Orange and yellow hair after ColourB4!!

Colour B4 can't distinguish between the tint you want to keep and the tint you want to remove so it has just removed all tint and toner and left your hair at the levels they have been lightened to. The ash blonde will have been a tint or toner that was applied to your lightened hair so using the Colour B4 will have removed this along with anything else you had in there.

Hair lightens through stages, red then orange then yellow so the orange near your roots is where it has not been lightened enough to tone to a light ash colour.

I have just noticed that you further lightened the ends, you'll need to keep an eye on them as we usually advise leaving a month between bleaching/ lightening processes so that you can tell whether the hair has begun to break through damage.

Basically you need the orange part to be lightened further and then you need the lengths toning or tinting back to your desired shade. You can do it yourself by learning to bleach or bleach bath (some really good tutorials on here!) and then mixing a toner from direct dyes (Adore do some browns that can be diluted in conditioner to make blondes, or Directions purples and blues can be diluted to counteract yellow or orange tones). If you don't want to do it yourself you could try complaining to the salon that the roots weren't lightened enough, but they might refuse to fix it after you've used the Colour B4.

Hi Lauralei!

Thanks so much for that!!

I wanted to keep the dark root ombre effect which is why when i lightened my ends again (to tone the yellow out) I also dragged it through the top - the salon darkened my roots with a dirty black/brown red colour which didn't match the light ash brown/blonde ombre I had. I used colourB4 on my whole head to remove everything which explains the ginger and bright yellows.

If I am aiming for this look in the picture (left, and mine on the right), should i just dye over my bright orange roots with the light ash brown semi I have and then put a toner over the rest of the yellow blonde?

In distress and after some great research on this site I have now also brought (la directions midnight blue, manic panic ultra violet dye, and the Wella T14 & T18 toners) - they should be arriving today!

Just not sure what I do with them all? Maybe if I whack them all on together it will banish all brass for god and I can finally leave the house looool!

Thanks in advance!

Please don't use the wella toners, your hair has been through a lot already and the wella toners are really harsh.

Yes, use the semi brown on your roots and the toners on the length. You need to put on the brown first. Apply it on the roots and then drag it down into the rest of your hair a bit with your fingers so it blends down and looks natural. Don't take it as far down as you actually want it to be as it will seep down a bit as you wash it out.

Hi Janine,

Thanks you for the advice!

So I should brown my roots than tone using the manic panic ultra violet only?

I just tired a strand test and the manic panic did remove yellow but now have lots of hints of purple - is my hair too porous for this right now?

Also, the strand test for the brown semi's left red undertones on my rooted area (currently bright orange/red) - do i need a darker ash to cover this or something more permanent?  I still also have semi blue dye + conditioner as blue counteracts orange? Very confused as the steps I should take in dying or toning first?

Thanks so much x x

Your hair will be really porous now. Leave it on for less time. You might just need a few minutes. Or you used too much violet in the mix with the conditioner.

I would do the brown first then the toning. Make sure you don't use any conditioner at all in between. You can do it at the same time if the semi is a true semi (no peroxide) but it is a bit tricky and you obviously need very little of the toning on the ends.

You likely need a slightly darker brown then, yes. you could try toning the orange first, but you'd need to be super careful to not get any blue on the blonde at all. That includes washing out as very porous hair would suck it up too easily.

hello!!

Thought i would update - the manic panic dye worked well on the blonde yaaaay!

however, i applied both the semi's on my roots (ashy light brown, dark ashy blonde) - and they are definitely still orange with hints of red - so rather than bright ginger they are now a mahogany brown 🙁

As i wanted to keep a dark rooted look, and they started off bright ginger i'm not sure if i should bleach them as i'll be back to where i started and will this will bring out further warmth - (unless the only way to achieve a ash look is bleaching out all the warmth completely to a full blonde) - than dying darker again with brown ash colours?

i was hoping there was a way of keeping the level of colour just without the red/orange undertones? as i know i would look so weird completely blonde looool 

Any further advice would be highly appreciated

xxxx

i still have the t14 & t18 but using them by the instructions with 20 vol peroxide may expose more warmth - i heard the t14 especially is good for orange tones, and i do have an old emulsion 1.9% developer but could i mix that with them or only to be used wit colour touch?

xxxx

They mostly don't work on orange tones. They're only meant for yellow tones, and pale yellow tones at that.

No, bleaching isn't the only way to get ash. Blue or green should work (it depends if it's more orange or red). Try the blue, but as I said, be very careful to not get any on the blonde. It will look a little darker, but as you're dealing with your roots, you need to be careful or you'll start getting breakage at the roots and broken hairs at the root isn't such a great look!

hi!

i tried to directions semi blue + conditioner last night and it didn't really work.

i've attached a pic of what it is currently - gives you a better idea of the orangey red.

just need to end up with a natural brown ash root - ideally same of brown level just without those tones. When you say blue or green, do you mean semi dye, perm dye or toner etc?

sorry for the back and forth - desperate to sort these roots out 🙁

Always assume I'm talking about semi (though more correctly, direct dyes like directions). I'm only going to recommend something else if it's really necessary.

Maybe you didn't use enough blue this time.

lovely! ok extra blue + conditioner again it is! Will try tonight thanx very much xx

Hi Janine,

So the blue dye + conditioner hasn't worked very well. Currently roots still a light cooper. Just wondering if you had any other suggestions? have heard good things about green blue colouring or a red gold corrector!?? xxx

It sounds like your hair is too dark for all the toning you have done so far. It looks less brassy than the original photos now but to cover the copper that's left you'd have to go darker.

It doesn't hurt your hair to keep trying semis and conditioner but I don't think a corrector is going to manage to cover it at this point. Semis also can be quite translucent you could go darker and try a dark ash brown but I'm not seeing a true semi in this shade. The "Nice & Easy" in dark ash brown is a 28-wash demi that you mix with peroxide.

As you already have the color touch 1.9% emulsion I'd think about giving the Color Touch 6/71 a try. It's a professional product so you should get more colour payoff than the Nice & Easy, if you're having to use peroxide anyway. Using an ashy brown should finally have enough pigment to cover the copper. Of course be wary of using peroxide on hair that has already been processed. Some fine hair can only take one process and damage can take one month to show up so you can overprocess without realising until it's too late.

Take a bit of time and think about it 🙂 You don't want to keep adding more and more onto your hair for no effect. Look at some colour swatches and maybe other people's results on the internet, consider if you can get a dark ash brown true semi and whether it might cover the colour you have now, and whether your hair is dark enough for 6/71 to cover that level of copper or if you'd need to mix in some 4/71 to make it darker still and of course also whether your hair can handle more processing and if it needs a break. We can't see your hair in real life and lighting and photos can only show so much.

Another thing to consider when assessing the damage is that if you intend to have a blonde ombre for a long time, the hair that is now the root will eventually be part of the lengths and you would need to then lighten it again, after initially darkening it!