Why does my hair turn red when I color it myself? (shampoo, lighten)
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I've been using Clairol permanent color (professional line from Sally's), trying different color combinations after talking to the Clairol consultants, from half neutral to half gold (thinks it's 7N + 7G) and my hair still turns out with lots of red and fades very fast. My natural color would be light brown with some gray. Should I try just 7N? Add half a cool shade? Why does it fade so fast?
Light brown is one of the hardest tones to deal with because of the underlying pigment. The entire wide range of natural hair colors are actually composed of varying amounts of only two pigments. There is a dark/black pigment, and an orange/red pigment. Natural blonde hair has a small amount of dark/black pigment and almost none of the orange/red which in small amounts reads as yellow. Natural "black" hair is composed of significant amounts of orange/red pigment and some dark/black pigment. Light brown is somewhere in between, with a moderate amount of orange/red and some dark/black. Keep in mind that the warm pigment is rarely visible in most haircolors because it is "cloaked" by the dark/black. You only see it in natural redheads who have very little or no dark/black pigment to cloak the orange/red pigment, or in hair which has been exposed to bleaching via sun, peroxide, etc. But that reddish color is present in almost every shade in some concentration - other than the natural pale blonde.
So. Permanent artificial haircoloring works by using a chemical process to open the hair's protective cuticle and introducing chemicals to oxidize the natural pigments, then depositing replacement pigments. The final color is a mixture of what is left of your natural pigment overlaid with the deposited artificial pigments, and further complicated by the translucence of the hair shaft and the way it reflects light into and through the hair mass. The black/dark pigment is the easiest to destroy, but the orange/red is much more persistent. If you have ever bleached your own hair you have witnessed how hair almost immediately becomes some startling shade of orange/red once the dark pigment is destroyed. Typically the orange/red is revealed within a minute, but it can take over an hour to lighten the orange/red to a light yellow shade, depending on how dark the hair was to start with. Which shade you are left with is a function of your natural haircolor. Those of us with light brown hair like you and me are left with a shade of intense orange pigment after minimal lift. Now, to create a neutralized, believable hair color from an orange base, you need a significant amount of blue. This is bad news for us, because blue is not a color which is particularly colorfast and it washes out really easily. Additionally, due to health considerations (as I understand it), commercial hair color is not allowed to contain enough blue to properly counteract all that strong orange. Once it washes out, what you are left with is a nasty, brassy, orangey shade.
The solution is to lift the underlying pigment further than you would for most other shades. Don't stop lifting in the orange range, lift all the way to banana skin yellow (but not all the way to white). Then choose your final color from that point. A 7N would probably work great if you lifted the red out first. But even if you want to finish at a light brown similar to what you started with, you'll get the best results if you treat it as a double process and get rid of that red first. You'll probably have the best results if you get from the yellow lifted shade to your final shade via a semi or demi rather than a permanent hair color, but something like Clairol's Second Nature can work well, too.
Since you already have color in your hair you should probably work with a pro to achieve this at least initially. Deposited color follows it's own rules and will not always lift the same way natural pigments will.
[quote=tilli;30650213]Light brown is one of the hardest tones to deal with because of the underlying pigment. The entire wide range of natural hair colors are actually composed of varying amounts of only two pigments. (remainder deleted).
Thank you for helping me to understand what's going on with my hair. Have tried several color combinations of the Clairol permanent, professional color line. Clairol suggested going to mixing two shades both of a *neutral* base. Have been coloring my own hair due to the cost at the salon but may have go in now--plus it's getting harder for me to apply the color myself.
Light brown is one of the hardest tones to deal with because of the underlying pigment. The entire wide range of natural hair colors are actually composed of varying amounts of only two pigments. There is a dark/black pigment, and an orange/red pigment. Natural blonde hair has a small amount of dark/black pigment and almost none of the orange/red which in small amounts reads as yellow. Natural "black" hair is composed of significant amounts of orange/red pigment and some dark/black pigment. Light brown is somewhere in between, with a moderate amount of orange/red and some dark/black. Keep in mind that the warm pigment is rarely visible in most haircolors because it is "cloaked" by the dark/black. You only see it in natural redheads who have very little or no dark/black pigment to cloak the orange/red pigment, or in hair which has been exposed to bleaching via sun, peroxide, etc. But that reddish color is present in almost every shade in some concentration - other than the natural pale blonde.
So. Permanent artificial haircoloring works by using a chemical process to open the hair's protective cuticle and introducing chemicals to oxidize the natural pigments, then depositing replacement pigments. The final color is a mixture of what is left of your natural pigment overlaid with the deposited artificial pigments, and further complicated by the translucence of the hair shaft and the way it reflects light into and through the hair mass. The black/dark pigment is the easiest to destroy, but the orange/red is much more persistent. If you have ever bleached your own hair you have witnessed how hair almost immediately becomes some startling shade of orange/red once the dark pigment is destroyed. Typically the orange/red is revealed within a minute, but it can take over an hour to lighten the orange/red to a light yellow shade, depending on how dark the hair was to start with. Which shade you are left with is a function of your natural haircolor. Those of us with light brown hair like you and me are left with a shade of intense orange pigment after minimal lift. Now, to create a neutralized, believable hair color from an orange base, you need a significant amount of blue. This is bad news for us, because blue is not a color which is particularly colorfast and it washes out really easily. Additionally, due to health considerations (as I understand it), commercial hair color is not allowed to contain enough blue to properly counteract all that strong orange. Once it washes out, what you are left with is a nasty, brassy, orangey shade.
The solution is to lift the underlying pigment further than you would for most other shades. Don't stop lifting in the orange range, lift all the way to banana skin yellow (but not all the way to white). Then choose your final color from that point. A 7N would probably work great if you lifted the red out first. But even if you want to finish at a light brown similar to what you started with, you'll get the best results if you treat it as a double process and get rid of that red first. You'll probably have the best results if you get from the yellow lifted shade to your final shade via a semi or demi rather than a permanent hair color, but something like Clairol's Second Nature can work well, too.
Since you already have color in your hair you should probably work with a pro to achieve this at least initially. Deposited color follows it's own rules and will not always lift the same way natural pigments will.
Thank you for such a logical and easy to understand explanation.
Thank you for helping me to understand what's going on with my hair. Have tried several color combinations of the Clairol permanent, professional color line. Clairol suggested going to mixing two shades both of a *neutral* base. Have been coloring my own hair due to the cost at the salon but may have go in now--plus it's getting harder for me to apply the color myself.
Neutral base is definitely the way to go for a base on grey hair. Artificial haircolor is formulated with the expectation that some natural pigment will contribute to your final color result. But grey hair has no pigment to contribute, so all it gets is the deposited pigment. This means your grey hair may wind up with a strong yellow, green, blue, or violet tinge. With a neutral base it should wind up with the most believable color result on the grey hair. How it looks on the pigmented hair is dependent on how you deal with the underlying pigment. Even a neutral base can only do so much against the saturation of orange that is in lifted light brown hair. If your hair is significantly grey you should try to get a product which is formulated for grey hair to get the best result.
I also wanted to note that a much less frustrating way to deal with this is to use the orange to your advantage and go auburn or red. You'll still have to deal with the red fading but a decent red shampoo will help with that. If your natural hair is light brown there almost has to be a good red (or several!) for you. A few blonde highlights could brighten it up if you want it lighter, and only portions of the hair would have to absorb the damage. Highlights are more upkeep, though.
Again I'll say that you should really consider having a pro sort this out on your particular hair. You may have to interview a few but you should be able to find one who can get you to a believable shade and provide a game plan for moving back to home color. You have been using various shades on your hair over time, right? If so your hair will have lines of demarcation for each color change that need to be corrected before your hair can be evenly colored, and you may need protein fillers for hair which is already lifted. You can learn how to do all this yourself, but it depends how deep down the proverbial rabbit's hole that you are willing to go.
I've been using Clairol permanent color (professional line from Sally's), trying different color combinations after talking to the Clairol consultants, from half neutral to half gold (thinks it's 7N + 7G) and my hair still turns out with lots of red and fades very fast. My natural color would be light brown with some gray. Should I try just 7N? Add half a cool shade? Why does it fade so fast?
Since you are pulling red, get rid of the 7G (since it will add warm golden red tones) and mix equal portions of a 7N and a 7A, the blue green in the ash (A) will neutralize the golden red tones you hair naturally has.
I used a light brown on my strawberry red hair. l'oreal brand. I have colored my hair for years. My hair turned a black-grayish shade. I will now use a removal hair color solution, also l'oreal brand to take the color out and color again. I had to do this a couple of months ago because my hair turned too dark an amber color, but left it on too long and had trouble getting it to take any color after it. I had to go to a hairdresser to get it fixed. She used a profession Sally brand that I can't find in any of the stores, only on line and I need to fix it today. It looks horrible.I can't afford to go to a hairdresser to have it done . Once I get the color out, what should I use to recolor it? Thank you for any help to this problem.
My base color is about a 7 with maybe 10-15% grey. It's what I'd call a light brown, but all hairdressers have called it dark blonde.
I pull major red. It's also a lot of fine hair that is easily damaged with bleach and ammonia.
I've been using: (all from Sally's)
Wella 8A
20 volume peroxide
Ardell red out packet to add in color bottle
wella T-18 (former white lady) lightest ash blonde toner
So much red still that the lady at Sally's said: "that's 8A?! Honey, maybe God's trying to tell you to go red."
Lol.
I have fair skin, blue eyes and pink undertones, which is why I was going for ash.
I'm scared to try red though because I'm not sure what color red to try and work with.
Anyone have any ideas for me?
ETA: Loreal box color destroyed my hair last year and I'm almost finished growing out the damage: I had my hair cut super short in the spring to just get rid of it. One or two more haircuts and the damage should be gone.
I've been using Clairol permanent color (professional line from Sally's), trying different color combinations after talking to the Clairol consultants, from half neutral to half gold (thinks it's 7N + 7G) and my hair still turns out with lots of red and fades very fast. My natural color would be light brown with some gray. Should I try just 7N? Add half a cool shade? Why does it fade so fast?
I was once that color and you'd have to put it into your shampoo every wash to keep it. If trying to achieve a lighter, you have to aim for a 10 ash to get rid of the Reds. All hairs are made with pigments which help your hair. If you add violet or ash tones it will turn blonde but beware the damage it causes. You wanna bleach to the inside of a banana then tone it with wella t-18 and t-11 (half & half). Then buy purple shampoo to use once a week. Good luck! It's so much fun!!
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Hardest color to achieve
