Colouring hair Chocolate Brown from Black?

[yazzy85]

Any advice how I can colour my very dark brown (almost black) hair to a lighter chocolate brown shade? Will Box dyes do the job or would I need to get the salon developer and colours?

[dementedpixie]

I imagine you would need to strip colour from your hair before doing the lighter colour as box dyes will not lighten black hair.

[Judydreamsofhorses]

You'll need to strip it. Mine had gone really dark brown, not quite black, and I ended up with lighter roots when I tried a lighter dye, so just dying over them in the darker shade again. I stripped mine with Scott Cornwall Decolour, and then a second treatment with his Colour Remover which contains a low level bleach, then re-coloured with a lighter reddish brown. I had to go and get the ends chopped off the same week as my hair was mega dry, but it looks so much better.

[Judydreamsofhorses]

I think the Scott Cornwall stripper stuff is basically a bleach bath (not the colour remover one, the second one I used). I just wasn't confident about quantities in mixing up my own so figured that was a safer bet.

[freshprincess]

I've used the ColourB4 remover which worked well. There's no bleach involved just strips all the colour.

[yazzy85]

Would I need to strip it even if my natural colour is very dark brown? There's no hair dye on it at the moment. Can I colour over it right away after bleaching? Thanks x

[freshprincess]

Oh sorry, ignore me, I assumed that the dark brown was from hair dye rather than natural.

[Judydreamsofhorses]

Yes, you can colour over straight after bleaching.

[NannyMarmalade]

Go to the Hairdresser. Don't risk a DISASTER! says NM who once ended up with purple hair

[MadSprocker]

I agree with Nanny go to a hairdresser.