Mixing permanent dyes!

No, never mix box dyes. They aren't designed to be mixed and, especially using different brands, you could end up with a horrible chemical reaction and very unpredictable results.

If you have a Sally's near by that you can get to, or online, you can get tubes of dye that you can mix.

If that's not an option, try one of the dyes and add the tone you want using direct dyes (manic panic etc). If you add some conditioner to the colour you can cut out a lot of the mess.

Thanks! I wouldn't of mixed brands but would of thought you could mix colours within brands so glad I asked!

I wouldn't really know where to start with anything from Sally's! Although I'm an avid hair colourer only really used box dyes!

X

It's really easy. Just pick the shades you want to mix and get a bottle of peroxide. The level of peroxide you'll need depends on the dye brand and the shade of your hair.#

In all honesty, I'd really recommend using Adore dyes. They're semi dyes, yes, but you can get a much better result and they're really easy to mix shades to exactly what you want. That, and they're not at all damaging. If your hair has already been dyed and isn't darker than the colour you're applying it's really the best solution to mixing colours.

I dye my hair mahogany with a box dye (or Wella from Sally's) then use Adore dyes to add extra red tones, that way I don't have to use the damaging permanent dyes every time I want to refresh the colour and I get a bit of extra 'oomph' to the red or ginger tones.

I mainly do it this way as my natural colour is fairly light and I like to add the rich, dark brown tones as a base for the red but if the colour you are looking for is lighter than your own colour, or you want it quite bright you might prefer to just pre-lighten it a bit then use Adore on it's own for the red. (all Adore colours are intermixable)

Ok ladies thank you so much!

After googling g the lady whose colour I adore uses a redkin colour which I've found on eBay - how do I know which developer to get with it? Any ideas?

Thanks again
X

Developer is developer, it's generic. You'll get brands that say, 'for best results use xxx developer" but it's just peroxide. So find out what volume peroxide it needs (stated as a vol number 10,20 etc or a % number 6,8 etc) and just get a cheap bottle.

It would be worth finding a colour in the Adore range you like though. Red permanent dyes are notoriously bad for fading, worse than semis. What you can do is add a small amount of the Adore dye to your conditioner as a mini top up each time you wash your hair. You do not want to use the permanent dye all over your hair each time as it will get more and more damaged, but you particularly don't want to be tempted to just keep topping up the colour with the permanent dye. Eventually it will cause your hair to become so damaged it won't hold most of the colour for more than a wash or two! So save yourself some heartache now and look up Adore dyes 🙂 if you're in the UK the beeunique.co.uk is a great place to get them.

I couldn't agree more with Janine's advice, I've been all different shades of red and keeping them vibrant with permanent dyes alone can be really damaging and a lot of upkeep! You need to at least have a red direct dye as a back up for keeping the colour looking fresh if nothing else!

Thank you so much!
Will check out the adore dyes now! Then I may only need a permanent for my roots and greys!
X

Ladies you've been so helpful do you mind if I ask another question?

I have ordered 2 adore dyes - when I mix the colours would the colour I see in the bowl be similar to how it should take ? Obviously I know my own hair will affect the colour when it develops  but I wonder how I know how much of each colour to mix?

And secondly (if you don't mind) how do you get the adore dyes our your hair when your ready for a colour change? I'm use to using strippers - do these take out these semi dyes?

Thanks so much
Lauren x

The colour you achieve when you mix will be pretty much the colour that your hair should go. Try mixing tiny amounts together and blotting them onto some paper to see what ratio you like best (although remember that your eventual colour will not be as bright because you're not putting it on white hair).

These dyes are not permanent and will (eventually) wash out just with normal shampoo. You can speed it up by using a harsher shampoo like Head & Shoulders, and colour removers such as Scott Cornwall Decolour Remover can also help, although they're designed for permanent colours so it will affect the base colour too. There are various cocktail recipes knocking about on here too that people use to fade their colours. Don't use colour strippers as they are basically bleach under a different name - which really annoys me - and will damage your hair unnecessarily.

Thank you so much!
I usually use colourb4 or Superdrug's own equivalent - would these work after fading with head and shoulders say?

Thanks again
Lauren x

They can do, yes.

Permanent red and semi reds are, ironically, the worst for staining! Yep, I know it's stupid. Red fades badly but stains? It's crazy but yes! So you can't always guarantee they will work on any reds annoyingly.