what should I expect?

I wouldn't hold my breath on ever getting back to white.  Reds stain, and they stain badly.  You will probably have an orange tinge for quite some time even after the red fades.

Yep, bleaching probably wouldn't make it white again either. So please don't just reach for the bleach. If your hair was already white, then it won't take much more bleaching, if any.

Yep, bleaching probably wouldn't make it white again either. So please don't just reach for the bleach. If your hair was already white, then it won't take much more bleaching, if any.

Offtopic but similar issue. Does blue stain as badly as red? I had yellow/pale yellow hair, dyed them light lavender, then blue, if I wanted to come back to yellow in let's say a year's time, is it gonna be a lot of hard work?

It depends on the blue. It's better for a separate topic though, so if you'd like to know more best to ask in a thread alone. That way people looking for the same answer can search for it  🙂

Thanks for the replies! So is their no hope for returning to white? Even if I fade out as much as I can and use a hair colour remover? If not would the stain most likely be light enough to put a nice blue over it?  😮

It's not that there's no hope. It's just that most of the time it's not going to happen and you'll be left with orange staining, so don't set your heart on anything. You might be lucky... but it's a slim chance.

You *might* be able to get a dark blue, but as orange is the opposite of blue it will go muddy if you use a mid to lighter blue. All you can do is try, see how light you get.

It can be done, I have done it on my daughters hair, but it wasn't an easy process. We had to bleach bath and use colour removers, she had to lose a few inches afterwards. (She had waist length hair before)
If you only dyed it red once there is less chance it has stained, but it has a lot to do with the porosity of your hair, certain areas of my daughters hair that were more damaged really held onto the colour. Overall her hair was in good nick, I think that is why we managed to get it out. There are a load of fading methods to try, and if you are left with a pink or orange tint you can still tone it to a colour you prefer.

thank You so much for the response, I'll worry about it if I ever want go back natural lol

Crow crow, my response was aimed at the OP. I have been dyeing my hair various shades of blue for the last 18 months, and there is no way I can get back to blonde. It fades to a very pale, almost white shade of blue/silver now, (had it fairly pastel and lilacy since October) but after using turquoise it wouldn't fade past pale green for a really long time, colour remover and bleaching made no difference. Toning with pinky shades of lilac/lavender and not using any non-diluted dyes for the last 8 months is the only thing that has helped with the green. I could put a blonde dye over what i have now, but my white blonde base is gone forever.

Ugh.. Okay. I will hold onto my belief that everyone's hair is different and that there's a slight chance of it lifting lol, thanks for the response!

Also if your hair is in good condition you could be more aggressive with the fading treatments than i was. My hair is long and fragile so I have to be pretty careful with it