Anyone ever managed to get rid of black box dye?

[Nuco]

My hair is naturally a dark blonde colour. I've been dying it darker for a while, and about 5 years ago I dyed it black. I love it, but it's so much upkeep. My roots need doing often, and they start to look obvious really quickly. There's no dimension to it as it's all one colour, so it's starting to look a bit dull and flat

I'm thinking of going for a mid - dark brown instead. Has anyone done anything similar and was it successful? How many sessions did you need at a salon? Or has anyone done it at home?

I had one session at a salon to get my hair from jet black to medium brown. They literally scrubbed it for ages, it was agony. But it worked so it was worth it. This was over 8 years ago though so hopefully they have a kinder method now cause it was horrible.

Hi op. I used to dye my hair black and am now blonde. It took a long time and a lot of money! The black was stripped a bit but did really have to grow out. I'd go see a hairdresser and get their opinion.

You could just let it grow out

@TurdCrapley did it lighten to the medium brown, or did they then have to dye over it with brown?

@Ra12345 I have been thinking of growing it out, but it's way past my shoulders so would take a really long time. Also not sure I could cope with how silly it would like with horrendous roots

@Nuco it lightened to a medium brown but that is my natural colour.

I stripped with a colour stripped then went to the salon who used bleach for a balayage. It’s still dark - mid brown though, which is the best I could expect from black. I will need more bleach to get lighter.

Try a colour remover, colour oops etc. You might need a couple of goes with it but they have always worked well for me.

They won't be able to dye over it with a lighter colour without using bleach.

You can try a colour stripper, it won't get you back to natural, most likely an orangey reddish colour. You need to rinse it way way way more than you think you do because if any of the colour remover is left over it will deoxidise and darken.

Then depending on what you're left with you'll need to bleach it or just put a darker brown over it. Bear in mind that any colour used straight after a colour remover will likely end up darker than the shade on the box because your hair will be very porous, so go with a colour that's a shade or 2 lighter than you want it to end up.

I did ages ago. I used a Dye stripper which made it brown then bleached it. I then heavily conditioned it and put aa deepish red on it

I used to dye my hair blue/black, and did so for 15 years. I used Colourb4 and it got rid of the black, and I was left with a really nice red tone in my hair. The stuff stinks, but it worked on my hair, and didn't damage it, it actually felt really silky and smooth after.

Obviously I'm not a hairdresser, but from my own personal experience I'd recommend it. It's a tenner a box, and I used the extra strength because of the color of my hair.

@YouCantTourniquetTheTaint did you have to use the colourb4 more than once? I’m impressed it removed it all! May have to give that a try then

@Nuco no I only did it once, you need to follow the instructions to the letter though, there's lots of rinsing and buffing, so make sure you've got plenty of hot water, it'll take you an afternoon. I had to use two boxes because I had longish thick hair, I'll l see if I can find a photo to show you what it looked like once I'd done it.

I've found a couple of photos of before and after, so you can see how dark my hair was, the after photo isn't the best because the sun was shining on my hair making it look redder and lighter, but it was a reddish brown after stripping the blue/black out, my natural hair colour is mousy brown.

Hope this helps, it does stink of rotten eggs! Warmth helps the stripper break down the colour, I wrap my hair in clingfilm, blow the hairdryer on it to get my scalp warm, and then wrap it in a towel to keep the warm.

Photos! 3rd time lucky?

I didn’t have jet black hair, but did have very dark brown. I used colour b4. Followed the instructions, with loads and loads and loads of rinsing. Hair was left a funny orange shade. I put a mid ash brown on top. Used a semi at first, then again after a week or so, then switched to a permanent. I’d read that if you use permanent straight away, it would go much darker than intended. Was happy with the striping/re-dying process.

I was colouring my hair to get rid of my grey. In the end I just stopped colouring as it was such a faff every three weeks. I’ve had that weird grow out going on for just over a year now, but I love my natural colour underneath, and I’m free from dying it ever again. Totally worth shit hair for 18-24 months in my opinion!

I've gone from dark brown to a dark blonde. I did the following:

• 2 rounds of colour remover
• a week of Olaplex 3 every day and no heat styling
• dark blonde box dye

If you skip the middle step you will need to use a lighter colour than you want and/or not leave it on for long. If you can bear the orange in between stage for a bit, it's worth working on your hairs condition before processing again.

I grew mine out for 1.5 years during covid and used the spray in hair colour when I really needed to go out !

The mid and ends then got a bleach bath at the hairdressers and then dyed it a sort of auburn colour.

Worked well and I'm so glad I did it