Sorry in advance for the length, I want to be as thorough as possible. Thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer.
I'll start from the beginning... My hair is naturally dark brown and very curly, a few months ago I noticed some gray. I was fine with that. A couple of months later, I noticed A TON of gray hair. Cue unreasonable panic and running to the drugstore to buy a boxed black dye(first mistake). I used the dye and it did not turn out well.
I decided to get my hair done at a salon, I went and had my hair done a very pinkish lavender. It was not what I asked for exactly, but at first I was ecstatic because it was new and all the products the stylist used left my hair feeling soft. I did not know enough to realize how bad it was that she bleached my hair TWICE in the span of 4 hours, and acted like it was no problem to go from black to pastel(second mistake). Anyway, when I got home I noticed my hair was pretty patchy, even brown in spots. I resolved to let it fade a bit and then went back to have it "touched up" a month later(third mistake). Before I knew it, I had bleach ALL OVER my hair again. I still did not know enough to realize how bad this was, my hair texture was already really bad at this point. I asked the stylist about it and she just said not to worry. She left the bleach on for what seemed like forever, over an hour for sure.
When I got to my car, the lavender was even patchier than before. It was so bad, I started crying. I know it's stupid but I felt I ruined my curls for nothing.
A couple of weeks later, I used One 'n Only Color Fix. When I went to Sally's the sales associate's reaction to my hair had me in tears again, she was really vocal about how crappy the texture was. Anyway, this got most of the color out and left me with the patchy bleach job and green-ish ends. I did a bunch of hair masks etc. and coated my hair in coconut oil. At this point my hair texture was already so ruined, I figured I might as well bleach again(fourth mistake?). So I bleached very briefly and got to a very light color, but my roots didn't lighten very much at all.
Over that, I applied 1 tube of Ion Color Brights in shark blue and 1 tube of lavender, mixed with a metric ton of conditioner to make it spreadable. It did not take to my roots at all, leaving them a light brown color. It was completely uneven all over the rest of my head, some parts just blue, some just bright lavender, and some a mix. It has been a couple of weeks now and this is where I am:
On the plus side, even though it looks worse than before, the texture has improved a lot in the last couple of weeks as I've been doing various treatments and being very careful with it.
What the pictures don't show is that the ends are still greenish. My roots are growing in, but the light brown is still there. Some parts are bright, some are faded. Some are blonde. It's a hot mess.
I have my high school reunion in less than a month and I am freaking out. I have no one else to go to in my area, and I obviously don't want to go back to the same stylist who fried my hair in the first place. I'm desperate to just have my hair an even color.
What can I do to make it so if I put a dark purple over this mess it will look even?
Posted : September 25, 2014 6:11 pm
In my experience, dark purples will usually cover uneven bases pretty well. I don't know what dyes you have available to you, but things like Directions Plum, Rose-Red and Tulip (last two not technically purple, but nice colours) should easily be able to cover the uneven base. Same can be said for most of the darker Special Effects dyes, though I have no personal experience with them.
Obviously there's more to be said for how to fix the base and help 'repair' your hair, but it would probably be best to just focus on using protein and conditioning treatments for now. You can put the darker colour on now, and then once your reunion is done, can think about redying 🙂
Posted : September 25, 2014 8:27 pm
Thanks for the response. I was thinking of getting Punky Color Plum & Violet. Do you think that could work? I'm having a hard time finding anything but that & Manic Panic locally. And my experience with Manic Panic in the past wasn't great so I'm trying to avoid it.
Posted : September 25, 2014 8:32 pm
Hm, punky colour, I take it you're somewhere is the US then? I think Punky Colour is supposed to basically be about the same as Directions (I could be wrong, but from what I've seen/read they appear to work the same). In that case, those should be fine. I'm not too sure about violet - it usually needs a more even base, and is slightly less pigmented, so Plum would probably just take over if you mixed them together. But that's something you can only really tell by trying it out I suppose.
Definitely wouldn't bother with Manic Panic, there are very few people who get results worth the price you pay for it
Posted : September 25, 2014 8:53 pm
I have never used it personally, but Punky Colours are supposed to be really good, well pigmented and long lasting. I think the mix of Purple and Violet would cover, (Punky Violet is way more pigmented than Directions Violet)although in the top pic it looks like there is an orange patch at the back that may show through. Try a strand test on that part to check.
If you want to even your base up, i would just do a colour remover on that orange part, then bleach your re-growth and the parts you didn't fully bleach last time, NOT on the lengths. You will have to be very careful not to get bleach on the rest of your hair.
To restore your curls and improve the texture, i would recommend going silicone free, CO washing and using oils like coconut and Argan as a leave in product. I used to straighten my hair for many years, and when I didn't it was just frizzy and puffy. By giving up heat styling and taking up the routine I described my natural curl pattern returned within a few months.
Posted : September 25, 2014 8:56 pm
Jadiekins, yeah, I'm in the US. It looks like I might have a few more options by ordering online though so I'm going to look into it a little bit more and focus on plummy colors.
Thanks for the curl advice, Pixie! Honestly I'm confused about the orange patch in my picture. I just looked through my hair and I'm not seeing it, I think it was the lighting in combination with the light brown areas around the roots. Do you think the light brown areas will be very different from the rest of my hair if I go with a dark purple?
Posted : September 25, 2014 9:17 pm
It will be a different colour, but won't look bad, just darker. It may become more obvious as it fades. Having slightly bleached roots and then natural roots can give a great gradient/ombre effect if you want to grow the bleached areas out.
Posted : September 25, 2014 9:46 pm
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