My Hair Broke Off After a Bad Dye Job—Here’s How I Got Healthy Hair Again, Step by Step
My entire hair care routine and the DIY remedy that has transformed my hair
In 2021, I decided to test out a new hair salon for what I thought was going to be a simple root touch-up to revive my highlights. That day, my hair color and my hair’s overall health changed for the worse. So over the last four years, I have put my all into getting healthy hair and restoring my hair color. Here’s everything I did to transform my damaged, over-processed hair into what is now healthy, full, strong and long.
A root touch-up gone drastically wrong
As I do social media and content creation aside from being a publicist, a hairstylist reached out to me and invited me into the salon he worked at in New York for a complimentary service in exchange for some social content. My mom actually owns a hair salon and med spa in Houston and I’ve been going to the same woman since I was 13, so I figured it was finally time to find someone in New York, where I live.
When I went in to have this service done, I just wanted a root touchup for my highlights. I had about two inches of growth, but nothing too crazy. However, instead of receiving a simple root touch-up, they decided to dye my hair brown without my consent.
It wasn’t the lived-in blonde that’s trending right now—it was a true brunette balayage. Also, they let me know that it would not be a complimentary service as they originally told me and that I would need to pay nearly $500 (which I was able to get disputed by my credit card company, thankfully); I’m more than happy to pay typically, but it was a very uncomfortable situation.
When they saw how upset I was about being brunette, they told me that they could reverse the toner but that they wanted me to think on it for a few days, as they thought the brunette looked better than my previous blonde. A few days later, when I decided again—as I had already told them I didn’t want to be brunette—that the brown just wasn’t what I wanted, they ended up bleaching over what they had done a few days prior. This process involved them bleaching over pieces of hair that my original hairstylist hadn’t touched since I was probably 14 or 15. I lost over half of my length and thickness, and then not to mention the dimension and color pattern I had already established.
How I started my healthy hair care journey
I went from having hair that was down past my chest to hair that was up to my collarbone, and it was, of course, just fried and brittle. It’s important to note that the stylist did not cut my hair up to my collarbone—it simply was just breaking off from how fried it was. I remember that it felt like hay. As this horrible dye job had happened in 2021, it was during COVID times, meaning my hair was the healthiest it had ever been before I stepped foot in the salon, since I wasn’t using as much heat and had the time to take care of it.
After my second coloring service was done, where he bleached over the brown and fried my hair, the hairstylist told me I wouldn’t be able to put heat on it for a very long time. He gave me a Kerastase Fusio-Dose Booster Shot, which is only for professional use, and then sent me on my way.
I remember feeling so embarrassed and self-conscious, especially since this all happened between my first and second date with my now fiancé. I was so mortified. During our second date, I wore this felt hat and put my hair in pigtails that looked so small because they were so thin. Everyone gets their confidence from certain parts of their looks, and my hair was a big one of mine because it had been the longest and strongest it had ever been before this experience.
When my very healthy hair turned so brittle, damaged and short after this service, I was desperate to get it back to healthy. I dove into a hair health journey that has now completely changed my hair care routine. The most important thing with achieving healthy hair was giving it time. Now, I’m so used to everything that I can’t imagine going a day without all of the steps I follow.
How to get healthy hair: Everything I used
After the service, I was able to fly back home to Houston to have my original hairstylist assess the damage and give me some advice on where to start on this new hair journey I was going on. She couldn’t put any more bleach on my hair, but she was able to tone it to get some of the original color pattern back in and make it look less like a botched dye job. She advised me to use as little heat as possible and use strengthening and repairing products.
Here is everything I’ve used over the past few years to achieve healthy hair.
K18 Biomimetic Hairscience
Working in the beauty industry was a huge bonus during this time because I could talk to colleagues and others in the industry who knew what products were out there on the market that could help. One of the freelancers that was working with my agency at the time had worked for Bumble and Bumble and some of the other hair groups for a while, and he was actually the first person to recommend K18 to me.
That was the first thing I added to my hair care routine, instead of solely using some of the Olaplex products and things that I had already been using. K18 is the one brand that I shout from the rooftops that works really well for damaged hair. More specifically, I will always vouch for the K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask. I use the K18 Molecular Repair Hair Oil as well, but I noticed the biggest difference with the mask.
Olaplex
As a color-treated blonde, I still use a few Olaplex products in my routine as well. I like using the Olaplex No. 3 Perfector as a pre-shampoo treatment. Then, after I wash, I like using the Olaplex No. 6 Bond Smoother and Olaplex No. 7 Bonding Oil.
Kerastase Resistance line
I’m also a fan of the Kerastase Resistance line, which is for truly damaged hair. I use the leave-in, mask, shampoo and conditioner. While I still use these to this day, what was really key was the leave-in after the shower and the hair mask. I also use the Kerastase Nutritive 8H Magic Night Serum for the evenings.
DIY rice water rinse
Naturally, I started doing a Tiktok deep dive into DIY strengthening and hair growth treatments as well. One that I found worked for me was rice water rinses. It took a few tries to perfect and get the recipe down, but once I did, I could feel the difference after using it on my hair in the shower. I could feel how strong my hair was when I was brushing it, compared to the day before when there would be a ton of breakage in my brush.
The recipe that works for me is one I got from my Tiktok. I let my rice soak in a bowl of water for 48 hours with orange peels to help alleviate the bad smell. Then, I would shampoo my hair as normal, but rinse it with the rice water. I also would use the rice water as a hair mask in place of my conditioner. Afterward, I would use my leave-in products more generously than normal.
Mielle Rosemary Oil
Rosemary oil can be great for those on a hair growth journey. I think the Mielle Rosemary Oil works great, especially with the rise of slicked-back buns. I don’t slick back often, but I do like to do treatment buns and treatment ponytails with the rosemary oil and my leave-ins, which I think have worked super well. The rosemary oil has been such a key product in getting my hair looking like it’s slicked back, but just having more benefits than a “normal” slicked-back hair product.
Nutrafol
Lastly, I take daily Nutrafol supplements. I’ve been taking Nutrafol for about three and a half years now, and it works great. I had tried a couple of the other hair supplements on the market for about six months or so, and I didn’t really see any difference, so I decided to jump ship to Nutrafol and it’s been working really well.
My advice and tips on how to get healthy hair after a coloring mishap
My current routine involves all of the products listed above, but I have a few other tips and words of wisdom when it comes to healthy hair.
Taking care when brushing my hair
I personally brush my hair religiously. I have two different kinds of hair brushes that I use based on the occasion and condition of my hair. I have the Mason Pearson Brush, which is a softer bristle brush that is a bit more gentle, so it helps with not having as much breakage as some of my other brushes. And then I also use a Wet Brush. So if I have tanglier hair, I may go in with a softer brush and if I have hair that I know is already clean and detangled, I can go with the wet brush just to make sure there’s no small knots throughout.
Scalp TLC
I work out and can sometimes be left with a sweaty scalp, so I’ll use a scalp treatment. I like the Divi Scalp Serum, which is exfoliating and detoxifying. Plus, it smells like mint, which is nice and refreshing.
Heatless hairstyles
To help minimize my heat use, I love the sock curls trend. I find that it creates the perfect way to keep your hair up and out of the way while sleeping. I also like to put some extra moisture on the ends with a leave-in or oil and then wrap them up in the sock curls, which leaves me with gorgeous results the next day.
Healthy hair doesn’t happen overnight
Lastly, patience truly is key. I think the hardest pill to swallow when it comes to hair growth is that you have to be patient because growth takes time. What I found to be super helpful was taking progress pictures of my hair.
Toward the end of each month, I would go back and look at the photos to see how different my hair looked from the beginning of the month, and that just gave me so much hope. I would see maybe a centimeter of growth or my hair would be slightly past my collarbone compared to being right at my collarbone, and it would make me feel so much better. Once I started to see a difference, it encouraged me to keep up my journey.
Give yourself some grace, too. It’s a journey. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, which is hard to remind yourself of, but I think it’s something to just keep in mind; you’re here for the long-term results, and it’ll all be worth it in the end.
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