Trying to go to your natural grey after coloring your hair a long time?  I was–well, am–and learned the hard way that it’s not only not easy, but that there’s a lot of misinformation online.  All the background information about that is at Orange Hair: Misadventures in Going Natural from Dark Brown (Part I)

Here, I do a hair update.  Not because I want to display my hair for all the world to see, but so that you might get an idea of what to expect when making the transition from colored grey hair (in my case, it was very dark brown) to natural grey hair.  My goal is to get my hair to a silvery color in order for my own grey hair to look somewhat natural growing out.

Previously, I had tried to remove the dark brown dye.  That only left my hair shades of orange to auburn.  Then I bleached my hair, which left my hair bright white at the roots, with the rest of it cascading from bright orange to a lighter auburn, or dark orange, at the bottom.  Not wanting to bleach my hair anymore and not wanting to go to a salon, I needed to dye my hair a cool mid-tone in order to even things out and more slowly color lighter and lighter until my desired goal.  To the right is what my hair color was like when I left off Part I.

Left is what my hair looked like after coloring it medium ash blonde using Color Silk and having added 2 capfuls of Wella Color Charm Cooling Violet 050.  I don’t think Color Silk is the best, but as I wasn’t intending to keep my hair that color for long, I didn’t care much.  I wanted to get the cooling violet in my hair ASAP!

While the dye and the violet additive did very happily even out my hair color to a degree (the photo looks better, to me, than my hair really looked), after I shampooed it the next day it looked like some of the dye washed out!  It was quite orange again, but less severe than before I dyed it.   In Part I I said that I was going to buy Dessange Paris California Blonde Brass Color Correcting Crème and use it to show its effect, but it was sold out at Target (Target is the only general store where I know it’s available).  So, I bought L’Oreal’s EverPure Blonde Brass Banisher shampoo, along with their EverSleek conditioner to help with the frizz.  This is what I shampooed my hair with that, oddly, made it look brighter orange again . . . and, the frizz got worse, too . . . !  Very strange.

Continue reading Orange Hair: Misadventures in Going Natural from Dark Brown (Part II) →