Coloring Hair Again
A: It depends on what type of color service was performed, what you want to change, and the condition of your hair and scalp.
Hair Damage and Waiting Period
If your hair was bleached or lightened, it is safest to avoid doing another chemical treatment right away. I always recommend waiting at least 14 days after bleaching, chemically straightening, or perming before using hair dye. Lightening removes essential proteins from the hair shaft and can also irritate the scalp. So, repeating the process immediately carries a risk. Lightening causes more structural damage to the hair than depositing color, especially when several levels of lift are required.If your hair is dry, brittle, unusually frizzy, or breaking, postpone further chemical processing. Damaged hair is already more fragile and additional chemical treatments can increase the risk of serious breakage. Deep conditioning treatments and bond-repair products can help improve the feel and manageability of damaged hair, but they do not repair structural damage to the hair shaft. On top of that, you need to give your scalp time to recover. Applying chemicals to an irritated or sensitive scalp can lead to chemical burns or allergic reactions.
Handling Unwanted Deposit-Only Color
If the coloring service was deposit-only color (such as a semi-permanent shade, a demi-permanent toner, or a hair gloss), your options are different. If the shade turned out too dark or overly vibrant, washing with a strong clarifying or deep-cleansing shampoo over the first few days can often lift excess dye without applying additional chemicals.Some professional color-correction services are designed to correct an unwanted deposit-only result relatively soon after the original coloring service. However, this does not mean applying another ordinary home hair color product immediately is always safe. Overlapping dyes can build up, leaving your hair looking flat, spotty, or significantly darker than you wanted.
Correcting Dark Hair Color
If fixing your hair color requires making it lighter, you have to keep one fundamental hair rule in mind: regular hair dye cannot lighten hair that has already been dyed. Simply applying a lighter shade of store-bought dye over previously colored hair will not lighten it.Correcting dark artificial color requires an appropriate corrective process - such as a professional color remover or lightener - and it is best to have this done by an experienced hair stylist rather than attempting it at home. Improper lightening can result in severe damage and patchy color results.
If you do attempt any home correction after a rest period, always perform a strand test and a patch test first.
©Hairfinder.com
See also:
How to tell if you have damaged hair
After care for colored hair
How often can I color my hair before I destroy it?