Ever since my last child a year ago my hair has not been the same. I used to be a dirty blonde that would highlight it once every summer. Easy stuff. Not so much anymore.

I have 2 "Color experts" at a salon - one first tried to highlight it and it had brassy/yellow tones all on the top half. Then it was toned 4 TIMES - because every time she did it still came out brassy.
I dealth wth it and decided to just leave it alone and grow it out... so I got some permanent hair color that wsas a light brown ash color... in hopes that it would just warm up and get red out... DIDNT WORK... so went and got even a darker semi perm color over that... left it alone for a couple months... still just an odd... light red.light brown... odd color..
Went to Sally beauty a few weeks ago and got some light ash blonde with clairol developer.. used just a ten... to not creat too much more damage... and couldn't really tell anything happened...
THIS brngs me to today... I have some interviews coming up and my roots were coming in a different color... so I put some left over wella ash blonde with a green base... and thogh it look more even and better than it did... I am still a really gold yellow tone... not the ash I want.

I am pretty sure my hair just got darker after my 2nd... and I may not be used to highlighting a darker hair color... but how do I get out of the yellow ugly tones... I keep getting told to buy GREEN BASE dyes or toners... I have done that 2-3 times... and it doesn't work...
THe bottom half of may hair is great... the top half has issues... should I spot bleach some on top..? I don't have much faith in "professonals" I have wasted a lot of money for results I ddnt ask for.


HELP ME... PLEASE. Stubborn orange/yellow tones will not go away!!
I want a dirty blonde color with some natural lighter areas... like Iused to be pre kids!

Thank you!
You can also email me at [email protected]

First, let me note that it is a poor idea to post your e-mail address anywhere. We can respond to you through this board. If you post your e-mail, spammers have "harvesters" (programs that gather e-mail addresses from the web) and you will get spammed like you've never been spammed before.

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OK. About your problem. I need to teach you a couple of things. First of all, there's a phrase in the hair coloring industry that says "Color won't lighten color". What that means is that haircoloring of a lighter shade will not lighten hair that's been colored with a haircoloring of a darker shade. There is simple chemistry behind this and it's true. Don't get haircoloring (single-process haircoloring) confused with bleaching and toning (double-process haircoloring).

Number two thing is that hair always gets darker as you age -- until it starts going gray. Most people who were blonde as a child, are darker by age 20 and light brown (at least) when they hit their 30s. You have to adapt to the changing natural haircolor.

Third. Yellow + Green = Greenish yellow. Red + Green = Brown. Note that these don't say anything about intensity. A blonde can have a faint brown tone, and it can be very flattering. Finally Yellow + Violet = neutral gray. Thus colors with a violet base are used for toning out yellow. Most "ash" shades of blonde are violet or blue-based.

Greenish yellow is not a good haircolor. I don't know what ______ (fill in with disparaging noun) told you to use a green base to counteract yellow. They should have told you to get a violet-based color.

Green neutralizes red
Violet neutralizes yellow

OK. Next is technique. When your color expert #1 highlighted and got brassy/yellow tones, the bleach was simply not left on long enough. As hair is lightened with bleach, it can go through many color changes. This graphic (click) shows the color changes.

Link to Hair Lightening Graphic

On the right-hand side of the chart, are the colors of the *undertones* (the natural pigment still in the hair. On the left is the final color that you're shooting for after toning. You probably started at about level 5 or 6. You can see that as you lighten, the undertones get more red, then the red goes away and you have yellow, and finally you get to pale yellow. This is the color that you normally shoot for when doing highlights -- especially if you don't want to tone the highlights. Toning can be tricky, especially when there's too much yellow. You simply can't tone out the yellow if there's too much -- you had/have too much.

Light brown was a bad thing to use because the formulators of the product assumed that there would be a lot of red in the hair (the assumption is made that the user will start with brown hair -- and red will result). If you bleach into the yellow, there's no red and the overall result is the odd color (usually greenish) that you saw. The darker semi-perm probably worked a bit, but now you're simply combining colors.

Haircoloring isn't like painting a room -- what you want is not what you get. The "shade" of the haircoloring is only part of the picture. The other part is your natural undertones (see the graphic again).

The light-ash blonde trick didn't work because your hair was already colored with a darker haircoloring (color won't lighten color). So, it did nothing.

Ash blonde with a green base was probably not the best thing to use after that. You probably need an ash blonde with a violet base, and if there was too much yellow, that wouldn't have helped, either. You have to add enough pigment to counteract the yellow, and if there's too much, an ordinary pre-formulated dye would not have worked.

Right now, your hair contains a lot of artificial pigment. It's dyed all over -- not just highlighted. Those are the facts. If your hair can stand it, this is what I would do. I would get a color remover - ColorFix or Color Oops; Igora Phantom if you're in Europe, and remove the haircoloring in your hair. You may need two applications of ColorFix to get it to work right. Here are some instructions for using ColorFix.

Hair Color, Hair Care and The No More Bad Hair Days Kit by Robert Craig Salon Products, Ltd.

Once you get that out, your hair will not be a normal color (guaranteed), but it will be the color of what's left of your natural pigment. Then you have to make a decision, based on how dark or light it is. You can bleach it to "pale yellow" (don't bleach it before using ColorFix or you'll simply damage the hair and won't be able to use ColorFix. You'll then have to use a bleaching-type color remover like ColorZap, which is more damaging to the hair -- but it does work) and then tone with a blonde toner. From then on, you'll be a double-processed blonde. You'll do the roots every 6 weeks and re-tone them. I'll refer you to this site. It used to be very active, but has dropped in activity of late, but there are still some good people there who know what they are doing.

Bottle Blondes Board

The other choice is to dye it without bleaching. If it is reasonably light and not too brassy (that may be difficult to judge), I would dye it with a level 8 or 9 ash blonde color. Then, I would bleach in some pale yellow highlights so that the overall result will be quite nice.

Double-post. :confused:

Perito, I have a hair situation, I was wondering if you could help me with. I am a natural ash blonde, and have been bleaching my hair for years, I also have alpecia, a skin disease which makes your hair fall out, I have it mildly, but a hair dresser told me to dye my hair light brown and it would make the bald spots less noticeable. So I went and bought a store bought light brown, and my roots turned the nice brown I wanted, but the ends turned a grey green color. Its horrible. How do I get it back to a dark blonde or anything but grey without going darker or breaking the bank? Please help!!

I bleached mine I was a dirty blonde when I bleached it is white and yellow just dn know what to do get yellow out... the bleach I used had toner already in it. What should I do?