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!

So glad you’re doing the patch test!

Go for it, sounds like you’re really keen and you know the risks, just to confirm your logic on colour remover, yes if your pre done one application and then use a colour remover you can get most of the dye out it doesn’t fully remove and it does leave a coppery tinge, but it’s nearly there, once you’ve done several applications you end up with multiple layers of dye like rings in a tree trunk, so the remover tends to be a pretty patchy result. If you do go that route at any point then be very aware that it leaves your hair really porous so if you dye over it choose a dye a couple of shades lighter than you want as it will take very dark.

Thank God for this post, and some of the others on the previous page. Hopefully the OP will take heed (though I doubt it, as she is so determined to dye her hair black, that she will pick out the very few posts telling her it's a good idea and to 'ignore' people saying 'don't do it!'

It is a terrible idea for most, and most people will regret it. One person I know who dyed it black, (in 2023,) spent £3.99 on a box dye to dye it black. It looked patchy and tacky within 2-3 weeks, and so she had to keep dying it regularly, and it looked SHITE within 4-5 months, like cotton wool; dry and coarse, and pretty dreadful. Also, it took 3 hairdresser visits over 3 months, and a total of £400 to get it back to its original light brown colour.

I’m also someone who loves the pale skin with black hair look. I’m rocking that look right now. It can be high maintenance though, since you’ll want to touch the roots up every month.

I’m someone who has dyed their hair many colours (including bright fun colours). Black isn’t too hard to get out compared to others (red and purple are the worst in my experience. Some purples turn green when bleached and red just sticks around). Colour remover always gets the bulk of the black dye out.

The instructions should have a guideline on how to touch roots up, so follow those and you shouldn’t have too much of an issue with removing in the future. It’s just an issue when you have layers and layers of black dye on top of each other.

Given that the OP wasn't even asking whether others think it's a good idea - they have made their decision and are happy with it - I don't think they're under any obligation to read and consider your opinions.

What's with the character assassination from just a couple of my posts? You have no idea of my thought process so kindly jog on.

one Thing I found op was the roots needed more touch up that any other colour I had. I’m naturally mousy blonde with an odd blonde highlight in summer. I started dying my hair blonde in my late teens and always felt my roots were dark. I went darker in my 20s and eventually black and within weeks I had the most blonde roots come through 🤷‍♀️ You can actually buy touch up crayons which help, my cousin with natural black hair uses them for her grey hair.

Also black dye dose definitely damage your hair too so condition it as much as you can.

I imagine any question about your age would have been related to skin tone, and likelihood of grey roots - rather than the matter of ‘expressing yourself’, @Ficklebricks.

This is exactly the one I use, I'm cool toned but with medium brown skin. I believe there is a warm toned version too.

I like the look at that colour, is it cool toned ? All of the dark brown eyes i use end up with red tones in them, which I'd rather not have

The main thing I will say about any box dye is watch some videos of hairdressers showing you how to do it. I personally love Brad Mondo. Here is his video talking through box dyes but he also shows you how to apply them at home at the end of the video. It is all about prepping the hair and then sectioning and making sure each section is saturated otherwise you end up with patchy nightmare hair.

I also watch a lot of videos of pros like Brad and Hair Budda reacting to home hair colouring fails. They use these to point out why it goes wrong and how to make sure yours doesn't which I respect.

I imagine any question about your age would have been related to skin tone, and likelihood of grey roots - rather than the matter of ‘expressing yourself’,

I've found my skin tone has changed as I've got older. Colours I could wear when I was younger now make me look dreadful.

Update: the black looked great at first but has very quickly faded to a dark golden brown. I used colour protecting shampoo and only washed it a few times.

How do I stop it from fading? It must be quite damaging to the hair to repeat the dye process every couple of weeks. I have read about colour depositing conditioners or glosses as well as treatments to correct the porosity of the hair but it's all a bit confusing with conflicting advice out there.

Use cool water, as hot water makes hair dye fade quicker. Also, semi permanent does fade a lot quicker compared to permanent.

Any colour depositing conditioner will work, or a direct dye (also semi permanent) will top the colour up without damage. Direct dye will last longer than a colour depositing conditioner/shampoo. You can make your own colour depositing conditioner with direct dye too. Get a tub and pour conditioner (any conditioner will work) in, then add drops of direct dye in it until it’s dark enough for your liking. Just apply to your hair as conditioner and leave in for 10 minutes and then wash out.

Thanks for this. When you say direct dye do you mean permanent box dye?

@daisydreamies I gather that direct dye doesn't have ammonia and you don't mix it with a developer, but I'm not sure if that's what I already used. The box I used had "ammonia free semi permanent" on the label, but I still had to mix two tubes together to activate it.

If you're ready to stick with it, your need a box that says permanent not semi-permanent

Direct dye is just pigment in a tub/tube that you just put on the hair with no mixing (unless you mix with conditioner). Some semi permanent dyes use low volume developer (like the one you used), which can be slightly damaging (really not much damage though), whereas direct dye is not damaging as it just stains the hair rather than go into the hair shaft and do chemical stuff (I’m awful at explaining).

If you’re happy with the result and plan on keeping the colour, I’d suggest just doing permanent. It would be cheaper overall as you’ll only have to touch the roots up rather than trying to maintain the colour.

L’Oréal preference is brilliant, but two boxes if your hair is long. brush it through all your hair.

Go for a dark brown rather than black first time. Good luck x x

It might be this new version of Nice and Easy OP. I have used it for a long time and liked the previous version way better.

I used this exact one last weekend, although mine is a brown, and after two washes it is way lighter than it was. I have not changed anything else in my routine, except to this tone and gloss version.

If you want to stick with semi, then perhaps there is another brand around that works the same. I have to use up the ones I have bought, so I haven't looked around for any alternatives yet.

That's interesting @Highlighta , I had read about the formula changing recently. I could try a different semi permanent, but would that look ok over the top of this one? Should I wait for it to fade more first?