Colour B4 on an ombré?

It impossible to say if it'll be a nice gradient I'm afraid. It depends on how effective the colourb4 is (though as the colour is new, it should work), it depends on if the bottom has colour on it (it will remove that as well, including any toner), if your application is good (I'm not sure if it's possible to do a gradient effectively with colourb4, it might be).

Bleach isn't the answer though. Why is it so bad if some parts are a little low? Is that really so terrible? Enough to possibly fry your hair over? It really sounds like this is a case of you keep going back to fix little issues and ending up having to cut off everything! If I'm reading it right, you had an ombre done that came up too high, so you had it fixed to bring it lower, but it was too low (and a bit patchy?)?

OK guys, I've worked so hard to get my hair where it is now. Long story short....had a dip dye, it was terrible and came up waaaay too high. Went to a top salon and had a root stretch with a permanent and, sadly, it leaked into my ombre and the bleached section was left stained. I have been Vitamin C'ing like a woman possessed and as you can see it has worked very impressively. However, my ends were previously white and now, while tons of colour has come out, its still quite yellow with a bit of staining from the brunette dye still (though I haven't put toner in it for ages, no point as I'm trying to strip it back to its barebones bleach.) It looks WAY darker in this photo, very much more orange than it has in real life.

Its nearly time to add some fun colour but I need advice on which way to go, what would you choose in my predicament? Previously I tried silver and the ends took perfectly but the middle panel, which is quite yellow, stayed goldish and I hated having a silver-gold-brunette look. I need to choose a fun colour which will compliment the ombre's middle panel and work with the yellow there. What would be a good choice? I thought perhaps baby pink as hopefully the yellows will take on a peach tone which I do like. Alternatively I do like blues lagoon blues like Fishbowl but don't know if it would look muddy in the middle panel?

If this was your head what direction would you go in? I have an appointment coming up at Bleach London so thought I'd get them to do a bleach bath on the ends to get rid of the last bit of staining and then I'd be ready to rock and roll! 🙂

Yep, that's it in a nut shell Janine. I'm a bit of a perfectionist I guess. This is where it is now after my vitamin C treatments. Maybe I'd be wiser to just keep going with the vitamin C treatments then? They don't seem to be hurting the gradient and, boy, are they fading it! All I really, really want is to be able to get some super crazy colour in there and have it look stunning. However, I'm a bit stuck as I'm aiming for pastels.

Here is the after of vitamin C'ing...

How often could I use the vitamin C treatment without fear or frying? Right now the condition is actually pretty fantastic!

Before I start, a couple of things. As per the rules ( http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php/topic,2.0.html ), please try to avoid double posting.

Also, I'm going to merge in your new post with this thread. It's a small forum and generally there isn't people who just read one section and not see another. So posting in another section isn't likely to get many different answers, it's more likely to just get confusing when someone else does answer and then comes across another thread that is almost identical! I know it's on a slightly different part of the issue you have, but it's too ingrained in subject for it to be separated I would say. I hope that makes sense 🙂

Vit C will dry out your hair, so just make sure you keep up conditioning it. Keep going with them, if they're working, because it's definitely better than bleach. Just keep a close eye on the condition and give it a break now and again.

As I see the photos now, it is quite low. It's definitely more dip dye length than ombre. I think you might be able to use colour b4 on that. You'll just have to follow the usual ways of doing an ombre (backcombing before hand etc) and it should work.

However, aiming for pastels might be a bit of a long shot.

Thank you Janine. Sorry for my error!

I thought that Olaplex prevented Bleach damage? With no hairdresser wanting to take on colour beyond and no friends to help me (I literally live in the middle of nowhere and see friends rarely) I'm stumped  :'( Don't see what option I have other than to go to Bleach London. Is Olaplex not enough to take me though another bleaching?

Before I start, a couple of things. As per the rules ( http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php/topic,2.0.html ), please try to avoid double posting.

Also, I'm going to merge in your new post with this thread. It's a small forum and generally there isn't people who just read one section and not see another. So posting in another section isn't likely to get many different answers, it's more likely to just get confusing when someone else does answer and then comes across another thread that is almost identical! I know it's on a slightly different part of the issue you have, but it's too ingrained in subject for it to be separated I would say. I hope that makes sense 🙂

Vit C will dry out your hair, so just make sure you keep up conditioning it. Keep going with them, if they're working, because it's definitely better than bleach. Just keep a close eye on the condition and give it a break now and again.

As I see the photos now, it is quite low. It's definitely more dip dye length than ombre. I think you might be able to use colour b4 on that. You'll just have to follow the usual ways of doing an ombre (backcombing before hand etc) and it should work.

However, aiming for pastels might be a bit of a long shot.

I'm not sure where the mention of olaplex came from, but ok lol

Olaplex is supposed to HELP prevent damage. It certainly doesn't prevent it entirely. I'm actually recently coming less convinced of the claims they make, but most won't agree with me as they have anecdotal evidence of it working. But regardless, the company themselves say, if you wouldn't bleach it without olaplex, don't bleach it with. Even if it does work, it's not a miracle cure and if your hair is too far already (which is very possible, you've got hair that has had more than one process on it not too long ago and it can take several weeks to show up and find you use silicone products then that could be hiding that damage) you could end up with hair that breaks of at that point that has been at the very least bleached, then dyed, then to be bleached again.

In short, olaplex can't solve everything, even if it does work.

Your hair is long enough to do yourself with a couple of mirrors to do the bits at the back you can't see. Just pull most of it to the front.

Oh, I forgot to say. It's probably not worth thinking about the colour you might go, until you get your hair to a decent colour to dye. If you can't get pale enough for pastels though, you can do paler versions of colours that will fade and tone, so look more pastel.

Thanks again Janine. Sitting here with vitamin c treatment in again!  *puzz* To think a simple dip dye could go SO SO SO wrong. Nearly £1000 down from desperately trying to fix it. I'm sure you understand my utter, pathetic frustration and how desperately I need advice! Am very grateful for your help.

It seems there is a lot of yellow in my hair. I want to avoid the look I got when I tried to go silver, it was 3-toned and just not satisfying to me at all (pic below). The problem is the ends are light enough to take a pastel but the mid panel is just too bright, however I'm sure if I had the colour know-how I could do something cool. What colour would you go for to compliment this look? Perhaps dark blue on the mid panel fading out to a fishbowl or light blue? I don't know if the yellow would take this. Or I thought pinks with a peachy panel in the middle? I just don't want to experiment and get it wrong again after all this patience to strip the colour back down, the whole debacle is making me pretty stressed. 

I'm not sure where the mention of olaplex came from, but ok lol

Olaplex is supposed to HELP prevent damage. It certainly doesn't prevent it entirely. I'm actually recently coming less convinced of the claims they make, but most won't agree with me as they have anecdotal evidence of it working. But regardless, the company themselves say, if you wouldn't bleach it without olaplex, don't bleach it with. Even if it does work, it's not a miracle cure and if your hair is too far already (which is very possible, you've got hair that has had more than one process on it not too long ago and it can take several weeks to show up and find you use silicone products then that could be hiding that damage) you could end up with hair that breaks of at that point that has been at the very least bleached, then dyed, then to be bleached again.

In short, olaplex can't solve everything, even if it does work.

Your hair is long enough to do yourself with a couple of mirrors to do the bits at the back you can't see. Just pull most of it to the front.

Oh, I forgot to say. It's probably not worth thinking about the colour you might go, until you get your hair to a decent colour to dye. If you can't get pale enough for pastels though, you can do paler versions of colours that will fade and tone, so look more pastel.

£1000? I would have given up loooong ago!

It's pretty hard to tell what colour it is to be honest, each picture has a different tone to it so I'm not really sure which is right.

By the looks of it, you're best off going for a teal on the mid lengths and a turquoise on the ends. IF the last pic is correct, you'll get a pretty pastel turquoise.

I'm a model Janine, bad hair is a very problematic situation for me but I've been chasing my tail going from salon to salon trying to end up with the embarrassingly simple dip dye I should have had in the first place.

I'm feeling the idea of blues and I thought that could be a wise one to attack the yellows! Also, I've found blue to really work with my skin tone. Thank you. I've been eyeing up fishbowl lately, I think I could have a play with some blues and get back to a good place. Off to the 'blue dye' section I go!

£1000? I would have given up loooong ago!

It's pretty hard to tell what colour it is to be honest, each picture has a different tone to it so I'm not really sure which is right.

By the looks of it, you're best off going for a teal on the mid lengths and a turquoise on the ends. IF the last pic is correct, you'll get a pretty pastel turquoise.

Blue would be a bit muddy over the mid sections. But teal would cover it well. Go with the fishbowl neat over the mid sections and diluted on the ends.

Just wanted to share my personal story on using Colour b4 and ColorZap. I also had an ombre, but not a gradient one, which starts from dark brown and goes lighter towards the ends, my ombre has kinda been entirely different from my natural hair (brown-blond combination). Folor removers remove all the colour from your hair, so basicaly if you have initially leached it gradiently (like my friend left bleach towards the ends longer and left bleach less time close to her natural hair), than it will kinda still be gradient, but if you achieved your gradientbombre by dying it in gradient colours (like mixing colours to make your naural hair fade outbto lighter colour towards the ends), than color b4 and other remvers will completely leave you without any graience as they remove all the dye from hair.
I hope I understood what you meant correctly and gave competent response. Good luck 😻

Thank you Ninka.

I did a another Vit C treatment and then thought I'd have a go with the lightest colour I have, Pravana Mystical Mint. Didn't really expect it to take but WOW, the pastel is a-poppin'! I think I could certainly do a gradient with a darker colour on the higher areas. I suppose having spent so much time trying to banish the yellow in my hair I totally overlooked the fact that I could embrace it by adding greens/blues. I guess dark purple may also be a goer but I do love pastel and, looking at these results, perhaps I don't need to reach for the colour B4 and risk ruining my root stretch/ombre!?

Thought I should update this thread. I've gone in with the colour remover and achieved fantastic results. Finally light at the end of the tunnel, I can't believe it!  *1*  I'm happy hairwise for the first time in a long long time.

The initial plan was to use Colour B4 but then I found Scott Cornwall Decolour remover. AMAZING PRODUCT!!!!!! I am trying my best to achieve a dip dye rather than an ombre so I can once and for all achieve what I initially wanted but am avoiding the dreaded straight line effect by means of backcombing and then applying the product.
I'm going to rest and condition the bejesus out of my locks now and then go in again with the Decolour Remover to pick out a few strays, doing the back has been quite a task so the other half is going to help me.

Once thing I have realised going back to this yellow blonde is that warm tones make me look terrible! Do you guys think this level of blonde is going to be light enough for cool toned pastels? I've attached a photo of my other half's hair, I am utterly obsessed by his colour and want it for myself so badly! We used Pravana silver and Fudge Paintbox Lilac Frost. I suspect there is fair bit more yellow in my base than his and, of course, at this point red in the mid panel too but I need to work on that with the Decolour remover.

Also, another question, if my base isn't light enough, if I baby my hair (which, I won't deny, is now quite damaged) would a coconut oiling and very careful bleaching be a possibility in the future as it only need such a teeny amount of lightening to get "there"? I know its damaged but the amount of lightening needed is quite minimal and I wonder if bleaching has more realistic potential if you barely need much lift at all.