Need Your Input on color!!

Alright. I kind of have a dilemma on my hands here. I'm native american, and my hair is really thin, and fine. I was blonde as a child, but now my hair naturally is a dark brown, with some red undertones.  I have died my hair recently a deep ruby red. I used Herbal Essences, Ruby red. But Since I have been using it, my hair will not take anymore. And the color bleeds out horribly.  I can wash my hair after coloring the next day, and it will bleed for weeks afterwards.

I recently moved to Los Angeles, and I'm thinking that alot of the problem is the Hard water here. I never had this problem when I lived In a remote area. I didn't do any processing for a couple of years before I started dying it red just a few months ago.

What I'm trying to do right now, Is I want to dye it as close to the natural color as possible, and add some blonde Hightlights.  But I know for a fact that my hair doesn't take Ash colors very well.  I'm pretty sure I'm a warm color. I have green eyes' and my skin tone is very bronze.  But the thing is I need your advise. I need a dark brown color that will be flattering, and some advice with the streaks I'm going to put in the hair.

I'm going to Sally's beauty supply to buy a protein filler, and a really good clarifying shampoo before I color. But what are your suggestions with the shade of brown I should use?? and what is the best way to go about putting on the highlight's at home? I can't afford a salon price right now, and I was thinking of using the cap? but what, In your opinion is the best at home hightliting kit I can buy?


Here's some pictures of my root's and what the majority of my hair looks like right now..

The Roots..



and the sides..



Thank you guys for any input you may have :)
Dr. Aphrodite38538.5854976852

Thank you so much, Im going to look up colorfix right now. I will dye it first..and then take the stipes through the cap..use colofix on the strands, and bleach them out.. 

just remember to do strand tests first.Everyone's hair is different.I'd feel really bad if you ruined your hair.I am no pro.All I know is from trial and error.Good luck

I've had so many hair disaster before, it's unreal.  I once dyed my hair blue black. And then after a year I got bored with it. I had to have the color stripped. And afterwards...it was like a rainbow. It fried all of my hair, and it was breaking at the roots...*get's teary*. It was horrible.

What I'm trying to acheive here is some bold blonde hightlights/chunks on darker hair. I really want the streaks to stand out. But I'm kind of nervous about doing this. Every single time I wanted bold streaks, I ended up with streaks alright, they were just not the color I wanted them. Even when I went to salons..It was like noone understood what I was trying to acheive. They would never turn out right.Can a girl just get one good hair color job done right??.

I know it's possible. It's just trial and error. I hope this time it will turn out the way I wanted it too. I picked out a nice dark/medium brown. It's a level 5N. I like nuetrals..at least I won't have a certain crappy tone in my hair. It's a dark nuetral brown.  Should I apply the entire colorfix to my head before I do the brown? or should I just color the streaks after I strip just the streaks?? I'm also looking right now at a highlighting kit. It seems to be really good. Im looking right now At Loreal's XtremeFX bleach out tool kit, Born Blonde, or Clariol's frost and tip original.

I can only tell you what I would do.I would seperate the strands out that you are going to highlight.Cover the rest of my head with the 5N.Colorfix the left out strands.Bleach and then tone.I like to tone with clairols colorgloss in a demipermanent.It makes the hair look and feel really good.Which is nice after you ruff up the texture a bit with bleach.I just bleached my whole head and colorgloss demi worked really well for me.Those highlighting kits arent made for our hair.Your hair is going to pull alot of red.You might be able to get streaks but more n likely they will be brassy and orangey.If your wanting level 9 or 10 highlights then you will have to bleach and then tone.I only reccomend products from sally's.I have never had a good experience with OTC bleaches and highlight kits.And my hair is a natural level 5.Even when my hair was virgin it always came out yellowy and brassy.And since you used a red dye on your already red undertoned hair the colorstripper will leave you even redder.You'll need actual bleach to get the reds out first.It can be done it just takes a few steps.The reason most likely the hairdressers never got it right was because most will only use highlifts.They fear the dreaded bleach(for good reason).But My hair is still strong and soft even after all I've done.So a few bold streaks or so shouldnt be too bad.Just test everything beforehand.Sometimes it takes a couple of colorfixes to get all the dye out.And if you are going to do the highlights bleach until pale yellow.Make sure all orange tones are gone or thats what you'll be left with orange streaks.Toning cant fix that.And remember bleaching kits from walmart wont give you platinum highlights.Hope it all works out for you.I was able to acheive #8 hair after have putting a permanent #5 over highlights.I stripped it with igora phantom(awsome stuff but costs $23).Then I bleached with 7th stage lightener with two activating packets and 20 volume developer.And then I toned with colorgloss #8.Dont use over 30 volume for your highlights.40 volume and up is completely uneccessary and very hard on your hair.Sorry about the novel but I just wanted to make sure I gave you all the info I could.Good luck;)

I like reading your novel. Okay I've changed my plan. Then I will use Loreal Blanc professional bleach powder and a 30 percent solution. Before I will strip the hair, and dye is a nuetral dark brown. I may add a toner..possibly a toner over the bleached parts. I want a little more silver in the hightlights than I would reddish, or gold.

you will need a toner(only to get rid of yellows,orangey brassy colors).when you bleach it has to go through phases. In your case, After color fix: red,orange(yes bozo orange,lol),yellow orange,golden or canary yellow.and then pale yellow.In order to get the white blonde or ash blonde highlight color you will have to bleach to pale pale yellow.there is no way around this.And dont try to bleach to white cause it wont happen.I reccomend foils to keep the bleach moist and to process it more uniform.If the bleach dries it quits working.And bleach even moist can only work for 90 minutes.If you are going to tone, Born blonde makes great toners specifically for light blonde shades.And I'm sure you already knew but I'm just checking since I'm not the best at explaining thing.No toner over the brown dye.Just the bleached parts.You can get professional foils from sally's of course.I bought a pack of like 50 for $2.That would be more than enough for you.Maybe even look at the sale rack since they are all the same.This should turn out pretty good.I had this look myself but the stylist didnt tone my highlights so they were yellowy.Not as good as it could have been since I have so much red in my complexion.It would have looked much better white blonde.or just pale blonde with no yellows or orange tones.Sounds like you are ready to do this.Some more random tips.make sure you check the bleach good when processing.Those unwanted tones have a way of hiding in the underneath layers. And yet another novel,lol. Remember to update.I bet it will turn out really nice.

I'm still looking at the options of products at Sally's right now. I'm waiting for my check to go through the bank, and the car to get fixed (within the next few days) so I can actually go out and purchase what I need. I checked out 7th stage like you recommended, and I'm going to try to find it. If not then I wIll use the born blonde bleach. I'm suprised how much stronger the professional products are. Lifts to 7-10. That should get me to the palest yellow possible. I will use the cap to pull them through then we are going to wrap them in foil.

I think for the brown, Im just going to use over the counter stuff. Either Clairol or Loreal. Garnier makes some good stuff too. I like their 100X color. I'm just going to get a basic nuetral dark or medium brown. I may get a golden base, I'm not sure. I have my list right here, and hopefully the Sally's Im going to will have all of this stuff. I will use a creme developer,30 % like you said.  I will post the pictures of the process for you guys to see!! I'll show you after I do the brown. And then the highlights.

One more question before I do this though...Should I wait to do the highlights after the brown? Or should I do the brown, blow dry my hair and immediatly do the hightlights?

sound slike your ready to go.And as far as hghlights it really doesnt matter as long as you remember to leave them out from the rest of the hair.Maybe wrap those peices in foil while you do the rest of your head with brown.And I agree the OTC products iare not all bad.i havent used an OTC in a couple of years or more cause I was stupid and layered them and they eventually stopped covering as well and left patchy spots.But I guess thats the exact reason they make colorfix,lol.Good luck

Thank you Shawna, Your an angel 

So did you do it yet?if so just curious how it came out

nope...im going to pick my color up tommorow.. My check got here too late. So I had to wait till after the weekend to get it..and then the car broke down. And I've got surgery tommorow. We will see if I feel up to it tommorow when I get home. I've been dieing to get this done though..I can't wait to see what it's going to look like.

Btw...you know the one thing that annoys me??? Is that I have no idea how much any of this stuff at Sally's is going to cost...they don't tell you on the website :(...that really sucks.

The good thing about  sally's is the prices are always usually cheaper than at a regular store.And I understand about money I'm waiting for some to magically come my way,lol,so I can finish up my hair.

alright I went to sally's and got my stuff.

I bought:

2 oz of Clairol's 7th Stage
2 activator packs
16 oz of Clairol's pure white 40 volume developer.

that's for the bleaching

for the brown i bought

2oz of Miss Clairol level 3, Medium nuetral brown with a blue base.
20v developer to use with that...

and I bought a toner by clairol for a beige blonde..violet-blue ...

Im doing the strand test as we speak. I have died the strand brown * i love the color btw*, and im bleaching half of the strand right now with the 7th stage..30 minutes into it, it's a bright red!!

alright...so far I've done two 90 min. session's of the 7th stage..on the peice of hair i have cut off..and it's still not lifted past light orange...I think I'm going to cry.. :(

Did you get a color stripper? red although one of the notorious faders,is also one of the hardest to bleach.

I really couldn't afford to get the colorfix..it was god awful expensive. It's lifted to a light blonde now....but this is the 3rd time..gah!!

Try the toner over it at this point just to see how it turns out. U wanna be careful of bleaching it a third time  also try running the hair dryer over a strand that has bleach, it might just turn out lighter w/out u having to bleach it three times!

That's an alternativei can think of if u can't use colorfix before bleaching

Okay...update!! It did just fine!! and the blonde hair is super healthy and soft...here are some pictures of the test strand I did...

And here's another one..of it * i accidently got some bleach on the other strand so some of that strand looks red..but you can see the contrast on the end's of the hair better...

Looks good.What did you do.Did you try heat?Looks like a nice blonde color.It going to look great next to the brown.

Well, after I had done two 90 minute bleachings...I was like..oh well I'll try the 3rd. Just to see if it would get that bright and if the hair would still be in good condition. Soooo for the 3rd time ( i have been using a plastic coffee lid as a mixer for the strand and bleach), I was like..okay man I'm going to try something different and add heat to it. So I put underneath the lid, a heating pad, and I put it on medium. Let it go another 90 minutes..and viola!!! It was light pale blonde, I was thrilled..but I had to make sure that the peice of hair was in good condition. So i rinsed it out and looked at it...pulled it , pinched it with my fingers..to make sure it wouldn't break off.. and I was amazed. I could not believe that after 3 bleaching's with the strongest stuff you could buy...for about 5 hours, that the hair didn't melt...not only that, but it was just as healthy as the brown on the other side of the strand that didn't get bleached...

My hair must be really freaking healthy...jeez lol..