FAQ: How Could I Color My Hair To My Natural Shade?

Question:
My hair is naturally blond, which I decided to color dark about two years ago. I enjoyed my darker color very much. I got tired of it and I tried to color my hair back to its original color. I stripped the dark hair color, but my hair turned out orange. I decided to try to grow the hair out. However, it is not working out and I hate it. I tried searching for tips on how to fix it on the internet but everyone is suggesting to dye it back or use the color strippers. Which I already tried. How can I fix my hair?


Answer:
You didn't do the de-stripping job the right way. You should have stripped the color much lighter - actually about a shade lighter than your natural color. Then you would need to apply a filler to balance the pigment and over the filler you would apply a semi-permanent or permanent hair color to tint your hair back. Of course, the tint would have to be in the shade of your natural hair color or slightly lighter since your porous hair would grab the color darker. However it would not be exactly matched. After all you would be dealing with a man made pigment.

But now you are facing a problem - two different hair colors. One is natural (regrowth) and orange shade (stripped) and also two types of hair natural (uprocessed) and chemically processed. Applying a corrective coloring to such hair can be tricky. Therefore this situation needs to be approached a bit differently. The best way is if you could get a professional to help you, because only the orange hair needs to be stripped one more time, while the roots should not be touched at all with color remover (or bleach). You need a help of some other person because you cannot see what you are doing. You see, if you would get the stripping agent on the roots accidentally, then your natural hair could become white blond, which is not desirable.
After the hair is stripped it needs to be covered with a right amount and color filler (so that the tint doesn't get diluted, yet it helps to balance the pigment while coloring) and only then the ENTIRE hair shaft should be tinted with a shade of blond as close to your natural hair color as possible. You can use either a permanent color or a semi-permanent hair color. A semi-permanent hair color is gentler on the hair. If you would use a permanent color - you may want to use 1/2 shade lighter, if a semi-permanent color would be used, then even same shade as your natural hair, because it washes slowly away.

After all this process you may see some fading to due to a porosity of your hair, which would have to be maintained either with shampoos designed to keep the color from fading and/or a semi-permanent hair (or temporary) hair color. You will have to use hair conditioners on your hair to improve the quality.

Also, do not forget to do a heavy duty conditioning treatment, such as E.V.A. Unbreakable Hair Repairing Mask, one day prior to this chemical process. Also JOICO has nice deep conditioning products.

Credit:
Above image is a property of mynewhair.info and it is a perfect example of different bleaching stages. However, the example is for never colored hair. Colored hair would have slightly different shades in these stages, because of an artificial pigment inside chemically treated hair.

Note: 

This post should be taken as a first step for a discussion with your hairdresser and/or colorist about your ideas, desires or problems with your hair. Under no circumstances, you should act upon this post ONLY. I strongly advice you to have your hair done by a skilled and reputable hairdresser/colorist in your area.