Anyone used a home hair colour remover kit? Help please.

[toomanydicksonthedancefloor1]

Just that really, I'm a bit scared to use it. Can you tell me whether or not you would do it? Or would you go to a salon? And tell me about your experience, and any tips would be appreciated too.

My natural hair colour is a dark mousey brown and I have about 40 stubborn white hairs around my parting.

Have been dying my hair for 20+ years, various browns, sometimes darker, sometimes lighter, sometimes with a bit of red in. Usually do it myself, I've had it done at a salon maybe 10 times over the years. I've had highlights done once. The salon results have never been good enough to make me stick to them, I've always gone back to doing at home.

I have had it stripped once at a salon years ago to go a lighter auburn colour with highlights (didn't suit me). Once stripped my hair was a very scary bright orange until it was coloured again, so I'm fully prepared for that to happen again. I didn't notice any difference in the condition of my hair afterwards.

The last 3 years I've used a gorgeous chocolate brown which was discontinued about 8 months ago. Since then I've struggled to find one I like as much and so it's ended up going gradually darker as I tried various different colours. My hair is shoulder length and the bottom of it is now almost black. I want to strip this out and then go back to a medium-dark brown.

I thought it would be an easy process of application, wait and rinse out. But from reading the box it's going to take a couple of hours and is a little more complex than I thought.

The one I've bought is bleach and ammonia free and is designed for dark coloured dyes and for hair which has been frequently coloured.

My biggest fear is spoiling the condition of my hair, which hairdressers have always complimented me on. It's really soft and lovely and shiny. I would hate for it to end up really dry.

Having it done at a salon isn't an option for a few months for financial and childcare reasons, so that's why I bought a home kit.

What would you do? Would you wait and let a professional do it in a few months? Or do it yourself, bearing in mind I am a very good amateur home hair colourist with 20 years experience .

I think I know the answer, but sometimes MN really surprises me!

Sorry that was wwwaaaayyyyy too long!!

X

My hair is like your, and I am sick of it too. Going for a cut today and going to talk about silver highlights to help transition to grey. This sort of thing. I wouldn't personally do colour removal at home, would leave that to professionals I think.

I've used those colour stripping kits before, but my hair was never longer than my chin.
It's a bit of a faff as you have to leave it on for ages and then rinse for what seems like hours.
But my hair condition was not affected, however the alarming orange it turned was a bit of a shock so make sure you have your next dye in the house as you might not want to be seen in public resembling a hi-vis traffic cone!

Tigerbread, that is such a pretty colour!

I have been used home dye for over 20 years too OP, my hair has been everything from purple to platinum blonde to black (with the odd weird result thrown in). But I would never ever try stripping the colour out at home.

Tiger

I love that cut and colour in the photo! Not brave enough for that. I've grown my hair recently but my usual cut is a just below chin length bob. If you do it, post a pic!

It's a bit of a faff, there's lots of rinsing and standing under a shower but they do work.
Got to follow the instructions mind otherwise they won't work.
It might turn a different colour to you're normal one as often hair dyes lighten the hair as well as deposit colour, you can't remove that so may end up a slightly odd colour.

So I pretty much thought the consensus would be don't do it!

But can I ask why?

I know it's going to be bright orange, but I will colour it straight after. When the salon did it, it was bright orange too. So as long as I do a patch and strand test, what are your reasons for not having a go?

I'm also aware it will be a bit of a faff as you say.

I think I've got a bit excited about doing it and don't want talking out of it he he.

I've done it and it was fine.
You need to make sure you buffer it properly as per the instructions (which is long) but if you don't it can reoxidise and some of the colour can come back into it

I've done it a few times. It's a faff with the 10 minutes + rinsing and it smells bad, but it doesn't ruin your hair and it does work. Last time I did it I had long hair which had been dyed many red shades over years and it got it to a tolerable light reddish brown.

I’ve used one once and never again. It went orange, which I was expecting so no problem with that, but the colour came back before I dyed it. The stink was vile and came back every time I washed my hair for over a week even with loads and loads of rinsing. Like burnt hair and eggs.

Aside from that my hairdresser had said it had weakened my hair and made the texture like that of someone who swims daily. My hair was just at my bra line and I had it cut into a bob afterwards for a while until it all grew out.

Maybe I did something wrong but I remember it being a lot of faff with pretty rubbish results.

I've done it and it was fine, but it was very time consuming as I had to rinse it for what felt like hours! It also smelled like rotten eggs which was nice. I have very long fine hair so was a bit worried it'd be awful, but it just looked quite gingery/warm toned when finished. That was fine as I was redying it anyway. My hair wasn't damaged at all, though it did smell awful for a few days.

So the main point seems to be that for it to work I just follow the instructions EXACTLY.

I've ordered clarifying shampoo to use twice beforehand.

It says to ensure the room isn't drafty or cold and to wrap hair in cling film?? Did you all do that too?

Thanks for the heads up about the stink too! Didn't know about that.

I was thinking about getting an extra hair dye too, just in case I needed to cover up a horrendous mess, I could colour it twice???

I did it - a medium brown hair dye went black on my blondey reddy brown natural colour so I ColorB4ed it out. It stinks but it works. I did a semi permanent brown on top which took out the orange.

I did ColourB4 just last week. I've got loads of grey and naturally darkish brown. Colouring for years so lots of too dark build up. Like pp say, follow instructions exactly. My hair went a really light brassy looking pale brown. Liveable but a big difference! I redyed same day. Chucked Aussie 3 minute conditioner on, rinsed then used Nice n Easy dark ash blonde semi permanent on damp hair left on for just 5 minutes. Is now the perfect lighter brown I wanted. Hair feels great too.

I forgot about the smell! It took forever to get rid of it and every time I thought it had finally gone, I would wash it and it would return!

Don't use a permanent colour. Only use a semi. Preferably one that washes out after a few washes, not semi with ammonia in. You'll be back to square one as your hair is now very porous so any dye with ammonia will stay on your hair.

I agree with others, the smell is hideous and I'm not exaggerating when I say you need to rinse it out for about an hour. Any residue left in your hair will make it feel and smell horrible.

You need to be careful about choosing the dye to put on afterwards. Dye tends to react differently after Colour remover and comes out much darker than expected. (Brown can look black)

I'd recommend a dark ash blonde semi. Dark blonde is essentially light brown and the ash will neutralise any brassiness in your base colour.

I used colourb4 last week, i did wrap my head in the clingfilm, and then heated with a hair dryer to make it warmer. This helps the product work.
My hair was ginger afterwards, though I have had red and purple on for 5 years. So I didn't expect it to be my natural brown/grey.
I dyed with a brown the same day, and it's a lovely auburn colour now.

Hoping the next she will be more brown.

Thanks all, fantastic advice. I will use the cling film and hairdryer and make sure to rinse as long as instructed.

I will wait till me next child free day when I have 3-4 hours to spare.

The one I have got is the colour B4 one which a couple of you have mentioned.

I am thinking I should also get a different dye to put on afterwards which is a much lighter brown than I actually want and see how that goes first. I don't want to go through all that faff and be back to square one when the dye ends up too dark afterwards!

Thanks so much all for the help! I'm feeling much less dubious about it now and think I will definitely go ahead.

I will update once I've done it for anyone interested, but that will probably be 2-3 weeks till I have time.

In the meantime I'd be happy to hear any more tips.

Thanks again xxx

To be honest with home colour remover I really do think it's pot luck.

I did a HUGE amount of research and review-reading before I bought some stuff (Colour B4) to try and get the dark brown dye out of my previously naturally blonde hair. I knew my hair was stained, I just wanted to lift most of the colour.

I followed the instructions to the letter. The smell can only be described as overwhelming; some kind of macabre cross between rotting fish and week-old road kill It did lift a lot of the colour, but my hair was wrecked, pretty orange and it stank. In the end I had it bleached to return to blonde.

Sounds like you're prepared so give it a bash. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Cross post, OP. Get yourself an ash brown dye to put on afterwards. This should help neutralise any orange-ness.

I think the trouble is that even brown permanent dyes contain some hydrogen peroxide (bleach) to make the colour "take".

Colour remover will take out the brown pigment and leave the slightly bleached hair underneath. That's usually a gingery brassy colour, it's not your natural shade.

It can work to lighten your hair enough to apply a lighter brown or ash blonde afterwards. It's best to go for the lightest brown or dark blonde and avoid those with red tones because your ginger base colour affects the end result.

Please check the instructions. I'm sure with some of them that you have to wait a couple of days before you can colour your hair.

Sake - I will get an ash brown to put on after** as advised by a few people.

That's not really the colour I want to be. So how long would you then wait before colouring it again? And would you still need to use a lighter colour than you wanted to achieve when dying for the second time?

Sorry for all the questions. This is unchartered territory for me and so would like to be armed with as much knowledge as possible beforehand!

First pic is my hair now and second pic is the colour I would like to achieve, if that helps.

Be a bit careful.
I used Colour B4 to remove red.
Whilst it worked reasonably well, after waiting the stated 2 weeks, I put a permanent colour on my hair and a lot of the red in my hair reappeared. I had to use bleach in the end.