DIY hair disaster - need to DIY my way out of it...
February 20, 2020 2:44 PM Subscribe
I’ve done a bit of a botched job on my home balayage and I can’t get it fixed professionally. Tell me some at-home fixes that might make it look slightly better!!
In July last year I did a kind of balayage job on my hair (it is naturally dark blonde; at the time it was dyed a slightly lighter, warmer blonde). It looked all right (you know, for an at-home balayage job) and I haven’t done anything to it since. However, yesterday I attempted to bring the highlighted sections closer to the top of my head as they were growing out. It did not go well.
The highlighted sections are a) not as light as the ends, b) too warm (kind of gold-y) and c) pretty uneven and a bit splotchy in places. They also don’t join up to the ends exactly so it kind of goes lightish-darker-really light. I suspect I didn’t leave the bleach on long enough (I was a bit scared of it).
I know the obvious thing to do is to get it sorted professionally but that just isn’t an option; I can’t afford it in terms of time or money (I have - genuinely - visited a hair salon twice in my 37 years, the last time was 13 years ago). What can I do at home and fairly quickly to improve it? Would a toner help? Can I just dye over it? It doesn’t need to look polished, just better than it does at the moment!!
In July last year I did a kind of balayage job on my hair (it is naturally dark blonde; at the time it was dyed a slightly lighter, warmer blonde). It looked all right (you know, for an at-home balayage job) and I haven’t done anything to it since. However, yesterday I attempted to bring the highlighted sections closer to the top of my head as they were growing out. It did not go well.
The highlighted sections are a) not as light as the ends, b) too warm (kind of gold-y) and c) pretty uneven and a bit splotchy in places. They also don’t join up to the ends exactly so it kind of goes lightish-darker-really light. I suspect I didn’t leave the bleach on long enough (I was a bit scared of it).
I know the obvious thing to do is to get it sorted professionally but that just isn’t an option; I can’t afford it in terms of time or money (I have - genuinely - visited a hair salon twice in my 37 years, the last time was 13 years ago). What can I do at home and fairly quickly to improve it? Would a toner help? Can I just dye over it? It doesn’t need to look polished, just better than it does at the moment!!
The easiest thing to do is get a demi/semi permanent box dye that is slightly darker than the darkest part of your hair. That should even it all out. You might want to snip a small lock off near the crown of the back of your head to test this first before doing your whole head.
You could also just get color-depositing shampoo. It's temporary (only lasts a few washes) but when I've had hair disasters and couldn't dye again I've used these to even out the color. They're similar to a toner I suppose but deposit more color.
posted by Polychrome at 3:12 AM on February 21, 2020
You could also just get color-depositing shampoo. It's temporary (only lasts a few washes) but when I've had hair disasters and couldn't dye again I've used these to even out the color. They're similar to a toner I suppose but deposit more color.
posted by Polychrome at 3:12 AM on February 21, 2020
If, for example, your dark blonde hair is at all ashy, it might not be as simple as just using a box dye as dark as the darkest part of your hair, because lifting levels (lightening it) also removes pigments (blue goes first, then red, then yellow; your bleached hair probably has yellow left in it). So there’s a chance that your box dye will go on your super blonde parts greener than it will go on the rest of your hair, if you use an ash shade. Other mishaps can result from other tones.
One thing you can do is to get a protein filler at a beauty supply store: that will address your hair’s porousness so that it takes dye evenly. If it comes out greener or redder than you want after that, well, that’s what the color wheel is for: to get rid of green, add a small amount of red. If it’s too warm, go neutral.
Be sure you know the level you want (which I’m guessing is around 7 or 6, if you’re saying dark blonde). You can try a neutral tone even if it’s not your normal shade.
Corrective color is very hard to do at home, especially when you don’t know what you’re doing — honestly, my best advice would be to enlist a friend who’s always messing around with their color, if you have one, and get them to help you pick out the dye. But if you can’t, be prepared to make a couple of passes at this. What the too-warm part of your hair needs to even out the color is not what the rest of your hair needs, you know? They’re two different colors.
posted by verbminx at 3:38 AM on February 21, 2020
One thing you can do is to get a protein filler at a beauty supply store: that will address your hair’s porousness so that it takes dye evenly. If it comes out greener or redder than you want after that, well, that’s what the color wheel is for: to get rid of green, add a small amount of red. If it’s too warm, go neutral.
Be sure you know the level you want (which I’m guessing is around 7 or 6, if you’re saying dark blonde). You can try a neutral tone even if it’s not your normal shade.
Corrective color is very hard to do at home, especially when you don’t know what you’re doing — honestly, my best advice would be to enlist a friend who’s always messing around with their color, if you have one, and get them to help you pick out the dye. But if you can’t, be prepared to make a couple of passes at this. What the too-warm part of your hair needs to even out the color is not what the rest of your hair needs, you know? They’re two different colors.
posted by verbminx at 3:38 AM on February 21, 2020
I highly recommend that you go to a biiiiig place close to you, or instead of asking your question here, take photos and email a hair care company that sells where you are - eg: if you're thinking of buying box dye like l'oreal, get in touch with their customer service and get some free expert advice from their hair techs.
I went from bright pink (years of it!) to black with the advice of someone who used to be a hairdresser who worked in a big pharmacy. Best customer service ever, saved me around $400 and *hours* of time if I had that done at a proper hairdresser.
posted by gusset at 7:56 AM on February 21, 2020
I went from bright pink (years of it!) to black with the advice of someone who used to be a hairdresser who worked in a big pharmacy. Best customer service ever, saved me around $400 and *hours* of time if I had that done at a proper hairdresser.
posted by gusset at 7:56 AM on February 21, 2020
For now I would use a color depositing conditioner like Keracolor, apply it on DRY hair and leave it on for 20 minutes or so. That will help with the porousness problem and also help the color correction without doing more damage to your hair. You can buy Keracolor at Ulta and on Amazon so it's really easily accessible.
posted by assenav at 8:30 AM on February 21, 2020
posted by assenav at 8:30 AM on February 21, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
Toner could help the warmth if you could manage to only apply it to the too-warm sections, but it's not going to help the fact that that your hair goes lightish-darker-really-light, or the unevenness and splotchiness.
posted by erst at 9:20 PM on February 20, 2020 [1 favorite]