[Coca Cola]

Hello.
I have naturally dark brown almost black hair and have been dying it black for a couple of years to hide my gray hairs that are growing in. Yes. I have grays at 23! I don't know why I chose black... I thought the dark brown they first dyed it wasn't dark enough.

Anyway. I went last weekend to put some high lights in it and I don't like it because they are redish. I decided to go to another more professional beauty salon to lighten the entire thing.

She said that it would be possible with bleach.

I am super afraid of bleaching it but since I know I am not the only one in the world to have this problem, I think I'm okay, right?

Please let me know what your suggestions would be. I would never do it myself in fear of damaging it... but let me know if you guys have ever had an issue like this.
I would like it to be a light brown but no red tint to it at all. I feel the red makes me look pale! I am puerto rican with very light skin and very dark hair... I guess I am kind of olive color.. What hair color would look cute?
Thanks!

[xcarleex]

I've got naturally dark brown hair and a dye it black. Because its easier.
But sometimes when the blackes starts to wash out I used have bits of my hair highlighted red or blonde.
I had to stop doing it though because it damaged my hair bad and made it break off! Bleach is not good for your hair atall I wouldn't advise it exspecially if you use hair straighters!

[Perito]

"If you dye it black, you can't go back."

Well, that's not totally true. You need color remover, first. Bleach can often over-oxidize artificial pigment and you'll make it yellow or orange and it won't bleach any lighter. Color removers like ColorFix, Color Oops, Igora Phantom will dissolve the black pigment so it can be washed out. It's much easier on the hair than bleach. There are some bleach-based color removers like Color Zap and Effasol. They work better than bleaches, but are harder on the hair than the reducing-type color removers.

A light bleaching won't damage your hair too much, and you might have to bleach a little bit after using color removers -- depending on how light you're going to go. You always have to re-dye after using color remover. Don't expect it to leave your hair its *natural* color.

[Coca Cola]

Well I want it to be like a brown color. Like brunnette brown. Not too light because that's too much of a change, but not too dark to not make a difference.
Oh and I RARELy straighten my hair. I hate it straight... it's not poofy enough.

I just want to change the overall color to something more soft and flirty rather than it being so bold and dark. I look pretty pale.

The hair lady said that I will need to bleach it with a lower level so that it won't damage... I don't know anything about bleaching... I just don't want ANY orange tint or red.. . Brown is what I want.

[Perito]

Re-read my last post about color remover.