I hate my highlights -- now what?

[Anonymous]

I got my hair highlighted for the first time yesterday and it looks awful -- very yellow and brassy, totally wrong for my skin tone. Natural hair color is light brown. What should I do? Wait a few weeks and see if it fades? Get it re-dyed? I really want to prevent damage...my hair is still in great shape but I'm not sure how much processing it can handle.

Also, any recommendations for great hair colorists? I'll need to fix it at some point, whether that's now or after waiting for this color to grow out a bit.

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Go back to the salon and ask them to apply toner. They should do this for free. I had to do it the first time I had my hair highlighted and it made a big difference.

[Anonymous]

I would go back to the salon, tell the hair dresser that you hate it and ask her to dye it brown again.

This happened to me too. Except the highlights gave my hair a salt and pepper look that was awful and aging. I went back ti the salon and had them dye it back close to my original color. Now I just color my hair myself.

[Anonymous]

I agree that you should contact the salon & let them know how you feel.
Any good salon will want you to be happy w/your hair and should fix it for free.

Rather than re-coloring your hair (which like you stated may damage it more), I would ask them to apply a hair toner to cancel out all of the brassiness.
If they refuse, I would purchase some at a Beauty Supply store + do it myself @home.

Just make sure you talk to the salesperson first to let her know what you want it to do so that you purchase the correct one.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

They can fix it-- call them. Either a toner or a re-do.

[Anonymous]

I recently went lighter after always being brown (naturally medium brown, sometimes dyed darker brown)...I too hated it. It seemed too yellow to me. I tried purple shampoo to tone it but that didn't work. It was just all wrong for my skin tone...I felt like I looked older and when I looked in the mirror all I could focus on were my darker eyebrows. I talked to my colorist about it and she was cool...I really like her and she gave me what I asked for, it simply wasn't ME. So we waited about a month and a half and then she colored it dark again. My hair is fine--healthy and not damaged or anything. I just had to suffer for a few weeks, LOL. I swear, my self esteem went up like ten notches just by fixing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently went lighter after always being brown (naturally medium brown, sometimes dyed darker brown)...I too hated it. It seemed too yellow to me. I tried purple shampoo to tone it but that didn't work. It was just all wrong for my skin tone...I felt like I looked older and when I looked in the mirror all I could focus on were my darker eyebrows. I talked to my colorist about it and she was cool...I really like her and she gave me what I asked for, it simply wasn't ME. So we waited about a month and a half and then she colored it dark again. My hair is fine--healthy and not damaged or anything. I just had to suffer for a few weeks, LOL. I swear, my self esteem went up like ten notches just by fixing it.

This is OP-- and yes, this is exactly how I feel. My hair is really yellow but I think even a nice blond would be all wrong for me. I look totally washed out and my brown eyebrows look weird.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'll try toner but otherwise I'll give it a month or so and then go back in to have it fixed. Lots of ponytails in the meantime!

[Anonymous]

This happened to me. The stylist noticed it while I was still in the salon. To fix that, she put a darker color on the entire hair to tone down the highlights (twice). It is still 2 shades lighter than I like. The hair feels over processed and very dry. Afterwards, I got it all chopped off into a short style. Sigh, I will have to wait at least 6 mos before my hair is normal and shiny again.

[Anonymous]

If you want them to fix it you need to go in right away! My highlights were getting too brassy over time and they applied a demi permanent glaze over it. So perfect, shiny and gorgeous now.

[Anonymous]

If you expect the salon to fix it for free (which they will), you need to go back now, not in a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you expect the salon to fix it for free (which they will), you need to go back now, not in a month.

I agree w/this PP.

The longer you wait, the less they will want to help you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you expect the salon to fix it for free (which they will), you need to go back now, not in a month.

I agree w/this PP.

The longer you wait, the less they will want to help you.

This. It is not hard for the salon to fix but this is not something you want to DIY. Have the salon fix it.