Box dye virgin - help me dye my hair black!

[Ficklebricks]

I have light brown hair with bits of blonde in certain light. It can look a bit gingery in the sun too. No hair colour on it at the moment.

I want to use this semi permanent home dye to go black - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clairol-Nicen-Easy-Gloss-Permanent/dp/B0DPNM4MDY

I have a couple of questions.

1. Will it fade out nicely and gradually or will I get a horrible green tint when the blue undertones mix with my slightly blonde tones?

2. How do you maintain a box dye? It says it lasts 28 washes, so how do I top it up? Do I just dye the roots or apply all over? I worry it's not possible to maintain a home dye job correctly without uneven bands of colour.

Thanks in advance!

I dyed my brown hair too dark once - I looked like I’d been dug up. Really, really awful.

you have been warned 😁

DON'T DO IT. DO NOT DYE YOUR HAIR BLACK!

You will never wash it out. Even the 'temporary' ones don't wash out. Always around 25-35% will stay in, and you will have to bleach your hair 3-4 times to get rid of it.

I agree with the PP’s. Not many people can get away with black and I too looked like I’d been dug up. I now go for dark brown, much better and I look vaguely alive!

Any box dye that involves mixing two things together is a permanent change, whatever it says on the box. The semi permanent just means you need to keep re-doing it to keep up the colour, but the colour you have underneath will be permanently changed.

I would go to a professional for this.

Professional isn't an option due to cost. I am committed to black, I've been wanting to do it for years now.

I have mousey brown hair naturally and dyed my hair black for years in my 20s. Never had any issues with the colour fading or going green/muddy. I just redyed whenever I had too much root coming through. When redying, do your roots first then run through the rest of your hair to keep the colour deep and glossy.
But other posters are right, it will never go back to your natural colour without needing to be lifted out. If you’re really committed then I’d go straight to permanent. Semi permanent colour might be a bit wishy washy.
I miss having black hair, it was so easy to maintain.

Hope you love it op. Agree that semi permanent is not semi permanent on all but a few. Have a growing out strategy for when you don't want it any more, it's gonna be a buzz cut or a lot of time with root regrowth. I'm sure you have looked at lots of pics and pitfalls of other people doing it.

Hmmm, you may not want to be 'committed to black hair' once you do it. If you're 'light brown/blondish,' you will need to do root regrowth every 3-4 weeks or so. Blondish/light coloured roots coming through dyed black hair look hideous. MUCH worse than dark roots growing through when it's dyed/bleached blonde. And as I say, it's an absolute ball ache to try and get the black dye out. It won't wash out. You will need it bleached, several times. Trust me. I know!

I can see you are determined to do it. I know a few who did do it, and deeply regretted it. It looked pretty horrible black too. Very VERY few people can get away with black hair!

DON'T SAY YOU WEREN'T WARNED!

I dyed my hair black for years. I used the Nice N Easy permanent one and it only needed done when the roots started to show.

If you really want to do it go for it, don't let people put you off. I loved having black hair and everyone,including my hairdresser, said it really suited me. I currently dye it dark brown to cover the greys and i am toying with the idea of going black again. When I wanted to go back to my natural colour the hairdresser just put loads of highlights in it to break up the colour whilst it grew out. It wasn't bad at all.

I dyed my hair black for years. I used the Nice N Easy permanent one and it only needed done when the roots started to show.

If you really want to do it go for it, don't let people put you off. I loved having black hair and everyone,including my hairdresser, said it really suited me. I currently dye it dark brown to cover the greys and i am toying with the idea of going black again. When I wanted to go back to my natural colour the hairdresser just put loads of highlights in it to break up the colour whilst it grew out. It wasn't bad at all.

I've had black hair before - my main advice is that if you get bored of it, go somewhere really good to get it bleached once, wait a few weeks before bleaching again and no more than twice in total, use really good hair products and be prepared for your hair to be reddish. It's a faff but I don't regret it and I think there is a tendency for people to be a bit dramatic about how bad it is.

You could always dye it dark brown first, as a sort of stepping stone, to see if you like it darker. Then go black next time.

Black can be very harsh, especially if you’re doing it yourself and have never done it before. You need to make sure it’s blended in properly especially at the back.

My 13yo DD wanted dark brown her for the summer holidays, she’s very blonde. I didn’t want to put a box dye in so have used this Wella wash in colour, I’ve used a few different colours in the past and like it. My hairdresser first put me onto it. I also bought her the John Frida darkening shampoo.

The first wash her hair was very red, we left it a couple of days, not washing it then washed it with the dark shampoo and put more colour in. Repeated one more time and now her hair is the dark brown she wanted. She’s going to maintain it with the dark shampoo and add a bit more dye once a week. She’s been told the last 2 weeks before school starts she has to stop putting the colour in and using the John frida shampoo so her hair eventually goes back to her natural colour.

Just be careful as black hair dye can be very damaging to your hair, it’s also not the easiest to get out if it goes wrong. I use to use black box dyes and it took my hair years to recover.

www.boots.com/john-frieda-midnight-brunette-colour-deepening-shampoo-250ml-for-dull-brunette-hair-10298195?traffic=paid.shopping&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19971248798&gbraid=0AAAAA-AdmwQWuDypYnfd7TOsJ4vchn5tE&gclid=CjwKCAjwkbzEBhAVEiwA4V-yqlbetwL_pE0SNxURZcKys_2V8jsYnOfzz7b52Iafmvwm_THagqJkiRoC56cQAvD_BwE

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This, in spades!
I’ve been dying my hair for years. Both professionally and myself. I’ve had every colour, including black. I’m naturally dirty blonde.
@Ficklebricks I wouldn’t go straight to black if you’re a hair-dye virgin. I’d take @Diggetydawg‘s advice and do it in stages. Do dark brown first, then gradually go up to black if you like the dark brown.
True black is very harsh on many people.

You will 100% regret black. I done it and looked dead. It’s just cost me over£300 to get it back to a decent colour

I dyed my naturally dark brown hair black when I was in my mid-30s - it aged me terribly. Fortunately, although the dye was meant to be permanent, it had washed out in a week (it was a John Freida dye). I would suggest trying a semi-permanent dye in the first instance.

You may have to get your eyebrows tinted darker and change your make up colours if you wear it. I second doing it in stages as it won’t be so much of a drastic change. It is worth saving up if you can for a professional for a total change as it won’t be patchy and they can analyse your base colour. Do you have a college or any training days for colourists in your area it would be worth finding out.

https://www.garnier.co.uk/virtual-try-on?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21357774140&gbraid=0AAAAAD8Zhu8372DzmCpI8MesOchsfVbDV&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoKuR3vbujgMVg5BQBh0rwwAcEAAYASAAEgKEr_D_BwE

the virtual ‘try on’ is quite good if you wanted to see how a brunette would look to start with

Have you tested black by trying on a wig or using one of the apps where you upload a photo?

Just as a double check before you go ahead as it really, really can’t be undone easily or cheaply

I was so excited to have black hair - it washed me out completely and made me look ill. Took a lot of time and money to get rid

But if you try the wig/pic app and still love it then go for it!

I want to do black at some point too but at the moment do a very dark brown. I’ve also had various shades of red and plum. The dark brown really doesn’t fade and while I could just do the roots I slap it all over as what’s left in the bottle would be wasted.

if you’re going to dye your hair black, I recommend doing your eyebrows too! I’m quite pale and it looks weird unless I dye my brows/put brow gel on. Schwarzkopf do a reaaally dark brown that’s almost black but it is permanent called bitter sweet chocolate.

I have dyed my hair every colour, bleached it, crazy colours, box dyes, professional, you name it I’ve done it and I have a very nonchalant approach to it because I know that in the worse case scenario it will grow back eventually and I’ll just deal with having no/very short hair for a while.

Black doesn’t fade away, it just doesn’t. It fades and goes a bit wishy washy but never completely, so if you do decide you don’t want black hair anymore then your choices will be (a) bleach it out, which might take a few attempts and have some interesting transitions along the way (b) cut it out by either waiting for it to grow or going really short.

If you’re ok with that then go for it. Make sure you Vaseline up your ears, forehead and neck line to avoid getting dye stains, be careful to cover all the hair with dye very fastidiously so you don’t end up with patches and for the love of all that is holy please please please do a patch test on your skin before you put it all over your head. Hair dye, especially dark dyes contain PPD which loads of people are allergic to, especially if you’ve ever had a black henna tattoo. You do not want to find out you’re allergic when your eyes and scalp start swelling up and you end up with open sores, ask me how I know and why I now take industrial strength anti-histamines when I dye my hair 😂😭

How old are you? That would influence my answer ..:

Why don’t you go and be a model in a hair salon.box dyes are terrible and if you are dying it black it might go patchy if you do it yourself.

Loads of great advice here, thanks everyone.

I actually really like the goth look, pale and interesting is my vibe. So all the comments about it washing me out and making me look dead don't bother me, I actually like very pale toned skin with dark hair!

To the commenter who asked my age, it doesn't matter! Age shouldn't hold anyone back from expressing themselves with the styles they enjoy. I don't strive to look younger and I don't fear looking older than I am. Other people's judgements about my age don't bother me in the slightest.

I am doing a 48 hour patch test for allergies.

I have dyed a test strand and it looks gorgeous. Sort of very very dark brown rather than black.

In an effort to judge how tricky removal might be I have tried a colour remover on half the test strip and it seems to have lightened it up to a lovely golden brown so I reckon reversal is possible. My natural colour is golden brown rather than blond and it's lightened back up to almost my base colour.

Of course if I do multiple repeat dyes over many months/years then removal will be more difficult but at least I know I can reverse it if I hate it straight away!