Problems going from level 5 to 7

Ok, my first question before anything else, how did you do the strand tests? Did you keep them warm?

no...I simply separated 3 different itty bitty sections of hair and let them dangle down freely while the rest of my hair was up in a bun. Think that could have messed it up?

I'm kind of curious about using dye to lift colour that way, can it work?

I'm kind of curious about using dye to lift colour that way, can it work?

Strictly speaking no, you can't dye your hair lighter BUT if using a box dye kit that sort of has bleach in it, it lightens your hair then deposits dye.
I think.

Sorry it's taken so long to answer, I've been trying to work out how to word it all so it'll make sense! Hopefully it does!

You need to keep strand tests a bit warm. Wrapping in cling film will do enough as it'll keep in the heat the process naturally produces. Don't use 40vol under any circumstances.

A word about bleaching and dying. Dying is almost as bad or just as bad as bleaching. It does pretty much the same thing. So if you're avoiding bleaching you should be avoiding permanent dying as well.
About dye lifting dye. It's a bit of a minefield. Dye isn't made to lift dye. Sometimes it will. Sometimes it won't. But the lighter the colour of the dye that has been used before the lighter the pigment is and the more likely the subsequent lightening with the next light dye will show through this pigment

I still don't think it's the best way though. I always prefer lightening with bleach or bleach baths because you always know what shade you have before adding more colour. Then toning with purple shampoo or direct dyes.

What kind of shade do you actually want?

Strictly speaking no, you can't dye your hair lighter BUT if using a box dye kit that sort of has bleach in it, it lightens your hair then deposits dye.
I think.

This.

I put a medium ash blonde box dye over my mousy light brown/dark blonde roots, and then Colour B4'd it, which revealed that the dye had turned my roots blonde. It might be that your hair has actually lightened, but the added colour on top darkened it again, and if so I'd recommend using a colour remover before thinking of bleaching it! 🙂

Sorry, I didn't see the new replies until now! Thanks you guys for explaining that dye *can* possibly lift dye, especially if it contains bleach, that satisfies my annoying curiosity about the whole mystery!

Sooo, I ended up doing 3 bleach baths on my coconut-oil-slathered hair (and was shocked to find that my hair actually feels softer than usual now after all the deep conditioning!) It left my hair a bright golden yellow.

Here comes my newest fiasco and question -

Last night I used Wella T14 "pale ash blonde" toner, left it on 25 minutes (way too long apparently) and now my hair is whitish/banana yellow at the root and the rest of it looks like it got splashed with dirty dish water!

My ultimate goal is a honey blonde, level 7ish, sort of like this:

I'm thinking of doing another bleach bath (avoiding the roots) to even everything out, and then dying over it with demi-permanent dye (which I read shows up extra dark on pre-bleached hair, so I'd need like 2 levels lighter than my goal....??)

Again, any advice is most appreciated!!

Just get a colour remover to remove the toner. Please don't bleach bath again, you might find in a few weeks you get a nasty shock with damage that hasn't shown so far.

I'd also avoid Demi dyes as they have peroxide in and it's worth avoiding that until you really know your hair is in good condition.

Have a look at Adore dyes, there's some very good ones.

About blonde dyes again. There's no such thing as a blonde hair dye that has bleach it. Blonde permanent hair dyes all lighten hair, some more than others, but it isn't bleach in the dye. It's peroxide and usually ammonia etc that do the lightening. In fact all permanent dyes lighten hair because they contain peroxide. Even dark ones.

I'm at a point after a few bleach baths where I'm struggling with toners too so I'm very interested in this thread.    I've tried Mixing Adore with conditioner using Mocha brown but it has too much red in it for me, and I'm looking for a more neutral/ash shade.  In fact I'm going to use colour remover today to try to remove the red and start over again with something else.  What else to use I don't know!  I keep looking at colour at Sally's but leave without buying anything because it's overwhelming. 

Winter looking at your picture I wouldn't say that is an ash blonde - it's more of a warm gold blonde I think!

Winter looking at your picture I wouldn't say that is an ash blonde - it's more of a warm gold blonde I think!

Lol good catch! I thought I wanted ash at first since my skin is cool toned, but I am loving the warm honey look now 🙂