Oh god do I have some questions for you guys.

Heres the deal: I want to lighten all of my hair to roughly the same shade so I can dye it, right? Heres my problem: My last dyejob concerned pretty much only half of my head, and I used L'Oreal Color Rays which has a lightener mixed into the dye.


(Ignore the weird spots, that's from taking pics at night, ugh)
So my hair's in three basic shades: Colorrays red, light brown (from the application before this current one, the color faded out and I didnt dye over it), and my natural darkish brown.

So Haircrazy, how and what do I use to go from this crazy mess to a uniform light blonde for dying over? Do I have to do different processing times? Can I just leave all of it on for 45-some minutes for the dark brown, or will the lightened and/or colored hair get obliterated? It's been like 3 weeks since I dyed.

Another note is that I'm going from this warm red to a cool one (probably Sfx Cherry Bomb). Also product suggestions for bleach would be nice!

I'd say start applying at the back where the darkest colour is and work your way forwards. If you're really conserned about the red, allow the back to partially process before applying to the front. Make sure to keep an eye on it as it's processing. Then if you have any dark or uneven spots, wait a week or so and go back over and do a spot bleaching. Though Cherry Bomb isn't that finiky of a colour, so you could actually get away with hair that isn't bleached a perfect pale yellow.


[ Also, it's kind of off topic, but I love your username. : ) ]

I agree - I'd defiantely bleach the darker spots first. If you feel confident in your timing, then I'd apply on the dark spots, wait maybe 10 minutes, then apply on front, like Cyndee said. And definately keep an eye on it.

You likely won't need to bleach a lot, so I'd go for 20 volume developer. For bleach I really like clairol complements lighening kits - found at sallys. Its gentle, quick, and a creme, which I find easier to apply and easier to wash out of your hair sinces there no powder to dry and stick. I also found I was able to track the lightening a bit better and didnt' wind up with any sort of weird spotting.