with.
If you want to do-it-yourself, there is a product called L’Oreal ColorZap which removes permanent hair color. I’ve found it at Sally Beauty Supply. If you aren’t very comfortable with messing about with your hair and hair color, then you don’t want to go with this option. It smells much worse than hair color and leaves (in my case) startlingly light orange hair. You immediately apply new hair color, though. I don’t feel that it damaged my hair any more than using permanent hair color does.
OK then. Call your stylist up, and just tell her you don’t like so much red, and ask her if can she tone it down to something browner. Also tell her it isn’t her fault and you will pay for the additional color. Most good stylists will keep a card file on their returning clients with notes on which products have been used so they can get uniform results with that client. Some people just pull a lot of red when they lighten or color their hair. I’m one of them! :eek: I’ve followed my current stylist through four moves in three years because it’s such a crapshoot to find one that good.
My natural hair color is (or was): brown. No matter what color Miss Clairol I soaked it in over the years, there was always red in it for me, too. Could never get rid of the red, so eventually I went to a salon and we picked a shade with a warm gold to it, and now it’s a dark blonde with an undertone of , yeah, red. It was meant to be.
Yeah, my hair is ashy at the roots, but a warm brown at the ends, I swear to God. Or, at the very least it goes redder at the ends. But the color the first gal used is too red. And not even a pretty red. It’s neither a pretty red nor a pretty brown, it’s just a pretty-wimpy-not-quite-either. Bleck. Foolishly, I had the new salon match the wimpy mousy not red not brown when they touched up my roots, when I should have had them do an all-over color to bring my hair back to brown. But, it sounds like I can have my color re-done/taken more brown without ending up with orange hair or going bald. What I’ll probably do next is a brown base with copper highlights instead. ::crosses fingers::