Home hair coloring mistake - can I re-color right away?

[NikitaZee]

I used L'Oreal Feria French Roast - permanent color. I wanted something close to my natural color, which is medium brown with some red and gold highlights - exactly what the picture on the box said. I'm tired of picking out grays, so that's what I was up to. Well, my hair has a reddish tint that I don't like and don't want to keep walking around with.Can I go to the salon so soon and have it re-done professionally right away? I was really hoping to avoid the expense of frequent salon visits, but I know now that doing this by myself won't work. For those of you who are brunettes who color close to your own shade - how long can you go before going back to the salon for a touch-up, and what do you pay?

 

[kellyg403]

I had a at home dye catastrophe a few years ago. A relative assured me that this particular color was what I needed. I, like you, have an auburn colored hair with red/gold highlights normally and for some strange reason I am only gray in the front. Anyway, it came out EGGPLANT. I was mortified and the wedding was 3 days away.

I went to the salon and the newsflash was I had to go dark. Much darker than I wanted. But it covered the eggplant color. For the wedding, 3 days later, I was so thankful that we were all wearing our hair UP...never again!

Kelly

 

[Christine]

Whenever you color you hair, especially with brunettes and reds, it is VERY harsh right after you do it. It will fade out, especially any reds.

What you can do is wash you hair a lot. I had a particularly ugly shade of red added in at a salon. I just didn't have the time to go back and someone recommended that I get the original Prell shampoo (not any of the variations they make now) and wash with that a few times. It will fade you out. Then make sure you use a good conditioner.

 

[Darcy03231]

You can go to the salon and get it fixed, but depending on what you want to do it can be expensive. To re-dye over what you have, you'll have to go darker. If you want to go lighter, you have to have your hair stripped (all of the color taken out) and then color put back in - basically a double process. The reason I know so much about this is that DD had a hair dye catastrophe and I took her to the salon to get it fixed. She had to go with the hair stripping route and my final bill was over $200.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

L'Oreal Hair Color Colorist Secrets Haircolor Remover is available where home hair color is sold.

 

[NikitaZee]

Thanks for the replies. I am a little gun shy of trying anything else at home, but I looked up my salon's rates and it was $100 an hour for corrective coloring. Although - if I understand it right, going darker wouldn't necessarily be corrective color? I am going to take Christine's suggestion and wash it a lot for a week, then see how it looks and go to the salon then if I have to.

 

[scrapquitler]

Whenever you color you hair, especially with brunettes and reds, it is VERY harsh right after you do it. It will fade out, especially any reds.

What you can do is wash you hair a lot. I had a particularly ugly shade of red added in at a salon. I just didn't have the time to go back and someone recommended that I get the original Prell shampoo (not any of the variations they make now) and wash with that a few times. It will fade you out. Then make sure you use a good conditioner.

I always do red and have found this to be true, too. I always freak a little at how red it is right after I color it, but after about 4 days it fades out and tones down to being a perfect color. Maybe you will ahve the same experience. Don't panic yet.

 

[Agri]

Thanks for the replies. I am a little gun shy of trying anything else at home, but I looked up my salon's rates and it was $100 an hour for corrective coloring. Although - if I understand it right, going darker wouldn't necessarily be corrective color? I am going to take Christine's suggestion and wash it a lot for a week, then see how it looks and go to the salon then if I have to.

Use Prell or any other shampoo labelled as 'clarifying'. These are shampoos that will strip hair more than a 'normal' shampoo. You don't want to wash a lot with colored hair - your hair is already porous and more damaged. You just want to make your washings count more. You can also put the shampoo on your hair, wrap your hair in plastic wrap and put a blow dryer to it for better results.

 

[rszdtrvl]

Use Prell or any other shampoo labelled as 'clarifying'. These are shampoos that will strip hair more than a 'normal' shampoo. You don't want to wash a lot with colored hair - your hair is already porous and more damaged. You just want to make your washings count more. You can also put the shampoo on your hair, wrap your hair in plastic wrap and put a blow dryer to it for better results.

I totally agree! I had an incident a couple of months ago with a dark brown haircolor that looked like my hair, but turned out to be almost black.

Prell shampoo on DRY hair, let sit with a towel wrapped around it for a half hour, then rinse. Apply a GOOD conditioner and let that sit for 5 minutes, then rinse the conditioner out.

After you use the Prell the first time, the water will be purple from the hair dye.

It MUST be done within 48 hours of the dye job in order to work, as the hair color has not set totally. (Can you tell I did my investigating on this issue???)

My hair, after a few washes, was my normal brown color. And I was incredibly relieved!

Good luck!

 

[ReneeA]

I have natural red highlights in my hair and anytime I color with a "golden" or reddish color, it's REALLY red for a few days. I've tried the "ash" tones to avoid it, but then it looks dull and almost a grey overcast to it.

So, I've played around with different brands and colors to find the one that washes out as close to my natural color as possible. I still have to live with it being much harsher looking for 2-3 days until it washes out, though.

Give it a week. I'm going to guess it'll wash out and be beautiful.

 

[englishteacha]

Head and Shoulders (or the Walmart version) takes a lot of color out. I tried to go strawberry blond and ended up with magenta hair. Yeah. Bad look for me, as it turns out. I had to use the color remover stuff which stripped the dye but I was left looking like a carrot. Head and Shoulders faded the color a lot, and then I colored it with an ash blonde to neutralize the red. Local salons were going to charge over $100 to fix my $6 mistake. Luckily a friend is a beauty-school-dropout (her words...she loves Grease!) but she made it through the color-correcting lesson.

I'd wash it as recommended by other posters. It will probably fade to what you want. I know I will never go for anything with red in it again if I ever dare color again (this was my first and only attempt at coloring at home!). I have too much red in my natural hair color and it just goes nuts! (I'm a very golden blonde naturally with lots of red tones)

 

[Music City Mama]

To the OP, I would just (as previous posters have already mentioned), just keep washing it a lot over the next few days.

I have natural red highlights in my hair and anytime I color with a "golden" or reddish color, it's REALLY red for a few days. I've tried the "ash" tones to avoid it, but then it looks dull and almost a grey overcast to it.

So, I've played around with different brands and colors to find the one that washes out as close to my natural color as possible. I still have to live with it being much harsher looking for 2-3 days until it washes out, though.

Give it a week. I'm going to guess it'll wash out and be beautiful.

I used to have this problem until they came out with the "natural" tones (in between golden and ash) a few years ago. My favorite is Garnier Nurtrisse Natural Medium Brown (Truffle) -- it brings out a little red, but doesn't make it brassy (as a "golden" would) or dull (as an "ash" would).

 

[NikitaZee]

Thanks again guys - just got back from the store. They didn't have Prell, so I got Neutrogena clarifying shampoo and I'll be using it every day this week. That's funny about the ash vs.warm tones in coloring - I almost bought an ash and put it back at the last second. At any rate, I'm done with home coloring I think!

 

[ReneeA]

To the OP, I would just (as previous posters have already mentioned), just keep washing it a lot over the next few days.



I used to have this problem until they came out with the "natural" tones (in between golden and ash) a few years ago. My favorite is Garnier Nurtrisse Natural Medium Brown (Truffle) -- it brings out a little red, but doesn't make it brassy (as a "golden" would) or dull (as an "ash" would).

I'll have to try "truffle" next time...my natural color is medium brown with lots of natural red & gold highlights.

 

[weswife]

Hello,

Long story short. I recently went back to my natural color. I have been every shade of blonde from baby blonde to dark blonde. My natural hair is a dark brown. I decided to return to my natural hair color and had it done at my hair dresser. Well my hair went what I felt was BLACK! I HATED it! I washed it for a few days, I used dove dish soap as a friend recommended. It did wash some of the color out but not enough so I went to the hair dresser and had a color lifter put in it. While I was there I added a few highlights Now I love my hair color! I am a med. brown with a few gold highlights!

Good luck!

 

[Christine]

Hello,

Long story short. I recently went back to my natural color. I have been every shade of blonde from baby blonde to dark blonde. My natural hair is a dark brown. I decided to return to my natural hair color and had it done at my hair dresser. Well my hair went what I felt was BLACK! I HATED it! I washed it for a few days, I used dove dish soap as a friend recommended. It did wash some of the color out but not enough so I went to the hair dresser and had a color lifter put in it. While I was there I added a few highlights Now I love my hair color! I am a med. brown with a few gold highlights!

Good luck!

I do think that color applied at a salon is much harder to "wash out" than color applied at home. Maybe the store brand stuff isn't as strong. I don't know.

 

[Amelia Peabody]

I was very lucky picking my first home hair color shade. It was perfect! Then when I couldn't find it, I followed someone's advice and tried a lighter color. Didn't like it at all. I use the Feria also - I hate that they changed the model on the box! That's how I used to know which box to pick up!

The girl that cuts my hair has told me that if you have a lot of gray or white in your hair ( not saying anyone HERE has that ), don't choose a shade with ANY red in it as it will come out orange.

Guess I'm still okay with medium golden brown - bronze highlights - not orange yet. But I'll keep all these suggestions in mind for the day that it happens.

 

[Lassie Lynne]

The best thing to do, if you don't want to go to a salon, is to call the help phone number for the brand....each hair color line has a toll free number that you can call for issues like this. They will give you advice as to what is best to do with that particular issue and brand.

I had the same issue once, way too bright red hair. I called the next day and the person on the phone listened to everything and then proceeded to tell me what to do to tone down the red. I was skeptic, but did it, and Viola!!! worked like a charm. I had to go a little darker in color, but it worked and the red was toned down and the color was liveable untill it faded and I recolored again four weeks later.