Dyeing and perming?

[girloflowers]

Ok soo I have a soft perm in my hair (slowly growing out, about 3 inches are not permed at the roots.)
I also got blonde and red foils recently, after the perm.

So now I have really cute curly hair, with blonde and red highlights...

And I HATE the foils they were so cute at first but now I feel.. I dunno..
trashy or something, not me. Don't get me wrong foils on other people are great but...I only like them on myself when they're unnatural colours eg hot pink or blue :P and since I can't have those for work... I want my regular dark brown hair back plz.

My question is since i have monumentally ruined my hair by treating it like hell (bleaching, dyeing, perming etc) would I be ok to buy a box of brown hair dye and do it myself, or should I shell out and get it done professionally?

[gildedangel]

Since you are going darker you should be able to do it yourself. I would recommend that after this giving your hair a break and buying some restoring products to help the health of your hair. Of course if you do it at home do a strand test first, damaged hair takes to color really well, and you don't want to overdye it!

[girloflowers]

ee thankyou
i just spent a mint of conditioning treatments, lave in conditioner, de frizzing stuff and whatever you can anme that's meant to repair hair and stop it from going fluffy, so hopefully the ridiculously priced treatments i got will help with repairing it once it's pretty again!

[tyger]

You might want to do multiple strand tests, ie a strand of each colour your hair currently is. You might want to especially watch the blonde foils, as if your hair was bleached and permed it might be too porous to hold colour properly (happened to me last time I changed my hair colour, and that was done in a salon).

If your hair is in a pretty decent state go for the at-home option, but depending on how damaged it actually is you might end up at the salon getting it fixed anyway, so be prepared in case it happens!

[dirtball]

heres my opinion as a professional colorist. (prices mentioned are just how much my salon would charge which are pretty standard prices for a quality salon.)

best case scenario: you pay 8 bucks for box color, do it yourself, and it looks fine

worst case scenario: you pay 8 bucks for box color, do it yourself, and the blonde pieces will turn black or possibly green along with any other porous parts like the ends or splotches all over absorbing way too much color. then you have to go to a stylist anyway in order to fix it for anywhwere between 80 dollars for a single process or 200 for a color correction.

i think you should call up a salon and ask if they offer free color consultations. at your consultation you will have no obligation to pay or book an appointment right then. explain the full history of your hair chemical, color, anything youve done to it and express your concerns and see what they say.

box color is generalized so almost anyone can use the same box of color, since a box doesnt have eyes or a brain or hands to formulate your color specifically for your hair needs. box color is usually permenant color with a bottle of 30 volume in it which is completely unecessary for you. 30 volume is powerful enough to lift haircolor. you need a semi permenant color which would be using less than a 10 volume developer in order just to deposit color. using a 30 on you is not only unecessary in power, it wil be adding a lot of uneeded damage and over processing to your hair. lightened, permed hair would handle salon quality semi permenant color much better than high ammonia, low quality pigment, way too much peroxide, permenant box color.


theres a reason box color only costs 8 dollars. at a salon youre paying for a professional to formulate specifically for you strand by strand.

[HerGreyness]

I think you should be able to do it at home -- just make sure you don't a color which is too dark as the damaged ends and lighter parts are more porous and will absorb more color and will come out too dark.

I color my hair myself as I am too cheap to pay someone else to damage it!

[girloflowers]

what if i put like a brownish... soft kind of colour through it so it just slightly darkens the blonde bits and makes the brown look more reddy?
not like a full on all over permanent colour? is that even possible?

[HerGreyness]

what you want is a demi color.. using 10 vol peroxide. If you want to make it redder than look for any light brown/dark blonde level 6.4 approx... that should give you a brown with reddish tones. Good luck!

[slowdownbaby]

Garnier Nutrisse it's a great hair color that doesn't damage your hair as much as others like clairol or L'oreal (: