- If you have a bad balayage on your dark hair because the color contrast is too pronounced, you can solve it with a semi-permanent hair color because it won’t ruin the balayage technique. I’ll tell you how to choose the exact color.
- Alternatively, if your balayage on dark hair has unwanted undertones, you can use toning shampoo to even out the color without altering the balayage.
- However, before you decide, I recommend you wait a few days. After a few washes, the color will finish settling. Then, you’ll be able to make the best decision.
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Are you unhappy with a bad balayage on your dark hair? Has it gone wrong?
My first suggestion for you is to not panic. If you act in the heat of the moment, you’ll only make bad decisions. So, you need to be calm.
As a professional hairdresser, I try to help people calm down before making bad decisions regarding their hair.
So, the first thing I suggest you do is to breathe. Breathe in slowly and let the air flood your lungs. Exhale and let the anger and frustration disappear.
Inhale and exhale several times. Do you feel calmer?
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You may not like what I’m going to recommend next. You may decide to look elsewhere for advice. But I’ll take the risk because what I’m about to tell you has saved many women from hair disasters.
Yes, it has saved many manes from absolute disaster.
So, my advice is to wait for a few days if you don’t like your balayage on dark hair.
Why?
Your balayage won’t be the same in a few days. . There are two reasons for this: washes and the color-settling process.
In a few days, you may begin to see your balayage with different eyes.
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If you still don’t like your balayage after several days, it’s time to evaluate the next steps.
If you’ve been to a salon and the balayage didn’t suit you, you have three options:
- Option 1: go back to the salon and politely ask if they can do something about it. Try to be specific so that the stylist can help you.
- Option 2: if you don’t trust the salon, you can look for a new one. It never hurts to ask friends or family for suggestions.
- Option 3: if you prefer to fix your dark balayage with your own hands, what I’ll explain below is for you.
In the meantime, keep breathing in and out. You’ll also need to keep calm to fix the dark balayage you don’t like.
If you don’t like your dark balayage because it has a pronounced color contrast, you can apply a semi-permanent dye to even it out
Semi-permanent hair dyes offer a wide range of fantasy and traditional colors.
If your balayage has a pronounced contrast and you don’t like it, you could fix it with semi-permanent dye. It only works on bleached hair.
Therefore, it won’t cover the darker part of your mane.
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You need to choose the right dye color. Balayage strands are usually just a few shades lighter than your base color. Let’s look at some examples:
- If your balayage is extra light blonde 10, you can apply blonde 7.
- If your balayage is very light blonde 9, you can apply blonde 7 or dark blonde 6.
- If your balayage is light blonde 8, you can apply dark blonde 6 or light brown 5.
As the semi-permanent dye doesn’t need a developer or ammonia, it won’t ruin the balayage.
You can apply it to your many because it’ll only settle on the lighter hair.
If your balayage on dark hair has unwanted tones, you can use a toning shampoo
If your balayage looks too brassy, yellow, or red, , you can fix it with toning shampoo. After two or three washes, you’ll get rid of the unwanted undertones, and your balayage will blend seamlessly.
You’ll need to check the opposite colors in the color wheel to get rid of the unwanted undertones.
- Blue toning shampoo for orange hair.
- Green toning shampoo for red hair.
- Violet toning shampoo for yellow hair.
These shampoos don't contain chemicals that could damage your balayage technique. Every time you wash your hair, the pigments in the shampoo will settle on your hair to get rid of the unwanted undertones.
My suggestion is that you use the toning shampoo twice for 3 to 5 minutes during the first week. Then, when you notice that the unwanted undertones are neutralized, you can start using it once a week.
Conclusions
The first thing you should do if your balayage on your dark went wrong is to wait a few days. The color will settle after a few washes.
Alternatively, you could ask your hairdresser to fix your hair if you got the balayage at a salon.
