Hair Dye Disaster!!! Help! **pic update**

[rainbowfairymomma]

Ok so last night I decided to dye my hair blue/black for something funky. I've had the dye for like 2 months and I'm just lazy

Anyway............. I HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it looks sooooooooo unflattering... what can I do??? Dye over it?

Help!

Me

[Penelope]

I've read that dish soap will strip color out pretty well, but if you're a person who really must have decent/nice hair (like me) I'd go to a salon and have them fix it. I'm not vain about a whole lot, but having hair I hated would really bug me.

[NiteNicole]

You can't dye over something that dark because there's nothing darker than blue black. Is it a temp color or perm? You can try washing a LOT and using clarifying shampoo (follow with conditioner so you don't tear your hair up) and see what's left of the color then. Maybe it will lighten enough to cover. What color is your hair naturally?

IMO, if you're going to end up stripping the color, you should go to a salon (Aveda is EXCELLENT with color correction) and let them do it.

Good luck!

[BMG580]

Well, if it is permanent nothing is going to remove it other than a professional color remover or bleach. I would not try this yourself at home, lifting permanent color out can be a long and uneven process especially if you want to retain the integrity of the hair and end up with a fairly natural result. Just know in advance that it will probably be very expensive and a lengthy process.

Good luck!

[rachelle-a-tron]

Ugh! That sucks. I dyed my hair black a few years ago & hated it but kept it up for about a year & a half until I just couldn't take it anymore. I knew that it would be a costly fix so thats why I maintained it black for so long, finally I let it grow out about a half an inch & then hacked the black off... so I had half inch long hair. It was pretty liberating.

Good luck with whatever you do Mama!

[Nikki Christina]

btdt

i did mine blue black in High school.. also hated it
it will not fade or lighten with dish soap..
cant dye over it cause its SO dark

i had mine stripped. it was very expensive. it took several times & it was dryer after..so i got it cut often & used a really good shampoo & conditioner

[library lady]

Nothing may cover the color but you may be able to dye over it with the same brand and have the colors blend. One color can tone down the other. I ended up dying my hair and it came out purplish black. I was mortified so I ended up calling the 800 number on the dye box and asked the hotline how to tone it down or what colors to use over it. They told me what color to us to tone it down/change the color. I wouldn't waste my time or money on a salon or stripping.

[rachelle-a-tron]

I have a friend IRL that is also on MDC, shes a hairstylist... I will try & send her to this thread!

[gethane]

I dyed my hair black after kicking my first husband out. A couple months later I decided to go red, not realizing nothing dyed over black. So then I had red hair at the top, with black on the ends. Then I decided to stop dying it so then it grew out my natural dark dark brown color, red in the middle, and black on the ends. And my current husband actually started dating me during this.

Good luck with whatever you do.

[rachelle-a-tron]

I bet it looked super punk rock & funky! I would have loved it!

Originally Posted by gethane

I dyed my hair black after kicking my first husband out. A couple months later I decided to go red, not realizing nothing dyed over black. So then I had red hair at the top, with black on the ends. Then I decided to stop dying it so then it grew out my natural dark dark brown color, red in the middle, and black on the ends. And my current husband actually started dating me during this.

Good luck with whatever you do.

[davi]

usually the color will fade a bit on it's own after a few weeks. after it lightens a bit, you may be able to lift to a lighter brown with a high volume developer but to totally get rid of it, you'll have to bleach or shave it pretty much. i've had my hair everything from platinum blonde to blue/black to turquoise & everything you could imagine really. sometimes a drastic color change takes a bit of an adjustment period before you can love or even like it, IMHO. good luck.

[rachelle-a-tron]

Originally Posted by davi

sometimes a drastic color change takes a bit of an adjustment period before you can love or even like it, IMHO.

Thats what I was going to say also... give it a few days you might start to like it.

[Pariah]

I'm naturally blonde (and currently and will forever be black), and I've gone from black to light blonde lots of times. What you can do is... Scrub it out with dishsoap first. Then you'll need to get color stripper. The best IMO is in a white box with three very 80s looking women on the front. Other good ones are Wellalite (the oil based kind) from Sallys, or Manic Panic's Flashlightening bleach kit (works very well but can potentially be very damaging -- use caution!). It would be hard to tell you what volume developer to use...40 will work, but can be extremely damaging. If your hair is in good condition, I'd use 30 very carefully, checking your hair for breakage frequently during the process. You'll have to bleach it out light enough to whatever you want to get back to. You'll then need a purple toner, which will counteract all the yellow/brassy color that you'll be left with. After that, you can dye over it with whatever you want (though you will probably not be able to go very light blonde...you'll still have some orange left most likely).

I highly recommend getting a good conditioner (L'Oreal nourishing creme from Sally's works miracles) and some jojoba oil to treat your ends with. You'll probably need a trim after the bleaching, too.

Personally, I love black hair. I've had it for a long time and I can't imagine going back to my natural blonde. I use henna and indigo for it and it has left my hair in awesome condition.

Good luck! Feel free to PM me...I've been dying my own hair every color in the rainbow for about 10 years now.

[thriftyqueen]

I am a licensed cosmetologist so this is my professional advice to the best of my ability without seeing your hair.

The only way you can dye over it with color is if the hair dye you are going to use it darker than what the new color is. Hair dye cannot lift (lighten) existing hair dye.

You can get your hair stripped with a hair color stripper (Schwatzkof) makes a good color stripper, but that has to be done at a salon. Or they will bleach the color out. Don't try this process at home. You will end up with horrible results and pretty much fry your hair.

You can purchase clarifying shampoo that may strip some of the color out, but it won't strip all of it. May lighten it a tiny bit. Sometimes Dawn dish soap (with bleach) works a little bit, too, but you won't see too much result from it.

The other option is to wait it out and see if you may like it after a few days (like some of the PPs have suggested).

More that likely you are not going to get very good results with trying to fix it yourself. Store bought colors are not made like salon colors so they don't tend to work very well for fixing problems.

If you could post a picture of it, I could give you a little bit better advice.

[Laggie]

1. Put on more makeup.
2. Drink wine.

[rainbowfairymomma]

for some reason in the photo I look less washed out then normal, and you can't really see the blue part :

[JustVanessa]

I don't think it looks too bad personally. If you can't afford to get it striped professionally I would live with it for a month or 2 then cut it super short...since you already have short hair it wouldn't be too much of a shocker for you. Then it will be your nateral color and you can start over.

[captain crunchy]

Am I the only one who thinks it looks super cute?? I like it! The expression on your face in the picture is priceless though... it perfectly conveys, "I can't believe I went and dyed my hair black...get a load of this sh!!"

I think it looks really cute though actually. Give it a couple of days seriously, hair color needs a couple of days to relax in my experience (I've been most colors of the rainbow).

[jellop]

Honestly, I'd give it a couple days still, see if you get used to it, you know? I really think it looks cute. Not much help, am I?

[maplesugar]

It looks great!
You have pretty short hair so it won't take long to grow out. When i was younger, I did alsmost the same thing, but with pink and black.