A stylist tells: how to return your hair color after dyeing

Many people use hair color experiments to cover gray hair or try out new looks, but sometimes all you want is to go back to your original color. When you consider the amount of work required to reverse the change, it can feel overwhelming.

It’s not as easy as washing out hair dye to return to your natural color. The length of time you’ve been coloring your hair, the color you’ve chosen, and the degree of damage the hair has sustained are some of the variables that affect the process.

You can bring back your natural hair color with the correct method and a little perseverance. A stylist can help you through the process, guiding you to avoid common blunders and restore the health and beauty of your hair.

Step	Action
1	Trim damaged ends
2	Use color-removing products
3	Deep condition regularly
4	Let the color fade naturally
5	Apply a color toner
6	Consider professional help

Is it possible to return hair to its natural color?

There are exceptions to the rule, so I can’t say for sure. Here’s an example: if you applied a direct pink pigment to your naturally light hair and then went about your daily activities for a week, the pigment would wash off and your natural color would come back. This is an exception, so let’s move on and disregard it. since regular hair coloring does not wash out. Furthermore, coloring makes it impossible to restore natural color.

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Because of a specific chemical process that affected the destruction of natural pigments—pigments that were originally in your hair—hair will never again be natural.

Regardless of the color you select, every coloring procedure permanently alters the color of your hair. — Alexey Nagorsky

Permanent coloring removes the hair’s natural pigment and adds artificial color. Additionally, semi-permanent coloring can involve either the introduction of an artificial pigment solely without affecting the natural pigment or the partial destruction of the natural pigment and its replacement. The final choice is not as sturdy. Although the hair may appear more natural in appearance and the coloring may not be as permanent, the original color will not come back.

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It turns out that girls who think they can have toned hair and then go back to their natural shade will, regrettably, not achieve the desired outcome and will likely be very disappointed.

Growing colored hair and cutting it gradually is the only way to restore the original color. Alexandre Nagorskiy.

You can dye your hair again in a color that is similar to its natural color, but you should be aware that the color will fade and become lighter; it will never go back to its original color.

Stylist and artistic collaborator at L’Oréal Professionnel

It takes time and careful preparation to go back to your natural hair color after coloring. A stylist can help you with every step of the process, from selecting the best method to reduce damage—like gradual color correction or highlight transitions—to keeping your hair healthy with the right treatments.

Ways to restore your hair color

Your hairstylist most likely has multiple efficient methods for approaching the desired outcome, which is the basic, natural color of your hair. Not all of them are completely safe, and if the process is done poorly, they can harm the hair’s structure just as much as dodgy coloring.

I want to be clear up front that none of these techniques are appropriate for use at home. Not coloring, straightening, lightening, or even cutting colored hair. Always get in touch with experts; trying to handle things yourself will only make them worse.

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Striping

This is how artificial pigment is taken out of hair. You run the risk of destroying the hair in addition to the artificial pigment if it is done poorly. The basic idea is this: a unique powdered mixture is applied to the hair after being diluted with either hot water (for ordinary pickling) or an oxidizer (deep pickling).

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U L "Oréal Pro The cure is in charge of Efassor’s beheading from the gamut Blond Studio. Like the majority of these items, Efassor shouldn’t be used right after henna coloring.

Subsequently, the ammonia present in the product exposes the hair’s quills or scales, allowing the product to enter the hair and break down the artificial pigment before washing it out. Without using an oxidant, we obtain the approximate result from clarification at the output.

Creative collaborator and stylist L’Oréal Professionnel

Crucial! Conventional decapitation is used when the hair is "overloaded," as the stylist puts it, and we need to "pull up" the color a little. elaborate decorating It is applied, for instance, when a girl wishes to lighten up after being painted black or dark brown. Because of the increased pigment in the hair in this instance, an oxidizer is already required. Such a procedure has the potential to seriously harm hair.

Cutting the dyed hair

If your goal is to fully grow out your hair, this is your best bet. There is one caveat, though. If your hair is going to grow out light (or even grease!), I do not advise gradually cutting it and painting it dark. In this instance, there will be an excessive contrast between your color and the dark ends, which will make the color look messy and unattractive. However, in this instance, a short haircut is not required.

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Alexey suggests decapitating first in these situations, going back to a fairly light shade, and then gradually cutting it off: "At least it won’t be so contrasting." You can create a smooth transition or a non-uniform color throughout the whole length of the hair. However, it looks very sloppy if the ends aren’t lighter than the roots from the beginning.

Frequent washing

What about recommendations from beauty forums that suggest using deep cleansing shampoos to hasten the transition to one’s natural tone?

Washing your hair frequently won’t help you get back to your original color. Eliminating the synthetic dye will undoubtedly be beneficial, particularly if you begin shampooing your hair with extremely strong or deeply cleansing formulas. You will still have a lightening background, though, if the coloring was permanent. Maybe some basic hair color as well.

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Professionals believe that washing hair with natural color will never cause this.

With the exception of the one I stated at the outset, which is that regular washings will help to rapidly remove the unstable direct-action pigment from naturally light curls. Washing frequently won’t help at all in other situations.

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Therefore, we advise utilizing deep cleaning shampoos exclusively when the scalp calls for them. The shampoo Matrix Root Up Wash, designed specifically for use in salons, is one of the most popular items in this category among SalonSecret experts. If you have fast-growing hair, visit the salon once a week to have your hair professionally cleansed for a deep clean that will leave your hair looking incredibly fresh and full of volume from the roots. Use the Kérastase Energisant scrub at home to give your hair amazing volume while thoroughly cleansing it with sea salt and salicylic acid. In actuality, deep cleaning products serve this purpose.

Partial coloring

Coloring won’t ever be able to restore a natural color. Only a near-natural color can be achieved again, but even so, it will be synthetic pigment. You can select a shade that will appear the same at first but will eventually wash out and turn warmer and lighter.

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As the stylist points out, girls tend to grow their color by going back to their darker shades through airtouching and highlighting. However, as it turns out, the same thing happens when colored hair is cut: "You can temporarily feel happier by lightening the strands to partially remove the bothersome dark pigment. However, you must either permanently maintain this partial coloring or gradually cut it off, just like you would with a regular cut to colored hair."

From brunette to blonde and back: how to restore dark hair color after lightening

You can get rid of artificial blonde hair, even though real blonde hair is already unpredictable and demanding. The procedure resembles a coloristic equation with a large number of unknowns.

I’ve had clients who came in after doing their own independent experiments with lightening; they realized this was all nonsense and darkened themselves. Naturally, this is typically done without understanding coloristics principles and with mass-market products, if not homemade remedies, rather than expert dyes.

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How does lightning happen? This is the breakdown of the hair’s natural pigment. If the color in question is dark, the blue pigment disappears first, followed by the red and then the yellow. In order to go back to our original color, we have to turn this narrative around and add the pigments that were once present to our hair.

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For example, if the hair color was dark enough, then it would be right to first return both the amount of yellow that was in the hair, and the amount of red, and only then take care of the blue pigment. Blue pigment in human language is ash. It is this that gives the necessary coolness. And in order to get a shade close to natural – not red, not ginger – you need to make it as neutral as possible. You need to get either a cool brown, or just brown, or an ultra-cool ash shade. And for this, you first need to return the missing pigments to the hair, which we lightened.

What will happen if we do not do this? For example, we do not return the red pigment. Then, when applying the final blue pigment to the lightening background, in which only yellow pigments remain, yellow and blue will mix and give. green! That is why very often such girls, about whom I spoke earlier, come with green hair. At home they lightened themselves, they did not succeed, they decided to dye their hair in a natural color and got green. Why? Because there is no red in the hair, and the blue pigment, mixed with yellow, gave green. If there was red, it would take this green on itself, neutralize, and a neutral brown shade would be obtained. No red — hello green.

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What steps do beauty salons take in these situations? What you should know about pre-pigmentation and darkening is provided here.

Darkening

If there is not much of a shade difference but the hair still needs to be darkened from light to dark, darkening is used. In order to ensure that the pigment is formed correctly and beautifully, in this instance the darkening nuance is added to the coloring mixture itself.

Pre-pigmentation

If there is a more than three-tone discrepancy between the intended and original colors, pre-pigmentation is applied. Pre-pigmentation is required if you have lightened to the tenth tone level and would like to go back to the seventh and lower. This is how it goes: we dye the hair the required color of the lightening background (which we don’t have) first, and then we apply the pigment we want to use in the end on top of that.

For instance, we would first dye a blonde or reddish-copper girl who wishes to regain her brown hair, and after that, we would dye her a natural color. If not, she might, as I mentioned, turn green, and she probably won’t be happy about it.

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How to return to natural blonde?

Just mature. Everything is only capable of maturation. It’s important to realize that blonde hair washes out easily. If we lighten our hair and then dye it a natural blonde shade, the color’s longevity will be very limited, compared to dark tones. since there is less pigment at this tone level.

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Such hair will require more proactive maintenance on your part. More information about how to reduce the rate at which the shade fades and washes out can be found here.

Therefore, to make your hair appear lighter overall while it grows out, you can dye individual strands or dye them using an intricate technique. For these uses, Matrix SoColor Pre-Bonded shades 10NW, 9N, 8N, and 11N are appropriate in the dye palette of natural shades; with their assistance, the colorist can effortlessly replicate your natural blonde.

You can also go back to blonde by using airtouch: apply airtouch (which will result in a smoother stretch) and then progressively cut it off to go back to your natural hair.

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How to restore red hair color?

It seems that with red shades it is always more difficult. And the professionals, in a sense, support this point of view.

Restore is equivalent to dye. Apply a red hair dye. I have a serious crush on shade 7.4 from L’Oréal Professionnel’s Majirel collection. This is, in my opinion, the reddest color that comes closest to nature among all the dye ranges. It is a beautiful, natural copper-brown color without any red, super orange, or overabundance of gold. No matter how many times I work with it, the person’s hair always appears to be a natural redhead.

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The stylist sums up, though, saying that red can never be restored because it will eventually fade.

If you have colored your hair in the past, you have to accept that it will never go back to its original color. You can dye your hair a shade that is similar to its natural color and then gradually cut it off to get it to that color. — Nicholas Nagorsky.

How to return natural gray hair?

Naturally gray hair can become a goal for a variety of reasons. For instance, gray hair looks amazing thanks to current professional care products and ammonia-free coloring. However, eliminating synthetic pigments is more difficult than we would like.

The same narrative as that of Blond. Hair without color is called gray hair. Your hair gets clogged with pigments when you use dye on gray hair. Furthermore, removing them is just as difficult as removing natural hair. Gray hair cannot be brought back by bleaching; at most, you will achieve a perfectly even blonde without the comfort that comes with gray hair.

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Of course, it is possible to artificially produce relief, but this relief will also wash off and become even more difficult to obtain in the future. One can only grow out gray hair. This is not possible with bleaching, washing, and other treatments; the hair will already be colored.

Consequently, the only way to embrace your gray hair naturally without coloring it is to grow older. Naturally, you can use airbrush relief to eliminate the contrast, but the tone will still fade and the hair’s shade will warm up. Therefore, it cannot be said that this is a return to all-gray hair.

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After coloring your hair, returning it to its original color can be a gratifying and gradual process. It might take some time for your hair to grow out and meld perfectly with your natural shade, so patience is essential.

Think about having procedures like glossing or toning done during this time to help ease the transition from colored to natural hair. By doing so, the sharp contrast will be lessened and your hair will appear more put together.

Frequent haircuts will also assist in gradually removing the colored ends, maintaining the health of your hair and promoting quicker growth. Give your hair the time it needs to revert to its natural state while preserving its health; don’t rush the process.

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