Why does it seem like whenever I dye my hair anything other than brown it turns out RED?

Most recently my hair was a light brown and I colored it a darker shade of blonde. I am now a strawberry blonde - a light red with pinkish roots. It's very pretty but not what I expected...or should I say what I should've expected. I can never cancel out the red in my hair and it's such a pain. Will it be possible for me ever to be a kosher blonde?

Why does it seem like whenever I dye my hair anything other than brown it turns out RED?

Let me give you some info.

Anytime you go lighter (from brown or darker) the underlying pigment in your hair is red. Some people have more underlying red than others. when you try to go lighter and take out the brown-you've got red or worse red-orange. Using an Ash color like Ash blonde will help, but if you are trying to lift your hair too many shades it may not be ashy enough to cover all that red. You may need to use a stronger product to get the desired shade, but you will damage your hair more.

I think the best thing for you to do in my pro. opinion is go to a salon. I don't think you can safely get the color you want at home. As a stylist I would recommend hilights instead of an allover color because it will look more natural, you won't have to deal with the "roots" like you do with all over color, and although it will dry your hair out some to get you that blonde, it won't be as bad as damaging every hair on your head.

If you do decide to go with an allover color the stylist will know what to put in your formula to keep you from getting red.

Why does it seem like whenever I dye my hair anything other than brown it turns out RED?

Not without seriously damaging your hair. I mean you could go total peroxide, triple process, white blonde probably - but you hair will be like straw.

I think the Universe is trying to tell you something. As a bottle red head from a blonde, I have always said, "Blondes may have more fun, but a red heads life it truly bizarre!"

Why does it seem like whenever I dye my hair anything other than brown it turns out RED?

speaking from someone who has dyed their hair for the last almost 10 years, if you have natural red highlights in your hair, you will never get rid of them by trying to dye your hair a new color. the only way i was able to get rid of them for a while was to get that loreal hair color stripper. what the does is take out all the color in your hair and ready it to be dyed the color of your choice. once you have shampooed so many times and the color of the dye starts to fade, the highlights will show up again. the only advice i can give you is to talk to someone that specializes in hair color.

Why does it seem like whenever I dye my hair anything other than brown it turns out RED?

Next time you buy hair color, buy one that has "ash" as part of the description. Instead of getting golden blonde, get ash blonde. I have always had the same problem with light brown hair color! I used to end up with dark orange-ish brown or reddish brown. After I switched to ash brown, it never happened again.

Why does it seem like whenever I dye my hair anything other than brown it turns out RED?

There is probably not enough blue hues in your hair to dye brown. Sounds odd, but I once tried to dye my blond hair brown and I didn't have enough red hues in my hair so it turned a weird grayish brown color. My hair dresser said I didn't have enough red hues in my hair to achieve the brown I was looking for. Incidentally, I had to have her mix a dye and I was able to get the brown I wanted.