Anybody know anything about how hair dye works? Does it react chemically with my hair to
actually change the color, or does it
coat my hair with the color in the box, and my real color is still in there underneath it somewhere? I'm talking about permanant color here, not the stuff that washes out in a few weeks.
My question in a nutshell: can I bleach dyed hair?
Since I can never ask a short question, here's some background if you're interested
: I have dark brown hair, which I have not dyed in 3 years, but I used to like to lighten it all the time. What I did was spritz peroxide from a spray bottle onto it daily until I got the reddish color I liked. (I know that's not particularly good for my hair, but I really liked the results). Doing it this way appeals to me because I felt it was more "natural" to take my own hair color and lighten it than it was to cover it up with some dye. Plus, doing the gradual lightening thing helped me avoid the problem of roots.
Ok, so here's why this is coming up now. I decided I wanted to go lighter again, so I started spritzing this week. But there's a problem... Almost 4 weeks ago I had used a temporary dye on my hair (Loreal COlor Pulse). It was a really vibrant plum color that looked kind of funky the first few days (which is what I was going for at the time) and then gradually settled into a subtle burgundy. The temporary stuff was supposed to wash out in 8-10 shampoos, but it stuck around a little longer. After about 20 shampoos, I figured that the color
must all be out by now and that I was just imagining the slight burgundy cast in my hair. Well, it turns out I wasn't imagining it. There was still some of that stuff left, because now as I lighten my hair, it's getting redder, but more of a pinkish red instead of an orangey red. Not exactly what I was going for, and not at all natural-looking...
I have to decide on my next course of action. I
could just suck it up and use a regular dye and go directly to a color I'd like. Or, I could keep lightening and see if the pink eventually fades. Or, I could dye it a color just like my natural color and try the lightening thing again. That last step would only work, though, if the dye-in-a-box actually reacts chemically with my hair to change its color, right? If it's just a coating of sorts, then I don't know what would happen if I started spritzing peroxide on it...
I'm not going to the salon - I just don't have the money (or really the desire) for that. If worse comes to worst, I'll just dye it dark brown again and pretend I never touched it in the first place
My question in a nutshell: can I bleach dyed hair?
Lisa
