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.......

I’m currently at the hairdressers having my colour done. Asked my colourist (and also the salon owner) and both said ‘we wouldn’t touch it. Too difficult, too expensive and will ruin her hair’. Both said they’d advise cutting it short or growing it out. Both shook their heads ruefully!

Oh God - that doesn't sound good!

Sorry to be bearer of bad news! Both were adamant that they’d not touch it (and this is a very good salon, multi awards and the like). The owner did a sharp intake of breath and said ‘silly, silly girl’…

Tell her to be careful with dark hair dye, I did this a few years ago and tried to correct myself with another box dye and ended up having a massive allergic reaction. Head swelled up like a balloon, had to stay in hospital.
The only way to fix it is a hairdresser, maybe offer it as an early birthday present.

with it being recently done, and only once, she’ll hopefully be able to fade a lot with clarifying shampoo. I’ve had some success on a colour my hairdresser did that was far too dark with doing two clarifying washes one after another, letting the shampoo sit on the hair for a couple of minutes before rinsing, every day for a 3 days in the hottest water I could stand, to fade out the dye. She might need less, I had old highlights on mine that the dye was clinging to. But this is very drying, clarifying shampoo sucks the moisture out along with the artificial colour. She will need to use decent conditioner after the final rinse every day to protect her hair. & dry it carefully, comb from the bottom. Don’t put her hair under any more stress.

Please be careful with the home removal methods suggested on google, they can cause more harm than good, black is very hard to lift. I dyed my dark blonde hair black for years & when I got sick of it I tried every method known to man, vitamin c tablets crushed in shampoo to make a mask (this did remove a lot of black & got me to mid brown but proceed with caution), I’d tried washing up liquid, colour removers (great for fun colours like pink but black is another matter) in the end it was a case of cutting from elbow length to chin because it was like candy floss from everything I’d tried causing damage which I’m sure your daughter doesn’t want. I let the condition improve for a few months & then once it seemed safe (ie, that my hair wouldn’t snap off) having highlights done through the darker sections every few weeks until the ends matched the blonde roots. The frustrating part was I only ever used semi permanent, I redid my roots carefully every 3 weeks & wasn’t slapping it all over so it wasn’t like there was loads of build up to get rid of, but black on blonde really stains stubbornly.

NEVER use normal Henna on your hair if you’re planning to use a peroxide based permanent colour or lightener afterwards as the metals in the Henna will react badly with the colour and will cause serious breakage to your hair and possibly scalp burns too!

Removing black permanent colour can only be safely done by a competent colourist who is experienced in using colour reducers.

None of the diy methods advised on this thread (!!) will work adequately and she’ll end up with extremely damaged hair into the bargain.

Once the cuticle layer is damaged, no amount of deep conditioning or bond builders can save it.

Try Color Oops. It’s very good. But really, your best bet is take her to a salon.

This ^^ all trainees are directed by a professional it’s pretty much they same

Is she open to cutting it off and letting it grow out? Might be the safest and cheapest solution all round.

Disagree. My salon took a tiny sample of my hair first and tried colour remover to see what happened to my hair - it was fine so we proceeded. It's simply not true to say that it's not at all possible - my hair is fine and fairly delicate and they took off years of boxed black dye from my hair. An experienced stylist can do this.

Was her hair bleach blonde before? I did this when I was younger and luckily had a newly trained hair dressing friend to sort my strangely purple green hair. We added a colour that was warm so a ginger colour to put the pigment back in and then went brown. Hope this helps.

A lot of drama here. I used temporary dye on my blonde hair, ended up with permanent pink hair. We bleached it the lightest blonde first then I dyed it back to a more natural colour. My hair was absolutely fine. I've never touched hair dye since. I think we waited a week in between applications.

I agree a good colourist would know what to do I have given instructions above what to do but op hasn't replied ! The colour undo isn't a remover it's a colour reducer so it shrinks the colour molecules and rinses them out !! Salons don't do it because it takes a long appointment.
I find it hard to believe a salon wouldn't touch a correction a good stylist would love this challenge x

I mean, one of my stylists is 58 and he started in the industry at 16 and the other is in his 40s but you go with your experience.

👍

She has gone and bought a colour remover this afternoon - I have been out so not sure exactky which one. I convinced her to wait til the morning so I can go through the instructions with her and also think we will try a test strand as someone suggested. Thanks all for the help and advice!

This must be the first time I’ve ever read a comment from an actual professional hairdresser that has agreed the colour remover boxes are okay for us normal ‘hair messers’ to use. Very refreshing. Thank you.

This one isn't like colour oops thou !
It's a colour reducer it's called colour undo I have used it several times on myself it's kinder to the hair and it doesn't change any natural root if u have any regrowth or if u go to dark it's excellent! !
When stylists used bleach baths there isn't much control over what's happening some of the colour removers can b harsh there are many different types !
So look and make sure it's a colour reducer that makes the colour molecules smaller so they can b washed out of the hair ! Happy to help x

Going to b super honest here !
Been in the business along time myself and alot of older stylists blag it when they are stuck in their ways !
In the hair industry things change constantly and you would b surprised how many don't keep up with new techniques and training these are the blaggers and use age as experience but if u can't do a simple hair dye removal of black hair I'm afraid u are a blaggers ! A good stylist will know how to do it and keep hair as healthy as possible x

@LaundryandDirt , you don't know if anyone on here is who they claim they are. I'm not really up myself.
(I hope I'm not anyway.)

How is your daughter feeling about going back to school? As her friends have seen it then can help but a massive colour change will be noticed and probably commented on.

Being a teen is hard, I’m glad I made my hair mistakes before cameras on phones a s social media existed.

Completely understand your desire to help her benefit from your maturity.

However, Some people, myself included, only really learn from our mistakes when we work out the solution from our own resources.

Your DD is already ruling out some of the cheaper and easier solutions such as a pixie cut. It would greatly be a good idea to let her work out what to do herself.

Helicoptering in to pay for a very expensive colour correction will teach only to expect you to fix everything for her. Just a thought.

@FinallyHere I get what you are saying but also don't want her hair to fall out! If it comes to paying for services she has money she was given for Christmas that she will need to contribute and then the rest will be her birthday present from us.

I think I'd just buy her a dark purple lipstick and embrace the look.

My hairdresser messed my colour up, she ended up scrubbing me with washing up liquid in the sink to get the worst out and then dying it again