I have my hair highlighted blonde over a reddish brown color. How would I go about in dying it back to just plain brown? Normally, I would just get a brown box of dye and do it that way, but within a month and a half it fades to that reddish brown color again. I'm assuiming it's because of the highlights. Aren't you supposed to put some different color over the highlights FIRST, THEN dye it all brown to even it all out? Because even when I go the salon to get it done, all they do is put the brown dye all over and that's it. I need to find someone who knows how to do it right.

Ohhh I heard salons are supposed to do a 2 step proccess to make it darker when there was highlights. Do you know any other good salons you can go to? I just did mine myself.. my hair was practically blonde from LOTS of highlighting, and I just did it semipermanent brown and it came out fine. Then I did it permanent after it was almost all faded out. My hair is only a little bit lighter than when I first dyed it, so it didn't fade a whole lot. When I did the semipermanant color it came out REALLy dark though! I just used a light brown dye instead of medium for permanent.

What kind of dye did you use? I used Clairol Natural Instincts at first, and then Clairol Hydrience.

Try Garnier Nutrisse hair color. It produces the most natural results of any product i have ever used and has a fabulous conditioning ingredient in it that makes your hair feel like silk and look like satin. Not sure why, but it seems that with any product you will get fading after dyeing over bleached blonde hair. Usually after the 2nd or 3rd time it stays better.

I totally agree.. I used Garnier Nutrisse one time and really liked it and my hair was SO silky and soft. The only reason why I didn't get it this time is b/c every store I went to was out of the light ash brown color I wanted, so I tried a new brand. Both seemed to be good though!

Hmm...Okay, I might give it a try. I'm just worried about developing a green tint to my hair afterwards. That happens too. If I dye my hair a real dark brown over my highlighted hair, it'll be mostly dark but have a green tint to it. I'm wondering if I should use the light ash brown as well? Or just regular brown? Somebody once told me to use light ash brown to get to a neutral color.

red is the hardest color to reverse. you might have to go to the salon and ask them to strip or bleach your hair and start over with the color you want.

If you're getting a greenish tint, it is because the color you are using is too "ash". Look for a color with "natural" in the name which will be more neutral vs. those with "golden" (more red) or "ash" (more green) in the name.

I like Loreal Feria for permanent haircolor - I always got compliments on my hair color when I used that. I currently use Natural Instincts, but I want semi-permanent now, it's easier on my hair. In your situation you want permanent.

Yes, some people get the green tint from ash colors. I never have.. I use light ash brown (used it over blonde highlights) and it came out good. If I use natural or golden it comes out a little reddish on me, so I have to use ash.

If you are looking for a moisturizing color, I wouldn't use Feria.. I'm not sure how it turns out for other people.. but it made my hair kind of dry for the highlighting kit, and I didn't try to do it blonde. It was kind of a gold or caramel color. It came out the wrong color also. It looks like Feria has a lot of good colors though.. but mine and my friends just both didn't work for us! I'm not really sure why :(.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I never have used the "Ash" dye though. I always used "Medium Brown" or "Dark Brown". No ash in the name whatsoever. But honestly, I didn't even notice the green tint. The hairstylist did. After she highlighted my hair, she's like "That took away most of the green" and I'm like, "What"? And she's like "Yeah...You didn't notice you had a green tint to your hair"? Nice huh.

Ah well.

Haha well maybe it was VERY faint.. but that's crazy how she noticed it. I was really surprised when I got my hair highlighted yesterday.. the lady doing mine complimented my color and asked what kind I used. Usually they always get after me and say "you should have came here!!". Haha.. but she said it looked nice and natural.

when you dye your hair from brown to blonde, you are stripping (bleaching) the colour out of it. when you want to go back to brown, you need to add some red (i know it sounds odd but i used to work in the cosmetics industry) or ashy/greenish/off colours will produce. That said, it is often eastiest to go to a slaon b/c hey can figure out how much red should be put back in your hair, (that is y you will see brown hair colour in the bowl, b/c the red is mixed in), and can get you the shade of brown you want. i think it may be hard to do it at home, but maybe try an auburnish colour, and then put the brown colour you want on top of it. good luck

If you go to a stylist who knows what they are doing...Yes they will do a 2 step process. I had 3 different colors of highlights in my hair last summer and some of them were VERY blonde. My natural color is dark brown. When I went in, she colored just the lighter parts an in-between color (like a medium or light brown) and then after that process she went over it with the darker brown. She also applied it to the roots first, and then after a few minutes applied to the ends and checked it every couple minutes to make sure the light hair did not absorb too much color and turn black.

In the past, I would just color my hair over with Clariol Natural Instincts in Nutmeg. But I was too scared to do it because the highlights were so chunky. Before I only colored over fine, weaved in highlights.
I had the 2 step process done back in September. I continued to go to the stylist when the color faded..maybe 2 more times. I just colored my hair myself a week ago and my hair feels good and it turned out great.

The stylist called the process "filling in" the highlights. I would recommend getting this done at least to correct it...I was just too scared to put brown over those light highlights....