Going from red to natural dark blonde

You can't lift colour with colour, and going from red/brown to blonde is a long process, especially since you don't have access to colour removers.  It can take six months to a year to get it blonde, and even then the staining may mean it never lifts in to the yellows you need for blonde.

Given your situation, the best option would be asking your stylist to run highlights through your hair every 6-8 weeks, depending on the condition of your hair.  It will probably go very brassy at first, but after a few highlight treatments it should lighten up a bit.  Get some blue and purple semi dyes (like Manic Panic) to mix with conditioner to tone the brassiness out as you go along as well as some keratin treatments (Joico K-Pak Reconstructor is a great one), and it goes without saying that if your hair starts to feel brittle when dry or gummy when wet, you need to stop and wait for it to grow out.

I would get the colour remover, even if it works out expensive, it will still be cheaper than constant trips to the hairdresser and better for the health of your hair. I would order enough to use it three times. Then you can bleach it if it needs it and use a dark blonde demi permanent, which is close to your natural colour.

I would get the colour remover, even if it works out expensive, it will still be cheaper than constant trips to the hairdresser and better for the health of your hair. I would order enough to use it three times. Then you can bleach it if it needs it and use a dark blonde demi permanent, which is close to your natural colour.

Which colour remover would you suggest using? I could get some posted here.

You can't lift colour with colour, and going from red/brown to blonde is a long process, especially since you don't have access to colour removers.  It can take six months to a year to get it blonde, and even then the staining may mean it never lifts in to the yellows you need for blonde.

Given your situation, the best option would be asking your stylist to run highlights through your hair every 6-8 weeks, depending on the condition of your hair.  It will probably go very brassy at first, but after a few highlight treatments it should lighten up a bit.  Get some blue and purple semi dyes (like Manic Panic) to mix with conditioner to tone the brassiness out as you go along as well as some keratin treatments (Joico K-Pak Reconstructor is a great one), and it goes without saying that if your hair starts to feel brittle when dry or gummy when wet, you need to stop and wait for it to grow out.

I'm not sure what you mean about the highlights...could you explain further please? I mean, I know what highlights are but cannot envisage what you mean. Thanks.

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If you can get colour removers shipped in, that would be the way forward.  I seem to have missed the part where you said you can get them online.

What I meant was that the hairdresser would do a full head of highlights.  Each time they do this, a few of the previously highlighted hairs will inevitably get picked up and re-highlighted the next time, so the first set of highlights may look brassy, the second set will have some brassy bits and some lighter bits, and by the third or fourth set, your hair should be mostly a multitonal dark blonde with some low lights.

It is a time-consuming, expensive and slightly risky option, though, so if you can get a colour remover and get a lighter base then that would be a better choice.  The staining in your hair, however, may mean that you can never get past a very dark blonde/light brown shade (recently referred to in pop culture as "bronde").  It depends on how dark you mean by dark blonde; if you mean bronde you should be able to achieve that, but if you are looking for something like a dishwater blonde, it might be difficult to lift your hair to that yellow stage, depending on the staining from the reds and browns.

Great, thanks so much! I realised after I should have said that I could get stuff posted here. Although not all places will ship to China. I'll try the colour remover and see how that goes. Yes, bronde isn't too far off.

I have been doing a bit more reading about this and am now a bit concerned as I've read that using straightners can lock in silicones if your dyes contain them. I have no idea if they do but I expect so. I do use silicone free shampoo and conditioner though. Is the Colour B4 still worth buying? I can get it shipped here but it's about £16 a time and don't really want to buy more than one if I can help it.

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Yes, it's still worth it.

And is

Yes, it's still worth it.

What is the likelihood that I'll need a semi permanent dye after? I don't think I've ever seen them in shops here and am worried about going ginger...?

So I've done the colour remover and I have a strawberry blonde colour. It's not so bad but I was wondering if it's worth trying another round of the remover?

Moderator combined posts.

Yes. It's always worth doing again.  You can do the colour remover three tines. Always leave bleaxh as a last resort 🙂

Yes you can definitely do it again, usually 3 times is the most it takes, they don't really do much after that in the majority of cases. I would definitely do it 1 or 2 more times. Is your natural dark blonde ashy? If so I would continue with the removers, make sure you rinse really, really well, wait for some oils to build back up in your hair and you can bleach it then. Try to get it to a gold if you can, though you may have some staining on your ends since you've been using a permanent on it every 5-6 weeks. Getting rid of the ginger tones makes it a lot easier for the hair to look naturally ashy so you're not trying to battle and tone the ginger out as the color fades.

There aren't a whole lot of dark blonde semis out there. I think Wella Colour Fresh would be the best route. Their 7/0 I think is called medium blonde but looks more of a dark neutral blonde to me, and their 6/0 looks more like a light brown. There's their 7/3 which is more of a golden dark blonde, and you can mix any of them too to get just the right shade too.

To help keep your hair toned, if it's a neutral or ash tone you're after that is, you can add a violet semi to your conditioner and shampoo to help keep the yellow/gold tones at bay

Thanks for the replies. I did it again yesterday and it is a little lighter. I will do it once more next week I think. I'll be in Thailand from Sunday and will be able to visit boots so may be able to get some semi permanent dyes there. I can't find them in China - even at the hairdressers!