Oh my God, my hair.

January 30, 2006 9:14 AM

I have blonde highlights - well, I *had* blonde highlights, until I used my friend's color depositing shampoo...

... Artec brown. And her Aveda madder root (red) conditioner. My brother took one look at my hair this morning and said, "Wow. Your hair is orange. Did you do that on purpose?"

I have an event on Wednesday, and I need my beautiful hair back! I tried soaking it in shampoo, and washing twice last night. Nothing. I can't make it to the colorist before Wednesday, and I don't trust the people at my local beauty supply store enough to ask their advice.

Please help.

posted by KAS to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (16 answers total)

I've always heard that dishwashing liquid is the way to remove unwanted haircolor. I'm not sure what the chemicals are in color-depositing shampoo so I'm not sure if it applies to that as well, but it might be worth a try.

You might also want to pick up a really good conditioner, because whatever finally does the trick is bound to be a bit damaging to your hair. Good luck!
posted by boomchicka at 9:20 AM on January 30, 2006

Yep. Dawn dish detergent.
posted by xyzzy at 9:40 AM on January 30, 2006

The thing about red hair dye: it's the hardest to maintain (tends to fade very rapidly) and yet impossible to completely remove (tends to linger long, long after it should be gone).

You can try washing multiple times a day with a shampoo containing Sodium Lauryl Sulfate -- the strongest, nastiest detergent ingredient available. Yeah, it's the same stuff that's in dish soap. Try a clarifying shampoo for extra-scrubby goodness. And condition, condition, condition.

Go to the hair board at Makeup Alley and beg the ladies there for advice. They often have good tricks up their sleeves.

Best plan: start calling other salons and asking for an emergency color correction treatment. It will cost you some money, but seriously, I don't think anything else will get you back to your natural color between now and Wednesday. Your regular colorist will forgive you, I promise.
posted by junkbox at 9:44 AM on January 30, 2006

When my hair color used to fade to orange, I had to use a product called Drabber -- got it at a beauty supply store. It comes in blue and green versions, if I remember correctly. On orange hair, the blue has a transparent filter effect, and the color turns to a more neutral brown.

I have used the conditioner missmerrymack recommends; I like the idea, but I don't remember if it made much of a change.
posted by wryly at 9:51 AM on January 30, 2006

Most shampoos contains Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. It's not a detergent; it's a foaming agent. It's in shampoo, bubble baths, dish soap, laundry detergent, and in most toothpastes. In short, it's in many products in which foam is desirable.

But it won't hurt you.
posted by luneray at 9:55 AM on January 30, 2006

You could try a colour stripper to take the hair back to a more neutral shade ready for a new colour application over the top.
posted by essexjan at 9:58 AM on January 30, 2006

Call your colorist. If you can't make it back in because you can't get there, that's one thing, but if you have a real emergency w/r/t your hair color being messed up, she will probably try to fit you in. (If she's any good, anyway, she will.) Barring that, she will be able to tell you if you have any good options as far as removing it at home, such as a clarifying shampoo.
posted by Medieval Maven at 10:14 AM on January 30, 2006

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is an anionic surfactant -- definitely a detergent, not just a foaming agent. It will strip color out of your hair faster than Sodium Lauryth Sulfate, or Ammonium Lauryl/Lauryth sulfate (other common surfactants used in shampoos), though the short timeframe may make the difference negligible.
posted by junkbox at 10:24 AM on January 30, 2006

Best answer: No offense meant, but DO NOT USE A COLOR STRIPPER.

I tried one to remove red once, I think it was even the one that essexjan links to above. It's a paste that does not go on evenly, and removes ALL the color. If you think that orange is bad, this will leave you a little orange, a little blonde, a little straw... Straw as in color, and texture. It fried my hair so bad it took several professional corrective colorings and about a year to finally overcome. Think calico, for months.

Seriously, speaking as someone who has made their share of self-dying mistakes, if the dish detergent don't work, go to a professional before trying to correct the color on your own.
posted by sarahmelah at 10:54 AM on January 30, 2006

...if the dish detergent doesn't work...
posted by sarahmelah at 11:01 AM on January 30, 2006

Have you tried calling Aveda? They might have suggestions, too.
posted by occhiblu at 11:32 AM on January 30, 2006

Prell shampoo has been the first weapon of choice for all my hairdressers, and Google's backing me up on the popularity of that advice. I was given some to use when Pantene shampoo turned my blonde green ("did I forget to tell you to NEVER use Pantene on your highlights?"), but the chemical reaction was done and set by then. I'm told it's not bad at pulling out toner, though.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:52 AM on January 30, 2006

Best answer: If your hair is orange then there are two things you can do
add red to refine or add blue to neutralize, My advice is add pale violet(+ a drop of red) Artec shampoo, sparingly until the color balances.
the pigments in this shampoo are durable,as you discovered,
avoid stripping caustics, condition is more important than color.
posted by hortense at 12:07 PM on January 30, 2006

There used to be a product called Metal X (a conditioner) that would remove something like this. If it's still available try that. It pulled the orange out of my hair 2 days before my Senior portraits were to be taken.
posted by SuzySmith at 2:55 PM on January 30, 2006

This is an interesting question. Let us know which suggestion works for you.
posted by luneray at 4:31 PM on January 30, 2006

Best answer: Follow up~

Thank you all so much for the suggestions. I'm less orange than yesterday - I asked my brother this morning how it looked, he said, "less bad, but you shouldn't ever do again whatever you did to make it orange."

I bought the Prell and washed 6 or 7 times with that. Wow, that stuff strips hair. Unfortunately, it didn't strip out the orange tone. It probably would have worked if I had used it immediately instead of waiting a couple of days.

I also bought some L'Oreal Nature's Therapy blonde shampoo and conditioner - it had the violet tones. Washed and conditioned with that twice (second time leaving the conditioner in for about a half hour). Marginal improvement - I should have used maybe an Aveda or Artec product with violet tones, might have been stronger.

This morning I grabbed an ancient vial of Hask Pure Shine Stay Blonde that I had hanging around my bathroom closet. It's the same violet color. It's meant to be applied to dry hair, so I've been sitting at my desk and applying it all day. More marginal improvement - but at least I am starting to look presentable.

The violet toned products seems to be the way to go.

(I'm marking this as a "best answer" in case anyone looks at this and just reads what I've marked as "best")
posted by KAS at 2:53 PM on January 31, 2006