Amazing Box Dye

So, as you saw in my post on ION Color Brilliance products, after my last at home dye job I was left with light colored, orange/gold roots and darker, more ash tone ends due to porous ends...

I intended to wait a while to correct the color and just let the color pigment fade out as much as possible while deep conditioning my hair as often as possible to repair damage. Then, I had to go to Walgreens to attempt to find a deep conditioner with larger amounts of natural, moisturizing ingredients instead of silicones, alcohols, and unidentified synthetic goop. And that's when I got this gut feeling that using a light blonde box dye might give me just enough lift to even up the two tone dye job, but the color deposit would be light enough to prevent it from becoming too dark again on the porous areas of my hair.

I decided on L'Oreal Excellence Creme in shade 9A Light Ash Blonde. A box dye comes with everything you need to color! I altered the instructions to fit my needs:

• After parting my hair down the middle and from ear to ear, I tied hair ties around the four even sections creating small ponies. I knew my ends were porous from bleaching and coloring so I used the pre color treatment liberally on the darker sections of my hair, from mid-shaft to ends.
• When the treatment was pretty absorbed (about 2 minutes), I started applying the dye mixture to the ends of the ponies quickly and haphazardly just to allow all sections to be processing for a more even result. Then I started applying the dye mixture more thoroughly on the bottom two ponies since they were the darkest, moving on to the upper ponies afterward, being careful to stop applying the mixture where the lighter roots began.
• I allowed this to process for about 20 minutes before undoing the ponies and starting to color the roots. After making sure all of the roots were covered, I went back over my whole head making sure all of my hair was saturated.
• The instructions say to leave the dye on 30-40 minutes, but I could tell my roots needed a little more time and I had started the timer while still applying the dye so I left it on about ten more minutes...
• After rinsing the color with warm water, I used the conditioning creme that comes in the box. I rinsed with warm water again to prevent the cuticle from closing just yet. 
• Then I used the Head & Shoulders Classic Clean with Ardell Red Gold Corrector mixture I mentioned before. I applied the mixture to my hair paying special attention to the roots (which had come out a tad on the orange-y side) and made sure it was evenly coating my strands. I left that on for a little over 10 minutes.
• I followed that with an organic deep conditioner containing coconut & olive oils as well as other types of oils and moisturizers, allowed it to sit for 10 minutes, and rinsed it with warm water followed by tap cold water to seal the hair cuticle.
• Afterward, I rubbed a bit of pure extra virgin olive oil through the ends of my length, layers, and bangs. Then, I blow dryed the ends with heat just long enough to help the oil soak in, but finished drying my hair on the cool setting.

The only thing I was concerned about was my light colored roots turning out carrot top orange, because they looked quite alarming after I rinsed out the dye. But luckily I was pleasantly surprised to see the result was a beautiful dark blonde/light brown with a gorgeous golden sheen in direct light, artificial or natural. It's a very interesting color, but hard to capture in a photo... The color looks like a neutral brown in photos, but appears a to be a much lighter, extremely golden hued shade in person. The best way I can describe the color result is a light muted brown that has a soft, shimmering golden overlay. This effect could possibly be caused by the light ash blonde color pigment being deposited over the previous dye job, but whatever the cause... I must say I LOVE the results!

The only thing I might do is go over it in a few weeks with the same product and repeating the same process just to try to intensify the golden quality so that it shows in pictures as well!

New Golden "Bronde" Hair:

This shows the golden sheen the best...

Yet here it looks more red. Ha. (And excuse the mascara smear on my cheek bone...)

So basically, if you have light/medium brown hair, do not be afraid to try a blonde dye to get the shade you want. This is what you have to remember:

• It will come out more red/gold/orange if you are trying to go lighter and especially if you already have warm undertones like me so choose an ash based dye even if you want a warm hue.
• Tint will not lift tint no matter what. In other words, the only way to lift artificial pigment from your hair is using bleach or a color corrector like ION Color Brilliance Color Corrector. A lighter shade of pigment will just lay over the previous pigment.
• When going lighter, you will usually have to do the ends first and let them sit for a period before starting to apply color to the roots. This is because 1) most women have previously colored their hair and there is color pigment build up on the ends from overlapping and 2) roots are closer to your scalp so the dye mixture processes faster.
• Your shade is not going to come out like any of the swatches on the box. You can expect to get 2 levels of lift at the most on virgin hair, usually less on colored hair.

Review on the deep conditioner I mentioned coming next!