Four months later, Stylist #1 whipped up some unholy concoction of bleach which melted my hair. I had to have several inches cut off.
I went to another stylist. This episode was essentially a rerun. Stylist #2 bleached my hair, applied bright purple haircolor... and my hair turned nearly black.
How does haircolor (Pravana ChromaSilk Vivids Violet) this color:
Then there was the montage episode in which Stylist #2 tried a few different things. She had some success in getting some of my hair to be a color other than black... burgundy, more or less. Lighter than black, so that was progress, I suppose, but it had far too much red.
In the most recent episode, Stylist #2 obtained a tube of Matrix's newest "violet violet" (instead of red violet) permanent color; a color with no red tones. Applied to my regrowth, this lightened my hair and turned it what could probably be called purple... but it was a very reddish purple. She did a brief application of semi-permanent blue to counteract the red tones... and my hair turned essentially black.
A few shampoos later, it's now black and blue-black.
These episodes have taught us two things:
1. My hair soaks up pigment like a hyperpowerful sponge on steroids. I already knew this.
2. My natural color hair has a lot of red tones when it's lightened with permanent color. I did not know this.
The final episode of this drama will happen next week. Stylist #2 will bleach out my hair and apply lighter purple.
I am hoping for a happy ending: bluish purple hair.
But honestly, I doubt that will happen. I expect to spend (another) four hours in the salon and walk out with nearly black and/or extremely damaged hair.
Either way, it will be the last episode. This show has gone on too long.
I am sorry you are having so much trouble with achieving your desired colour but the blue black looks really nice!
ReplyDeleteThanks. The blue-black is pretty cool... just not what I wanted.
DeleteHopefully they figure it out this time and you get beautiful blue-purple hair. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
ReplyDeleteThank you. :)
DeleteThis must be so frustrating! If I were you, I'd get some clip-in streaks instead. Still, I hope that the final try gets you the result you are looking for.
ReplyDeleteIt is extremely frustrating. Seems like all roads lead to black hair for me.
DeleteMaybe try a lighter purple, as it absorbs darker? Something in the lilac/lavender range might turn out a bright or royal purple. Or if you're worried about doing all of your hair, you could test purple highlights in a couple different tones. Good luck either way!
ReplyDeleteThanks! My hair is naturally dark, plus I'd been coloring it black for years; thus it won't bleach out light enough for a lilac. The color has to be a medium to medium-dark purple.
DeleteBased on experience with dyeing my own hair purple years ago, I think the problem is not so much the shade of purple as the amount of pigment in the dye. The dye needs to be diluted with a clear toner or possibly even conditioner so there's less pigment for my hair to grab.
Have any of the stylists tried a color remover? It seems like the bleach is only just damaging your hair rather than removing any of the color/lightening. Pravana has a color extractor system that seems pretty awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY1Lc-hUf1M I am so sorry you are going through all this!!!!
ReplyDeleteStylist #1 bleached/ruined only the bottom half of my hair, which was then cut off.
DeleteStylist #2 has only bleached my hair once, before putting on the Pravana purple. She expected the resulting super dark (nearly black) purple to fade out, as semi-permanent color typically does. In the meantime, she has tried a couple different permanent colors on the regrowth. A permanent color would be the ideal scenario for maintenance because it would (1) not require bleaching and (2) cover my grey hairs. But we learned that my hair has a lot of red tones; even the "violet violet" came out reddish violet.
The nearly-black purple has faded only slightly. The very brief application of Pravana blue turned it right back to almost black.
Except for the couple inches at my roots, my hair has only semi-perm color on it, so a "soap cap" (shampoo+bleach) should remove the color without a lot of damage. But with my hair, what should happen and what actually happens are often two different things.
I try to avoid using bleach to remove previous colour if it's semi-permanent colour - I find a mixture of baking soda and dandruff shampoo gets most of any excess colour out. Takes a few washes, but got my faded green down to a silvery mint.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, that doesn't work for me. My hair retains color too well. I use a tea tree "dandruff" shampoo, and I wash and rinse three times each session. The shampoo lather turns purple and the water runs purple, but my hair lightens only the tiniest bit. It took 9 shampoos to go from black to the blue-black in the last two photos.
DeletePravana sucks. I had almost white blind hair and tried their pastel gray and got like a light green. Tried their pink, got the lightest tinge ever. When I liked books colors, Jerome Russel was the best... It was basically permanent. I second the person above and say you go a few shades lighter than you want, if everything is turning out darker than you want.
ReplyDeleteOmg... My auto correct is going crazy. Good luck!!
DeletePravana just keeps turning my hair black. :/ I never tried Jerome Russell, but I had good luck with Special Effects.
DeleteYeah, I think (hope) the solution is to use a lighter shade, something with less dark pigment.
Thanks!
Well that is very weird....I can't believe that your hair turns black every time!!
ReplyDeleteIt defies logic. I swear I have mutant hair.
Delete