Damaged hair being dyed blonde, help needed!

GlassBalloon · 24/08/14 - 11:59

I have shoulder length hair that's naturally medium brown. My hair looks absolutely dreadful brown, it makes me look dull, washed out and plain, it just doesn't suit me at all. So I've kept it blonde for years (highlights) and a few months ago I got an all-over high lift golden blonde colour done which I LOVED but my roots were starting to look bad. So yesterday I went to the hairdressers thinking of getting a balayage/hombre done with the roots so they looked natural fading into the golden blonde...

My hair now looks awful, it's all over dark brown and FAR darker than what was naturally my shade. The hairdresser said she needed to use such a dark colour to cover up the blonde but she's done too much of it and toned down the blonde to make it look natural and it's barely blonde at all - I'm now a dark brunette and looking dull, washed out and plain. I HATE it.

The thing is, my hair is really, really dry and damaged from years of GHD abuse. The hairdresser said she would be afraid to go any lighter at the ends in case my hair snapped (I trust that she's a professional but my hair really, really does not look so bad that it's at the point of completely breaking off). So now I'm in a pickle. Brunette just doesn't suit me AT ALL and I feel dreadful with it but I'm really, really scared of what to do next because of the damaged state my hair's in

Do I use strippers to get it back blonde? Do I buy an hombre kit and bleach the ends to get my hair what I originally wanted to look like? (this is what I want to do) Do I go back to the hairdressers? She said the brown will fade but I'm starting a new job next week and I really don't want to make my first impressions looking and feeling as awful as I do with this hair.

Sorry for the rant I'm just really not happy

help help help

TelevisionUser · 24/08/14 - 13:37

It's not a nice situation to be in especially with the new job coming up. Doing stuff at home might lead to variable results so I'd suggest not doing anything impulsive but instead getting a professional opinion from a different salon which has a good reputation and is as up market as you can afford. Good luck in sorting this one out!

Summer Breeze · 24/08/14 - 13:42

I would also advise you to go to a good hairdressers to sort it out.
They know their stuff and should be able to help.
It may well cost you a bit, but will be worth it in the long run.

[Deleted User] · 24/08/14 - 14:41

In January last year I went from blonde to dark red, 6 months later changed my mind and wanted to go back to blonde, my hairdresser took me dark brown to begin with as she was reluctant to strip my hair due to damaging it any further (blonde just wouldn't cover the dark red) with some blonde highlights through the top part of my hair to break it up, and gradually as the months progressed the brown faded a lot and I kept going back to have more highlights put through it until eventually it was in good enough condition to have a high lift tint applied and now I'm back to being light blonde. It took a minimum of 6 months for me to get back to a form of blonde, all be it a darker blonde.
She also said she didn't want to apply any more products to the ends of my hair as it was so damaged it would just snap off and i'd end up loosing alot of the length of my hair so I trusted her opinion and stuck out the brown hair with blonde highlights. I hated brown hair too it made me look dull and washed out, and I was overcompensating for it by having to wear a lot more makeup

What I did religiously though was every week I'd condition my hair with coconut oil and wrap it up in a bag and sleep in it and wash it out in the morning, I'm sure this is what helped the condition of my hair improve too. I also swapped my hair serum to the uniq 1 hair serum, and alternated with the keratase ciment thermique every 3 days.
Def wouldn't try messing around with it yourself. Chances are it'll come out patchy too where the hair is more porous in certain places, aswell as you'll find strands of hair just snapping off randomly due to it being over treated. Could she put blonde highlights through the top of it to break it up a bit? My hair was in good enough condition to have this done even after going from blonde to red to dark brown.

GlassBalloon · 24/08/14 - 15:44

ilove2dook wrote: »

In January last year I went from blonde to dark red, 6 months later changed my mind and wanted to go back to blonde, my hairdresser took me dark brown to begin with as she was reluctant to strip my hair due to damaging it any further (blonde just wouldn't cover the dark red) with some blonde highlights through the top part of my hair to break it up, and gradually as the months progressed the brown faded a lot and I kept going back to have more highlights put through it until eventually it was in good enough condition to have a high lift tint applied and now I'm back to being light blonde. It took a minimum of 6 months for me to get back to a form of blonde, all be it a darker blonde.
She also said she didn't want to apply any more products to the ends of my hair as it was so damaged it would just snap off and i'd end up loosing alot of the length of my hair so I trusted her opinion and stuck out the brown hair with blonde highlights. I hated brown hair too it made me look dull and washed out, and I was overcompensating for it by having to wear a lot more makeup What I did religiously though was every week I'd condition my hair with coconut oil and wrap it up in a bag and sleep in it and wash it out in the morning, I'm sure this is what helped the condition of my hair improve too. I also swapped my hair serum to the uniq 1 hair serum, and alternated with the keratase ciment thermique every 3 days.
Def wouldn't try messing around with it yourself. Chances are it'll come out patchy too where the hair is more porous in certain places, aswell as you'll find strands of hair just snapping off randomly due to it being over treated. Could she put blonde highlights through the top of it to break it up a bit? My hair was in good enough condition to have this done even after going from blonde to red to dark brown.

Thank you for the coconut oil tip - definitely something I'll try out!

I don't even know what the best thing to do in this situation would be - would blonde highlights on dark hair look a bit wrong at the start? I need my hair looking good by next Monday

I've had highlights for years usually over box dye blondes (which never really came out in my hair) but this is the first time I have really dark brown hair and don't even know what to do with it, I don't even want to put a Nice & Easy colour over it in case my hair is too damaged. I thought a nice balayage would be the end of my blonde-hair-with-roots problem and now I'm back at square one with my brown hair

I'm going to get another salon's opinion tomorrow. I really want to go back to the salon that did my hair and tell them how unhappy I am about it but I have a feeling she'll just repeat that my hair is too damaged to put any more blonde at the ends of it and won't do anything for me and I don't want to make a fuss if I'm not going to get anything out of it.

[Deleted User] · 24/08/14 - 16:42

When I had highlights over my dark brown hair she put a mixture of two colours in and alternated it, one a light brown and one a medium blonde (obviously I didn't want the raccoon affect with stripey hair that would look weird)
The ends of our hair are always the most damaged as it's the oldest hair, so unless you're ok to have a load chopped off i'd def avoid more colour on it.. the options she gave me were sure I can take you lighter but i'll have to cut a load of your hair off at the bottom... after a few weeks you'll def find the brown will lighten in colour, i'd def consider getting a full head of highlights done this week.

I don't know if this is good advice or not, but when I was trying to fade my red hair colour she told me to use head and shoulders as it will really fade the red quicker (the idea was to fade it as much as poss so she wouldn't have to use a super dark brown to cover the red) I wonder if this would work for fading your dark brown? She did say head and shoulders is not a good shampoo to use but for this purpose she said it would be kinder for me to try and fade my red colour than for her to strip it. If you do use head and shouders tho i'd def make sure to use some kind of intensive moisture mask after cos it made my hair feel really dry.

just found this link too:
http://beautyeditor.ca/2012/10/15/how-i-faded-my-hair-colour-at-home-and-rescued-myself-from-burgundy-hair-dye-hell/

GlassBalloon · 24/08/14 - 21:43

Thanks for all your help ilove2dook and the link was a helpful read too. These fading methods (Head and Shoulders, Vitamin C etc), would you be able to tell me how close to your original hair colour they got you? Or am I getting them confused with hair strippers? Because although I'm not happy with the dark brown, I think a faded medium brown with no hint of blonde could possibly be worse - at least the dark makes some sort of statement, I hate hate hate looking mousey

I think highlight done the way you've suggested may be my best bet but sigh having to fork out another bomb and still have problems with regrowth... Thought I'd found the answers to all my root problems with the balayage

I'll be going round every hairdresser I can this week for opinions

[Deleted User] · 25/08/14 - 10:03

They weren't stippers, they were just ways of fading my red hair (the idea was that if it was less vibrant she wouldn't have to take me such a dark brown to cover the vibrancy of the red) and it worked reallllllly well on most of the hair. I was just thinking maybe if you weren't quite so dark brown you could have a full head of lighter blonde highlights and it would look ok, obv if you were reallly dark brunette and had light blonde highlights you'd end up with the raccoon effect... so would need a darker blonder and light brown highlight to gradually bring you blonder... I know what you mean, mouse isn't a good look

Good luck today with the other hairdresser

HystericGlamour · 25/08/14 - 20:52

Hi Glassballoon - A couple of things:

You can try and accelerate the brown fading by using a peroxide shampoo. Mix 30 or 40vol peroxide with shampoo and a little water and wash your hair with that, allowing it to sit in your hair for 5mins or so. This could give your stylist a lighter base to work with.
Having your hair stripped isn't really a harsh process as long as professional colour stripper is used, and not bleach. However, stripping generally leaves you with an orangey shade, so your hair would probably need hi-lights and an all-over base colour again. The base colour used she be one or two shades lighter than the actual shade you want, as colour always turns much darker on stripped hair!

GlassBalloon · 25/08/14 - 21:50

Thanks for the advice HystericGlamour, one thing I've always been unsure of with hair strippers was how many shades do they strip you of - do they take you back to your natural color or just the colour you were before your most recent dye? (what i want) And I don't suppose they do much for the condition of your hair or do they?

It would be nice to strip my hair and start afresh but I don't imagine its going to undo any of the damage colouring my hair has done to it and right now I really feel nervous about putting any dye near it. None of my local hairdressers were open today (grrrr) so no second opinion for me. I'm a little less horrified today by the colour of my hair but I'm really shocked by what awful condition it looks in. The ends literally feel like a massive dry cloud of hair and even straightening it (which usually smoothes it out after using hair masks - which I did) still left it looking awful

HystericGlamour · 25/08/14 - 22:56

Results with strippers are variable depending on colour build-up, and how long the colour has been in your hair. As I said, if the hairdresser uses a proper hair-stripper, and doesn't just try to bleach it, then it doesn't really cause much damage. However, as colour-stripping doesn't just take hair back to a previous colour (it usually looks quite orange) then it will have to be coloured again, and, in your case, that will involve hi-lights.
To sort out the condition, why don't you invest in a good leave-in conditioner? I'd recommend Potion No.9 by Sebastian. I think you can buy it on amazon. Maybe even try a glossing spray on the ends after you've straightened it?

Lushness · 26/08/14 - 14:16

That whole process is very traumatic for the hair and will need more than leave in.

Assess how your ends look, although I would imagine they may need a good trim. Then you need to do some intense conditioning treatments either with oil or moisture conditioner or both. Try leaving it on overnight if possible, 5 minutes won't do it.

Try and lay off the heating stylers as these will simply add to the damage.

OneTreeHillFan · 26/08/14 - 18:33

If your ends are in a really and condition you need them cut off - they will just continue getting worse and your hair will stop growing. Straightening them just damages them more.

GlassBalloon · 26/08/14 - 19:27

Thanks for all the advice. HystericGlamour I looked up that conditioner and it looks lovely I may try that out

I just had a trim in April so no more cutting this year. This is the pickle I am in. Sure it might be ideal to cut off all the dead hair and no longer ruin my hair with heat or chemicals but as long as I have some pride in my appearance it's just not going to happen. I look absolutely woeful with shorter or darker hair and the sheer amount of frizz, volume and just thick, thick hair in general makes me look downright unpresentable in public without any sort of styling done to it. So suffer on I shall!

I had another hairdresser look at it today and said it didn't look as damaged to the point of breakage and is going to put a few blonde highlights through the lengths on Saturday so here's hoping it will turn out okay!

OneTreeHillFan · 26/08/14 - 19:37

Okay but if you want your hair any longer you need it cut or when you do next go to the hairdressers for a trim they will have to cut off all the damaged hair anyway. If you don't want it any longer it doesn't matter, just something to consider.

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Damaged hair being dyed blonde, help needed!

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