Going darker with semi-/demi-permanent color
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free skin care · Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:38 pm

Does anyone have any advice on coloring your hair darker with either semi-permanent or demi-permanent hair color? I've had my hair (naturally dark brown but colored and highlighted blonde for years) darkened at the salon a few times but the color fades pretty quickly and am wanting to try a gentle version at home. I am hoping to go from my current medium blonde color back to a dark brown as painlessly as possible. Any info on brands, color choices, technique, etc... would be greatly appreciated.

free skin care · Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:41 pm

I have done this a couple of times with mixed results. I am not a hair dresser, so this is just my personal experience. It is very tricky to go from blonde to a mid tone brown, the colour fades very quickly and does not turn out quite right. I found it worked better to go very dark with a mild permanent colour and colours with a mahogny/red tone come out better than ashy colours that can turn green when it starts to fade. Even with the dark colour, I found that I had to colour it all over again every two months, but I used a natural colour, so my hair still had some shine to it.

free skin care · Fri Jan 04, 2008 6:52 pm

From what I understand when going from like a blonde to a brunette, you should get some sort of "filler" for the blond highlights, they sell it at Sallys. I know when I first had this done at the salon before I realized about filler, the color always faded so fast where my hair was highlighted. Now that my hair has all the old blonde highlights cut out of it, I don't have to worry about that anymore. After making a decision to do my own hair, I used to use Garnier to color my hair, but it was making my hair with too much reddish tones in it despite using an ash shade. I then started using Sally's Ion brand after reading fave reviews about it on makeupalley and I love that stuff! I use a combo of light brown and light golden since the shade turn out at least one to 1 1/2 shades darker than samples of hair there at the store. I used the golden blonde to help counteract all the reddish tones that were in hair from using Garnier and it worked. Also, make sure you use a great color protecting shampoo.....that plays a key role in keeping the color in!

free skin care · Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:29 am

Thanks for the help ladies. I read the Ion reviews on MUA (including yours dancar3) and am thinking I can mix one of their medium or dark brown colors with a 10 volume peroxide to make a mild permanent color that will hopefully not be too damaging to my hair. I don't mind if it's really dark; I just don't want the color to be "off", i.e. too ashy or brassy. I will check out the filler stuff as well while I'm at Sally's.

I have been using color-protecting shampoos and conditioners but I think I need to try a new brand. I'd been using the Redken ones but my hair still faded quickly. I just bought the Graham Webb color shampoo and conditioner but haven't tried them yet. A girl I work with who also colored her hair dark hasn't had nearly as much trouble with fading and just uses regular Pantene shampoo, go figure.

free skin care · Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:24 am

I finally got around to dying my hair around a month ago so I thought I'd update in case anyone else was thinking about trying the same thing.

First of all I tried the Ion semi-permanent color in dark warm brown (the color that comes in one bottle, no mixing involved) and it gave me a beautiful color but only lasted two shampoos. Next I went for the Ion permanent color in dark neutral brown but only mixed it with a 10% peroxide with hopes that it would be less damaging. I know I originally said I wasn't afraid of going too dark but I should have listened to dancar3 because my hair turned out jet black. I washed several times with a clarifying shampoo but it was still black, just not quite as Morticia Adams black. Now that a few weeks have passed though it has lightened to a beautiful rich medium brown. I love it now. So I would recommend Ion but definitely get a couple shades lighter than you think you need.

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