Expert: CANDIE KALUGIN - 1/18/2008

Question
Please please help my hair is naturally blonde but a mousy colour so I dye it really light blonde all the time. my hair dresser said I need to stop dying it as its beginning to ruin my hair she said I could dye it darker so the re growth wont look so bad.  I just dyed my hair a darker blonde so i thought and the top layer of my hair has gone grey, silvery blue.  What shall I do?

Answer
Hi Emma,

Sorry to hear about your mishap but rest assured it can be remedied.  Before I give you some ideas on what you can do I want to say that I am sorry that your hairdresser didn't encourage you to not do it yourself for just this reason.  Grey, silvery blue is a common mishap when coloring lighter levels of hair to darker colors because the blonde hair is so porous especially when it is damaged and unhealthy, that it will most always grab the base so much that nothing else can be seen for the color.  I would guess you chose an ash color for your darker blonde with the assumption that you would have this nice cool darker blonde.  Well first off if your hair was too damaged to continue lightening then it should have been deep conditioned before doing any color treatment at all. Second you should purchase some professional shampoo and conditioner if you are not already using some and use it faithfully to help get the hair back towards a healthier state (since I also assume you would like to color in the future even if you couldn't at present)
One question though who had been coloring your hair up to this point? you yourself or your stylist? I ask because when you were having it lightened and it was time to do your retouches was the lightener put on just the grow out or all over every time?  It should only be put on the grow out the rest is already lightened.  This would minimize any damage to the hair from the lightening process.  
Okay now for your dilemma, you need a warm based color to put on the hair such as a golden tone or a light auburn color, now I know you probably just made a face but these are the tones that will cancel out the grey or silver blue tones.  I want to stress though this is an estimation on my part since I have not actually seen your hair color in person and everyone perceives color different, what may look blue to you could look violet to me and vise versa.  The best thing to do is go to a professional licensed stylist and get a consultation as to what you need and what it will take to get you there.  If your hair can not take another chemical service then ask for a demi permanent toner since it has no ammonia and wont hurt the hair.  It will last approximately 4-6 weeks just enough time to start strengthen the hair back up.  At that point you can go in for another consultation a figure it out from there.
I hope this was helpful and please let me know what you decide to do and what happens okay.  If you have any more questions please just ask and I will get back to you as soon as I return from work.  Thanks again for asking your questions and I hope you have a better day now.