Hair lightening

[DD45]

Hi I have medium brown hair (long but not thick) with some old traces of chocolate brown as I have not re dyed for two years. I want a dark blonde balayage and want to trim 2-3 inches off the length and have been told they would need to strip the hair then add an ash brown dye. It’s costing £98 + conditioning treatment so I don’t want to go through all that to end up with a dull brown is this the only method?

 

[vintagelover91]

Pretty much, yeah.
One essential thing to know about hair colour is that tint won’t lift tint - even tint that’s years old. The only way to lift previously dyed hair is with bleach. Now bleach can only do so much as darker and previously dyed hair likes to lift warm, it’s simply just how it is. Now they’ve probably advised this route to avoid disappointment - if your hair doesn’t lift to blonde, you won’t be expecting it to anyway, which is good because it may only lift to a red or orange colour.
Essentially the ash brown is then to neutralise the orange - the chances of it looking dull is pretty unlikely.

 

[AcidPerm]

Visit a few salons for a consultation to see what they advise, before making a decision.
If possible, ask if you can see examples of their work. This is a complex colour correction and needs to be undertaken by a competent and experienced colourist. Don’t choose purely on the basis of price.

I tend to use a colour remover rather than bleach to remove old colour but it takes longer and will cost more, but I think you get a much better result that way and it doesn’t cause any damage.