How can I correct a badly done home colour?

Hi,

My daughter has naturally black hair which she dyed bright red, as this faded it turned orange so she bleached her hair and put manic panic ultra violet purple on it.

It has now gone patchy with bits of brown, blue and bright purple bits, needless to say she hates it! Our hairdresser won’t touch it and my daughter wants it back to being bright red. HELP!

Anon, UK 

Wow! I can understand why your hairdresser is nervous about colouring your daughter’s hair; she has had lots done to it recently and they are probably worried about damaging her hair even more. As her hair has been pre-lightened, the red will continue to fade as it would have become porous, even if the condition is good.

Speak to your hairdresser about effective treatments that she could have in-salon and at home, which will help improve the condition. I would suggest buying Wella SP Repair treatment to take home. It might be a better option to take her hair back to a darker hue; this will even out the colour whilst giving the hair more of a shine and help it look healthier - you could do this with a semi-permanent as it is gentler on the hair. A Change of colour appointment at HOB salons start from £58 and treatments start from £5.50.

Faye Turner, HOB Salons’ Creative Colour Director  

Colour experimenting is great fun, but it can only go on so long before the hair needs some TLC. If your daughter’s hair is in good condition and doesn't look like it has breakage or signs of stress then I can only recommend that you visit a professional colourist to deal with her locks.

However if she is determined to do it herself then what she would need to do is remove the current colour, some stores like Boots and Superdrug stock hair colour removers that possibly could do this. I have no experience with these products so maybe a little research could be done.

Once the colour has been removed and is looking a little more even, then you should be left with an orange 'raw' type of shade. This may look a little scary but it is the perfect base colour to apply your chosen red dye.

As your daughter has the experience of red fading she should know that you have to keep 'topping it up'. So I would continue using the Manic Panic colour and from using it in the past, my clients needed to refresh it every two weeks to keep the vibrancy and tone.
Hope she has fun whatever she decides to do!

John Clark at Brooks+Brooks, London