Colour Correction

“Washed Out Hair Colour?” Don’t  panic…

My name is Michelle, I’m a Leeds hairdresser and colour expert. More and more women are booking in with Red X Hair with hair colouring problems they can’t fix themselves…

TV ADS MISLEAD US!

Everyday, there’s a new TV advert for bottled hair dyes. They promise fabulous hair colour results, just like the famous model in the ad.

I WISH THIS WAS TRUE
(If only for the sanity of my customers!)

Permanent & Semi Permanent colours have a mind of their own when fixing to your hair. So final colours can have unexpected results from repeated dying. You may be shocked when your hair colour looks nothing like the model on the packaging. The hair colour manufacturers don’t explain why this is. But I’ll reveal why shop-bought hair dyes so often go wrong…

• Hair dyes layer on top off each other, so they eventually turn into a dark colour that won’t dye any further.
• Not all colours can be combined. Sometimes colours just don’t “take”. When hair dyes don’t “take” they can be a washout (literally) revealing a faded, uneven hair colour.
• Mixing multiple colours can give you surprising results. Imagine mixing a load of paints into a bucket. Most likely, the resultant colour is not what you wanted, or started out with.
• Putting a light hair shade on darker hair just doesn’t work. You can’t go easily from brunette to mousy brown.

My friend Charlotte once had a colour mishap. After not sleeping a wink she eventually plucked up the courage to call at 5:35am. She was in terrible panic, and had been avoiding her friends for days – trying to hide her mistake under a hat. It’s lucky she did call me, her last resort was to bleach her hair and try again!

How I restored a colour blunder and friend’s reputation

After getting a classic bob, she scrimped on professional colouring, settling for a bottle of supermarket radiant red. She was happy after her first application and carried on with the bathroom ritual. A couple a months later Charlotte wanted a change, she then dyed it brown and loved the result (everything seems OK to here). But, with every wash, the brown lightened and the red started to creep back… Believe it or not, that “permanent brown” hair dye faded. Out of blind panic, she then applied  an even darker brown, hoping to save the day.

This quick fix worked. So long as she didn’t wash her hair! As you may have guessed, the results were unexpected; the colour faded like the last time, to reveal patches of uneven colour.

BLEACH TO BLONDE – OR CALL ME?

I’m so happy she rang me.

I first got her in to the Meanwood hair salon check the damage, and find out what really happened. You may be feeling like Charlotte at the moment, but don’t worry, I’ve a kind ear and years of know how. This is the 5 step plan I use:

MY 5 STEPS TO COLOUR CORRECTION

Step 1: Find out what hair colours and treatments are applied, to work out what techniques to use to remove the uneven colour.

Step 2: Check the hair’s health; over-dying can bring hair to breaking point. (Mind you, not everything is perfect in extreme conditions, correction treatment could snap the hair. If this had been the case with Charlotte, I would have sent her home.)

Step 3: Test to see  if the hair could take any more colour. Sometimes you can go a little too far – with no going back.  This is why you should take immediate action and not delay in talking to a hair colour expert!

Step 4: Explain how we were going to correct the hair colour (in Graphic Detail) and how long it will take.

Step 5: Confirm which treatments should be applied before colour correction. (Ideally, your hair should be in good condition before colour correction treatment at our Leeds salon.)

This is the 5 step plan you’d receive as well.

IT WON’T BE PRETTY!

Here’s why I warned Charlotte not to look in the mirror until I had the colour right. An Effasol was applied to remove the uneven results, sometimes stripping doesn’t remove enough colour and a bleach bath needs adding. In Charlotte’s case the Effasol was enough. This may shock you, her hair turned bright orange (please don’t worry, this is normal). It’s part of the recovery process.

Now we are down to the base colour, it only get better from here, I dyed her hair with a chestnut brown and finished with a conditioning treatment to replenish lost moisture, because hair can dry out after returning colour.

The shade was close to what she had in mind, but only after more colouring sessions would it be perfect. It might not be a perfect colour today, but after a couple more sessions I’ll get it right.

These are the reasons why you should not delay in getting your hair colour corrected.

• Ignoring your discoloured hair foolish yet trying to fix it yourself is going to make a bad hair day feel like a walk in the park!
• The longer you leave the mismatched colour, the more likely it won’t correct perfectly.
• Recapture your youth by removing years of colour build-up from bathroom dying, to reveal a strong shiny vibrant colour.
• Colour correction is the only solution to cover red with brown and turn you from brunette to mousy brown, with no uneven colour tones.
• Never hide from your friends and family again, our honest consultation will diagnose only what needs to be done to bring back your colour confidence.
• You can trust colour correction to cover tints and blonde streaks, giving you a solid flat colour.

With all good wishes,

Michelle Martin

Looking for help with your hair?

We can point you in the right direction. Just fill in the form and I’ll answer you!