How to Go From Blue Hair to Brown Hair at Home
For the past couple of years, I’ve delved into the world of funky hair colors. However, after accepting an invitation to be a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding, that had to change. Her only request was that I have normal colored hair for the event, and I found that totally fair. After all, my hair really shouldn’t be the flashiest thing of the day.
With this in mind, I took to my home salon and got to work. What follows is my account of going from bleach-damaged, silvery-blue hair to medium reddish-brown hair. Keep in mind, I’m not a professional, so you may not want to follow in my footsteps. However, I think the result turned out OK, so… up to you.
Blue Hair to Brown Hair: Step One – Bleach Bath
The first thing to do is get as much color out of your hair as possible. If you leave any blue in there, your hair will have a funky green tone to it.
To do that, apply a bleach wash. This is a mixture of about 1:1 powder bleach mixed with 20 volume developer and clarifying shampoo.
Leave this in for 10 minutes until the color starts to fade. Wash out.
Blue Hair to Brown Hair: Step Two – Protein Fillers
Now that the color is out of your hair, your follicles need something to fill them back up. This is where the protein fillers come in. They help rebalance your hair so the dye in the next step will soak in evenly.
I used an ION Repair Packet as well as a red color protein filler. The red filler is important because my hair had no natural pigment left in it. Adding in red tones helps as a transition when going to a darker color. It helps create color that’s even and what you’re looking for.
Let this sit on the hair for as long as the instructions indicate, heating as necessary, then wash out. This took most of the bluish tones out of my hair but added some orange.
Blue Hair to Brown Hair: Step Three – Dye
Now comes the fun part – actually dyeing!
I chose Wella Color Charm Demi-Permanent Haircolor in shades 7G – 7/3 Medium Golden Blonde and 7N – 7/0 Medium Natural Blonde. I went with the demi-permanent rather than a semi-permanent or permanent because my hair has already been processed enough. Demi-permanent simply deposits color without any additional processing.
The dye is easy to apply – just mix it up and slather it on using a coloring brush. Let sit and then rinse out. Your hair will be beautiful!
Tips and Thoughts on the Process
Admittedly, my hair turned out way darker than I thought. For a color called medium golden blonde and medium natural blonde… my hair was basically dark reddish-brown. That’s OK because it meant all signs of blue and green were gone, but I would have preferred something a little blonder. It did fade over time, but it took a while with twice-weekly hair washing.
Seven months later, and I still haven’t had to redye my hair. Just goes to show how overprocessed my locks were, I guess. They grabbed on to that color and never let go.
Overall, the process took me about four days from start to finish, as I let my hair rest for a day between each step. You can do that if you want, or not, all depends on how comfortable you are walking around with transition hair.
Ready to get started? See all the items I used here and begin your hair journey today.
Have put blue in my hair on top of gray. Need to go back to dark brown, can this be done without bleaching?
Hi Jennie, thanks for your question! I think in your case, you can probably avoid using bleach. Instead, I’d probably recommend a product like Color Oops. You can find it on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3jXV7u1
Color Oops is meant to be gentler than bleach and doesn’t fry your hair. Fair warning though, it smells awful! I haven’t used it in a while, but from what I remember, you just apply it, leave it on for 20 minutes, and then rinse it out. It should take all or most of the blue out! Then you should be good to follow the rest of the steps I outlined here in this post.