My friend bleached my hair last night and I hate the color. If I wait 2 days do you think it will be safe to dye my hair back to dark brown?
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If your scalp feels normal and shows no sign of irritation, I think you could safely color your hair within two days. But there are advantages to waiting at least a week.
Bleach raises the cuticle of the hair, making it more porous. In time the cuticle will 'flatten' a slight amount. This slight amount will be beneficial when you recolor your hair. In effect, it will help prevent the hair from grabbing too much color.
Also, the longer you wait, the less skin staining there should be from the color. I suggest waiting a week, and for the two days prior to the treatment, do not wash your hair and do not wash your hairline. A heavy coat of Vaseline applied to the hairline before the color treatment will reduce staining. If you have it on hand, a heavy coat of Chapstick would be even better.
TAKE NOTE
The colors shown on color boxes and color charts for regular permanent color (not toners), show the manufacturers results on virgin (not bleached or permed) hair, with a percentage of grey averaging 35%. Do not expect to get the color on the box when applying the color to bleached hair.
Due to the porosity caused by the bleach, your hair will grab and hold much more color than virgin hair, resulting in a much darker color than that shown on the box. For this reason it is important you chose a brown shade lighter than your original color.
I cannot give you a concrete answer to how light a brown you should choose. That would depend on how light your hair was bleached. To be on the safe side, I would suggest you use a light brown shade in the same family as your natural hair, reddish, neutral or ashy, etc. If it is too light, color can be reapplied, which is much better that stripping color that is too dark.
If your friend had done a strand test, it would have prevented the need for you to recolor your hair. By the same token, if you do a strand test prior to full head application of the color you will be using, you again are in a position to see what the final results will be before full coverage.
Whatever color you choose for 'redyeing' your hair, follow the package instructions for doing a strand test first. You might save yourself a lot of heartache.
Have a wig standing by, Gisselle. A friend of mine bleached her hair and then dyed it (same day) and absolutely trashed her hair: it ended up brittle and she couldn't even run a comb through it without breakage. Mind you, she's a redhead (originally) and I understand red hair isn't the strongest to begin with, but still.
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