BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Hair Hair color -- HELP!!

I dyed my hair about 5 or 6 months ago and I was going for a light brown but for some reason it turned really really dark brown (some spots even looked almost blue from being so dark)! A couple of weeks after that I bought Revlon ColorSilk in dark ash blonde to try and lighten my hair. Occasionally I try to dye a strip of hair to see if it will take and it's still not taking color. Warm weather is coming and I'm starting to tan and I want my hair lighter. The biggest issue is the gray. I'm only 27 but almost the whole top of my head is gray. HELP!! What do I do. I just did another test strip and it doesn't look to be any different than the pieces of hair that is stuck to the tape that I used to hold the hair together. I'm tempted to just go ahead and do it but I'm afraid that the top of my head will be a lot lighter than the bottom half and then I'll look like a freak, but I'm soooo sick and tired of having to pull my hair up to mask the gray. Also, I'm going out with my hubby this weekend for our 8th year anniversary and would like to look nice. I also have NO money to go to a salon. What do I do??? Thanks! Tina

Hi Tina,
You may want to look back through this forum. There are many posts about hair color problems and many similar to your's.

The tint you bought will not lighten the ends of your hair. Tint will not lighten tint. Since the dark brown has been there for 5 or 6 months, it isn't going to fade easily. You will need a hair color remover or bleach. Both of these really required a professional to avoid some big problems.

Without going to a hairdresser, I would just tint the newgrowth to the color that you want (or slightly darker) and at least you won't have the gray problem.

Thank you Lynn for the quick reply.

After I posted that I actually got out the highlighting kit that I had bought along with the permanent color (I was going to use it a few days after dyeing my hair). I just did a test strand and within 5 mins it was majorly lighter!! This excited me because I feel like maybe I can go ahead and give myself highlights, even though I'll have some what of a skunk look, but anything is better than the gray!! I would love to just put this all over my head, but I'm afraid it'll burn my hair/head without the cap. What do you suggest? Also, can you tell me why is the highlighting kit taking but the color isn't??

I would like to highlight my hair this afternoon or this evening so I have a couple of days to get used to it before we go out this weekend.

The highlighting kit is either a highlift tint or bleach - much stronger and effective than the tint - they are made for completely different things.

If you put that preperation all over your head the newgrowth will turn out quite different than the previously tinted hair.

I think it must be a bleach because the test piece I did changed within minutes.

I actually started to pull my hair through the cap and got almost done and decided not to do it. I kept looking at the test piece and decided it was way to reddish. I have natural red highlights but this red was like a carrot!

I'm just impatient and I don't know what to do. I'm wondering if the tint that I've been testing over the last month or so is actually taking but just not changing the color much. Maybe I need to try another color??