How to remove black hair dye?

[rubyshoes3]

I have been colouring my hair black for a few years now, but now I would like to dye it a brown colour. I find the black colour really shows my white hair and I was thinking a lighter colour would hide it a bit.
Previously I had it removed at the salon and coloured red but the red was difficult to maintain and it really damaged my hair. So I wanted to know what would be the best way to remove the black with the least damage to my hair. I can not at this moment afford to go to a salon and I am a bit scared to use the colour removers, if any one has used them can they tell if they damaged their hair. Any advice will be appreciated.

Colourb4, the extra strong one got 13 years of me dying my hair black out. I ended up with a natural red colour which was nice. I found that my hair felt better than its been in a while after using it, plus you can use hair dye straight after too.

Thank you LongDistanceLove I was worried about these colour removers, good to know they did not damage your hair and you can dye straight away. Is this available from a shop or a salon?

• you could try to wash it with washing up liquid or a clarifying shampoo and see if it fades itself

• you could bleach it with a bleaching kit or pop a blonde box dye over it- it will definitely go bright orange (maybe a bit patchy) but you could then put a brown dye over that (however you would maybe be left with a red tinge which would keep showing through as the dye faded- an ash tone dye or purple shampoo would help counteract that)

• colour b4 would bring it to again a red colour which you could then dye over again you would maybe have the red tones problem as above

• see hair dresser

With colour b4 you need to be careful and not dye over it straight away, something to do with oxidation- If you put a hair dye over it straight away it would go back to black (I learned the hard way). You would need to leave it a week (I think- check the instructions carefully) or use a bleach and ammonia free dye (some of the semi- permanent wash out ones don't contain either but check the packets carefully). Use the extra strong colour b4. I didn't find it did much damage to my hair, I conditioned it well after. I thought it smelled awful though (rotten eggs) and the process is a bit tedious.

Bleach is the most damaging and should be a last resort. I would start with a clarifying wash (head and shoulders or fairy liquid). Then possibly an aspirin/lemon juice home remedy colour stripping process. Then colour b4 (rinse for longer than you need to - this is a vital step). You can use colour b4 up to 3 times but spaced out over a week or so to allow for reoxidisation of the dye in your hair. Use a coconut oil (or any oil) as a deep conditioner after each process to stop your hair drying out too much, plus I've heard oil is somewhat of a milder colour stripper so it'll only aid in ridding you of the black dye. If the colour is still too dark, only then would I opt for bleach.

I just got mine from boots, you need to follow the instructions to the letter though, because as cheeseburger says it can go back to black.

I was lucky as it seemed to agree with my hair, as I have long thick hair I used two packs, same with the hair dye after.

You can crush up vitamin c tablets and mix them with a clarifying shampoo. Leave it on for half an hour or so, wrapped in plastic and an old towel to catch the soapy orange drips. It will lift a lot of the black and leave a dark reddish brown. Not sure if it would lift enough to let you redye it without it going dark again though.

Otherwise I'd also recommend the ColourB4 type products. They stink to high heaven but don't damage hair. You do have to be careful about redying and patchiness though.

And I don't think redying is a real world, but oh well

Thank you everyone, I will be going out today and buy the Colourb4, as it seems from all the comments that it does strip off black hair dye. I think the hardest bit will be waiting a week before I can recolour my hair.

Get cling film too

honestly, buy a load of vit c tablets crush and mix with head and shoulders type shampoo.

slather over hair and cover with a few layers of cling film. so much easier than colour b4, as you only want to get to brown.

I'm naturally blonde and dyed it black for years, then when I wanted to go natural no removers would budge it and I didn't want to bleach. So I've spent the last two years growing it out looking like Cruella De Vil! I think I have really porous hair though..
Sorry that was no help whatsoever I hope it works for you

Definitely colour b4. It works well.

Have you used it yet?

I have brought the colourb4, but remembered that I have got a parents evening to attend tomorrow. I don't want to go with some patchy orangey hair. so I am going to do it tomorrow after parents evening.
It does say you can dye a semi permanent colour straight away or to wait a week like you would after a perm. I am going to see results tomorrow to see if I should wait or dye straight away.

Let us know how you get on!

If there is a Sally's Salon Services near you I recommend the Osmo deep intensive repair mask, not sure where else you could get it as I've always bought it from there. I've used it a few times when bleaching and it's been great.

don't put a semi on it, not the ones you see it the major shops. They can take forever to come out, if ever really!

nice n easy do a 6 wash one, you can get that in Superdrug.

Thank you I will look for the repair mask and the nice and easy tomorrow.

done my hair yesterday and it lightened a few inchs from roots to a nice light brown, but the rest of the hair is still very dark it is more like a chocolate brown. So I have just applied another box to dark areas only.
Looks like I will have to dye over it today as it looks quite bad. I will try the 8 wash colour first to see if that makes a difference.