Alright, the red is now almost 100% gone. As you know from my previous post on Copper hair, I used the Revlon Frost & Glow to lighten some of the red out and got a nice tolerable copper. Then someone commented on my "orange" hair and I was over it. I'm fickle like that. So I did some online research and found a couple of things to try to lift as much of the red out as I could. Started here:
I've been red on the underneath before so I know there's really no getting rid of red. You can alter it by bleaching or cover it but it's basically there until you grow it out. I didn't want to keep bleaching it because I don't really want to be blonde again. At least not around my face, I wouldn't mind blonder ends but I definitely want a more balayage look with darker roots.
So...I went to Target, grabbed a box of Color Oops, a box of L'Oreal Superior Preference 9 1/2A (Lightest Ash Blonde) and 6A (Light Ash Brown). I know to counteract the red, you need an ash. My hair pulls ash really easily so I was nervous, but it was also a deep level 6 red and had been dyed a good solid 6 months with that color.
I kept seeing people using Color Oops. Over and over I saw good results, less damage and you could dye over it the same day. But the complaints of the smell, oh goodness. I mistakenly thought these girls must be super sensitive. I've smelled all kinds of chemical hair products, I used to work in a salon for cripessakes. How bad could it be?
Oh, good lord. It's the worst thing I've ever smelled. It's literally like a foul perm, rotten eggs and cow manure mixed together with a dash of pure sulfur on top. No exaggeration. It's god awful. And it also didn't feel like it was doing anything. You basically apply it, put a plastic cap on, stay away from drafts or cold air and let it marinate. Then you rinse, and rinse and rinse and rinse. The instructions say what it does is basically shrink the color molecules and then you rinse the color away. So the longer you rinse, the more color you remove. It suggested to rinse, wash and then rinse for 20 minutes, wash and then rinse for another 10 minutes. Talk about a sore neck.
But it did work. A lot. It did remove the red but not as much as I'd hoped for. So I dried it and applied the L'Oreal 9 1/2A. I know you can't lift color with color, but I hoped that the ash would tone down the warmer bits without adding any more color to my hair. I didn't want to go dark brown to get rid of this red. Followed the directions, rinsed, dried and was left with this. Not ideal, but workable. Totally wrong for my coloring though.
So I left it alone for a few days and then went over it again with the L'Oreal 6A. The box said light ash brown so I was expecting darker hair. I've used L'Oreal before and always liked the results but it tends to go about a level darker than the box says on me. So I was prepared for that but pleasantly surprised with the results. A legitimate level 6 ashy dark blonde/really light brown with some warmer lowlights from the red remnants and some lighter pieces from the previously highlighted bits.
Overall I'm very pleased. The base color is honestly almost identical to my natural color. For now, I'd like to let my roots grow a good 2-3 inches and then go for something like this:
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| image courtesy of pinterest.com, hair by misteranhcotran.com |
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