I tried dyeing the ends of my hair a bright blonde but it has gone grey!

Hi,

I recently had an Ombre look applied to my medium brown hair. The colour applied to the ends was a dark blonde. I really liked it but wanted the tips to be a bright blonde so bought an 11/12 salon dye and mixed it with the appropriate amount of peroxide.

However when I washed it out my hair was grey! Even after several washes it hasn't faded and I’m not sure whether I should get the ends bleached or would this ruin it more?

Help,

Anon, Dubai

Hi there in Dubai,

By the sound of your message you have over bleached your hair ends, maybe you used a peroxide which was too strong or you left the bleach on too long, whichever way, the hair cuticles have been over processed and may not hold much, if any colours you put on this part of your hair.

By the sound of it, your hair most probably has been damaged. Maybe cutting off the very ends on regular basis will speed up the healing process. My advice is to try to not use any colour or bleach for at least two months, this will help your hair to repair naturally. Use condition based shampoos, and once a week a deep penetrating hair treatment on the ends where you hair is most grey or ash in colour.

Be patient and gentle with your hair, so far it only looks grey on the ends, imagine bleaching it more it could turn green or even break, the alternative is be kind to your hair and let it heal.

Take care, Pierre

Pierre Alexandre of Pierre Alexandre, Manchester 

The colour you chose would be the reason as to why it has gone grey, the tone that was present in the salon tint had a lot of ash in it and therefore over powered the lightening process so you see all that flat grey.

If your hair is in good condition then you could go ahead and bleach the ends to get it to a brighter blonde, but I can't recommend that you do it yourself as this could end up a disaster. Bleach is one of the hairdressers best tools but in the wrong hands can be quite dangerous.

John Clark at Brooks+Brooks, London