Dyed hair turns red after two weeks

[Anonymous]

I am a newbie at hair dyeing - just recently started. I have Caucasian medium to dark brown hair and get it dyed more or less the same color at a salon to cover up some grays. It looks great the first couple of weeks but then starts turning red and gets more and more red and unnatural looking until it’s time to get it dyed again. Is this just always going to happen? Is this what “brassy” means? Should I be asking for a different type of dye or process, or doing something differently at home in between?

[Anonymous]

Yes, your hair skews red (so does mine). Use "ash" colored dyes and blue or purple shampoo.

[Anonymous]

Yes you should tell them it’s getting too brassy. Mine makes mine a more ashy brown color to compensate.

The thing that helped me the most: reduce the amount of times you wash your hair. When you do wash your hair use cool water. When you use hot water it really messes with the color. Get products like shampoo and conditioner that aren’t going to strip out the color.

[Anonymous]

Ask your salon to recommend a color-safe shampoo and only wash your hair every 2-3 days. You can still get it wet so you can style it, but don't shampoo every day. It also helps to go a shade darker so it fades to a the desired color and ask for a shade that doesn't lean so red. Avoid colors that are "warm" as those are the ones that go brassy (gold) after a short while.

[Anonymous]

I had this issue and switched from permanent to semi permanent and it was a game changer. I know that permanent is supposed to last longer and semi permanent is supposed to wash out quickly, but I think what was happening with my hair was that the permanent hair color was lifting the color from my hair (revealing the red internal color) and then the hair color that was being deposited wasn't penetrating so it washed out quickly and I ended up with the red color. I tried multiple permanent hair color formulations, two different salons and also Madison Reed, and the red just kept coming through. I switched to semi permanent, which coats the hair but does not lift your own color with the expectation that it would fade quickly but would help me transition to just being natural and living with the grays, but amazingly it actually sticks to my hair better than the permanent did, covering the gray just as well and I don't have to deal with the red from the lift. YMMV, but this is what worked for me.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had this issue and switched from permanent to semi permanent and it was a game changer. I know that permanent is supposed to last longer and semi permanent is supposed to wash out quickly, but I think what was happening with my hair was that the permanent hair color was lifting the color from my hair (revealing the red internal color) and then the hair color that was being deposited wasn't penetrating so it washed out quickly and I ended up with the red color. I tried multiple permanent hair color formulations, two different salons and also Madison Reed, and the red just kept coming through. I switched to semi permanent, which coats the hair but does not lift your own color with the expectation that it would fade quickly but would help me transition to just being natural and living with the grays, but amazingly it actually sticks to my hair better than the permanent did, covering the gray just as well and I don't have to deal with the red from the lift. YMMV, but this is what worked for me.

Good luck!

Do you use a boxed semipermanent color between salon permanent coloring?