Hair too dark

[Woodlandbelle]

I died my hair too dark (at Christmas) and still feel it's too much for me. I'd like to take it down a couple of shades. Should I chance a box dye from tesco later?

No. You need a colour restorer It's called b4 or something

I haven't heard of that. Thank you

I'd be super careful using B4 it ruins you hair, mine was like straw afterwards!!! I heard the other day that head and shoulders dampens colour so maybe that's worth a try? It should get lighter and lighter as you wash it though

I actually googled there and saw Head and Shoulders works so I can get that easily today. I am not going anywhere so I might just use that. I wash my hair daily so that should help. Thanks so much.

Washing up liquid works too, just have a good intensive conditioner for when you have done a few washes with it.

Google the vitamin c shampoo mix too, that should help.

You can't lift tint with tint, so either a colour stripper or a bleach bath is what you need. You'd have to re-colour again afterwards as your hair will be left a funny shade, a bit orange-y.

I think the H&S/washing up liquid only work if you do them quite quickly after colouring, before the colour has had time to really "stick".

I've used Colour B4 loads of times and it has never left my hair dry or damaged. It's always been soft and shiny afterwards, albeit orange. It will never put your hair back to the colour it was before dye so as long as you know you will have to dye it again (unless you like the shade of orange you're left with).

My hair tends to bounce between red, purple and black so I use Colour B4 frequently. I follow the instructions exactly but then wait a few days before putting a dye on.

Head & Shoulders works pretty well at fading colour

You won't be able to lighten your hair with another colour, you need bleach for that.

As others have said, Head and Shoulders is supposed to be quite good for stripping colour out of hair.

The colour B4 extra strength will remove the dark dye, but will leave it brassy. You can dye it with a semi afterwards but will need to wait a week or two before putting a permanent colour over the top.

I have just been out while doing the weekly shop and bought head and shoulders. I got the one for greasy hair. They only had that and a menthol one. So I gave it a wash and dried it. Now for another wash. If this doesn't work after a week or so then I will try the colour remover. I do feel the colour has really stuck as a pp said above. I had a few colours one after the other.

Colour b4 works well but might leave your hair a reddish colour as most brown box dyes have red undertones. An ash brown dye with green undertones would then help to cancel out those red tones.

I decided to give myself a root shadow with brown box dye the other day and it came out black, which was... undesirable.

With the Head & Shoulders, I got my hair wet under the tap in the bathroom sink and spent time massaging the shampoo into my hair by sections. After a while you can see that the suds take on a little tiny tint of colour. I rinsed my hair and then did the process again. Then, I made a paste of baking powder and water, and applied this to my hair for a couple of hours. I actually had a long phone call while it was on my hair and got baking powder all over my phone, so don't do that.

I rinsed my hair and washed it normally in the shower with H&S.

Last time I did this I used bicarbonate of soda rather than baking powder, which was more effective, but last time I was trying to strip blue rather than black, so that might account for some of the difference.

My roots are still too dark really, but less so, iyswim. I'm also going for long walks in the sunshine to try and kill the colour a bit that way.

Ah I hope it comes back to the way you want it. The head and shoulders made my hair brighter and really shiny. I have It two good washes. Left the shampoo in a while. Maybe it's so clean and that's why it's shiny. There must have been product build up. Will try the baking powder

Thanks, @Woodlandbelle. It's basically orange under the dye and salon toners kept fading after two or three washes, leaving it brassy again. As long as my hair is down, it actually looks quite professional. The underneath layers are a disaster though. Still happier with this than I was with the orange stripe.

Bit of an update. Used a colour remover (provoke) and it took my hair from darkest brown to this. It's a start in and not as harsh again pale skin.

It's a nice colour. Thanks for the update.