Hair disaster!! Black box dye

[wanttokickoffbutcant]

I thought I had already posted about this but seems not....

My DD15 managed to dye her lovely natural blonde hair completely black with box dye. She meant to do a dip dye (??) so kind of the under bits of the ends dark and it went wrong. Any ideas to get the stuff out would be welcome before I have to get a second mortgage at a salon.......

Black permanent colour is the most difficult to remove successfully without causing excess damage to the cuticle layer.

Hair colour removers (reducers) work well, if you know what you’re doing. Definitely not a diy job though.

You need someone who is competent at colour correction work.

If money is an issue, you could try booking into a college hairdressing salon for a reduced price colour correction although they’re likely to slap on bleach to lift it, which will cause some damage.

I did something similar once. I had dark hair which went really dark. A hairdresser assured me that correcting this (box dye is notoriously hard to correct) would be next to impossible and needed someone with experience at colour correction (and a client with a big wallet).

I cut my losses and went with a pixie cut instead. I did go for an all over colour and had fairly long hair at the time.

No way my DD will go for pixie - I did suggest that. She is using Head and Shoulders and it does seem to be stripping some of it out?

I had black hair and had to
grow it out completely to get rid of it

Ah bugger - not sounding good. Can't believe she has done this.

Right of Passage. I’m sure most of us have done this, I’d play it down for her sake.

I did this as a young woman, attempts to remove it just made it go khaki. I went for a pixie cut in the end and it was gone in a couple of months. I think that’s all you can do really without resorting to an expensive colour correction at a really good salon, even then there will still be that and the damage to grow out.

Thank you - she won't go for the pixie. I may have to bite the bullet and call the salon tomorrow.....just what I need after Christmas and her 16th is and the end of the month. I messed around with my hair a lot when I was young and I box colour mine now but I am brown/brunette so maybe she thought it would be ok?

Oh to be 15 again. There’ll probably be a green or red tinge to whatever they do even in the salon, so try not to get her hopes up too much in the meantime x

DD2 got bored during Covid and did a black home dye job. She made an absolute mess of it - there were lots of pale patches. And yes, she had to wait until it all grew out..... it was nigh on impossible to shift.

But we all do these things, don't we? My hair was orange for most of my 16th year due to over-use of Sun-In. Don't worry about it.

Thank @Leftsidefacing I will. And I do remember being 15 and a bit silly so I am being nice and calm and looking for solutions and telling her it will be OK.

Does it look bad? Can she pull it off? Not sure if she wears makeup but definetly worth styling the hair properly and adjusting her make up pallette to see if the colour has any hope of working !

@CointreauVersial I also remember Sun-In and my sister sitting in the garden with lemon juice on her head! I was very blonde when I was young, not so much now....

was it permanent box dye or semi? What number is on the box like the colour? X

@earshadow she looks fantastic! She is a beautiful girl and will probably end up with dark hair anyway as me and my sis are now brown. A lot of her friends like it but she she thinks they are just being kind....

I see a lot of teens in my town with fried green hair. With a fair bit of make up and an attitude they look quite cool. The beauty of youth, I suppose!

I agree with @earshadow , if she can pull it off and doesn’t have a job where she needs to look very smart could she just grow it out?

@Snicksnacksnora sorry box is gone but think it was perm black

Ok x

Black is probably the hardest to get out. I don't think even a salon will manage it: you should save your money.

Head and shoulders is not washing it out
Box dyes always have colour "wash out" for about a week after colouring. Its only excess, the colour might fade a little but not actually change.
She will need to wait until it grows out. Even salon treatments will damage her hair.

I got a very very dark brown out of my hair with this product https://www.boots.ie/colour-b4-ultimate-hair-colour-remover-180ml-10318261

Try to strip the colour with Fairy liquid rather than Head and Shoulders. Good luck

If the black looks good and she wants black, I'd just black box dye over the whole mess. A rite of passage I am both proud and horrified of at the same time.

I have used this to shift black dye in the past. You cannot colour over it for a while tho as it shrinks the colour particles and they expand again if you put another color on. It doesn't work well on matallic dyes.
Definitely give it a go.

Please discourage her from using dish liquid and other home remedies to strip the colour. They won’t do much and will really damage her hair. Tell her to use a proper colour corrector, it won’t get it all out, not even close. But will be better for her hair in the long run.

I guess she needs to decide if she can live with the colour, I’m sure it at least is shiny and sleek. Or she strips it and has dirty brown blotchy fried hair.

This really works, I’ve done it a few times!l and I swear by it (It is quite drying though)

-crush up vitamin c tablets (pestle and mortar)

-Put this powder into a bowl and mix with head and shoulders. (Use half a bottle)

-Apply all over, do small sections at a time.

-Wrap in cling film.

-Use heat (hair dryer) for 10-15 mins

• Leave to sit for an hour.

-Rinse out.

-Use a conditioning mask after if possible