Hey guys! I have reddish-blonde hair at the moment and am trying to go back to a neutral blonde shade.
Hair history:
I have naturally dark blonde hair and dyed it regularly with L'Oreal Superior Preference Permanent blonde, in a lighter shade than my natural color. About four months after applying the L'Oreal, the color faded a bit and I decided I wanted to go brunette. I used a red protein color filler by Colorful in Red Red and then applied a semi-permanent brown on top. Then after a while I decided I wanted to go back blonde, I did some research and decided to use Color Oops. It worked great and removed the brown, but now I'm left with a reddish-blonde shade, which looks dark blonde inside but is reddish when I'm in the sun.
I can't find anything online about color fillers, so I have no idea how to remove it. I've been doing the Head and Shoulders method (leaving it in for 20 mins then rinsing - I do this twice and then follow up with a protein treatment or deep conditioner or oil treatment). I've noticed the red fade slightly and I've done this twice. Maybe I could just dye a light blonde over it after a few more washings with the clarifying shampoo?
I'm not going to go to the salon to get the color corrected as that would cost $200+ - I have a pixie cut, so I don't mind waiting until the red grows out in a few months and the color is not that bad.
Basically, does anyone know if protein color fillers can be removed? If they can't I'd love to know so I can just wait until the color grows out instead of washing with clarifying shampoo weekly.
Thank you for any help/advice!
Unfortunately reds can really stain, so this could be what you are seeing here. Alternatively it could be that the blonde has mostly grown out and what you are seeing is your natural colour slightly lifted by the permanent dye.
You can use colour removers up to 3 times before they are no longer effective
Ok, thank you! I used the baking soda + Head and Shoulders method once, left it on for an hour, and it looks a lot blonder inside - but then I took a picture outside in sunlight and it's still the same shade of red. I'll use the Color Oops again and see what that does. You don't think I'd be able to dye over it do you? Even if it would potentially come out a strawberry blonde, that would be better than this and look a lot more natural when my roots start growing out. Thank you again for the reply!
If it's staining then it may not lift with bleach (and if it does it will not lift evenly and you'll risk patches/ banding). You could try neutralising the orange tones with a bit of blue direct dye mixed into conditioner maybe? It might go a funny muddy colour though.