Removing hair colour build-up

mary_hayes

I dyed my hair for ages and have a build-up of colour and it has made my naturally brown hair look black.
I want to lighten my hair to take it back to something like my original colour but without using Hair B4 etc.
I visited different hairdressers and got different advice, such as nothing can be done except cut my hair or let it grow out.
I used Head and Shoulders but it really only affected my roots.
Are there any home remedies I can use or is it a case of bleaching it and then recolouring?
Thanks!

christmas2012

well there are two options,i was in a similar pickle myself.

1. strip the hair(do it professionally at a hairdressers,as i tried this myself a few years back and my hair started coming out in clumps,some of it never grew back either,and that was due to home bleaching kit,i showed it to the hairdresser and she said it was too strong)..

2. cut the hair as short as you can go(or are comfortable with),get short layers cut into it,(as short layared crop),and hope the rest grows out within a few months..

thats all you can do,but i would say dont go and bleach it at home,it could turn out to be a disaster..

gingernut125

I've gotten my hair stripped twice in a salon, really damaged my hair, I use colour b4 now about once a year, I didn't find it drying and it dissolves the dye rather than bleaching it out

I swear by it anyway, you'll need to put a colour over it because your hair will be a lighter brassier colour now with the ammonia in dyes

ClubDead

I know you want to avoid using Colour B4 but I couldn’t recommend it more. I was in a similar situation to you were, after years of dying my hair brown it became black. I tried washing it with cleansing shampoos…head and shoulders…which only made a minor change to my hair colour. I bought Colour B4 and was too afraid to use it so it sat on my shelf for a few months. After reading many positive reviews I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. It returned my hair to its natural light brown colour with no damage.

If your still relucatant to use it then I would use head+shoulders daily, it does remove so colour but it is drying so use a good conditioner with it.

Tabitharose

stripping will wreck your hair.....don't do it
another recommendation for colourB4 here

Sarah Bear

a mild cleanse using effasor and hot water will remove colour build up. this must be done professionaly. ''striping'' the hair using bleach shampoo and peroxide is really damaging. if you go to a salon to have your hair stripped/cleansed insist they use effasor and not bleach!

iCosmopolis

+1 on the colour B4 , I used it to shift the black (level2 boots) I've been dying my hair for years as I was finding it too harsh on my complexion as I've been getting older. I had to use two in a row over 2 days, but its back to my natural shade of dark brown now (bar a couple of streaks) and only took two days of clarifying shampoo and a good conditioner to get it back to it's usual good condition. Solution stinks a bit, and the rinsing / buffering's a bit laborious but found it worthwhile

tan11ie

I've used colour B4 and it's great but you would have to be getting your hair re coloured the same day as your hair will look brassy and awful tbh.

I'm stripping mine at the min (advice of hairdresser) using head and shoulders + fairy washing up liquid mixed in....you need to be using a good conditioner when doing this though. I've been using box colours for two years now!

My hair (mostly apart from the ends) is just about back to my natural colour....I plan on having a total change of colour done in the hairdressers after another three weeks of this.

70GalwayGirl

mary_hayes wrote: »

I dyed my hair for ages and have a build-up of colour and it has made my naturally brown hair look black.
I want to lighten my hair to take it back to something like my original colour but without using Hair B4 etc.
I visited different hairdressers and got different advice, such as nothing can be done except cut my hair or let it grow out.
I used Head and Shoulders but it really only affected my roots.
Are there any home remedies I can use or is it a case of bleaching it and then recolouring?
Thanks!

I had the same problem years ago and my hair dresser told me to go to the solarium 2 times a week..
I did it one time a week and my hair became a little bit brighter after 4 weeks.
I thought it wasn't enough and went to my hair dresser again and asked her to put brighter effects in it and she did. She highlighted only particular parts of my hair but it looked great in the end!

Good luck with yours!

x167346

You may think this sound crazy and I did before I actually tried it but Vitamin C Tablets mixed with shampoo will lighten the dye significantly in your hair and my hair was still in good condition after! I crush 12 tablets to 4 tablespoons of shampoo until it foams up rub through damp hair just like shampooing leave for about an hour and rinse out!!!! It was the only thing worked for me and I've been dying my hair for about 10years!!!

seefin

x167346 wrote: »

You may think this sound crazy and I did before I actually tried it but Vitamin C Tablets mixed with shampoo will lighten the dye significantly in your hair and my hair was still in good condition after! I crush 12 tablets to 4 tablespoons of shampoo until it foams up rub through damp hair just like shampooing leave for about an hour and rinse out!!!! It was the only thing worked for me and I've been dying my hair for about 10years!!!

Wanna give that a shot. Can you dye hair straight away again though? Have fair bit of grey so would have to re dye before leaving house

gingernut125

x167346 wrote: »

You may think this sound crazy and I did before I actually tried it but Vitamin C Tablets mixed with shampoo will lighten the dye significantly in your hair and my hair was still in good condition after! I crush 12 tablets to 4 tablespoons of shampoo until it foams up rub through damp hair just like shampooing leave for about an hour and rinse out!!!! It was the only thing worked for me and I've been dying my hair for about 10years!!!

is that not just bleaching your hair with ascorbic acid?? surely that's quite drying??

x167346

gingernut125 wrote: »

is that not just bleaching your hair with ascorbic acid?? surely that's quite drying??

I'm not even sure what was in the Vitamin C tablet that lightened the dye... I can only tell you from my own experience it lightened the dye considerably... I dyed my hair straight after and used the conditioner provided so perhaps the hair dye conditioner softened my hair I honestly didn find any dryness

gingernut125

vitamin c is ascorbic acid so I'm guessing this bleaches hair. its probably not that harsh though, I might try this next time before I put red dye in my hair

bambera

I'm going in the opposite direction on this. My hair is died blond (for over a year) and I want to get it back to it's natural light ash brown colour.

Will the hair colour take or do I need to remove the blond colour first?

I had tried dying it back about 6 months ago but the colour didn't last long. This most likely was down to the fact that I used tesco version of H&S regularly and didn't know that this can strip the colour out.

So in a nutshell; do you reckon the light ash brown colour will stick if I use the right shampoos instead?