Hair Care Advice: Highlights over Dyed Hair is Fine if the Hair is in Good Condition

Hair care advice: A reader wants to know if she can get highlights over dyed hair. I sure hope so, because I do! But this follower of Ask the Pro Stylist has written in before with hair color issues and has also used the dreaded box! Gasp!

Happy Hump Day! Whoot! Whoot! Welcome to another edition of Ask the Pro Stylist where I attempt to correctly answer readers’, clients’ and followers’ beauty and nail related questions and offer hair care advice. A few months ago, Megan was in need of hair color advice. She wrote in again and asked if she could highlight over her dyed hair. Have a look:

At the beginning of the summer I got my hair dyed blonde. It wasn’t the color I asked for and looked orangish. A few weeks later I went to a different salon and got my hair dyed back to my natural hair color, which is a dark blonde/light, brown. The hair stylist used a semi-permanent hair dye. She mixed 2 oz. of 6A and 1 oz. of 9N. About two months after she dyed my hair I noticed my roots coming in and my hair started to get a reddish tint to it. I didn’t go back to the salon to get it re-dyed and instead bought Clairol Natural Instincts, 14 light cool brown. I was wondering if over winter break I could get blonde highlights. Is it possible to get highlights over dyed hair? Thanks!

My hair care advice is to always lean towards the side of healthy hair. I feel after all of the color that is on your ends, from the past 2 salon services to the box you applied yourself, that your hair could use a little break. But, I am not sure how long your hair is, how often you cut it or how extensive the damage from the color is, if it is even that bad, I am assuming it could be.

Hair Color Advice

I would visit a salon, find someone whose hair you love and ask them who they use, even a stranger on the street, and then go in for a consultation. Have the pro assess your hair and chances are if your hair color isn’t too over processed, they should be able to apply subtle highlights, give a good haircut and a nice conditioning treatment.

I highlight over my dyed hair…I didn’t always, but when the gray inundated my head, it became a necessity, as I like a lighter color for me, but I get frequent hair cuts and use professional hair color. My hair care advice for all is to never use a box, EVER! Megan’s hair picked up red pigments from the undertones of the original salon service. Instead of using a box, she should have gone back to the salon. And as an added precaution, do not attempt to highlight the hair at home. Personally, I think a highlight over Megan’s hair will rectify her red issue, but it is best to have a consultation since I cannot physically touch or see what she has going on.

If you’d like my professional hair care advice, please email me at DeirdreAHaggerty@gmail.com. Pictures are great too!

Happy Styling! Don’t let holiday stress get you down! Keep calm and visit me!