Tatty - can I ask your advice on the colour B4?

[PinterestQueen]

Sorry I didn't want to hijack someone else's fred.

I have bought the extra strength colour B4 on the back of reading some of your advice.

I've been colouring my hair for a few years to cover white hairs which I have on one side of my forehead mainly (widows peak?) It is naturally dark brown but for some reason the ends are now a fake looking black whereas near the roots is an orangey dark brown. My white hairs are more orangey and not being covered properly.

I'm hoping that the colour B4 will get rid of the black and let me dye it brown again and then maintain the white bits/roots. My question is, do I have to go round with the after effects until I can use a permanent dye again? I have bought a light ash brown nice and easy to use as soon as I can.

So worried this is going to be a disaster, but I look like a witch at the moment.

Hopeful bump

Ok, I think it could be a disaster.

It's my fairly normal dark brown on the ends but the hair on my head is white and ORANGE!!!

Tatty I'm about to pm you and hope you don't mind.

I've done this before Pinterest - it strips the colour out so that you can strart again - unfortunately the ends of the hair are always still dark because there is so much dye in that part of the hair - and the roots go a weird white and orange colour because there was hardly any pigment in that part. Dye it immediately is my advice - I've done this and it was fine. Good luck

To avoid having to strip out the colour again - just dye the roots with a touch up pack. I've been dying my hair for years and it's so tempting to dye the whole lot each time, as it's much easier but then you just get build up at the ends meaning that it looks a really fake colour. Hope you get on ok

I'm going to have to dye the whole lot the first time ( stray orange hairs) - I have an ash brown colour, I was planning on just doing the roots after that. Do you think that will be ok?

Yes sorry, that's what I meant - the whole lot this first time, them just the roots thereafter. It's hard to know without seeing your hair, but the dye you're using now will have to be as dark as the ends of your hair which are still brown - otherwise the brown ends will just take more colour again, and the orange roots will be lighter / gingery. I'm not sure if Ash brown will be dark enough - you will have more of an idea than me on this. Look at the packet - it will show you the colour that the dye would go on blond hair - this is what it will look like on the white / orange bits. The colour that it shows that it will go on brown hair is what the ends will turn out like.

The colour on the packet is quite dark.

I was thinking I could then go a shade darker if it was too light, rather than the fake black I was. My hairdresser only used chocolate brown but it was as black as all of my clothing (closet goth!)

So you think I should give it a whirl this evening? It was truly embarrassing collecting DS today.

Yeah, I think you have to! You are right, you can always go darker, but try and get it right in as few tries as possible, otherwise your hair will be loaded up with dye again . You're brave than me, I would have never dared to go out with the orange, white, brown combo!!
Good luck, let us know how it goes

I had no choice!

Ok, keep fingers crossed. I'm going to try it...

Don't dye it with a 2 part dye (containing hydrogen peroxide) as your dark colour will probably reoxidise.

Sorry I've been out all afternoon so didn't see this.

You need to get a Nice n Easy Level 1 colour (8 wash) to cover it for the next few days or it will reoxidise.

Then you will have to colourB4 again.

Come back and tell me what happened! I'm in for the day now so will watch this thread.

Sorry for absence...

I used Colour B4 for the exact reasons you did. Followed the instructions to the letter (rinsed and rinsed and rinsed ).

It stripped my hair back to an alarming bright orange but used a N&E L1 in Ash Brown and got a perfect mid-brown natural colour.

I never got round to applying a permanent colour after 8 washes as 4-5 washes in my hair was jet black again. No idea what I did wrong, I didn't go near any peroxide. I suspect my hair just naturally re-oxidised. :( What a waste of fucking time.

Bollocks - have dye on roots at moment!!!

Was going to do roots for 20 min and then rest of hair for 20 min.

OMG, what will I do?

Well I don't know the science behind it all (reoxidising etc) but I have done this to my hair twice before and both times it was fine, so fingers crossed you will be too!

..Tatty so I should have used CB4 again a few days after applying the temporary colour? Blimey, I did not know that.

Not necessarily, thousanddenier.

The fact is the blacks and dark browns are the hardest to remove, and they do tend to reoxidise a bit. Reds are easier to remove (molecule smaller). Build up of darks and browns are much, much harder.

It can reoxidise a bit just with exposure to air. He doesn't mention this on the product, and on his help board he used to imply that the person didn't rinse properly but I think that's bullshit and that sometimes you do get reoxidisation.

If you didn't mind looking shit for 3 weeks you could do Extra Strength 3 times, a week apart and get the best possible result.

It can still be worth doing because what you can find is that it takes out enough of the colour that you can have highlights or use bleach and get yourself up to a Light rust or even an even orange all over and then you could use a light ash brown and end up with a nice light to mid neutral brown, which you would only get by growing it out if you had KatSlaterblack hair.

It doesn't really damage your hair, just dries it a bit, so its always worth doing before bleach. Then if you do need bleach you need less. Does that make sense?

But some people have removed dark browns and blacks with no trouble. Depends a bit how long its been on.

OP, don't stress, just rinse, dry, and tell us what happened!

By the way, Scott Cornwall is no longer associated with ColourB4 - he has disaccociated his brand with the product.

I think its because it gives such different results depending on the history of the hair. Also, a lot of people don't read the instructions properly despite him saying to read it carefully. No offence to the OP and sorry to use you as an example, but if you had read and absorbed the instructions properly you would have known not to use a 2 part colour (containing hydrogen peroxide) on your hair for 7 days, and why! (Sorry )

Reoxidisation, or the potential of it, and the fact that you can't dye straight away is the biggest downfall of the product, really.

Another option is bleach, or go to a hairdresser and they can use Effacor (do a colour cleanse) which is harder on the hair but gives more predictable results.

ColourB4 is really really good for some things though - it totally sorted my hair and I know others who have used it after dye disasters and it has completely reversed it without damaging your hair - even a hairdresser can't do that. But it really depends on so many factors.

disassociated, even!

It's awful! The ginger/white hair is mid brown with a distinct orange tint and the bottom is very dark brown with a slight tint. I don't think it has the the witchy black feel to it but two tone is definitely not my bag. Should I do the roots again?

The hair dresser has told me before that my hair is very hard to dye but seriously where does this leave me?

Not sure what to do now.

PinterestQueen sorry for thread hijack

Tatty im a little confused.I was on the other thread asking you about colourb4.I uesd two packs one after the other and then put on a 8 wash.Today my hair is kicking out a lot more warmth than it did yesterday so i would say that yes it does rexoidise slightly.It is however quite light.Im going out on saturday night so if my 8 wash has faded some what from washing or just to deepen it i was going to put another 8 wash on and then in the week put on a permanent light ash brown as my base for highlights.Am i supposed to do another colour b4 .

Tatty you really do need your own topic starting up on Mn

PinterestQueen from what you have said it sounds like you need to repeat the whole colourb4 process again.I used 2 packs one after the other and hair is in good condition in fact better than before.Then use an 8 wash nice and easy it says in the instructions of colour b4 only use a product with no ammonia or peroxide.The 8 wash nice and easy states clearly on the box that it contains neither.When i put my 8 wash on it does say for grey coverage/root coverage leave on for a certain time and then apply to the lengths.

My orange hue that i was left with after using colour b4 was by no means even.It went blonde on the roots but the 8 wash evened it out no problem.

Thanks so much everyone for your input.

I'm not sure if I'd be better putting another dye on the roots or starting again. I do the the whole reason I got into this mess is because my white roots are very hard to colour which is making me think that another root dye only may be the way to go?

Gah, I wish I had the panache to carry off white short hair! Unfortunately I would look 80.

Damn those white hairs - that's the only reason I dye mine too :-(

BNM, I know I shouldn't have used a permanent but I did have plans to leave it for a week but it looked so bad and the nearest boots is so far away so I just did it (I know I know, I deserve my resulting hair).

Pinterest, not all is lost! Tatty who seems to be the expert (am new to this forum so don't know who anyone is) I'm sure will come up with some sound advice. I only know what I've done before, but my experience tells me that your hair is lighter than it was before, therefore you've suceeded in losing the black hair - - which is what you wanted the only question now is what to do next to get it to the right colour.
If only hairdressers charged the same amount for colouring, as a packet of dye!!

I agree lucy! I haven't home dyed my hair in ages though, it was dyed at the hairdressers, not overly sure what went wrong but from what I have read it's build up? (I have a strong suspicion she used a darker dye last time).

I am happy with the colour at the bottom, I just want it all to be the same colour

Poor Tatty probably regrets offering advice!