Any hairdressers out there or colourist that can help me?
I have naturally auburn hair and 4 weeks ago dyed it with a 3.45 red brown.
I want to strip the colour off as i dont like it and go as light to blonde as i can.
i purchased:
blue highlift powder
40 vol developer and
1.01 ash blonde creme for toner.
Put DOWN the 40vol - that stuff will be more likely to burn your scalp right off your skull. Reddish brown will lift just fine with 20vol, it just takes a couple of sessions to strip the red tones out.
My advice is to do it over the space of a few weeks - use semi-permanent colours in between to 'match' to the current shade, itms. Do a bleach with 20vol and powder (mixed 50/50), then a conditioning treatment, tone if necessary, and when you can see what colour it comes out, get a semi in a shade or two darker and put that on, and leave it for a few days. Then repeat that process until you achieve your desired result.
Pro-tip: avoid Schwarzkopf dyes like the plague. I've tried different brands from Schwarzkopf and had nothing but trouble - two incorrect colours (wrongly labelled, I'm guessing, one was a pharmacy issue as that batch number had been recalled as the batch was faulty, and then last night I used a platinum beige blonde and ended up brown, wth! Heads-up, it was labelled Napro, I didn't realise it was a Schwarzkopf), and another that I used a few times but it just fried my hair even when washing it out long before the recommended developing time. Ugh!
I was blonde until last night, it's taken a few months (but I was stripping out black, which is crazy hard unless you know what you're doing) and then intense red, which is also tricky. Once I got to a nice blonde with bleach, I'd cover it with a box of blonde dye in the shade I wanted so it didn't come out all bogan-brassy Good luck!
Yeah hun, 20vol will take the brown out no worries - like I said, it might take a couple of sessions to strip it all out but I've used 20vol to get black out and it's worked fine - 30vol is very hard to work with as it burns easily and 40vol I won't touch with a ten-foot pole, nor will most hairdressers I know! It's pretty scary stuff Just use 20vol, with the powder, then tone when you're finished and see how close you are to blonde - it might be a bit orangey or still brown but another bleach or two over the space of a week or so should get the rest of it lifted out for you HTH!
(ETA: If it helps any, you can check out my transition from black to blonde (with a quick stopover in the land of red!) here)
Last edited by Glamourcide; June 2nd, 2011 at 10:09 PM.
Glamourcide!
well i am sitting here mid process!
i used 30vol after all that. And it stripped it to almost yellow! which i was surprised .
I am just doing a 2nd round with touch ups, bits i missed lol and then will tone!
No worries hun, hope it all comes out well! Just go easy on your scalp, you might get a few scabs over the next few days after the 30vol, but that's okay, just hurts a bit if you scrape them off while brushing your hair
Any hairdressers out there or colourist that can help me?
Reply With QuoteGood luck!
Just use 20vol, with the powder, then tone when you're finished and see how close you are to blonde - it might be a bit orangey or still brown but another bleach or two over the space of a week or so should get the rest of it lifted out for you 
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