If your last hair appointment wasn’t as planned or it was a lockdown DIY hair colour disaster. You should be aware that such mishap will happen to all of us at one time or another.
A shade that’s too dark, with brassy undertones, colour banding, blotchy colours, over-processed highlights or uneven tones – these are only a few examples of hair colour mishaps that are so bad that they may need a hair colour correction.
What is corrective colouring?
The colour correction procedure is a service that is necessary in the case of poor colour or if you’re considering to make significant transformation to your current hair colour and shade. It is important to note that corrective colour treatments include neutralizing undesirable shades, pre-pigmenting and hair lightening.
Despite how frustrating your hair colour mistake may be, try to relax and confront the issue with a calm mind. Your main goal is to keep the condition of your hair strands as undamaged and healthy as you can. Let’s examine some of the most typical hair colour issues and ways to overcome these issues in order to help you discover the most effective way to fix the bad hair colour job.
Hair Becomes Too Dark
The most frequent and common issue is when the hair is dyed too dark, due to error or the build-up of layers of colour which has happened through the process of dyeing. Chemically processed hair is harder to lift and it’s likely that pigments in the underlying layer will be exposed, leading to an issue of unintentional shades. This is easily solved by using a neutralizing hue.
Dark Hair Colour Correction
When your hair naturally is darker and you’re desiring for blonde hair and the colour service that you will need is also regarded (and costs) as colour correction. It could be confusing to you: why would you require a colour correction if there wasn’t any hair colour mistake? However, the dramatic transformation in colour require lightening the roots prior to colour application, at the mid-shafts and at the ends, as well as the application of a toner to neutralize the overly warm shades. This intensive procedure could take several hours.
Blonde Colour Correction – Hair Colour is Too Light
The process of transforming a blonde hair to a darker shade may seem to be more of a straightforward task; however, it’s also not achievable in a single session. Extremely light hair does not contain any warm pigmentation like red or yellow, and therefore applying dark hair dye directly onto the light blonde hair can result in a dull, flat colour that often has a noticeable green undertone. To attain a gorgeous rich shade, begin by pre-pigmenting: enriching the hair with warm dyes before applying the brunette shade. Besides, this will help to ensure that your new brown tone will last longer too.
Patchy Tone, Spots and Uneven Colouration from Hair Bleach
This is among the most difficult colour mishaps since a lot of the time, certain parts of your hair can become damaged, porous and weak due to over-processed. Sometimes, hair is so damaged that it’s unable to undergo a bleaching process again. This is a problem that must be resolved at a hair salon, and ideally by a colourist who is skilled and experience in hair colour correction. It is possible to tone your hair a couple of shades darker for the time being (for example, to blend with your natural hair’s colour) and in the meantime, you should apply a moisturizing hair mask to nourish your hair.
Undesirable Tones
Combating undesirable undertones, such as orange, green or yellow, is something that the majority of professional colourists are required to do every day. The concept of colour theory is among the most important subjects that is taught in hairdressing school but let’s discuss the fundamentals. The colour wheel is utilized to aid in choosing the appropriate toner to neutralize the various colour pigments.
Colours, which are based upon the colour wheel, that are opposed to one another, will cancel each other. For instance bleached blonde hair typically has a hint of gold and we can observe in the colour wheel that yellow is situated opposite to purple. A toner that contains purple pigments will help neutralize the yellow tone and enable your hair to look cooler. That’s why you need to make use of purple shampoo in order to keep cool tones and prevent brassiness over the course of weeks between your hair salon visits.
At-Home Colour Correction
Colour correction is often an easy fix due to products for colour correction purpose that are suitable for use at home. For instance, if the colour appears more dark than you expected then you could apply a hair colour remover product. It is safe and simple to use since it does not contain ammonia, peroxide, or bleach; however it can only be effective on hair dyes with a darker shade than your natural hair base colour.
If you’re satisfied with the depth of hair tone (e.g. how dark or light it appears) and the only problem is the undesirable tone, then you could fix the issue with a semi-permanent toner. For instance, if the brown hair you have has developed greenish hues following your favourite swimming activities, try using a pink or red direct dye mask. It will effectively neutralize the undesirable tone. Does this sound a bit unbelievable? Test it on a tiny strand of hair to be sure it’s effective and safe.
However, DIY colour correction isn’t the ideal solution for difficult and challenging problems like harsh or rough balayage lines, a spotty bleached hair or bled highlights look. Instead, you should focus all your effort on finding a professional hairdresser that is reliable and can fix all your hair nightmares.
Common Hair Colour Mistakes and How to correct them?
The most effective way to explain the various hair colour mistakes and challenges as well as how to fix the hair mistakes, is to show real-life examples. Check out some exceptional colour correction cases , and make a list of suggestions for how to handle every scenario.
#1: Correcting the Dark Hair Colours to Light
Correcting the colour of brunette hair to blonde may take up to two sessions. It doesn’t matter if your hair is dark naturally or is dyed, the best way to create a radical colour transformation is to use bleaching products. The slow colour processing, coupled with a lower peroxide volume are safer and less harsh on hair, which is why you may not be able to achieve the perfect blonde colour in one session. Relax, be patient and be confident in the process.
#2: Bad Blonde Colour Correction
It’s no surprise that blonde hair is among the most sought-after and costly hair shades. In essence, you must locate a reliable, trustworthy colourist. Make sure that you have reviewed their portfolio prior to even sitting down in the colourist’s chair. But, everybody can make mistakes, just like the one you see in the image below.
How do you fix the blonde hair that has serious mishap? It’s true blonde hair colour correction can be a great challenge even for experienced professional colourists. Prepare to spend 3 to 6 hours in the salon. During the time, your colourists will clean, bleach, as well as tone and condition your hair to remove the uneven tone, brassiness or colour banding. This is definitely not something that you can perform at your own home.
3: Correcting Too Ashy Tones
Although many blonde women prefer cool tones, you may be surprised to know that platinum or ash blonde isn’t really flattering on ladies with warm skin tones. The excessively ashy toner issue is a common one and it’s difficult to discern the true colour when the hair is wet and thus washing away the toner could just take a few seconds. Hair that is dry and porous is more prone to rapid toner absorption.
The good thing is that these ashy tones will disappear after a couple of washes. If you’re able to bear it, be patient and clean your hair using a deeper cleansing shampoo. It is impossible to apply a warm toner over the cool one as it will cause your hair colour to look unflattering and dull. If you’re completely dissatisfied with it, contact your colourist to request for a mild colour remover and then apply a rather soft toner.
#4: Resolving a Yellow Blonde
The yellow undertones unavoidably will always show up on the beautiful blonde a couple of weeks after an appointment at the salon. This occurs especially early when the hair was not lifted or lightened enough or the natural base colour is extremely dark. Fortunately, this is a problem that can be fixed easily at home. Use a colour correcting shampoo – sometimes referred to as the purple or silver shampoo. This product can immediately eliminate unwanted warmth tones, and also help to maintain the cool shades between the colour appointments.
#5 Fixing Spotty Bleached Hair
If you ever experience colour disaster issues, it can be extremely frustrating regardless of whether the cause was DIY hair colouring error or an under-trained colourist’s mistake. It is unquestionably that a case of spotty bleached hair issue should be fixed by a professional colourist. It is worth searching for a hair salon that specializes in hair colour correction. A skilled and experienced colourist can perform the hair correction and repair without compromising the quality and condition that your hair is in. But, bleaching may be part of the colour correction treatments and you must be ready to commit to a good regimen of hair-care.
#6: Highlights Gone Wrong
Yellow, stripy, and chunky highlights as it can appear that everything could have gone wrong in the highlights of the image to the left. But, if you’re not willing to take the risk of causing more harm to your already damaged fragile hair, the root melt is a safe and easy alternative. If you’re brave enough to try it, you could also resolve it yourself at home using semi-permanent dyes. However, visiting the salon is an easy and much safer choice.
#7: Uneven Hair Colour Fix
Colour bands resulting from past bleaching, patchy or uneven areas are common hair colouring issues. It’s annoying that there’s nothing you can do at home to correct the hair’s colour that is blotchy, other than neutralizing dull hues by using semi-permanent colours (choose the shampoo that has violet pigments). However, finding a skilled colourist who is specialized in blonde hair, can help you avoid this similar problem in future.
#8: Lousy Red Hair Dye Job Correction
Repeatedly using the same red dye for many years can cause a build-up of red pigment and your hair’s colour may turn too dark and red. A colour remover can assist in reducing the intensity, but will not erase all the colours totally. It’s extremely difficult to eliminate dyes of red pigmentation, in this case, the colourist may suggest attempting a balayage with strawberry blonde.
#9: Orange Roots Following Dyeing Your Hair
If the hair colour is rinsed too soon or if a weaker peroxide developer is used, it may cause an under-processed and orange-coloured finishing. Sometimes, hair is so damaged and dry that further using a lightening product on it can cause it to break. Hence, in this instance, the best option is to tone down the hair colour with the ash demi-permanent dye. It will provide you more time to restore the hair’s structure, while looking great and feeling more comfortable till the next appointment for your hair colouring.
#10 How to Resolve a Bad Ombre
The harsh and brassy “ombre” won’t keep you from leaving your home without wearing a hat. In the meantime, it is again advisable to use a hair colour correcting, the silver shampoo and also try to curl the hair ends to conceal the problems until your next appointment with your colourist. We’ll warn you that colour correction for ombre is always much more costly than embracing a new ombre service on hair that isn’t damaged. This is primarily because of the time and effort needed to correct a poor dye job. Hence, cutting the hair ends off may be a cost effective option to consider as well.
#11 Purple Hair Colour Fix
Putting on bold and vibrant, vivid hair shades is portrayed as an excellent way to showcase your creative character, but at a certain point, you may become bored and consider changing back to a more common and conventional shades. If the hair product you used to colour your hair in purple was semi-permanent dyes, it’ll be relatively simple to strip off. But, your colourist will most likely need to apply the lightener if you’re contemplating going for blonde shades.
#12 Green Hair Colour Mistake Fix
We all know that mixing yellow and blue will result in green hues. It’s absolutely what you will get when you attempt to neutralize the golden tones using blue pigments (you must choose purple instead – check out the hair colour wheel).
Another reason that hair may change to green is the fact that if a naturally blonde hair is dyed blue, after a few washings, the blue hues will fade to green. Unfortunately, the green pigmentation can be rather stubborn and challenging for colour correction. It’s important to be very careful when taking into consideration the potential consequences (and cost) when you wish to get this colour.
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