Post-merman hair colour troubles

For future reference, you can't get a dark colour lighter by adding more colour, no matter how pale the colour you're adding is 🙂 I'm sure you've realised that now. All you needed to do was shampoo with a harsh shampoo, go swimming, things like that which all fade colour.

With the colour you have now, you could get a great purple or pink. It's rather too pink to get a good blue right now. It'll just pull to purple.

Thanks for your response, Janineb. I'm not really keen on going purple.What would happen if I applied more beach powder and warm water?

You'll start damaging your hair. I'd suggest colour removers instead. What country are you in?

You'd get a good red or orange too.

I'm in London, UK. Orange sounds fun!

Ok, well, for colour removers you can try colour b4 or decolour remover. Many people here like jo bazz as well. I like decolour remover personally.

Orange would be great! You'd want one with a strong pigment to make sure it doesn't go muddy. Something like this http://www.beeunique.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=72&products_id=22 It'll come out a bit darker on your base, but still bright.

Right I opted for ColourB4 as it's all they had in my local area and it has given me this vile blue rinse! (It's also lightened my natural roots, which is not what I wanted to happen at all - grrr.)

Is it worth applying again? I have half the contents leftover as I only have short hair and hopeful my bleach blond can be restored unstained :-/

Not sure what's vile about that, it's a great colour (I've had my hair that colour numerous times)... but ok, you don't like it 🙂

Colour B4 can't lighten hair, it can only remove unnatural colour, never natural. So it'll have just taken your roots back to what ever they were before they were dyed, removing any remnants of what you last used. It's more likely to have been the bleach powder that did lighten it, if anything.

You can do colour removers up to three times. I'm afraid you're just going to have to be patient. You can get back to your blonde, but it takes time. Occasionally it isn't possible, but usually, with patience you'll get there. Once you get to a very pale blue you can use a very pale orange and it will tone it to blonde.

You can definitely try a second round of colour remover, it is usually best to wait at least a few days because they are so drying to the scalp.
The pastel blue looks great though

Sorry, by vile I meant dull! The sunlight makes it look better than it actually is! After a second application, the colour remains a dull, light blue and my hair stinks. I think it is from using the mix I made up hours a few before using it again and it's following me around everywhere!

Thanks for your continued advice. I'm unsure as to what to do next as it would involve buying another remover and hoping for a difference or the pale orange as you suggest. Do you mean a "crazy" pale orange like Directions? And that should bring back my previous bleached look?

Who knew a spontaneous bit of colour could create such drama! And yes I'm not the most patient of people *rofl*

If you made the mix up hours before use it won't have worked properly. Always mix directly before use, otherwise the chemical reaction happens in the bottle not on your hair.

Doh! That was a wasted 90 minutes then. OK I'll try and get a box of  Recolour or JoBaz tomorrow and let you know how I get on  *waves*

Whoops yeah, I'd assumed you'd only mixed half of it rather than mixing it all. Ah well. I'm assuming it's a typo/autocorrect, but it's decolour remover not recolour 🙂

Oh whoops yes, Decolour got Autocorrected! So I found a Hair Colour Stripper in the Scott Cornwall range in the clearance section at Boots for £5 - the only difference, I believe, is that it is a lightener as well as a remover. And anyway, I am very impressed at the results. Check it out!

So I am blond again bar a few orangey bits in the roots, which made me realise it's dyed my roots too, which is great! As you can see from the darkness at the front, I didn't apply to most of my roots so I intend to reapply the Decolour, using half the contents I left over - unmixed this time! So a final piece of advice please experts: Should I just apply to the roots to try and remove the orange/natural darkness or apply all over again but being more liberal at the roots?

DO NOT put it all over your hair again! Colour Stripper is different from colour remover, it is a weak bleach. So you have already bleached over fully bleached hair which is a really bad idea, doing it again could cause breakage or damage so bad it needs cutting off. You can use it again on your roots if necessary, but using a good bleach would have been more effective. Baby your hair now, as bleach damage takes a few weeks to start to show.