Bleaching/Hair Dye/Color Remover.

Mar 7, 2016

Jamie M.

Question: should I use bleach or color remover or both??

I have dyed my hair every color atleast once. starting from bleach blonde of last year summer it went: several (semi) fun colors that faded, natural blonde all over (permanent), to burgundy (permanent) underneath, & bleached again light blue on top (semi, it said titanium which I thought meant silver), to natural blonde on top, then burgundy underneath that, then black underneath the burgundy,,, then burgundy over the natural blonde (so burgundy permanent & black permanent)
then I was hoping for wine colored hair & went over it all with purple (demi). now that my hair has grown several inches since the last total bleaching you can't imagine the number of shades in my hair. for the most part, it looks purpley brown pink gray green lavender blonde. my ends are thin but the top half of my hair is thick. I'm wanting to go all over bright red, the black has faded a lot. I don't mind orange tones in it but I'd like the top to look as even as possible.
should I use a color remover before bleaching? I tried to use a color remover on semi & it did not work. I've never attempted it on demi.

Mar 8, 2016

Bri C.

Color removers don't tend to work in my opinion. coat your hair all over in coconut oil. let it absorb it (30-60 min) then mixx your bleach to do a bleach bath. to do this you mix bleach with white conditioner so it is not as harsh. I've don't this instead of color removers and it creates minimal damage and works well.

Mar 8, 2016

Bri C.

*I've done this.

Mar 8, 2016

Alyx T.

I would go to a professional. I wouldn't use a color remover as they don't usually work on semi or demi permanent dyes. I would try using a dish soap mask, basically just put a butt ton of dish soap (preferably in the color opposite your current color or in the color you want to go) and leave it on for an hour or so. It's drying but a hair mask will fix it. You can also mix a direct veggie dye into it and create a toner that removes color at the same time. I often use this to change colors. I'm even using it lately to go from purple/pink to another color, so I mix in a few drops of green dye to counteract the pink.

You definitely will have to bleach it, but I would go to a professional just because multiple tones can be really difficult to lift, and they'll be able to use the right products to get the color you want, or even just get you to an even toned blonde so you can do it yourself. You might even be able to get away with a couple bleach baths (bleach and shampoo) but it'll be really difficult to judge on your own.

Also be careful with coconut oil and bleach, it can cause it to be patchy and can make the bleach even more unpredictable than it already is. Since it'll have to eat through the oil as well as your natural oils and bleach the actual hair.

Mar 8, 2016

Jamie M.

Dish soap hasnt worked for me in the past it just made it very very dry &made my hair break off 10x easier. I looove coconut oil. do those baths really work?

Mar 8, 2016

Jamie M.

I don't trust salons they've messed up my hair every time I've went to one

Mar 8, 2016

Alyx T.

Bleach baths do work, they don't lighten a lot though. You still leave it on for a couple minutes to let it lighten.

I would search for a trusted salon, I know it's hard to trust people but if you find one that is knowledgable about bleach it'll really help you. Doing it by yourself will be very difficult to tone correct and get an even color, and is quite risky in your case. I'd look on yelp or find someone on instagram/Facebook in your area that has a lot of their clients documented, that way you'll see what you're expecting and can get your money back if they mess up.