Dying hair purple - dye won't take

Emma2019

Hi All,

I tried to give my mother purple highlights last night but the dye didn't take and I'm hoping someone on here might know why!

So her hair is naturally grey but has been dyed blonde up to a level 8 or 9. She last had her hair done in December. I had thought that this would be lightened enough to take the dye but when we rinsed it, it all just came out.

Do I need to lighten it again for the dye to take?

This is the one we used: https://www.capitalhairandbeauty.ie/hairdressing/colour-bleach/semi-permanent-colour/pulp-riot-semi-permanent-118ml-lilac

Thanks!

Dee5

When it came from the tube was it a very pale colour?
If it was, it won’t take on an 8/9, you’d need to go for a darker purple

Emma2019

Oh I didn't know that. I always thought the lighter the hair the easier it was to get colour to take.

In terms of the colour it came out as, it would be about the colour of the sample of hair on the right (number 10) in the second picture on this listing.

https://www.123hairandbeauty.co.uk/hair-products-c1/hair-colour-c78/semi-permanent-hair-colour-c79/pulp-riot-semi-permanent-hair-color-lilac-p17729

I have some 40 Vol bleach lying around, there's nothing I can do with that is there? She really wants the lilac colour!

Dee5

I have some 40 Vol bleach lying around, there's nothing I can do with that is there? She really wants the lilac colour!

Keeper no please dont do that, she’ll have no hair left. That would have just killed off any residual yellow tones in her hair.
Your gonna need a darker purple, but you could do it in pieces underneath so it gives more of a lilac hue

Emma2019

Ok I'll give it a shot. Will let you know how it goes.

Thanks a mil for the help!

Airyfairy12

The hair needs to be practically white to take a lilac colour, even if it was grey it would take it better than level 8 or 9 hair. She likely has too much yellow tones and the hair is too warm for a cool toned pale colour to show up.

Emma2019

Ah ok. And am I right in thinking the only way to get it to white would be lots of bleach and lots of toner?

Airyfairy12

Emma2019 wrote: »

Ah ok. And am I right in thinking the only way to get it to white would be lots of bleach and lots of toner?

Yes but id really suggest waiting until she can get to a salon, if you attempt to bleach it yourself it can easily become patchy and very dry and damaged

MinnieMinx

Please do not lighten the hair again. This is unnecessary.
Hair isn’t meant to lift to white, it lifts to a very pale yellow then disintegrates if lifted higher.

When you lighten hair up to a level 9/10, you’re left with a pale yellow tone. Adding any shade of purple direct dye will be absorbed and tone out the yellow first so you always need to apply a lilac or purple shade at least twice or even three times after lightening hair, for it to show up lilac.

Emma2019

So if she has level 8 or 9 at the moment, do I just keep applying the lilac dye and it will eventually take?

MinnieMinx

The tricky thing is you’ve got natural coloured hair that’s bleached up to an 8/9 and white (grey) hair that needs colour adding to it.

Ideally, for lilac, it needs to be lifted to a 10, but you need to be careful lifting hair that’s already been bleached. Never ever use 40vol with modern bleaches unless you really dislike someone...

If it’s a level 8, you could use bleach with 10vol just to lift it that bit higher. Definitely nothing stronger than 20vol and watch it carefully.

Once it’s about a 9/10, then use the lilac purple to neutralise the yellow tones in the first attempt. It will absorb the purple. It should be perfect with 2 consecutive applications but if it doesn’t all go a soft lilac after 3 applications, then there’s another problem to solve.

Emma2019

Ok great, I'll let her know.

Would it be ok to use 40 vol for a short time on short hair? My housemate wants to go very bright, bleached hair but he's a medium brown at the moment.

MinnieMinx

What’s he going to do about ongoing maintenance?
Bleached short hair needs the roots re-doing every 4 weeks for average growth and using 40vol on short roots, you’re bound to overlap the product in places.

Tell him to wait until the hairdressers re-open.

Emma2019

Oh he basically just wants to go a bit wild for a few weeks and shave it all off after it starts to grow out, it's not a permanent thing. I'll make sure to tell him about the roots though!