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

I used one called Decolour last year - the guy who makes it used to be involved in Colour B4, I think. They do two versions, one when is a colour remover, and one which is a stripper and essentially a bleach bath. I did them both over two nights, then re-coloured with a permanent dye immediately after the stripper. My ends were dry and needed trimmed, but my hair was otherwise fine.

Hi Judy

The one I have is Colour B4 and it says it's the one for hair which has been frequently coloured. It says it doesn't contain ammonia or bleach.

Maybe if that doesn't work I would have to try one with bleach in? (Or maybe get the hairdresser to sort out my mess ).

What is the number on the colour you want after? Your hair is very dark. It should work though and I doubt it will go bright orange but will definitely have a red tinge to it. I would wait a day or 2 before recolouring.

I found after I did mine it was much darker the next day than it was initially after I rinsed it off.

I used this last week. It smelled bad until the 2nd wash, but a week later, smells fine, looks fine.

This is the colour I would like it to look like.

After using a colour reducer, you should use a colour one shade darker than your desired result.

Products like Colour B4 contain a mild bleaching agent which shrinks colour molecules, allowing them to be rinsed from the hair. If you don't rinse properly, some molecules will stay in the hair and re-oxidise (swell) again, so you need to rinse for ages. The bleach also sucks moisture and protein from your hair, so follow with a decent deep conditioner. Don't rely on the one that comes in the box, they're rubbish. Use something like Osmo Deep Repair mask or Aussie 3 minute miracle. Palmers do a good one too, that you buy in sachets.

They're not too damaging and most people get good results from them.

Have you considered going to a training salon? They're all supervised by fully qualified, experienced hairdressers and you're likely to get a much better result.

If you put that on your hair it's going to be almost as dark as what it is now.

Hair dyes (not all) usually start with a base colour. This is a number 1 - 12 with 1 being black and 12 being very light blonde. I would say anything starting with a 3 looks black to me though so something starting with a 4 will be very very dark brown. Basically it is likely to be a lot darker than it looks on the box.

I would aim for something that begins with a 6. If your hair has red tones in it when lifted I would try a flat 6 so 6.0 as the red tones will make it look warm.

If you put the 4 on you won't be all that much lighter than what you are now.

I wanted to transition from dyed brown hair to grey. I tried colorb4 2 weeks ago, spent ages, was v smelly. My hair went gingery. I then put on a grey hair colour for 5 mins and my hair went back to dark brown! It looked like I hadn't done anything at all.
I then went to an aveda colourist having read on various threads that their bleach is the most gentle and got the colour bleached out and they coloured over it ash blonde. They had told me that they wouldn't be able to lighten immediately and I wd have to go via highlighting, however I had an intrepid colourist who was prepared to give it a go. I am not used to being blonde at all but I am getting a lot of compliments - I guess it is more gentle on older complexions - none of which may be relevant to you but I thought it might be interesting for some people if I shared the whole story!
I wd recommend using a toner rather than a permanent or semi permanent hair dye after colour b4 and if you do use a dye ensure it is a lot lighter than the colour you what and you only leave it in v briefly.

I used colour b4 recently, the extra strength one. It was fine, left my hair bright orange, but I used a purple conditioner on it immediately afterwards which toned it down.
The only problems with it was that it takes ages, and it left my hair smelling of rotten eggs for about 3 weeks 😬

I used it years ago. Colour B4. Worked great, though was left very orange as Years of permanent dye had lifted it. I used a level 1 temporary ash brown immediately and again after a week I think, then dyed permanently another week after. Didn’t wreck my hair at all. In future, take great care to only colour your roots to avoid the build up / darker ends. Eventually I stopped colouring mine....

Thanks so much everybody for all the advice, it's really appreciated.

So am I correct that I should use a light ash brown immediately after, and that it should be a temporary one, rather than permanent?

Hi Too. Basically after using ColourB4 your hair will 'grab' colour as it's really porous. There's a risk of reoxidising so if you apply the colour you want to be it'll go too dark.
Use a semi permanent with an ash tone in a shade lighter than you're aiming for. And watch as it develops and be ready to rinse as soon as it looks brown enough for you. The ash tone neutra,uses the brassiness. Good luck!

OP please don't use that No 4 Excellence colour after stripping your hair. I have naturally auburn hair with lots of grey, used that exact dye in the hope I would get better grey coverage, and ended up with patchy black hair. Total disaster.

6 months on I have spent £££ trying to remove that colour despite my hair being in really good condition when I applied it. I have now resorted to lightening the midlengths with bleach to lift a couple of shades.

Go with the PP suggestion of an ash light brown semi permanent, allow your hair to settle down and decide where to go from there.

*neutralises dammit

Agree that box Dye will go black! After stripping your hair use one shade LIGHTER than you're aiming for as it often comes out darker than expected, you should only use a semi colour, I usually use castings after stripping mine (I've done it a day few times!)

*fair few times

Right so I DEFINITELY won't be using the dark brown permanent colour!

Would this semi permanent colour (first picture) be a good choice?

The second photo shows a review of that colour, which sounds good too, as the user was trying to achieve the same thing as me i think.

Oops! Forgot the photos!

I’d avoid it my hair stank and the colour ended up weird and patchy used a chemist own Brand and it went orangey so think I’d go to a salon - ended up having to do that now have nice shiny hair which is a lovely colour cost me though eeek x

Personally, I would go lighter still on the theory that it's easier to dye your hair darker than it is lighter and also less damaging

I would go with a dark ash blonde to start. You can always try a darker ash after. I stripped out a botched brunette that went black and it worked alright. However, it didn't work on my blue dip dyed ends on bleached highlights. So it won't work on bleached hair.
Always go lighter than you think on permanent dyes. Good luck.

Ok will do a dark ash blonde, I thought the ash brown still looked quite a dark colour to be honest.

I would pick a loreal or superdrug own beginning with a 7 or an 8 if you want to be cautious. A 7 will look much darker than on the box but after a couple of washes will probably fade to a light brown.

Thanks ginger for all the great advice. I usually stick with L'Oréal so will probably do so this time. And I will look at the colour numbers you recommend.

I think they work on permanent colour. My DD use edit on a blue semi colour that wouldn't wash out and it didn't work. Something to do with it only being on the cuticle and not under it.