Red Hair & Blonde Highlights

Red hair with highlights — Photo: Nastya22/Shutterstock

Q: Hi! I have red dyed hair and I would like to put blonde highlights into it. How do I go about this? I have been told it will go green on top of the red. Do I need to neutralize the pieces of hair that I want to turn blonde before I can bleach them? Please, could you tell me how I can do this? Thanks.

A: If your hair has been dyed to be red, then you have to have used a hair color with a red, red-orange, or orange base color. If you attempted to add highlights, the bigger worry would be that you can end up with brassy orange highlights.

If you plan to get the highlights just from lightening the hair, there would only be a worry of brassiness which can be corrected easily. However, it should be fine.

If you do get any brassiness, you can get a bottle of blue-violet base hair color that is at least level 9 and some 20-volume peroxide developer. Combine one ounce of color and developer into a mixing bowl with 2 ounces of conditioner. Apply this mix to the hair (if it's brassy) and leave on for 10 minutes. Rinse with cool water and dry the hair.

This should remove the brassiness. If the hair is still brassy, mix another batch of the color and developer with another 2 ounces of conditioner and apply to the hair for 20 minutes. The extra processing time should completely remove the brassiness.

I do want to urge you to use caution and not over-lighten your highlights. The bleaching process can really damage your hair if you're not careful. If you're unsure about doing the highlights yourself and getting the proper results, then please consider visiting your local salon for professional help.

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See also:

How to dye hair

The 10 hair color levels

How does bleaching or decolorizing hair work?