Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am in my 30s and had naturally medium to dark golden blonde hair (depending on the season). I never had to dye or highlight my hair because it was naturally really nicely colored. Then...grays. Its still less then 25% gray and they are pretty fine hairs. But my hair lost the color that I loved. It looks much mor dull and ashy.
I went to a hairdresser and talked to her about my concerns and what I wanted, but didn't know any actual processes. She suggested small highlights. I liked them at first but by the time I was home and looking in natural light I realized I hated them. It looks like I have random white stripes through my hair, not natural at all. And it made my hair look more ashy then golden (how it used to be and how I like it).
I was thinking I could just get home dye of a golden blonde but I am afraid how that will turn out. I want to get rid of the highlights or tone them down so I don't look like a zebra.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
4,640 posts, read 11,931,469 times
Reputation: 9885
I would consider going back to the salon and asking them to tone and blend the highlights--for free, of course.
Otherwise, I would try toning them myself. I'd use a demi permanent hair color with 10 volume. I like ion products (you can get them at Sally's) and ion at home website has a 1-800 number. I'd consider mixing 1/2 clear and 1/2 of whatever shade was a close match to my natural haircolor. I'd definitely do a test section (with a mix of highlighted hair and natural strands) first.
I would consider going back to the salon and asking them to tone and blend the highlights--for free, of course.
Otherwise, I would try toning them myself. I'd use a demi permanent hair color with 10 volume. I like ion products (you can get them at Sally's) and ion at home website has a 1-800 number. I'd consider mixing 1/2 clear and 1/2 of whatever shade was a close match to my natural haircolor. I'd definitely do a test section (with a mix of highlighted hair and natural strands) first.
I know she did use a toner.
I really avoid conflict as much as I can so I don't think I want to go back. I will look into the other option...not sure we have a Sally's. Hair dying is a little over my head but I might be able to manage
I would give it two or thee days and then wash & condition as usual.
If you dye your full head of hair, you will get that roots demarcation line you avoid by highlighting.
Buy haircolor & get a highlighting cap & hook. Pull amounts through cap & then dye those with warm golden blonde dye. I would just free hand it, but try the cap to get the idea.
You can use the same technique to add lowlights one or two shades darker for winter.
I would dye the highlighted parts only with demi-permanent dye that is 1-2 shades darker than your hair color.
I had similar scenerio as you but the salon that botched the highlights did a fix that made it worse. They did permanent color on the entire head in attempt to match the hightlights back to the original color. But the permanent color didn't match the original hair color(the which was virgin hair to begin with) and the perm color was ugly and fake looking. Even worse, the highlights still were much lighter than the new perm color and they still looked bad too. It looked like a bad wig at a second hand store.
I ended up getting a very short haircut to get rid of as much as that ugly color as possible. Then did demi-permanent color over the bad dye job every couple months to hide the horrible fake color. Then switched to doing semi-permanent as it was almost grown out. Got the regular hair cuts until the fake color was gone.
In hindsight I should have just had the bad highlighted sections manually recolored over (either demi perm or permanent color). The 'fix' of coloring the entire head made the rest of the hair much worse.
Google your area to see if there are any salons that advertise color correction. See if they can manually fix only the highlighted hair while leaving the other hair alone. You can ask them to do a test swatch of one section first and then give the go ahead for the remainder or the highlighted sections if you like the outcome.
Do the same(strand test) for yourself if you get from Sally.
Wow this is all overwhelming. I think I will be letting them grow out. I hoped I could just do something easy. I dint want to go down that rabbit hole.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
4,640 posts, read 11,931,469 times
Reputation: 9885
If your goal is to blend the grays (and the lighter hair) and warm up your tone, demi all over color is the way to go.
I think demi -permanent color is fairly straightforward and fool proof as it washes out gradually so you don't have to worry about roots. If you choose a color slightly lighter than your natural color, it will blend the highlights and add shine.
I hate conflict too, but go to back to the salon and ask to have it fixed. It will take forever to grow out!
See post 5 above where a salon fix made it worse.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Its still less then 25% gray and they are pretty fine hairs. But my hair lost the color that I loved. It looks much mor dull and ashy.
