How can I reverse my hair dye disaster?

Embrace your new hair colour

Had a bad experience trying to dye your hair? Unfortunately, experiments with hair dye don’t always leave you with the luscious locks you were looking for. A member of our community got in touch with us for help after their hair came out darker than expected. If you’ve had a hair dye disaster, read our response below to get some tips for what to do.

“I dyed my hair thinking it would be light brown, only it’s three shades darker. Someone else at school who dyed their hair dark got teased really badly and I’m worried the same will happen to me. Can I wash it out?”

Embrace your new hair colour

Making fun of somebody because of their appearance is bullying. Bullies will pick on anyone, for any reason, usually because they are insecure themselves.

If you like your new hair colour and your main worry is that people are going to make nasty comments, then don’t feel you have to get rid of the colour just to avoid being called names. The best approach is to try to ignore the bullies — if they don’t get a response they will eventually give up. Read our advice for how to beat bullying here. If your new colour has hit your self-esteem, we’ve got some tips for building self-esteem here.

Dye your hair again

If you do decide to get rid of the dye then your options will depend on whether you used a permanent or semi-permanent dye.

If you’ve used a permanent dye, the only way to change it is to have it bleached first. It’s worth visiting a hairdresser to get advice about this, because trying to fix it at home could make things worse.

Grow your dye out

It could take many months for permanent dye to grow out (depending on how fast your hair grows). Of course, this also depends on the length of your hair.

Semi-permanent dyes claim to last from eight to 24 washes (depending on the product). If you can’t wait, a chemist should be able to let you know about colour-removing products.

Once you’ve got this sorted out it might be a good idea to avoid colouring your hair for a while. Dyeing too often can damage the hair and the scalp.

Have you ever dyed your hair and regretted it? Or did it come out looking great? Let us know on our discussion boards.