Is Colour B4 going to solve all my problems or just be another step along my road of hair disasters?

[Kahu]

I would be so gratful for any advice on using Colour B4. Forewarned is forearmed & all that...

I have dark brown hair that I have been home colouring a couple of shades lighter than my natural colour. It was looking too orangey & my dark roots looked bad so I wanted to go back to my natural shade but have ended up all morticia-like.

I'm so cross with myself - I knew I had colour build up & that home dyes are often darker than you expect. I've been trying to fade it with Head & Shoulders but no joy.

So now I'm wondering about Colour B4 but I'm a little nervous... I fully expect it will make my hair orange / gingery (I had some highlights a while ago plus have been dyeing lighter than my natural shade) which I can deal with if only I can get the colour right afterwards. Can anyone help me with the following questions?

If I do go all gingery because of the Colour B4 how do I pick a shade to get back to my natural colour? Will the colour I tried before work (1 shade lighter than my natural colour to allow for homedye over darkness as it were) or should I take it back 2 shades given the recent morticia disaster?

Will I need an ash tone to offset the ginger or will a regular brown do?

And how long do I need to wait before I colour after using Colour B4? Will I just have to go around with pink / ginger hair for a few weeks? Yikes!

Thanks so much.

It should get rid of your colour build up, or at least some of it, or enough for you to be able to do more with your hair, but without doing any actual damage to your hair (its slightly drying as there is a lot of washing and rinsing involved, but it doesn't eff around with the protein structure of your hair like peroxide etc)

You will probably go a bit ginger. Look at my profile, there are some annotated pictures of how I looked having used it. I wasn't too bothered because I have warm bright light colouring so it suited me, if that makes sense

You only have to wait a week till you colour. You can put on temporary colours to neutralise the ginger.

Once done, you can easily get it closer to your natural colour. Something with a lot of ash will kill off the ginger. There's a picture of me before and after killing of mega ginger and pink tones (I'd been using directions and all sorts of shite and had cuticle staining) with Nice n Easy 116 Light Ash Brown.

So yes, if you do it and can hold out for a week, you will probably be very pleased with the results.

We are not talking years and years of dark brown build up or anything are we? Because they are the only people that seem to have less success with it - those really darks and blacks are very hard to get rid of and tend to reoxidise a bit too.

Thanks so much Tatty.

I don't think the build up was too bad although I have been dying for a few years, I try to just touch up the roots as much as possible. I recently cut it shorter & that sorted out the ends. But it does know look really blocky & dark IYKWIM. I thought I had picked the right shade (did a strand test which looked OK) but it turned out way too dark. Should I take it back a shade next time or will would the medium brown shade actually turn out OK once I have got rid of any build up?

My hair is very dark brown & I'm hoping to get it back to my natural colour so I don't have dark roots coming in (only grey! ).

Thanks again.

Just thought of another question...

Does the Colour B4 work OK if it's been a few weeks since you dyed or is it really meant to be used right after?

Thanks.

It doesn't matter when you use it, it works the same whether its been weeks or was yesterday.

Thank you Tatty. I'm going to wait & give it a go when I'm holiday next month (remote house on a remote beach so hopefully I won't have to brave the world with pink hair!)

Another note of reassurance. I had exactly your problem, only the build up was from years of colouring. I removed almost all the colour with colourB4 which left me very ginger. I toned it down with temp dye (nice n easy) in a dark ash blonde. You definitely need an ash colour, nothing with any warmth. Then a week later I used bleach (jerome russell high lift with 20 vol peroxide) just on the areas that were still too dark. I was then a bit patchy but all that dark pigment gone. Then straight away I dried my hair and used a nice and easy 117a. This was in Feb 2011. I have continued to used the same 117a on my roots since then.

I have somehow managed to get some build up again just at the front. I can't colour B4 it at the moment as I cannot look crap for work, so have bleached it again just in the affected areas. left the bleach on for about 15 minutes, just enough to take the edge off. I sort of did free- hand high lights in the area concerned. They are slightly too warm, but I can live with them. When I next do my roots I'll comb the colour through these areas too for about 5 minutes to take the warmth out.

ColourB4 is great and does no damage to your hair. just make sure you follow the directions particularly about rinsing it for ages after. I put my hair through lots of processes and it is in good condition still.

Thanks. Good to know that it shouldn't do any damage.

I used colour B4 and dyed it the same day to get rid of the ginger tones, no damage to my hair and it worked fine

it does stink though and you need to be somewhere warm when you do it

with home coulour browns always pick at least one shade lighter than you actually want to go as it always comes out darker, and using an ash or caramel will tone down the ginger

I have naturally dark brown hair with grey bits so I now use a dark caramel blonde. It's not strong enough to lift the brown but coulours the grey making it less obvious

if you have lots of grey be careful about the ash as it can make white hair look blue (as I found through painful experience)