Anyone tried a hair color remover?
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free skin care · Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:07 pm

So I was at the drugstore the other day and noticed they now carry a "Loreal Hair Color Remover" kit that's supposed to remove any dyed hair color (I think it's more as prep to re-dye your hair). I gotta say: I'm intrigued! Has anyone used this or a product like this? I did a quick google search and the results were mixed - half love it, half say it's just bleach. I'd love to get rid of all this dye build-up (I've been dying my hair for 10 years at least).

free skin care · Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:23 pm

murray,

From 1 sad personal experience and fixing a lot of others after using that brand and others out there, the truth is it leaves your hair pretty stripped and uneven and yes you have to redye after use! There is nothing natural about the results of using these color removers!

You want to return to your natural color, can you give some details if you don't mind such as your natural color, the color you have been dying it and any grey? There may be better ways to work back to your natural color that I and other members can suggest!

DM

murray28 wrote:

So I was at the drugstore the other day and noticed they now carry a "Loreal Hair Color Remover" kit that's supposed to remove any dyed hair color (I think it's more as prep to re-dye your hair). I gotta say: I'm intrigued! Has anyone used this or a product like this? I did a quick google search and the results were mixed - half love it, half say it's just bleach. I'd love to get rid of all this dye build-up (I've been dying my hair for 10 years at least).

Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:33 pm

Are you talking about Loreal Color Zap hair color remover? http://www.sallybeauty.com/Haircolor-Remover/SBS-500495,default,pd.html

I have used all different types of color remover. I loved changing my hair color years ago. I stick to med blonde now. ANY chemical you apply to your hair will damage it! But if you are careful you can change your hair color with little damage. What are you wanting to do? Do you want to change you color you have now?

If you have used permanet hair color, you can not remove the permanent color and have the original/natural color back - see permanent hair color lifts your natural color and then applies color. If you strip the permanent color off you will be left with an odd color (could be an orange it just depends how much natural color was lifted). You can use color remover and then do a corrective color. And in corrective color you have to know about 'TONES', ash can be a blue or violet or green tone, and golden is a yellow tone. If you mix a blue tone and a yellow tone you will get GREEN - I have seen it and it's not pretty. Not to scare anyone, hair color is realy a simple logic of colors.

Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:40 pm

Some helpful sites on understanding how hair color works.

http://www.hairboutique.com/tips/tip095.htm

http://www.style-hair-magazine.com/hair-coloring.html

http://www.salonweb.com/pro/color.htm

Same as Dark Moon asked what is your natural color, what type of hair color/dye did you use, and what color are you trying to get to?
Also one more question - what do you mean by dye build up? When coloring you hair you should not comb all the way to the ends every time you color.

Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:50 pm

oh, I just wanted to add. The best color remove I have used (as in less damamge) was Color Fix http://www.folica.com/one__n_only_Col_r312_1.html. But it can take more than one application and again you will be left with an odd color that will need correcting. Unless you have used a Semi or Demi permanent color - then there are ways to remove those types of color.

PS - can you tell I get exited when it comes to hair color? Very Happy

I have had dark brown to platinum blonde and even auburn Shock

hair over the years.

free skin care · Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:51 pm

Wow, I wasn't expecting replies so quickly! I guess we're all passionate about our hair color! Laughing

Anyways, my hair situation is this: I've been dying it for over 10 years, including a 3 year solid black phase and a 3 year bright red phase (I was a bit of a ... erm ... hipster, back in the day). For the last year, the GOAL has been to get my hair dye to match my actual hair color so that I don't need to color it anymore.

However, I've noticed that my natural hair color seems to have changed quite a bit - when I started dying it, I was blonde. Like, BLONDE blonde. At the same time, remember, I was young and outside all the time and doing all kinds of sports (swimming, etc). Now that I've gotten the black and the red mostly out of my hair, I can say for certain - MY HAIR IS NOT BLONDE. It's not even dirty blonde - the roots seem to be quite brown?!

I've tried professional dye jobs and plenty of at home permanent ones, but eventually those roots start to show and it just makes my head look dirty and unkempt, I think. I can say that I'm getting closer to matching the color (and the 2 professional dyes were spot-on for color, but of course they started fading after a few weeks with a lot of red highlights showing through, plus my hair does still get a lot lighter in the sun) but I just thought that if I could strip away some of this dye build-up, I could hopefully delay the dye jobs longer and longer (my thinking is that all that dying is the reason why my color fades so quickly - I don't even use a shampoo anymore so I don't think it's a result of a product).

Well, bummer. I had a feeling the color remover wouldn't work for what I wanted it to do, but my fingers were still crossed.

Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:59 pm

Yes it could be that your hair is not able to hold color due to the damage from hair color. I have been there! Sad

You can use a demi or semi permanent color to help conteract the fading, but then again if your hair is porous it could grab like crazy!!

My hair is naturaly a dark blonde and gray yucky gray - so I color it med blond to blend the two and go longer between coloring. You roots are young hair (so to speak) and has not been affected by sunlight and everyday stress - so it can seen to be a lot darker than it realy is. Have you thought about lowlights and highlights to blend your roots?

free skin care · Tue Feb 02, 2010 7:39 pm

There are a lot of semi-permanent colors that don't require any activator and they coat the hair adding shine and strength, I find applying with heat (a heat cap works great) they sink into the matrix of the hair and then the coating action once cool helps smooth the cuticle layer down quite nicely! They aren't at all damaging and come in a wide variety of colors to match your natural color.

HTH
DM

free skin care · Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:11 pm

this is helpful, as i'm wondering how to remove partly dyed darker orange color hair back to original black

free skin care · Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:50 pm

Okay, this is going to sound totally crazy, but I'm a little kooky in the first place ... Bad Grin

I posted this originally because my roots were showing (AGAIN) and knew I'd have to try dying my hair darker. Mainly I wanted to "prep" my hair to be dyed.

So, I went to the drugstore and picked out a haircolor that I thought was about one shade darker than my roots (since my problem is my haircolor keeps fading and showing dark roots). It was called something like "warm medium blonde". I repeat: "BLONDE".

I dump it on my head, wait the prerequisite amount of time, wash it out and, low and behold, my hair is DARK BROWN with a reddish tinge. Like DARK dark brown. All I needed was some bright red lipstick and I'd pass for a 1950's pin-up girl.

I actually kind of dug the look and headed off to work, only to be confronted by those, "oh [awkward pause] wow [pause again] you've dyed your hair." Apparently that 50's style is no longer in vogue.

After I got home I googled more reviews of the hair remover and came across some DIY posts for removing hair dye. I did it and it worked! I CANNOT believe it! Here's the recipe:

Crush pure vitamin c capsules and mix 1:2 with regular shampoo. Mix well so it gets nice and foamy. Put onto dry hair, wait 45 minutes and wash out.

I cheated a little bit because I was terrified this would fry my hair or something (I only waited 30 minutes) but it's smooth and silky! It didn't take the color completely out, but it faded it atleast 1 entire shade; plus, since I have a TON of hair I didn't apply it to every strand, mainly just the top, so now it looks like I have nice, natural highlights. There were some conflicting instructions on the web with some people saying to put it on wet hair, so I might try that next (I want to do it one more time, this time really covering the whole head and get those hairs underneath).

I can't believe something this easy and crazy worked. I'm beyond ecstatic! Laughing

free skin care · Thu Feb 04, 2010 9:08 pm

murray28,

That's great it worked for you, I know I have used lemon juice mixed with shampoo or 20 volume peroxide and lather it up on damp hair not dripping and leave it on for just 10 minutes to tone down dark dye jobs! Good luck with the second time! Smile

DM

Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:33 am

Glad its coming out good, but take care and do a deep treatment after. I have used dish soap to help fade color in the past.

I always recommend a strand test!!!You should have chosen a color one level LIGHTER than you roots as to keep the ends from grabbing. Sounds like your hair grabbed the color. Also the key word on the color box "Warm" means golden/red tones. But if it's working and your happy thats what matters!!

free skin care · Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:09 pm

KiraB wrote:

I always recommend a strand test!!!You should have chosen a color one level LIGHTER than you roots as to keep the ends from grabbing. Sounds like your hair grabbed the color.

I guess I don't understand what you mean by this? If I wanted my hair to match my roots so I don't need to dye it again, why would I purposely choose a shade that's lighter than my roots? I'll admit that I don't know much about hair dye even though I've been dying my hair for ages ...

free skin care · Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:37 pm

murray28 wrote:

KiraB wrote:

I always recommend a strand test!!!You should have chosen a color one level LIGHTER than you roots as to keep the ends from grabbing. Sounds like your hair grabbed the color.

I guess I don't understand what you mean by this? If I wanted my hair to match my roots so I don't need to dye it again, why would I purposely choose a shade that's lighter than my roots? I'll admit that I don't know much about hair dye even though I've been dying my hair for ages ...

Your hair on the preprocessed portion will take color much faster and darker than "virgin" hair on the roots! I don't think the color you chose should be that much darker than what you expected, it almost sounds like a bad batch to me! I have been coloring my own and others for years and I only run the color through the ends (anything but new growth) for about 5 minutes or the result will be a deeper color on that part of the hair and lighter roots! That's my experience anyway! I can't explain the quote as it was posted by another member!

HTH
DM

Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:08 am

You need to know what type of color is on you hair already. A temporary color that you just applied can be removed with a Metalex by Clairol. You may use it by itself or mixed with a low volume peroxide. Any other color remover will remove the color but leave you with hair that is not a color you would want. You will have to recolor to the color you want. Depending on what color is left and the shade it is...gold, red, etc. you will need to recolor with a shade that will counteract this color if you don't like it (the color you apply will have to have the opposite on the color wheel to cancel out the unwanted shade ex. too much gold can be neutralized with a color that has a violet base). If you like the color apply a a color with a neutral base. If you want to intensify the warmth you are left with apply a color that has the same base. But personally, I would consult a hairdresser to do a service like this.

free skin care · Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:56 am

murry28 already was asked and answered about her color!

murray28 wrote:

Wow, I wasn't expecting replies so quickly! I guess we're all passionate about our hair color! Laughing

Anyways, my hair situation is this: I've been dying it for over 10 years, including a 3 year solid black phase and a 3 year bright red phase (I was a bit of a ... erm ... hipster, back in the day). For the last year, the GOAL has been to get my hair dye to match my actual hair color so that I don't need to color it anymore.

However, I've noticed that my natural hair color seems to have changed quite a bit - when I started dying it, I was blonde. Like, BLONDE blonde. At the same time, remember, I was young and outside all the time and doing all kinds of sports (swimming, etc). Now that I've gotten the black and the red mostly out of my hair, I can say for certain - MY HAIR IS NOT BLONDE. It's not even dirty blonde - the roots seem to be quite brown?!

I've tried professional dye jobs and plenty of at home permanent ones, but eventually those roots start to show and it just makes my head look dirty and unkempt, I think. I can say that I'm getting closer to matching the color (and the 2 professional dyes were spot-on for color, but of course they started fading after a few weeks with a lot of red highlights showing through, plus my hair does still get a lot lighter in the sun) but I just thought that if I could strip away some of this dye build-up, I could hopefully delay the dye jobs longer and longer (my thinking is that all that dying is the reason why my color fades so quickly - I don't even use a shampoo anymore so I don't think it's a result of a product).

Well, bummer. I had a feeling the color remover wouldn't work for what I wanted it to do, but my fingers were still crossed.

Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:53 am

I absolutely love this color; however, bought it on sale at my grocery store and this time my color grabbed at ends with lighter results at the top, almost black color on the ends. Since I've never had this problem before, I wonder if it was bad product and also what to do about it? I've done a color remover before when I tried to put red over blonde and didn't use a fill first. It works great and I had to use it twice to get the red out, recolor with a brown fill, then red. Hair came out silky and there was little breakage - talk about scared to death. I do not recommend that unless you KNOW the condition of your hair and how it will react to products. This po's me off with the sale product though. Lesson - do not buy hair color on sale.

Sun May 08, 2011 2:41 pm

I really need someones help!!! My friend bleached her hair and it was like yelllow/ orange and didnt tone it and she had pink highlights in it
so then she gets revlon black perm
and its blue now, what do I do??

Do I apply a demi with an orange undertone? Or do I have to apply a color stripper first and then tone her hair?

free skin care · Sun May 08, 2011 3:56 pm

I strongly suggest you check outwww.killerstrands.com , the blog, group, and store. Its a blog like this completely devoted to hair color and fixing stuff like this. I actually use a product called Vanish every 5 years or so to remove ALL of the color buildup. Leaves me with my dominant pigment, traffic cone orange (I have very dark hair, plus some white under my dye). If you can stand it, deal with the stripped hair for a day or two, then dye over. Its pretty porous otherwise. Vanish is the gentlest I've ever used for this, no damage.

free skin care · Sun May 08, 2011 4:19 pm

wweastsidelv - Your friend should have filled the lighter hair with something warm before going from light to dark, otherwise it turns out like... that. You really have no choice but to Vanish it out and start over. Should be filled with probably a lvl 7 or 8 red orange, THEN dyed over to the dark that she intended. You can't skip the fill step when going from light to dark or it pulls weird tones. You won't be able to tone it with orange, it'll likely be too light to show through on the dark color. HTH

Sun May 08, 2011 4:49 pm

So can I use like a so color permanent 4warm brown and will that take and make it neutralize? Or Do I have to strip it first? I just want to know the easiest way to just get rid of the blue

free skin care · Sun May 08, 2011 8:24 pm

You'll need to remove it. It is very very very difficult for us lay people to correct that severe of a color mistake with color. I'm assuming you've already shampooed a bunch to lighten it and see where you are.. try shampooing with dandruff shampoo, they lighten things up a couple shades.

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